Must haves for basements?

[emoflamingo]

We are discussing finishing our basement this year. Slowly, but starting on it anyways. It's a blank slate and I know I want to add a full bathroom, a laundry room and at least 2 rooms (with a main living space in there too - I'd guess we have approximately 1,200 sq ft to work with, as it's the length and width of the upstairs and that's 1,371 sq ft according to the county appraiser).

I've already decided I want a nice sized laundry space with a folding area and a built-in area for sorting. I want my craft space (yessss!) to connect to the laundry room with either french doors or pocket doors so I don't have to go around if I need to iron fabric as I work. But otherwise, I don't really have a grip on what I should really put down there as I have never lived in a home with a finished basement (or with a basement haha).

Give me ideas, suggestions, mistakes to avoid, etc. Pictures are AWESOME too. I love pictures.

Yes, another post and run. Time to head up to the front desk for reception duty, so it will be tonight before I can discuss further.

[peach]

PerSonally I would prefer laundry on the same floor as bedrooms. Ours is in the basement and it's a lot of hauling baskets up and down. If your machines are already on the main floor I would leave them there. But that's just me.

I would want a bathroom, maybe a spare bedroom/office and room for my kids to be rowdy and messy and run around.

[emoflamingo]

Jan 2, 2014 15:19:28 GMT -5 peach said:

PerSonally I would prefer laundry on the same floor as bedrooms. Ours is in the basement and it's a lot of hauling baskets up and down. If your machines are already on the main floor I would leave them there. But that's just me.

I would want a bathroom, maybe a spare bedroom/office and room for my kids to be rowdy and messy and run around.

Unfortunately, they are downstairs so I have no option there. I miss having them close to bedrooms upstairs!

[emoflamingo]

Jan 2, 2014 15:02:08 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

We love billiards, so large enough space for a pool table was a must for us. We also like to entertain (and imbibe), so we knew we wanted to put in a bar area and the plumbing with the bathroom worked out so we could do a full wet bar.

A large portion of our basement will remain H's workroom. A big work bench, pegboard walls, empty floor space for projects.

Storage space was also a priority. Shelving units in the work room and laundry room, and a new coat closet at the foot of the stairs. (At the top of the stairs is our primary entrance to the house.)

Lots of lighting so that it doesn't seem so basement-y.

We aren't big drinkers or billard players, but my h and his bff have requested a large TV and surround sound lol. Bff only gets input since he is helping finish it.

[Deleted]

Closets! This is the reason I love our finished basement. Make them as big as you can in the basement bedrooms (esp. if it's just guest space anyways, you can cut down on room size), the bathroom, your work areas etc. We had one cut in under our steps and in our family room. It's so great to have a place for anything.

Our finished basement has a gigantic mudroom which comes in off our garage. Probably not a priority for you but I love the space to keep the barn stuff off the main floor. It also houses things like the deep freeze, extra fans, paint and all that crap that never has a home.

And if you want built ins, do them now. So you're not like my and just getting it done 7 years later..lol.

If it's play space for your kids, lay it out so it's functional and fits all the big stuff off the bat.

[ruthie7532]

When we were house hunting, I insisted on space for ping-pong and/or pool, and I wanted a fridge/sink, etc. We also ended up with a guest bedroom/bathroom and a room with a fireplace. I'm guessing we have 1500 sq ft. down there, just because it's basically the same size of our first floor.





Ideally, I'd like to remove those beer taps (we're not beer drinkers) and put in a small stove and dishwasher and microwave, so we can entertain down there without having to schlepp dishes upstairs. To give you an idea of layout, the hall to the guest bedroom is a bit off to the left and behind the viewer in the above picture.




We're working on setting up a theater against that back wall and facing into the alcove around the corner. The door on the right is for the furnace, etc. Bar is off to the right.



The bar is to the left, guest room is behind the wall, with the bathroom across the hall. The fireplace area is behind those French doors.

One of the best things about our basement is an enormous closet. It is about 10'x12' and lined with shelves all the way to the ceiling. We can put all our Christmas stuff, camping stuff, outgrown baby stuff, etc. and still have room for more. It is in the corner where our theater will be. We're hanging the retractable screen in front of the door, and we'll put all the video/audio components in there, too.

One thing I didn't think about with our basement is that, being mostly underground, it's usually 62-65 degrees all the time (at least in winter. We haven't lived here in the hot part of the summer yet). For me, this is way too cold, so we got a portable electric fireplace that we can move from the guest room to our "play area". 

HTH!

[ellipsis]

More lighting than you think you'll need. I like can lights that you can dim. Unfinished space for storage, including a spot for the Christmas tree.

[pitterwoo]

I don't have a finished basement, so I will leave those suggestions to others. I just wanted to mention that at least in our area basements tend to be wet and doing whatever needs to be done to deal with that is super important. I've been to several people's homes around here that have nice looking finished basement spaces, but they smell. I haven't seen any water damage or mold, but they smell damp and mildew-y. I'm very sensitive to this kind of stuff, so the homeowners don't seem to mind, but I wouldn't want to be hanging out in a stinky space like that or be storing important things where they could be getting full of mildew.

[emoflamingo]

Jan 2, 2014 17:29:26 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

I don't have a finished basement, so I will leave those suggestions to others. I just wanted to mention that at least in our area basements tend to be wet and doing whatever needs to be done to deal with that is super important. I've been to several people's homes around here that have nice looking finished basement spaces, but they smell. I haven't seen any water damage or mold, but they smell damp and mildew-y. I'm very sensitive to this kind of stuff, so the homeowners don't seem to mind, but I wouldn't want to be hanging out in a stinky space like that or be storing important things where they could be getting full of mildew.

Ours is pretty water tight, but we are going to do hard floors just to be safe.

[jhawks482]

Jan 2, 2014 17:21:21 GMT -5 ellipsis said:

More lighting than you think you'll need. I like can lights that you can dim. Unfinished space for storage, including a spot for the Christmas tree.

Can lights are a must for basements! Also I'd wire in speakers (in the drywall) instead of having cords running everywhere. You've got a great list! You've had a chance to live in your house and think about what you want, so that's great. We finished our basement last year and I can't imagine what life was like before it! We put in a full bar- even though we are not big drinkers (in fact, my husband doesn't drink at all). I love having that space when we do entertain, there's a mini fridge, sink, and SOOO much cabinet storage space, which is also where I store my off season dinnerware/serveware and other small kitchen things I don't use on a regular basis. I have a craft "closet" which has been awesome too.
I didn't ever post pics here but here is the link to our finished basement. There's about 1300 sq feet, for reference.
www.jhawks482.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-bed-for-kylie-finished-basement-tour.html

[emoflamingo]

Jan 2, 2014 20:46:31 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Jan 2, 2014 18:58:24 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

Ours is pretty water tight, but we are going to do hard floors just to be safe.

Concrete is not waterproof; it actually can soak up and hold water. This can make basements humid, which causes the mildewy smell that pitterwoo mentioned. So a dehumidifier is usually a good idea. Our basement had something like 80% humidity when we first moved, and a noticeable odor. The dehumidifier keeps it at 50% and the smell is gone.

A coworker of H recently found out the hard way... he never had a leak or flooding issue, but they didn't go downstairs often and it was closed up and humid. They went down after a period of several weeks and everything was covered in mold. They had to get rid of all the furniture, carpet, do mold remediation on the walls, etc.

The previous owners have done a pretty good job of making sure that nothing would go downhill - the front is braced and the inspector said he wasn't even sure why, there were no cracks or hints that it needed it. And we're down there pretty often (laundry room, H has his gaming stuff down there - the previous owners had a computer area set up down there too) so I'm pretty sure there's not any mildewy smells. Hopefully it stays that way!

[mrspez07]

We have a "cellar" in our basement which I think was originally the fruit/canned food storage cellar. We store a ton of stuff on the big deep plywood shelves, including wine with some Tinkertoy like wine shelve things from container store.
It's unfinished walls and floor.
If you have kids, a whole room to put toys and to play in. Ours is from 1979 with wood panelling and striped carpet, but you could go cheaper in an area like this now and upgrade it as they grow.