Update......3/16/2010. I am gonna use the first tile guy that came out (friend of my plumber). Nice guy, very attentive to my questions, etc. The second tile guy that came out said he guaranteed I will have no porblem tiling on the sleepers over concrete. RED FLag!? He said he would email me a quote......he never did. oh well. When I order the tile yesterday, I told the ladies at the tile shop who my tile contractor was....they spoke very highly of him....calling him a perfectionist....hopefully that bodes well for me and my bathroom. So here are the new specs..... Bathroom floor: Mud Bed [including bonding agent on concrete and wire mesh to strengthen the mud bed] tile se on diagonal Radiant heat floor set in mudbed Thinset Tile Shower: Swanstone Shower pan [34x48] Durock walls Thinset/tape seams Mapei liquid waterproofer (either HPG or AquaDefense) One recessed niche tile to ceiling Look ok? TWO Questions: 1. Any preference for either Mapei waterproofing products? The HPG or AquaDefense? 2. Question on vapor barrier for foundation wall One wall of the bathroom is on the poured foundation wall. Do I need a plastic between the cement wall and the insualtion and studs? thanks. mike

We just finished the layout stage of our basement renovation. Our basement is almost exact the same size as yours so I'm very interested in seeing your progress! We chewed on plans and ideas for more than a year. We only came up with a layout we both feel good with once we finally figured out what we really want to use the basement for and what should be possible in the future. Our house is one bedroom short for our family so we really need a bedroom or sleeping area in the basement. Our house only has one bathroom (one toilet) for 5 people so we need an extra bathroom too. We have an exit to the garden in the basement so we wanted to have some kind of mudroom, laundry and mechanical room needed to stay downstairs too. First we thought of making a bedroom for or oldest son. But the square footage we have to work with is not big and making a bedroom, bathroom, mudroom and mechanical room would divide the space in a lot of little rooms and a hallway which takes in space as well. Furthermore, in this area basements are typically used for recreational functions. So we fear the resale value of our house might decrease with no obvious recreational space down there. We decided to turn the basement into an open concept bedroom/office for ourselves and have the bathroom for ourselves too. This way the basement will be our own little studio, the kids will each have a bedroom and one bathroom upstairs. When the time comes that our kids move out, we can simply take our bed out of the basement and replace it with a couch or two to turn it into a recreation room. I hope this can help in some way! Maybe you too can combine the functions of the rooms you want, like: bathroom/laundry or recreation room/guestroom ? This is roughly the new layout of our basement, the dimensions of stairs and doors are a bit off but you'll get the idea :)

I screwed up - it's a master bedroom and bath in the basement with walk out. You are 100% correct with the confusion. What I've decided to do is to have this be more of a "guest master bedroom" or future inlaw place. Every home is initially designed for the current occupant but also with future occupants in mind. Therefore what I'll do is focus on the upstairs primary bedroom and then if I do decide to stay, I'll give this to my soon to be teen-age daughter and I'll build my primary bedroom in the basement. When someone comes to look at the home to buy, they can look at the downstairs as a large "room" which could be a bedroom (staged as such) and an awesome bathroom ideally suited for a bedroom or just an awesome entertainment room.

Have you considered hiring someone to polish it? They will repair and grind it to be more level. You can have it stained and polished. You could epoxy or paint it too.