Tips for Finishing Your Basement

Whether you just built your new home or just finished buying your dream house, many times the first project that you will try to complete is probably not finishing the basement.

However, it may interest home owners to know that a finished basement definitely adds value to your house and, if nothing else, adds more square foot of space the entire family can use, rather than just having storage space on the bottom floor.

 

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That being said, you want to make sure if you investing the money to finish your basement, you want to do it right. You want to be able to maximize every part of the basement and gain the most value and space that you possibly can.

Here are a few tips that you should think about as you begin the process of finishing your basement:

Utilize The Space Properly

Make sure that when you start figuring out floor plans on how you are going to finish your basement and also what it is going to be used for, take the time to consider all options before jumping into it. Will your entire family use it? Do you have kids that will utilize it as a play room? Will it be a guys-only room to watch the football and hockey games? These are important to answer before figuring it all out. If you think that the basement may be used for the guys, then you want to consider if you are adding a bar (built or store-bought) with a couple of bar stools, or whether or not it is better to just have couches with a TV and possibly a pool table. If you think it is going to be a family room, then you will want to stick to the basics on furniture because you know that the kids will have toys everywhere and will be jumping around from each corner of the room. Regardless of what your family decides, take the time to make sure you figure it all out – both short-term and long-term – before starting the process.

How Much Are You Planning To Spend?

No matter what you decided in terms of the space usage of the basement, you can’t just assume that everything will fall into place with your budget. Is the basement already insulated? Will you use a drop ceiling or a drywall ceiling? Will you be able to do any of it yourself or are you hiring an outside contractor? The budget is probably the biggest question throughout the process. This includes not only the materials to construct the basement, but all of the things after the fact (i.e. TV, couches, bars, etc.). You want to make sure that if it is a man cave or a family room, you want to have good carpet so that no matter what you are using the basement for, it will also be a soft, warm climate. Then again, if you know it will be used mostly for the guys watching sports, you want to allow to enough money on the back end to get a nice TV – possibly even a surround system. At the end of the day, you need to come up with a realistic budget, and make sure that you don’t go overboard on anything to have you scraping for extra cash at the end.

Make The Basement Good, But Don’t “Show Up” The Rest of the House

If you are going to finish your basement, make sure you don’t overdo it and make it the most appealing part of the entire house. This could also go both ways. Take this for example – if you build a brand new home and a couple months/years later you finish the basement, you don’t want to go the cheap route and make it look out of place with the pristine flavor of the rest of your home. That being said, if you bought your dream home – albeit it is 20 years old – you don’t want to make the basement lavishing so that it sticks out and makes your family and friends want to ONLY be in that part of the house. Yes it may sound a little odd, but make sure that your basement flows with the rest of the house. Make sure it ‘belongs’ with the rest of your home. If you are going to finish the basement, do so in the right way to add the best value and space to your home.

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