The basement was made for family bonding, memory making, and good times. It's also made with storage in mind. After living in home after home with little to no storage space, we knew that it would be high on our priority list.
AND there's a fun surprise in the storage room that I can't wait to tell you about!
Let me give you the tour...
The Lower Level
The stairs lead you down directly into the family room, where there will be a banquette on one side of the fireplace with a table for playing card games (small closet in the hall to store board games, card games, etc.), and one or two old school arcade systems on the other side.
The main space of the family room will have a couple of gaming table (pool, ping pong, fuse ball, air hockey... all TBD.)
A theatre room is open to the family room to encourage use, and interaction. The theatre itself is my hubby's pride and joy. He spent literally hours determining the best screen size, distance of seating to the screen, and the overall layout/design. There will be two rows of seating with a bar in the back.
Tucked away between the theatre and family room is the snack bar area with a microwave, mini-fridge, and sink. The closet next to it will house the theatre electronic needs, cozy blankets, and more.
There's a powder bath conveniently placed, and a massive storage room that also contains a gun storage room.
If you look closely, you'll see the surprise... what the heck is a door doing opening into the storage room from the garage above? I'll tell you: We installed a window well in the garage and will put a Costco door in it at the base that opens to the storage room. This enables us to pass skis and camping gear and other large bulky storage items up through the storage room into the garage without having to carry it all through the house. Neat trick! And an original one. Our builder has never seen it done before.
We have a large HVAC room that will also house emergency water barrel storage, cleaning supply racks, and a cold storage room at the back for our emergency food storage supply. No, we're not peppers. We just understand the wisdom in being prepared for potential problems... like the earthquakes that Utah is prone to.
On the other side of the basement, we have a bedroom for my oldest daughter, who requested a basement room, and a dedicated guest room. Currently, we put guests on a mattress on the floor in our basement amongst the toys and exercise equipment. It works, but it's not the way I'd prefer to host people.
Speaking of exercise, we'll have an exercise room a full bathroom for Natalie (and guests) as well as a separate laundry.
If you look at the layout of this bedroom/exercise area, you'll notice that it has the potential to be a perfect basement apartment. That is 100% intentional.
Cory and I know that at some point one or all of our kids will need a place to live when they are getting started on their own in life, just as we used his parents basement during the summers between years at college. We will simply convert the exercise room to a kitchentte/living space (we stubbed for the utilities already), give them the two bedrooms, the full bath and the laundry closet, and then install a door between the family room and that side of the house.
Both the family room and the exercise room have French doors that open to the sunken patio outside.
__________________________________
That's the lower level! We tried really hard to think it through to make it perfect for our family now, and perfect for potential needs as well.
Comments