I've used combinations of these all throughout the house. In the basement, I have 3 of the base consoles together for an 8' run of basecabinets. I added a marble tile countertop and use a wall mounted LCD above the cabinets. I ran electrical outlets inside the cabinet and all the kids games, vcr, etc are in the cabinets. I like them because they are easy to modify for custom applications, unlimited finishes, solid wood (large panels plywood) and cost effective. I use trim from the local big box the tie the pieces together and it looks like custom cabinetry. I drywalled the ceiling, prefer the look. I left 1/3 the basement unfinished and most of the access issues (plumbing, etc) are on the unfinished side. I used high quality carpet with 8 lb pad. Here is a link that might be useful: unfinished cabinets

Benjamin, I would think that an experienced builder could look at it and tell you what needs to be done right off the bat, without going to the expense of hiring an engineer. There's nothing wrong with getting a quote and then deciding to do all or part of the work yourself. The reason I asked if the original builder put up the wall, is that the work looks kind of amateurish to me. Why go to the trouble of building a wall, using that much wood and not finishing it, when a simple beam with support posts would have been much easier to do. What is on the floor over that wall? Maybe a previous owner was trying to correct a problem or trying to put in additional support for something heavy (like a waterbed). If the wall is a true bearing wall, I would think that it's also supporting another bearing wall on top of it. I'm having a bearing wall taken down on my first floor and wanted to move one of the supports for the beam that the builder is putting in. My builder told me that the support had to be there because it would sit over a support in the basement and it's important to transmit the load from above all the way to the ground.

The bathroom in my basement is currently a little odd. The previous owners turned a bedroom into a storage/utility room with a shower. There is a half bath just outside of the room. It has a toilet and a vanity. As you can see from the pic if you are sitting on the toilet your knees hit the radiator. My son will be a teenager next year, and I'd like to revert that room to a bedroom, but without having the shower IN the room like it is now. I would like for him to have his own bathroom, but still have it accessible/usable without having to go through the bedroom. Here is the basic layout: The top area is the bedroom, and the lower area is my office. Here is a REALLY bad depiction of my proposed reno. Super simple. Close up the shower opening to the bedroom and open an entry on the side. Build a wall across the hall from the shower to the half bath and put a door in it. Then it's like a Jack-n-Jill. It doesn't fix the fact that my knees hit the radiator when I sit down, but it's a start. I am going to remove the closet. If I can move things around a bit and get more space for the toilet and vanity I'd like to do that. The water lines are in the wall between the closet and half-bath. They are OLD OLD OLD lines, so I'm not opposed to replacing them and moving them. I can't move the toilet drain, but if I can turn the toilet I think it would be good. The sink drain goes into the wall, so I am assuming the drain goes into the floor there. My original plan was to move the shower into the closet area and turn the old shower into a closet. But it was going to be like $6k in concrete and plumbling to move lines... So that's not happening. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated! -Dizzy

(FWIW, ceiling heights in basement apartments might not be biggest concern. I know of two basement units right on my street that have been renovated within the last few years. Both have had stable tenants paying $1600/mnth and $1750/mnth. This despite the fact that although the units look nice, it is clear that they are not legal, with bulkheads at around 6ft and original-sized windows that are too small. yeah, I know. The reason isn't just about legalities, it's about money. Rental Real Estate is a long term game. There's a number of things that can do you in. Legal is one of them, but the cost to entry is much lower. The other con is that real estate is hot right now, been hot for quite a while. So what happens when things aren't so favorable? This isn't to say that if you do xyz, legal etc. That you won't have trouble. Crap happens. Life gets in the way. As you said you don't want to be told what to do. This situation you got is complicated, you do all the work upfront pay for it, then the process of getting paying tenants etc. Not everyone is cut out to be a tenant, not everyone is cut out to be a landlord. If you catch my drift. There is no amount of planning, doing that can prevent life happen type scenarios from happening. I've seen too much... I've condensed this down. Rental real estate can be 'easy'. But often times things get exagerated in terms of how much you make. Especially if you carry debt. This reno is likely going to cost well into the 30K range, maybe more no matter which or how you decide. Unless you do the work yourself, which takes more time. That's a lot of money to stick out there with no realization of ever turning a profit. Remember, this looks much easier from the outside looking in. Tenants don't care about half of what you think they might. Until they do care. As long as a place is clean, nice looking, nice area, nice schools many times that will do it for most. But things go bad after a tenant moves in. I feel the floor removal method is the better way mainly for the access to redo the plumbing runs and get the place height legal. (is it perfect, no not really. It's a choice that opens more options when it's far easier to fix things not thought of when the house was built.) The HVAC stuff is secondary for a basement. There will be little need for conditioning a basement. If the HVAC is problematic for the upper level then obviously before you finish the basement would be a good time to shore up those issues. I think dehumidification / some AC / little heat is really all you need for a basement. If this is your first endeavor into rental real estate, you've got your work cut out for you. It's always adviseable to do 'easy' first. This is complicated for a wide variety of reasons. Not saying you can't do it, but after trying it... well I first rented a home over 30 years ago. It was a complete disaster. Tenants stop paying 3 months after moving in. It took me the better of 20 years to get over those mistakes, and the visual nightmares as a result. Trust me when I say this is not easy, not for the faint of heart. If it was easy, everyone would do it. It's glamorized primarily because RE often is sold because of how glamourous it is. That's misleading when you're knee deep in crap after you've bought it. If this is a "house hack" kind of project, you're slightly better off in terms of getting your money back. But it's easily a 3 - 4 year project of working for nothing, dealing with tenants etc. Meaning this investment is going to take at least 3-4 years of your life before you show a nickel of profit. That's provided there isn't some unplanned "life happens" event that effects you or your tenant. There's far more to consider here, it's not meant to discourage you but as you noted the likely illegal rentals in the area... they're likely illegal due to? money. The whole reason you are contemplating doing this.