I’m LOLing at the suggestions of adding a walkout to the basement. Either it’s a walkout or it’s not. I like having a big guest area in the basement. Guest suite, living area, kitchenette or wet bar, stackable washer and dryer. Also, keep a decent section unfinished for storage. We have a large finished basement but about 400sf is unfinished storage which I love.
Also the house size shaming is so old. Large basements are very common in some areas. Our goal for our next house is to have a big basement for a dedicated guest space as my step kids are starting families and live out of state. We want a comfortable area for them to stay when they visit.
Also the house size shaming is so old. Large basements are very common in some areas. Our goal for our next house is to have a big basement for a dedicated guest space as my step kids are starting families and live out of state. We want a comfortable area for them to stay when they visit.
Not as old as the justification for having oversized homes.
Why should anyone have to justify their home choice?
Not as old as the justification for having oversized homes.
Why should anyone have to justify their home choice?
sorry if it came off as shaming rather than joking. I’m feeling a little cramped after a year of everyone at home all the time. I’d love 2k of living space for our family. So having that amount of secondary space (not kitchen/bedroom/primary bath/constantly used common space) is a huge luxury. I am rarely more than 10-20 feet from another person. Lol.
I don’t see a bathroom listed but a doggie shower. Maybe do a full bath with a large shower? We just re did a bathroom and took out the tub and added a huge shower with glass door and an awesome hand held shower head. It’s amazing for bathing the lab. Idk if you would use an extra bathroom but it may be used more than just the dog bath.
This is what I was thinking - make sure one room has a closet and add a full bath. We have a separate hand shower in our master bath and we use that to wash the dogs.
I always marveled at the justification of going over budget on house hunters, bc people could “rent out” their basement. This seemed to be a very Canadian thing.
Large basements are extremely common where I live. In fact you have to be careful when looking to see if sq ft includes the basement. I live in an area of suburban sprawl. The basements are built to be finished. Where I grew up (inner ring suburbs and actual city) basements are also super common but were built to be functional in completely different ways. Anyone else have a random, stand alone, exposed toilet in their basement? 😛
tealblue I have to ask, are you Italian? Full kitchens in basements (and daily cooking down there and eating/living there too) is pretty common among old-school Italians, even in tiny row homes. It’s endearing to me ❤️
Why should anyone have to justify their home choice?
Well, we live in a world full of excess and waste with environmental impacts. Do what you want, but don’t expect people not to comment.
While I don't disagree, this board is also full of people who love to proclaim how they "make international travel a priority" and nobody really comes into those threads to discuss the environmental impacts of that.
Also that phrase is one of the most eye rolly things said here, lol.
I can't add much more onto what others have said, but I would probably have a few zones, which it sounds like you're doing and make sure the lighting is separate.
So we would have a hang-out movie zone, a small wet bar zone, a big table for games zone, and then others as needed. I agree that a full bath and bedroom would be nice to not have guests on the same level, gives everyone privacy.
Also if anyone is into crafting, you may want built-ins or specific space for that.
Are you in an area where a closet lined with cedar would make sense for bugs/moths?
Also, if you have overhead lighting downstairs, I'd add set of switches at the top of the stairs. That's on the plan for my basement, when I get around to re-doing it. As it is now, I can forget to turn off the lights and I have to go back downstairs to fix it. It would be nice if I didn't have to. (Then again, the older I get, the less I want to do stairs if there's another option.)
Post by expectantsteelerfan on Apr 22, 2021 6:52:51 GMT -5
I'm sure every person has a different threshold for what would be useful space, and what would be wasteful. We have been house hunting and wanting to get a bigger house than our 2,000 sf house. If we were going to build, our dream home would have been around 3500 sq with a finished basement. We looked at one house that we loved, but we decided against because it was too big, too much. It was about 6500 sq, had a guest suite on the 3rd floor and another in the basement along with a full kitchen in the basement, and pretty much a full outdoor kitchen as well (fridge, grill, warming drawer). We knew we'd never use most of that space. But the house we are under contract for is 5700 sf. It has a guest suite on the 3rd floor (room and full bath), and the basement has a room that could be a guest suite but we will use as a gym, and a 1/2 bath instead of a full. Instead of a full kitchen, it has space for a 2nd fridge (which we have/use currently so wanted in the new house) and a wet bar. I really believe we will use every space in this house, so it was a much better choice for us, but it's still way more than we thought we wanted when we were thinking of building.
Consider ceiling height for your gym area. If you need to put in bulkheads to conceal plumbing/utilities you don’t want that running above a spot that you also want to put exercise equipment, especially if any of you are on the tall side.
Yes- our basement ceiling is not low but after developing our pandemic gym we had to work a bit around our ceiling formations.
Post by dancingirl21 on Apr 22, 2021 7:02:14 GMT -5
We finished ours about a year ago. It’s 1200 sq. ft. and we added a bedroom and bath for guests, a huge closet for storage, a workout area, a TV/couch hang-out area, and a toys area. We had lighting zoned for each of those areas so I can turn on the lights just to the workout area, or just to the toys, etc. That’s one of my favorite features. We also framed the current toys area in such a way that when our kids grow up, it will be made into a bar.
I’m LOLing at the suggestions of adding a walkout to the basement. Either it’s a walkout or it’s not.
I think that the people suggesting that are more referring to an exterior entrance. My basement is fully underground, but we have a door and then a set of stairs leading up to ground level on the exterior. We actually don't use it often, and it is on the storage side of my basement, but it is nice to not have to traipse through the finished side when we are putting things in storage, we can bring them right in from the outdoors.
Well, we live in a world full of excess and waste with environmental impacts. Do what you want, but don’t expect people not to comment.
While I don't disagree, this board is also full of people who love to proclaim how they "make international travel a priority" and nobody really comes into those threads to discuss the environmental impacts of that.
Also that phrase is one of the most eye rolly things said here, lol.
This is a really good point! I've seen so many threads over the years with people essentially bragging about 5 international vacations or more per year! And no one says a word about it. Where are the judgey comments for their carbon footprint?
Post by maudefindlay on Apr 22, 2021 8:49:18 GMT -5
Plus the fact that going forward so many more people will be WFH and while last spring people were understanding of kid interruptions, people are now supposed to have this all figured out. DH's employer is already thinking of future uses for their buildings.
I’m LOLing at the suggestions of adding a walkout to the basement. Either it’s a walkout or it’s not.
I think that the people suggesting that are more referring to an exterior entrance. My basement is fully underground, but we have a door and then a set of stairs leading up to ground level on the exterior. We actually don't use it often, and it is on the storage side of my basement, but it is nice to not have to traipse through the finished side when we are putting things in storage, we can bring them right in from the outdoors.
But how do you add that after the fact? If it wasn't built that way, you'd have to go cut through the foundation of the house to make it. That seems....expensive and hard to do.
We have a laundry shoot, which is awesome, but it lands in a room we use as a gym. It was once a laundry room and would have been super helpful as the shoot is in my kids' room.
A dumb waiter to take groceries up if your garage is in the basement level. Only half kidding
If you are doing built-ins and hanging a TV, build it so that the TV can be behind doors. That way kids' activities won't accidentally break the TV screen.
Are you in an area where a closet lined with cedar would make sense for bugs/moths?
Also, if you have overhead lighting downstairs, I'd add set of switches at the top of the stairs. That's on the plan for my basement, when I get around to re-doing it. As it is now, I can forget to turn off the lights and I have to go back downstairs to fix it. It would be nice if I didn't have to. (Then again, the older I get, the less I want to do stairs if there's another option.)
I was going to mention some cedar storage. I never had anything like that growing up, but the first house my H and I rented had a huge bank of cedar storage cabinets in the basement, as well as a hidden cedar storage closet cut into the front hall closet. When we moved to our current split level house, which is more SF but much less storage space, we definitely missed that nice storage!
I think that the people suggesting that are more referring to an exterior entrance. My basement is fully underground, but we have a door and then a set of stairs leading up to ground level on the exterior. We actually don't use it often, and it is on the storage side of my basement, but it is nice to not have to traipse through the finished side when we are putting things in storage, we can bring them right in from the outdoors.
But how do you add that after the fact? If it wasn't built that way, you'd have to go cut through the foundation of the house to make it. That seems....expensive and hard to do.
But maybe that's just because I've never done it?
Without major excavation work, you can’t. A foundation is a foundation.
tealblue I have to ask, are you Italian? Full kitchens in basements (and daily cooking down there and eating/living there too) is pretty common among old-school Italians, even in tiny row homes. It’s endearing to me ❤️
I am not! We originally were going to do a small kitchenette/bar. But then decided that we had the space and would entertain and host family functions here and it just made sense to do it fully.
My main kitchen and upstairs is very closed off (house built in the 40’s), so my basement is mostly open floor plan and just nicer overall.
I think that the people suggesting that are more referring to an exterior entrance. My basement is fully underground, but we have a door and then a set of stairs leading up to ground level on the exterior. We actually don't use it often, and it is on the storage side of my basement, but it is nice to not have to traipse through the finished side when we are putting things in storage, we can bring them right in from the outdoors.
But how do you add that after the fact? If it wasn't built that way, you'd have to go cut through the foundation of the house to make it. That seems....expensive and hard to do.
But maybe that's just because I've never done it?
That is exactly how. You would need to excavate, cut out the foundation and likely reinforce the foundation where you cut out the door. It's not cheap, but it is doable. And if you aren't going to have an exterior exit door added, you will need to make sure that you have ample egress windows, many basements if unfinished aren't built with them, but if you are going to add finished living space, most code will require them.
But how do you add that after the fact? If it wasn't built that way, you'd have to go cut through the foundation of the house to make it. That seems....expensive and hard to do.
But maybe that's just because I've never done it?
That is exactly how. You would need to excavate, cut out the foundation and likely reinforce the foundation where you cut out the door. It's not cheap, but it is doable. And if you aren't going to have an exterior exit door added, you will need to make sure that you have ample egress windows, many basements if unfinished aren't built with them, but if you are going to add finished living space, most code will require them.
Yes! Around here if you get a permit to finish a basement you need to add these things to be up to code. It can be super expensive. New constructions all have it (and so do older houses) but there's a few decades of build where they don't have an egress, bilco doors, or an actual entrance.
We had a laundry chute growing up too! We used to climb up and down it as kids.
I personally would not want a guest suite in my (below ground level) basement, but maybe I am alone in not wanting long term guests? We haven't finished ours yet but we want a separate gym space, tv/hangout space...and I'm torn on the bar/bathroom situation. There is a bathroom right at the top of the basement stairs and I almost prefer having the visibility of the kids coming up to use it (as I envision this as the hangout space when they are older)...just thinking back to our high school basement parties...LOL. Maybe just a wet bar area.
Like most others, having a bathroom is key. We do NOT have one down here yet but in the near future. Especially because our guestroom is downstairs as well. I always feel bad that they have to trudge upstairs in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.
That is exactly how. You would need to excavate, cut out the foundation and likely reinforce the foundation where you cut out the door. It's not cheap, but it is doable. And if you aren't going to have an exterior exit door added, you will need to make sure that you have ample egress windows, many basements if unfinished aren't built with them, but if you are going to add finished living space, most code will require them.
Yes! Around here if you get a permit to finish a basement you need to add these things to be up to code. It can be super expensive. New constructions all have it (and so do older houses) but there's a few decades of build where they don't have an egress, bilco doors, or an actual entrance.
Yup. My neighbor just finished their basement. They chose to add bilco doors to a new entrance cut in the foundation. That was actually cheaper than adding the two egress windows that they would have needed in order to meet code.
Please enlighten me on what a 3/4 bath is. I have no clue.
Around here it’s a bathroom with a shower stall (no tub or oversized shower)
Correct: a bath is considered 4-piece if it is full: Sink, toilet, tub, shower. So a 1/2 bath is just sink and toilet. Often of course tub and shower are technically one piece.