The LED lights came today so the space is now usable without a head torch, though until the space is a bit cleaner it's probably best to have one anyway. Virtually all of the light in this image is from the flash on my camera. Those lumps on the floor are there, hence why I've been spinning my wheels on how to deal with it. A scraper might get some of it but I haven't tested how stubborn they are yet.

I'm pretty sure I fucked up the measurements on the stairs but this is roughly what the space looks like. I drew this when I realized even from the inside you don't get a good idea of what the area feels like.

This area is actually a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. Pretty awesome find man.

At 11/15/17 09:09 AM, RightTime wrote: Can you mark out the entrance size as best you can? It makes a difference in terms of how big the things you can drag in can be. I was originally thinking something like a chaise lounge chair could work well, but I'm not sure even the thinnest ones would fit through that entrance.

It's 16" by 16" so like I've said something like a bean bag cushion is my best bet. I do want to try and build a piece of furniture in there that's too large to remove just for the novelty of it - probably a small table for the area that's under the stairs.

At 11/13/17 08:31 PM, Kwing wrote: I'm pretty sure I fucked up the measurements on the stairs but this is roughly what the space looks like. I drew this when I realized even from the inside you don't get a good idea of what the area feels like.

There's just no just no way you could build that in Minecraft and still be able to fit inside - Even if you placed the 9' x 4' side as the floor, you'd still need to extend the 5' side to fit your height and have a 1m opening at the top.

However, I'm sure you can build it, as-is, in Half-Life(2)/CS(S/GO), but with a 32" (or is it 48"?) opening.

So an update on the floor. I went in there with a hammer today and tried to dislodge the brick near the opening (tried a chisel and scraper, both were pretty useless.) It was surprisingly easy and it turns out virtually all of the material stuck to the concrete can be bashed to smithereens. I don't know if I'll get it to a level at which I can start laying something over the concrete, but I know it's a hell of a lot nicer than when I started today and it's only going to get nicer looking.

I also took the hammer to the protruding mortar between the bricks (which is only on the inside L part of the space) and it makes a huge cosmetic difference. Instead of looking run-down the bricks almost look kind of nice now.

The only downside to this is it means postponing any kind of cleaning because hammering away at this stuff sends dust EVERYWHERE. It also means I've got more heavy lifting to do. I probably moved 20-30lbs of chippings out of there today and there's a LOT more left to do, as I spent today just doing the side of the entrance.

Last note is I found out that I can get a vacuum cleaner in there AND reach any corner I need to. Again this won't be useful for a while but when the time comes I'll definitely use it to get rid of the finest bits of dust down there.

This is what the bricks looked like before (kind of hard to tell from the angle but you can see they're bulging in some places.) That's almost completely fixed now.

At 11/23/17 10:36 AM, RightTime wrote: So how far along are you now Kwing? Got a carpet down or something yet?

Considering how dry the area is and the fact that I can now level the floor (with a bit of effort) I'm thinking I probably will lay down carpet. The bad news (which is driving me up the fucking wall) is the particulate dust that's coating everything. After checking with some safety codes relating to the building I think it might even be asbestos, in which case it's important that I take care of it before I invite other people down there (at present I'm the only one with a respirator.)

I have no words to describe how completely futile it is to try and clean this stuff up with a dustpan and brush. Brushing it just kicks it into the air. The best way to concentrate it is to use the rubber end of the dustpan as a scraper but even after scraping the same square foot for 2 solid minutes your fingers are completely coated in particulate if you touch the CLEANEST part of the floor. The vacuum doesn't seem to work either. I've never come across a substance like this before. I probably will concede and try using a damp cloth to clean it up at some point but I'm still really worried something could start living down there as soon as the slightest bit of moisture ends up in there.

Another setback I ran into is that when I'm hammering away at the floor, the noise allegedly carries like crazy throughout the entire stairwell and some janitors have been trying to locate the source of the sound. Knowing that, I'm going to have to be very careful about when I work (most likely between 1-4am is the best option.) Even then I risk building security hearing me in the middle of the night.

Side note, a friend offered to pick the lock on the boiler room for me. If we can find out where the holes in the corner lead we might be able to feed extension cord through one of them and supply power. At present I think this is an absurdly stupid idea since someone in the boiler room would be able to see it, but if there is an outlet and both it and the hole are hidden behind something or in a really obscure part of the room it would be worth a shot.

I know this is probably the 10th time I've said it but HOLY HELL there is a lot of shit down there. Probably moved 30-40lbs of mortar out of there after smashing it off of the floor. I definitely got the majority of it this time but there's plenty more in there. Amazing how such a small space can be such a pain to renovate.

There's a weird drainage pipe type thing on the floor that I didn't notice until today. I'll take a picture of it (as well as the posters I put up) at some point but right now there's too much dust in the air to take a clear picture.

Side note, the holes in the wall don't lead anywhere. Look far enough back and there's just more paneling, so feeding an extension cord through it is a moot point. I have to admit I'm somewhat relieved that I don't have to consider the possibility of breaking into the boiler room to find an outlet.

For now here's a look at my respirator!

Not sure if any of you care, but I have an update (and conclusion) to this story.

A few weeks ago I went down there to glue tiles to the floor and had almost finished when an RA reported me. Since then the space has been sealed.

The following is a list of modifications made to the space:
* Over 100lbs of bricks, a block of wood, and a rusty metal pole were removed from the area
* Dust, debris, and broken glass were cleaned and removed from the area
* Cement drippings which made the floor uneven were broken and removed from the area
* Uneven cementing between bricks on the wall was shattered with a hammer and removed from the area
* 85% of the main floor space was covered with tiles
* Christmas lights were strung along the perimeter of the area, with the battery pack fixed to the interior of the door
* Refrigerator magnets were fixed to the ceiling of the area as decor
* Fake plants were used as (comedic) decor
* Seven posters were moved into the space to be used as decor
* A guest book was left inside, which numerous students who discovered the space independently left messages in
* DampRid was left in the space, which reduced the instance of insects inhabiting the area

The following is a list of unfinished modifications and installations:
* Padding around the entrance to the space to make it more comfortable
* Mounting more powerful lights around the space
* Covering the entire ceiling of the space with magnets
* Cutting tiles to size to fit the uneven remainder of the floor
* A bead curtain to separate the space under the stairs from the main area
* Two bean bag cushions
* A white canvas and projector for watching movies
* A piece of furniture constructed inside the space to contain objects found in the space, board games, cards, and paperwork, such as results from asbestos testing, the guestbook, and a printout of the known history of the space

Really sad for it to end like this. In particular, cleaning the space was incredibly labor intensive and it's obnoxious for the building to leave it open for years when it had broken glass in it, only to deem it unsafe and seal it AFTER it had been cleaned up.