House with a basement

[Deere Dude]

I love the looks and versatility of houses with WO finished off basements and split levels and had a couple over the years.. Now I am older and have a crawl space house and hate that part except the low ranch level look and accessibility. The only thing I would get now would be an exposed basement plan with the attached garage and living space on level 1. That would mean not many steps to the kitchen from the garage all bedrooms would be on that level. +

Forget split or 1.5 or 2 stories and anything that takes steps to go from the garage to the main floor.

I was warned when I got it, I understood it, but went ahead and got it anyway and am now kicking myself in the butt for my lapse in judgment.

 

[Teikas Dad]

Just had a new house built for us last summer/fall. 36X60' ranch with a bonus room over the 2 car garage. The land is sloped so we did a walkout basement. In addition to the regular pass door I had the builder put in an 8' garage door in the walkout. That way I can drive right into the basement. Right now all my woodworking shop tools, my boat, my Yamaha Rhino and my Kubota are staying warm for the winter in the basement...with room to spare. Basement is 9' high and the builder insulated the ceiling of the basement to keep upstairs warm.

 

[goeduck]

The house I moved out of had a basement and two stories above that. Laundry was in the basement, master bed was on the top floor. 4 flights of stairs (2 down, 2 up) to do one load of laundry. Too much stair climbing for me. Not that I minded the excercise, it was more like.... oh crap no clean underwear for work tomorrow, better do a load of laundry tonight. The simple fact that it took 4 flights made me put it off. Now laundry is just down the hall, same level. I always have clean underwear now. :cool2:

 

[rbstern]

I've lived in a house with a walk out basement for the last 26 years. We're now building a ranch with a walk out basement on our rural land, and will be moving there in the next few months. I'm a fan.

The great thing about a walk out basement is the flexibility. It can be traditional, unfinished basement space, or it works well as finished space. In our current home, over the years, our unfinished basement went from completely unfinished to an office, home theater, full bath, exercise room (addition built under a deck), with about 20% of the space remaining unfinished for a workshop.

As previously stated, it's cool in the summer, but it can get cold in the winter. We supplement with small space heaters in the rooms we use during our short winters, and run a dehumidifier during the summer. On the new ranch, we're putting in a small HVAC system for the basement, mostly for the dehumidifying advantage.

 

[Sparkynutz]

If we do go with the basement, we were thinking about finishing it and having the kids rooms and our master suite down there with a big rec room in the middle and make it a daylight basement with sliding doors and windows. This would give my mother her own privacy upstairs. We are also considering putting all the rooms on the first floor and having an unfinished basement with a shop on one side.

As far as I have been told so far concerning the appraisal, when you finish a basement it will only appraise at about half the square foot cost as the living space above ground.

My current house is a 2000sqft split bedroom raised ranch. The front yard grade is about a foot below the main floor with attached two car garage. The back yard is much lower with back of house basement having nice big exposed windows. I don't have a walk out basement patio but wish I did. Back yard grade is about 3ft from the basement floor and all the windows are nice big side sliding egress windows that fully remove easily to even bring furniture down there.
When my house was built the owners needed a place to live because their old house sold faster than anticipated. They completely finish the basement where they lived for almost 2 years while the rest of the house was finished. On the back of the house there's a large bedroom my kids use as a toy room with huge his and hers closets and a big window looking at the backyard. Towards front of house next to that is a full bath with washer and dryer hookups in it. Then a large living room directly under my upstairs living room in the front of house.
The furnace and storage room is next to that in front of house. The basement kitchen is full size with a big window over the sink facing the back yard with a huge dining room we use as craft/computer room. There is no window in the dining room but it would be a good spot to dig lower and put a patio door someday but might not be able to because there's a patio door in the dining room on main floor directly above onto a walkout deck that leads down to backyard. Then on other end of basement is another huge bedroom under our master bedroom but this one has a normal closet plus a 7ftx9ft walk in closet.

If I was you I'd make the basement into the mother in law suite and upstairs yours. My wife's grandma will probably move into our basement someday when she is no longer able to live by herself.

 

[MossRoad]

If I was building a new house, with a basement of any type, I'd put in radiant floor heating with a water heater for the heat source and anti-freeze in the loops. Radiant floor heating is just a great, economical way to heat large, concrete slabs. There is lots of info on this out on the web, and youtube.

 

[buickanddeere]

We are currently looking/drawing house plans for a new house. The land has a good roll to it. There are several nice spots for a walkout basement. We also have a few flat places to put a house without a basement. Does anyone on here have a house with a walkout basement and do you like it? Is it quite a bit cheaper than doing a regular two story? My thinking is heating and cooling a ranch with a basement will be substantially less than a two story house. Am I right in this thinking?

I have been told by both a mortgage lender and my builder that a basement even when finished is not counted as square footage living space when appraising the property. This is not too much of a concern since we have a good amount of cash to put down on the house. However, I don't want to go into a new house with a low appraisal.

We really want a ranch with a basement but could live with a two story also or just a big ranch. We will also need an in-law suite (which has to be on the first floor) and rooms for the kids so two masters are needed with two additional bedrooms. Just curious if anyone has gone through a similar process and which way you decided to go. So many details to think about especially when doing two master suites. We plan on living in this new house for a very long time so I want to get it as right as we can. Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Unless building on solid rock or in a swamp . I have no idea why a house would be built without a basement . Basement is for the utilities , furnace , water heater, well pressure tank , laundry , freezer, barn clothes change area and a bathroom/shower for when too dirty to use the upstairs . Usually a fireplace and a big screen TV too.

 

[rbstern]

Unless building on solid rock or in a swamp . I have no idea why a house would be built without a basement . Basement is for the utilities , furnace , water heater, well pressure tank , laundry , freezer, barn clothes change area and a bathroom/shower for when too dirty to use the upstairs . Usually a fireplace and a big screen TV too.

Because a basement can add 10% to 20% to the cost of a house. Some people choose to put that money elsewhere, or can't afford it in the first place. Furnace, water heater, laundy, freezer, etc., all work above grade, too.

 

[buickanddeere]

Because a basement can add 10% to 20% to the cost of a house. Some people choose to put that money elsewhere, or can't afford it in the first place. Furnace, water heater, laundy, freezer, etc., all work above grade, too.

A mere 10-20% makes it a much more usable house . The most amount of extra floor space for the least $$$. No crawlspace to crawl in or to have to insulate.

 

[rbstern]

A mere 10-20% makes it a much more usable house . The most amount of extra floor space for the least $$$. No crawlspace to crawl in or to have to insulate.

Some folks don't want or need that space, and/or don't have the "mere" 10-20%. My mother-in-law's house is on a slab foundation. Her water heater is in a closet. So is her washer and dryer. Her HVAC system is in the attic. She has an extra fridge/freezer in her garage. She's lived there happily for 15 years. If you offered her a free basement, she'd say no (bad knees, no use for the space). It holds no value to her, and might have left her fiscally out of reach when she first bought the house.

Just because you and I want/need basements, doesn't mean everyone does.