Thank You for responding! Well, there are two sets of stairs; one to the inside staircase, and one outside. Are you telling me I still need more exits? The bathroom would be on the staircase(s) side. I don't actually want to make a bedroom down there, although there is a closet if someone wanted one. The basement is partially finished with wormwood paneling, but it needs cosmetic updating. I'm not quite ready to deal with that, as I thought having a bathroom would make it easier to tackle that in the future. Does that make any difference, or is it just assumed the room would be a bedroom? How much am I shooting myself in the foot if I don't have a shower? I have room, but I'd rather keep the room for storage (metro shelving), which I need much more than a shower.

reeree, I love this thread! Sometimes I think my DH and I are the only ones who are out there renovating! We have a one and 1/2 story 1913 bungalow with a chimney in the middle of the half story and a stairway right off of a bedroom, like yours. The current state of the entire upstairs is about where lil geek's is now (we have rough in plumbing, electrical, framing and subfloor so far). We hire our GC to do the work we can't and we do as much as we can ourselves. We did all the demolition, insulation, and we are doing some of the drywall (in the storage spaces). We are putting storage behind the knee walls. My DH is gonzo for storage! We'll hire the GC to drywall the big spaces. And you can work with/around the chimney. I also suggest skylights (we did 2 and I wish we'd done 3). Now for the reality check. It is a lot of work (and as you can see from kim2007's pics it is dirty work!). I hauled about 90 garbage bags of dirty rock wool insulation out of the upstairs. It will always cost more than you think. DH and I tend to get side tracked to other projects with this house. We started the upstairs demolition in January 2004 and got a new roof that summer. Then, summer 2006 we did a complete kitchen demo and new kitchen. Now that we thought we were back to work on the upstairs, we are putting new shingles in our exterior gable ends! Eventually we'll get back on track with the upstairs (luckily, the downstairs has plenty of room for DH and me and the 2 cats without the upstairs being finished). We will have a master suite upstairs (it is about 500 square feet when finished). Bedroom, 3/4 bath, workout space and sitting/TV area with a gas fireplace (oh, and the mini-fridge left over from the temporary kitchen!). I'd post pictures but right now it is just framing and you can't tell much about it. I sure hope it is done in the coming year. Sometimes I think we'll never see it finished! But I BELIEVE what you (and we) want to do is possible! So, keep the dream, reeree and keep us posted on what you do... I think we all love the "company" and knowing we aren't the only ones who get up at 5:00 am to paint (which is what I've been doing this week)! :-) Kim

Mary-- Thanks for the input. I don't understand what hopper windows are. Can you explain? I just rode my bike around our neighborhood trying to look for examples of double egress windows in the front and actually found one in a house that has a brick window box in the front just like ours. So, the situation was very similar. It didn't look too terrible. I agree that it isn't the window as much as the big hole in the ground that bothers me the most. The contractor has suggested a tiered planter look, and that has definitely been eliminated because those do look way too contemporary to fit in with our house. The other thing I noticed is that with a brick façade on the lower portion of our house the windows that look the best are the ones that are painted a color that blends right in with the brick rather than trying to coordinate with the regular trim color on the house.

So I did this as if it was my space. assumptions are all smaller appliances. Such as 18" bosch dishwasher, GE top mount stainless 28" wide refrigerator, 24" wide stainless GE electric range, 24" Recirculating stainless range hood by summit. Freestanding fridge (built in takes away valuable inches). Solid countertop surface. Single bowl undermount sink for the corner such as Kraus KBU11 (20*17). I say choose which side ismore comfortable for you during prep to determine trash. I personally would want the trash next to the dishwasher. If you want regular sized appliances (30 stove, 36 fridge, 24 dishwasher) then you will end up with no trash cabinet, a 6” space like upright pan or wine cubbies, and a bank of 12” drawers in your base. There are many kitchen carts you can choose from and closed or open storage. In this plan I would expect to put pots and pans at that cart. I dislike open due to dust, grease, and most importantly my cats (or if we had young kids). Not interested in having them in kitchen things.