Finished off your basement? Share successes or anything you'd do differently!

[PinballFamily]

Family room in basement? Tell me about what you're glad you did and/or what you later wished you'd thought of... Many thanks!

 

[Jillpie]

When we moved into our home 17 years ago, the finished basement is what sold us. It's one open room, with a bathroom off of it. What I love about it: it has shelving built in, surrounding entire room, love this for storage, place framed pictures on etc. One side of room is a sectional couch with tv flat on wall, strongly encourage this, especially if you have growing children, as my kids got into their teens it was a fantastic place for their friends to come and hang out on. The other side, is a ping pong table. Again, fantastic fun for teens. Other things I love, lots of windows! Basements are dark, so have lots and lots of lighting down there. And definitely if you can swing it, a bathroom is a must. Love our finished basement!

 

[Disneychix]

We moved into a finished basement. I don't know what these people were thinking. There is no room for a couch! They filled one whole wall with a closet and you'd either have to put a tv in front of the closet or the couch there.

When we finished our basement in our old house we put a floating ceiling in. This was in case we needed access to phone lines or cable lines that ran along the ceiling to the upstairs.

 

[rodeo65]

One thing we did when we finished our basement in our old house that we loved was to put oversize shutters in. They had an upper and lower portion, so the upper part we would keep open to let the light in and the lower portions that actually covered the wall we kept closed. It gave the illusion of being a main floor room with large windows. If and when we get around to doing this basement I'll do the same again.

We also did a full proper ceiling with spot lights which made it look much less like a basement that the drop tile ceiling that had been there before.

A bathroom is a huge plus as well if you have plumbing rough in for it.

 

[reebs2]

I'm currently finishing my basement and its been a 5-year project so far (this has been a winter only project since my job picks up in summer).

An engineer by trade, this thing has been pretty well planned out IMHO
I've got plenty of storage area, I've got plenty of electrical outlets throughout the basement, I'm making a bar, my wine cellar is almost finished, and there is plenty of room for an extra large TV with a few nice recliner chairs.

My ceiling is a drop ceiling so I guess if there was something I'd do different I'd wish that I could have a drywall ceiling (I've had water issues in the past through the ceiling and I figured that its easier to change a couple ceiling tiles that re-do drywall).
I plan on having part of the floor in porcelain tile and part in carpet. The tile is in but with the water issues I mentioned above, I'm a bit nervous about the carpet. This I might regret.
I wish by basement had 10-foot ceilings so that the drop ceiling wouldn't lower the ceiling too much. Good thing I come from a short family so this really isn't an issue.

The only problem that I have is trying to figure out a theme. You can plan-out the entire space to the tee but if the theme stinks, all the hard work and planning is worthless.

 

[RadioNate]

I have a drywall ceiling that I totally recommend. Doing this added about 2ft to the ceiling height in some places. We used air return sized vent grates to leave access to anything like shut off valves that were covered up by the drywall.

I also have a sump pump and a separate battery back up sump pump just in case the 1st one fails. I put in a bathroom with a small shower.

One thing I did was cut back the wall as much as possible on the stairs coming down so the last 4-5 steps are open with a railing. Makes it look so much more open.

Finally, the coolest thing is that I made a "playhouse" under the stairs. My DDs dolls live in there. There is a side door and window to the playroom side of the basement. Inside there is lighting and her doll beds, etc.

 

[cheerbop]

We had a desk built into the part under the stairs. We just have a chair there now. It is nice to have that "cubby" area.
Definitely a bathroom if you can.
Storage closets.
We have a bedroom down there with an egress window for escape if needed.
It is basically one large area other than that. We did have a half wall put in to make a kindo of separate area for our treadmill and a couple other things to help keep kids out, but we can still see the TV while exercising.
We have a sump, etc. Once almost 2 years ago, our electric went out and the backup wasn't enough that was in there. Our newly finished (with carpet) basement was flooded. So, we recommend high insurance, as this was super costly. All the carpet had to be trashed and they had to remove 2 ft off the bottom of the drywall, and of course all the trim. We also researched and bought one of the best back up battery operated pumps on the market to help when the electricity may go out again. That was a lifesaver for a year.
Then last summer we decided that it was too stressful to worry about that while gone for 2 weeks every summer, and when home for that matter, to put in a generator.
Problem solved

 

[bdcp]

We had ours finished 3 years ago. 1200 sq ft. Put a bar (with sink) and cabinets in and a large rec room plus a "den"-more like 5th bedroom and bath with shower. Used ceramic tile for bar and bathroom floors, and exit door area and granite countertops. Berber carpet everywhere else. We also left about 600 unfinished sq feet for storage. It's all drywall, including the ceiling. Our doors all match the ones upstairs (6 panel) and the trim also all matches. We have canned lights everywhere also.

Best thing I did in this basement and our previous home's basement was to put in a "game" closet with shelves. It's where all the games, toys, etc are stored. My kids are grown now, but it still has games and puzzles in it. Also, we put a closet under the stairs where we store all our luggage.

Our original sump pump was replaced by us while still working a year or so after we moved in with a battery back up one. Never had a flooding problem though as we sit pretty high and everything slopes away. Plus the back of the house is not completely underground (about half) so drainage is really good.

 

[zoemurr]

When we moved into our home 17 years ago, the finished basement is what sold us. It's one open room, with a bathroom off of it. What I love about it: it has shelving built in, surrounding entire room, love this for storage, place framed pictures on etc. One side of room is a sectional couch with tv flat on wall, strongly encourage this, especially if you have growing children, as my kids got into their teens it was a fantastic place for their friends to come and hang out on. The other side, is a ping pong table. Again, fantastic fun for teens. Other things I love, lots of windows! Basements are dark, so have lots and lots of lighting down there. And definitely if you can swing it, a bathroom is a must. Love our finished basement!

Wow..I would have thought you moved into our house but we are still here. I was going to say all the same things that you did.

Our kids were younger, so we built a playhouse under the stairs, a loft, and a stage. Open and closed shelving (measure how big the totes are you are going to use and make sure they fit). We did 1/4 w/Pergo and counters for art projects and food. Other 3/4 now has a big TV, reclining couch (make sure you can fit it down the stairs. We got one that comes apart.) Ping pong, darts, a popcorn machine and air hockey. Plus a lot of toys that we (ok, mostly me) haven't gotten rid of. Mine are teenagers now.

We put in a full bathroom which we probably didn't need, but by that time the shower didn't add much. I love that the kids don't have to come through the whole house. Remember if anyone is ever going to sleep down there you need windows people can fit through. We keep a small stepstool underneath at all times.

The only thing I would do differently is silly. We put in two huge counter tops for crafts and activities. I would have put the plugs above it and not below. We could put a hole in the counter, but we just deal with it. It's a pain.

Make the ceiling as high as you can. We had two companies say they wanted to make it low, but even. The ones we went with made it low where they had to (soffits) but the rest is about 12" higher. Why waste all that space?

 

[PinballFamily]

Boy, you guys are great! Already some terrific suggestions we hadn't thought of...keep them coming. Truly appreciate all the assistance!

 

[si-am]

We bought our house with a full finished basement. Half of it is a converted garage, and I kind of wish we still had the garage because we pretty much only use that half for storage and litter boxes. The other half is pretty nice, but I do wish we had a bathroom or at least a sink in the laundry room! I do love the shelving and hanging hooks (like a coat rack) in the laundry room.

One thing I like is that we don't have carpeting down there (just an area rug). We've had some water problems with a busted water heater and seepage after a heavy rain event, and the lack of carpeting was a huge bonus! The area rug was cheap to replace.

 

[bethy]

Our favorite part of our basement remodel is the heated floors. We put them everywhere because before that the basement was so cold it was almost unusable. Now the floors always feel so good on our feet, plus the space is always heated.

 

[Lilliputian]

We moved into the house we're in about 9 months ago and finished part of the basement right away. It's only been done about 6 months, but we're very happy with it. We did a large L-shaped bedroom (probably about 200 sf) plus a good sized full bathroom. Behind the bedroom and bath is an unfinished storage area that's probably about 8' X 20'.

There's also a separate L-shaped playroom area that is really big. It's probably around 400 sf, maybe more. There's a ping pong table in that room. We lined one of the walls with metal shelving units and have our kids' toys stored in boxes on those shelves. (We have 5 children ages 11 and under, so a lot of toys.) There's still lots of floor space for rugs that have streets drawn on them for playing with cars, space to build Legos, and all the other fun stuff kids do in a playroom.

I'm glad we have finished and unfinished space. The finished bedroom is wonderful for when we have guests stay with us. They have their own space with lots of room, so it's like their own private suite. There's still plenty of storage space, and having the playroom unfinished allows the kids to have fun playing without worrying about breaking anything.

The guestroom is in the part with the little windows. We did it all to code, so one of the windows was enlarged to be an egress window. I think my kids are really hoping the house catches on fire so that they can use it.

The contractor wanted to wall off the area under the stairs. I didn't let him because my kids use that area as their "club house." Some day I'll help them decorate it.

 

[minnie mum]

We had our basement finished when we built our house 4 years ago. We have two guest rooms and a full bath. Storage and all our utilities are in one mechanical room. We put in a battery back up for the sump pump, since it runs frequently in early spring and after heavy rains. We also have a panel for a generator back up for the electrical system, but DH hasn't gotten around to buying the generator yet.

The rest of the basement is one large room, with 3 lovely big, sunny windows. One corner is DHs home office, with desk, computer desk, filing cabinets and several bookcases with closed storage at the bottom. Another corner holds our exercise equipment. The 3rd corner has a dry bar for now. The plumbing is roughed in and our next project will be to put in a proper wet bar with upper and lower cabinets, granite counter, sink and fridge. The rest of the room holds the entertainment center, 2 couches and a couple of chairs.

The only thing I would do differently is the floor. The bath is tile, and the rest is Berber carpet. But in the winter that floor is COLD!!! It needs a thermal break. We should have put down a Drycore subfloor. Infloor electrical heat would be prohibitively expensive where we live.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

When we moved into our home 17 years ago, the finished basement is what sold us. It's one open room, with a bathroom off of it. What I love about it: it has shelving built in, surrounding entire room, love this for storage, place framed pictures on etc. One side of room is a sectional couch with tv flat on wall, strongly encourage this, especially if you have growing children, as my kids got into their teens it was a fantastic place for their friends to come and hang out on. The other side, is a ping pong table. Again, fantastic fun for teens. Other things I love, lots of windows! Basements are dark, so have lots and lots of lighting down there. And definitely if you can swing it, a bathroom is a must. Love our finished basement!

This pretty much describes ours, too. Our laundry is part of the bathroom, which works out fine. We also have a large storage room which we recently renovated and re-organized. We have a second fridge in there as well as the dog food, extra pots and pans, cleaning and other household supplies, coolers, etc. I love having that room.

We've done it once already, but are about to re-renovate the whole family room, and I can't wait. We added built in bookcases on both ends of the room, at the far ends. Those are great for storing DVDs and games, books, pictures and mementos, etc.

The large screen TV is still on a corner stand now, since pre flat-screen days, but will be going up on the wall soon, which will cause us to re-think the furniture arrangement. Ours is almost like two rooms even though it's one big one. One side is the TV area and as others have said, it's a teen room now with gaming and dance parties, etc. The other side has our desk and functions as a home office but there's still room left over. We have a futon there now, for extra seating and sleeping for sleepovers. This might make the cut list since I have a sleeper sofa now, although it does come in handy for storms and such if we all have to stay in one room. Even though our kids will be in college in a few years, I imagine we'll be having granchildren using this space someday.

On my wish list for this space is a wet bar (which I don't think will happen for us now because we have the other fridge a few steps away where cold drinks are available, but it would haver been nice over the years while our kids were growing up and the house was really busy to have a wet bar with small dishwasher and glass and plate storage, etc.) and perhaps a pub table because realistically, we and the kids often eat down there when we're watching a movie or hanging out, etc. (Although our main adult TV area now is in our new sunroom.) If we don't do a pub table, I would love to put some type of game table there that the kids could enjoy, like a bumper pool table or air hockey. I wish we'd done this earlier, but we always had so many other renovations, this kind of took a back seat since we'd already done it once when the kids were little. It would come in handy during the long winters and give the kids something else to do besides electronics (and outdoor stuff). We actually did have a combination game table there on top of another table, but we should have sprung for a good one. I'll probably still do it if I can find something after we renovate. I'd probably even do this over a pub table, since we have a large, square coffee table in the TV area which functions pretty well as a table, albeit a short one.

We don't get water persay, but it can get damp in the summer unless we run a dehumidifier. When we renovate this time I think we will not do carpet for that reason. Even if it's clean, it can get a mildewey smell which requires cleaning.

Another thing I would have liked to have is an area for extra clothing storage. We don't have room in this space, but we have a real cellar, under our in law apt, where we're in the process of building a cedar closet mainly for coats and boots, which take up so much space in regular closets. Some people here have described areas under their stairs for closets, which would be great. I would love that but it's not possible where we are as the stairs have full walls next to them. If you live in a large house with lots of closet space, it's probably not an issue. But in an older house with limited closet space, it's really needed for an active family.

Good luck with your basement!

 

[Jex]

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but not sure what the builders or original homeowners were thinking. They drywalled the cieling but did not run surround sound wires first. While that in itself is not strange, the fact that the bedrooms all are wired for surround sound and not the basement is. Obviously the basement is set up for a family type movie area, but I have yet to find good wireless rear speakers.