Finishing basement - one or two finished rooms for resale value?
7 years ago
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Comments (15)
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
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Bonus room or finished basement?
Comments (19)Our tract home has the space over the garage as a large bonus room in most of the homes. When we bought from the developer, we could go for one or two rooms over the garage. We are one of the few homes that went for 2 rooms. One was to be a playroom, and one was going to be a guest room. Noise goes down into the garage from these rooms and not into the rest of the house all that much. So neighbors tended to make these rooms for their teens. Before the house was finished, we had a surprise baby, so one of the rooms became a bedroom and the other a guest room for 8 years. Later still it became a bedroom because it was larger and we turned the smallest bedroom into a guest room. Those rooms are large and work well. One has a walk in closet with plumbing for a wet bar behind the drywall if anyone ever wants a bonus room. I think you would get more for your money if you finish the room above the garage. If you turn it into two rooms, one cold be storage and the other a den or bedroom. Or you could build a nice walk in closet and use that for storage and still use the room itself for whatever purpose you might want. I really do not like finished basements as much as the upstairs room. They are low in natural light and usually chilly and damp. Furthermore, they always feel like a basement, no matter how nicely they are finished....See Moremaking two bedrooms into one w/o decreasing value?
Comments (16)I was confused at first like the other posters about why you cared about the appraisal if it was before you did the work, but then re-read your post and at the end you explained you want to finance the remodel. That said, if you're going to change the 3rd bedroom into a bathroom plus walk-in closet, I can't envision how in the world you could "pretend" that's a bedroom as well. There's not enough room, Presumably this is an older house, in which case it's probably got small bedrooms to start with. There will be added value from having a second bathroom. Perhaps that would offset the lost value from a bedroom. I'd call an appraiser or two and run your plan by them. But rarely do any improvements return (or appraise for) what they cost you to do. I seriously doubt that your changes would increase the value $80K unless this is a $2 million house or something. While you should certainly make the changes that will make the home more livable for you, you should probably save up some more cash and pay for the remodel that way. Or make a bigger down payment and/or pay down the principal faster and create equity that you can borrow down the road....See MoreFinished walk-out basement or over garage bonus - new build
Comments (17)nidnay - at our current facility we have an 8 stall barn with a bathroom, 12' X 18' office, and 12' X 24' tackroom, with the barn being about 125' away from the back of our house (facing it actually). I've lived here for 18 years now and we RARELY EVER use the stalls, so we don't plan on building a 'stable' (or a barn with stalls). The horses are going to live out with shelters in each pasture. Our current barn had to have it's own it's own septic system. $$$ The current land we are looking at only had one perc site for 4 bedrooms. I don't want to pay for the test for a second perc ($250) plus the cost of having another septic system (about $4K), as well as creating a climate controlled office and bathroom in the barn (a mini split system is about $3K and a 2 piece bathroom probably around $2K). That is about $10K right there in a separate septic, a 2 piece bathroom, and office and climate control for both (as well as permitting, creating plans, etc.). All things that would have already been in the house at the square footage we had to build. Plus grading for a large barn was going to be expensive. We found a place next to the house to put in a modest shed row 'barn' for a tack room, feed room and grooming, that will work with the topography of the land for minimal grading work. We did this to keep things cost effective. It's just my husband and I living in this house, it's not like we have kids to keep separated from my business. We're both fine with this situation. The door up the stairs to the main floor will have a lock on it. And I don't have a lesson mill program, I focus on quality not quantity. I've been teaching for over 20 years now. I keep about 8 weekly students at any given time. I get to know my students and my parents well... my students tend to stick around for years. Same for my boarders. We'll have 2 or 3 boarders at the new location. At our current facility 3 of our customers have been with us for 5+ years. At one point or another I end up paying most of my students and all of my boarders to house sit / dog sit / farm sit for us when we go on vacation. I'm pretty confident they are not going to bust the door down to access the main floor of my home. And they won't be there at inappropriate hours of the day / night anyhow. Vigil Carter - I guess you didn't read my last post. We priced out a 1 story 'ranch' with the same builder. 2200 sq ft was going to cost $209,000 THEN another $15K because of the sloped ground to add more courses to the crawl space foundation. This 1700 sq ft two story house, without walkout basement, came in at $178K pre-basement. The cost of the completely finished 840 sq ft basement, with a grand total heated sq ft of 2540, came to a total less than the single story 2200 sq ft ranch. Though we could have gotten a separate entrance in-law space, the in-law space would have been way smaller (by over 150 sq ft) and I would not have had an office that was separate from my main living space. I lift 50 pound bags of feed and hay nearly daily and my husband is military / infantry, we are active horse riders and hikers. I think we can handle interior stairs for another 12+ years. :) At that point if it starts to bother us then we can add a master suit to the side of the house (which we had already spec'd out anyhow but we just do not need at this time)....See MoreFinished basement sewing room
Comments (11)Just a PS. This is the back half of the basement. My original space was in the front half and I had less than a third of this space. So I am so grateful to be able to move. no longarms, Donna. I did think about it, but I am a bit old to learn how to use it and I only do small quilts. A cousin, who quilts, talked about a longarm and then decided she could have a lot of work done by a LAQ, for the price of the machine. I was hoping she would get one and then she could be my new best friend. LOL Theresa...See MoreRelated Professionals
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