Is it a full daylight basement? We have ours walkout to the south side with lots of windows, insulated it including below the basement floor and we fundamentally don't heat or cool it. It runs from a low of 60 in the winter to 78 in the summer. We don't close it off but have an open staircase to the above so some of the heating/cooling from upstairs impacts the space.

I prefer the exercise room cooler anyway so I don't want to heat that space for working out. If I need to use my craft room which is downstairs for a few hours, I shut the door and use a little quartz heater to raise it a few degrees. While we do have heating/cooling for the floor, it is a single zone so we pretty much don't use it unless someone is staying in the guest room.

If you are having one room down there that will be used regularly, you can set up a separate zone for that room.

But pretty generally, basement space is among the cheapest sq footage in a build as you have to build the walls anyway, so it's best to make use of it.

Also, if you do have a full daylight basement, try not to put a deck over the area you will be using as it blocks all the solar gain and makes it still feel very much like a basement.

Basement air can get very humid in the summer. I would at least have a provision for AC to dehumidify.

It's Colorado, so humidity is not a problem :)
Annie - it would be daylight on the east end for sure; we're hoping the site can accommodate at least part of the length on the south...that would certainly impact how we used the space. I wasn't thinking of an exercise room or craft room, but now that you mention it, I can see my husband spreading out into more room than an office upstairs would give him, and...it would be nice to be able to put the sewing machine down there instead of having to drag it out every time. Hmmm. It's entirely possible we *would* use the basement for more than just that one room. Food for thought - thanks!

Not to hijack this thread but Annie, you make a good point about not putting a deck over area one will be using however my new build in Baline WA, NW tip of USA, where the weather is damp at least six months and we being outdoor folks (hate the rain) will be convering entire rear with a very large deck/aka patio cover for the walkout basement. We love throwing deck parties and want to bring the basement indoors out to a large covered patio, no matter how bad the weather. Deck/Patio build is slated for spring 2017 after build completion. The basement will be facing N/NE.

If that is the case, pinebaron, then try to put it up as high as possible as most of the light comes from above, not horizontally. Being north side, it will be dark anyway.

We were able to park our deck behind our garage where there was no basement underneath, and we added an overhang above so the deck has both sheltered and unsheltered parts.

Back of house, deck on right behind the garage, cantilevered out over the landscape.

View from lower level bedroom...no deck above and 9' ceilings so you have no sense that you are actually in a basement.

RaMc, one of things we found when designing our home was that the basement area was large so you really could spread out and make nice, dedicated space to functions you might not otherwise have. I insisted I get the SW corner for my craft room for the light, and I'm delighted with how it came out. On top of that, the best part is, I can leave mid-project and not have to put everything away and then set up again before I can start work. When I was making my friends bridal veil, it was esp helpful to have the room clean, door shut and no husbands/cats/etc. allowed in, and I was able to leave all the beadwork and sequence, etc. out.

That's it: I'm not having a basement unless it can look like that :) It's beautiful, and and I really love how much light it gets. We will have to think very seriously about how to place the house on the site. Fortunately, any deck we have will be toward the front of the house, so it should not interfere too much.

When you orient your house, try to have it on a bit of an angle, so that no side faces dead north. The north side tends to be cold and uninviting, and the lack of sunshine encourages mold and algae growth on the siding. We rotated our house about 30 degrees, so the back gets morning sun, although in the winter, the sun just barely hits the back. Our view is directly north, so the temptation would have been to face the house that way, but we still have a great view, and a little sun on the back deck.

Make sure your basement is properly detailed to keep moisture out. This includes waterproofing, drainage at the footing, gravel backfill, proper grading away from the foundation for drainage, and gutters to prevent large quantities of water from dumping directly at the top of the foundation. That way, the basement space will be usable and pleasant.

Our basement in upstate SC is the exact same temperature range as Annie's, so we haven't added any HVAC, although we may add a mini-split should we use the space. Summer humidity is an issue here in the south, so we run a dehumidifier in the warmer months.

As we're much farther west than you are, we would probably angle our house a tiny bit in the opposite direction - so that the north side might get a bit of sun in the evening, and the south side would be better oriented for passive solar (all the living spaces have windows to the south.) That would also help with the walkout, as the land slopes off mostly to the east, and a little to the south, depending on how far south on the property we locate it. The neighbors to the south unfortunately built right on the property line, and there are few trees in that direction to hide them, so I was trying to place the house further north, but a hundred yards isn't really going to make the view any better, and would make a great deal of difference to how much we could open up the basement to the south...I'm guessing a good builder will be able to help with the best placement...

In the hot, humid south, western exposure is to be avoided, but in CO, it might be a good idea. A builder might be able be able to advise you, but an energy rater would be better, as well as advising you on insulation, HVAC, windows, etc. A well designed, well built, and properly sited house will save a lot on energy costs, and be more comfortable to boot.

Unlike mushcreek, we oriented our house to the south...it worked out well for us as that's also where the view is. We have solar panels on the roof and wanted to maximize generation. We also live in colder climes so mold on the north side has not been an issue...we do some sunshine on the front of the house in late May through July when the sun is highest in the sky. We have only 3 windows on the front, north side of the house, but as you can see above, lots more in the back. We gain 4 degrees in temp even on the coldest winter days just from the sunshine.

We are in NC. Our house is also on the east/west axis. The back faces due south. Our covered deck wraps around from the south to the west. The south portion is small with the big deck on the west. It works really well. The only change I would make is a small skylight or two on the south side roof. But I am a person who likes a lot of light. The walk-out portion of the basement is on the south and east sides and do not have the deck over them.