We decided to build a wine cellar for probably the same reason a lot of people think about building one: We started enjoying wine and spending weekends in Napa and Oregon. We'd visit wineries and buy some wine. Then we started joining mailing lists, and all of a sudden we realized we had more wine than we knew-and nowhere to put it. We're not actually collectors, but we enjoy entertaining and we wanted the convenience of having our wine at home.

When we had our first meeting with Dave and explained what we wanted, we were afraid our job would be too small for someone to take on. Built into the side of a hill, our house has massive support beams anchoring it, so we also weren't sure if our idea could even work. Rather than just saying yes or no, Dave considered the job from different points of view, thought about it creatively, and came up with a brilliant solution of where to situate our cellar. Using an existing door, he excavated and finished our crawlspace into a finished cellar.