Planning Out the Basement

The basement in this house is kind of the bane of our existence. When David moved into the house, the basement was "semi-finished". It had a floor and a ceiling and walls, but it was dark and scary.

He quickly got started ripping things out to make way for a bedroom that was completed a few weeks later for a roommate that was moving in.

It has an egress window that lets in lots of light and actually feels like a real room that's part of the house. For those of you not in the know, an egress window is one that has to meet certain specifications so in the event of a fire or other emergency, someone can escape out of it. Installing it required digging a window well on the outside. An egress window is required to have a legal bedroom in a basement.

As for the rest of the space, 4 years later, not much else has happened. All the old wood paneling, flooring and ceiling has been removed.

Insulation has been put up over most of the walls and ceiling, and some walls have been framed out.

This is the current layout of the basement.

And this is where we'd like to end up. The big hang up here is the bathroom. We need to get a plumber to come and assess the situation with sewage ejection pumps, drain lines, etc. and give us a quote. We may scrap the entire idea of a bathroom if the job is out of our budget, otherwise, we will need to get permits (both plumbing and electrical) as well as inspections for everything before we can proceed much further. In the meantime, I've been soaking up lots of inspiration from Pinterest.

I'd love to see some light and airy colors to make it feel as little like a basement as possible.

I am also loving the idea of having a built in reading nook. So cozy!

 

Not to mention having an attractive, functional laundry area with storage, instead of what we are working with now. I may or may not feel like I'm going to be murdered while doing laundry.

Recently, we have been making a push to get more done downstairs (I've declared no more major projects until this is complete) so hopefully in another 4 years, we will have a beautiful finished basement! Har har.