“Have you priced storage units lately?” Dakota asked. “It’s absolutely nuts how much they charge for what is basically an empty garage.” He shook his head. “My son has just been deployed for the second time, and paying on a storage unit for God knows how long is just not in his budget.”

Dakota had considered having a storage shed built on his Scituate property, but the way his property is situated makes that difficult. “Really the only place that’s ideal for building is directly in front of our house,” he explained, “and as you can imagine, my wife’s not thrilled with that idea.”

“So we got to talking about finishing the basement to stow Brad’s things,” Dakota explained. “I went down there and took a look around. It was dark and cold. The floor wasn’t very even and there was a lot of dirt and spiderwebs falling down from the floor joists. Brad has his computer equipment, a big tv, that sort of thing – this wasn’t really the ideal storage facility for him.”

He explored having the basement finished. “Having a Scituate basement finishing contractor put in a level floor, and some walls and lighting made a real difference,” Dakota explained. “At first I was worried that this would all be too expensive, but when you do the numbers and compare the cost of renting a storage unit month after month after month, it’s actually a smart financial decision.”

“Brad’s not going to be be deployed forever,” Dakota added. “Eventually we’ll be moving his stuff to his new place. Then we’ll have this nice finished basement with built in storage to get the rest of our lives organized. And that will be wonderful.”