Garage Storage Sheet Rocked Over

After staring at a blank wall for almost 2 years and tripping over cases of beverages as I exit my car, curiousity got me.  It finally occured to me that it was possible that my builder just sheet rocked over valuable useable space underneath the back stairs just inside the house.  I don't know why I always thought part of the space may have been used for a bath on the otherside of the back hallway, but it wasn't.   So I had my fix it guy cut a small hole to peek inside only to find out the ENTIRE space is hollow.  Sadly in addition, we found the space vaguely insulated, one piece even laying on the floor for lack of stapling.  As you can see, construction on the far side has been compromised in more than one way, the hanging stud, the spliced stud and the crappy wood this guy chose to work with.  The hole cut on the backside of the tub is as troubling as it is baffling.  It was never sheet rocked over and then worse, was never insulated.  Pictured is the moment we opened the space. 


So there are more than one unfortunate issues we ran into.  If this guy could ever zig, he zagged.  So fortunately for us (or me) the studs we choose to open DID NOT contain the water lines but the section directly to the right of our opening does.  They are not together either.  One is tacked to the left stud and the other to the right stud.  There was no way to rerun this stuff so my opening is smaller than I had hoped.  Originally we planned to open the entire wall up but with the water lines feeding my wet bar above, I had to punt and opt for a 30" or so opening.  Still, what I will gain is (4) 16" deep shelves 2 of which will be the full length of 4' 10" and then gradually shortening as the underside of the stairs impedes my length.  But this will add some VERY much needed out of the way storage and I am excited to have it.  

But here is the bigger issue.  In examining the big picture, pictured you can see a refrigerator on a 19" raised platform and I'm sure you are thinking what the heck?  See this particular builder has built this model before.  And he's lazy or cheap (or both) and decided not to change his blueprint to express that since hot water heaters are tankless and there isn't a need for a rasied hot water heater on grade with the floor height, he rightfully and in a hurry, should've removed that space from the crawl space and it should've been part of the garage floor.  Additionally, he should've done the same for the space under the stairs.  This way, the cubbies and hooks AKA "mudroom" could've been located here allowing for a secondary refrigerator to be in my house and not in a space meant, eons ago, for a hot water heater.  


Here we moved the refrigerator outlet around to the right side of the refrigerator and opened up the left side of the opening a few more inches.  We added a double 2"X6" header above the opening.  The few pieces of insulation they used was added to the tub wall.  There was basically another wall added in front of that so we added a total of about 40' of R15 insulation on all walls and the underside of the staircase.  My fix it guy added an LED light.  Pictured, it's painted SW Natural Choice. 

If you are building, constantly look at the space as it's framed and snag unused space for practical uses and don't let builders sheet rock over them.  It's your house.