Yes, I’m still alive but have been very busy with all things other than writing.  I’ve been working on building out my basement.  It’s a full basement, but sits below a town home; not a big house.  Still, a big job for just me.  We decided to break the space into two major rooms, a woodworking shop and a bedroom.  Other areas include storage, a laundry area, HVAC space and closets.

So, I pulled the permit back in December and have been laying out and building walls.  Finally, I’m really close.  In fact, an electrician buddy of mine and I have started pulling wire, installing lighting and outlets.  Framing out the laundry room is coming along.Except there is a major hangup.  Do we now add a bathroom as one of those major rooms?

My girlfriend and I have thought that a bathroom in the basement would be great except there just is such limited space.  Where in the world would we even put a bathroom, and it would have to be a 3/4 bathroom rather than a half bath.  There is a half bath on the main floor and duplicating that makes no sense.  So, we designed the basement without one.

Last week, we went to a neighboring unit that has the same floor plan as us and was on the market for a substantial increase from what we bought ours.  So we had to go see what they did.  There was a new kitchen and stuff, but guess what there was as well??  Yep, a bathroom in the basement.  There it was.  In the basement.  The same floor plan.  Okay.  So it’s possible and we know where it goes.  But now what do we do?

We have since gone back and forth several times on if we add the bathroom or not.  The challenge is that the bathroom would sit in what is now the bedroom.  It fills one corner of the room.  Sure the bathroom will fit, not like the bathroom we saw.  Ours will be a snug fit, in a 5’X6′ space.    Here’s a mock up of the bathroom and below the space where the bathroom would go.

 

 

 

 

 

But adding it not only takes space in the bedroom but now offsets the whole flow with the center of the room no longer being the center.  This means the bed can’t be in the center of the room anymore; it has to be on the far wall.

Well, we had our realtor take a look and discuss ROI.  She said the bathroom will definitely add value and help sell this place, when we are ready to do so.  But she also said the current layout could make it a bit strange with where the door to the laundry and bedroom would have to be.  I don’t have a drawing of all the rooms to show you as if we proceed with this, I’ll have to draw one up and pull another permit.  We have also thought of just installing the floor drains required so that a future home owner could install a bathroom in the area and arrange the room in a way we did had not intended.  But all this comes at a cost and a delay in the project.

Still working on making a decision to have a bathroom or not.  Thoughts?