<p>Seems like a lot more work than it’s worth, imo.</p>
<p>There’s a positive relationship between guests wanting to stay over at your place with the size of your house :D</p>
<p>No, it’s going to be well worth it. Our girls are at the age of having boyfriends come visit. It’s an advantage to have a guest bedroom 2 floors down. Then in a few more years, when there are grandchildren, they could have the whole basement (2 floors down).</p>
<p>Very reason I fully intend to live in an apartment for the rest of my life. :)</p>
<p>We found the investment to be totally worth it. It was a great playroom when the kids were younger, and if the toys didn’t get cleaned up I didn’t have to see the mess. Now the kids can have their friends over and feel like they have “privacy,” although the door always stays open and we can hear the noise on the first floor. </p>
<p>In our suburban New England town, it’s rare that any house over 5 years old doesn’t have a finished basement. My friend has a 3500 sq ft house, in addition they have 2 finished rooms in the basement that are heavily used.</p>
<p>We had one years ago when we lived in the Northeast and loved it. We miss it in our current house bigtime, especially now that the kids are older and underfoot more. The Southeast has these “bonus rooms” which serve a similar purpose, I guess, but its less noise when they’re in the basement instead of a herd of buffalos overhead playing ping pong!</p>
<p>We finished our basement 5 years ago, and love it. Mostly open space with big screen T.V., small office and powder-room. Totally worth it. We paid around $35,000 to finish 900 s.f. That was a pretty good price since it included the bathroom. </p>
<p>With a tv, bathroom, fridge, couches and music system, ours is the place to hang out.</p>
<p>My hubby practically lives there as he runs a small home-based business.</p>
<p>We found the investment totally worth it. Our previous house was a 2-story, 3 bedroom house with a walk-out basement. We used #3 bedroom as a home office. When S2 was born, we had his/hers computers and tons of books (both college profs) to move to the basement, but we knew we wouldn’t want to work in a unfinished basement. </p>
<p>Ours was oddly laid out with stairs running down the middle and water heater/furnace under the stairs. Fortunately, the builder had left plumbing for shower/toilet. We put in a great room/office with a nook, guest bedroom & bath (with shower), large walk-in closet, and mud room, closing off the area under the stairs for a utility room. We put studs on wall and floor and insulated with a vapor barrier. We wanted the floor insulated as well because of small children. An unsulated floor and be very hard and cold. We also put up dry wall because we wanted the finished basement to have the same finish as the rest of the house. </p>
<p>Whether or not we recouped any money on the investment, it was worth it to us. Current house is 4-bedroom, 3 story with walk-out basement. 3 basement side walls are half finished (top half dry wall/lower half concrete) and the back wall which is completely open to the back yard is finished. So we haven’t needed to do any finishing.</p>
<p>I estimated for 800 sq ft to be between $10k-$20k, depending on level of comfort. Add $3k-5k for a small bath with pump up wastewater. </p>
<p>I am accumulating material for such a project.</p>
<p>I live close to a lake in an older home, and badly needed an extra space for at least a guest room in the basement. So carved out sufficient space for a room, after installing a sump pump and drainage tile. Hired a friend of a friend to frame it in and insulate. As I don’t trust the water table around here during time of heavy rainfall, did not want carpeting put in. I used bathroom grade moisture resistant dry wall, and metal studs close to the floor. I painted the concrete, and use area rugs. Head space was a little tight, so spray painted the exposed studs and 1st floor underfloor white. Gives a feeling of height to the room, if less than functional head space.</p>
<p>As a teen, my S spent all his time in the newer neighborhoods in our town, where his friends had large finished basements with pool tables, large TVs and the like. Somehow these teens would not come use my living room, as they wanted their own space, in a way that he and his friends from our neighborhood couldn’t provide.</p>
<p>If you are worried about damp, just put a loose carpet in, and dry it out on the driveway if the basement gets wet. :)</p>
<p>I painted our large basement (walls and floor) a few years ago- if you get scared by costs you could do this and have a people friendly space.</p>