Using finished basement

[holliejjj]

My last post got me thinking about this and thought since I have asked for decorating advice in the past I would run this by y'all.

I have posted before that the kids are always with us. They never hangout in the basement or their bedrooms. So we are all squeezed into our small living room.

We have thought about making the finished basement our main living room. Like bringing our big screen t.v. down there. That's where we would be. It's a larger living space. There is a half bath down there. There is also another room down there with a t.v. so if the kids wanted to watch something different than us (or play the Wii) they could do that without feeling far away from us. Another plus would be our main level would stay pretty clean. The small living room now would maybe be like a formal living room. Anytime we had company, especially unexpected...the house would probably look pretty nice.

The downside, we might have to go upstairs alot for things. It's a little colder in the basement. We would probably feel a little more cut off from the rest of the house.

Does anyone do this in your house and do you think it's plausible? I would post pics I have been wanting to show you the "after" of our basement since I shared pics when dh's dad lived here, but the electric is not working down there for a few lights and outlets. Dh has not fixed it yet and he would obviously have to fix that before we moved everything down there. It just went out one day.

[mamaotter]

We have a full finished basement for the kids and they will spend some time down there, but also like to be in the livingroom with the main tv, etc. I, personally, would not like spending all my time in the basement...

That said, if it was done up nicely, and you didn't have all the same amenities upstairs, I'm sure you would get used to it! Our friends had a set-up similar to that - the tv and all the good stuff was in the basement, whereas the livingroom was more of just a sitting area. It really worked for them.

[Maelyn]

back when we had a basement, we lived down there. It was a big room but it was also a daylight basement. The upstairs stayed clean and the mess was contained.

If you make it homey and you all transitioned down there it can work.

[ruffages]

Our family room is in the finished walk out basement and we have a gas stove (looks like a wood burning stove but it's gas) and it puts out a BUTT LOAD of heat. We use it to heat the basement during the winter. During the summer, the basement is a cool refuge and a place where we don't have to worry about running the AC.

So, if you want to encourage the kids to be in the basement, move it all down there. Get the kids used to being down there and maybe you'll get the break you need and be able to use the upstairs one for your shows.

Carolyn

[holliejjj]

Well it would make it to where there would be no t.v. on our main level because we would move "our" t.v. down to the basement as well.

Carolyn you are right in the summer it feels great and would probably cut down our a/c cost.

The other thing I wanted to mention is all of Jasmine's big baby/toddler toys will probably be down there so I think once she starts walking I would probably be spending some time down there anyway lol.

Thanks for all the responses, I'm seriouly starting to consider it even more. Once dh gets the electric fixed so I can turn on lights I will take some pics.

[Heather]

We don't have a 'true' basement, since our house is a tri-level and what I'm referring to as a 'basement' is actually more or less above ground.

But, we have our main TV down there in the den. It's a huge room, so we've got a sectional, the TV, Matt's computer, the kids computer, an air hockey table, Jared's drums, Will's guitars, amp and speakers, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

It keeps the main living area neater (I won't say neat, b/c hey, we are homeschoolers, and Matt is an artist!). It also keeps the majority of the racket from the drums and guitars down there.

[Lora]

I don't have much to add since we don't have a finished basement, but I was wondering if perhaps you might be so lucky that it's just a circuit breaker that tripped and you could reset it so you would have electricity.

[holliejjj]

yeah he has tried that. dh is acutally an electrical engineer and this has him stumped. That is not a good sign lol

[cherir]

I loved having the basement be the TV room. One big reason - the kids could rough house and not be heard through the entire house. And I also loved having the main floor TV free - awesome!

I think you will really enjoy it!

[ann]

This is our plan. DH is currently working on finishing our basement. When it's done we'll have the boys' rooms downstairs, a full bath, a huge family room with wet bar and an office/guest room. We're going to get a big screen TV for the basement and we'll move the kids' video game systems downstairs. We are planning to keep a small TV upstairs, so we'll have more options