I am considering trying to dig out the basement by about a foot to give myself some decent head room. I know that the floor slab is independent of the structural concrete of the outside walls but If I dig it down another foot am I going to cave my house by underminding the footings? How much deeper than the floor do footings usually go? I know that I am going to have to have this one inspected and permited and I wll go through that whole process but I am looking for ideas and feasibility.

Hello. I am finishing the upstairs of a Cape Cod home and would like to make use of the space in the eaves. I'm speaking of the inside wall where the ceiling slopes and meets it at a point lower than a room with a normal 8' roof line. Behind that wall is unused... I guess i was thinking about putting in shelves, or something to make use of all this space (and access panels too, to get inside it) before i close them off. My question is this: Does anyone have a recommendation for clever ideas on how to make use of this space? I know i often marvel at how ingenious people can be at making use of unused space, so i thought i'd check around and see what others have seen and done. In fact, if there are any good reference materials on doing this (magazine articles etc), please just let me know that too. Thanks very much for your time.