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Having a space in your home you can totally dedicate to your indulgences, be that your hobbies, practices or crafts can be a lovely idea. However, it’s not as if many people have a huge amount of spare rooms to use for various purposes, or the cash to throw away on extending their property. You might turn to basement remodeling as we’ve done with our home.
We have a full home gym, an office, a bathroom, a large laundry room, and a spare bedroom. All of my guilty pleasures take place in the office, whether it be writing my novel or making candles.
However, renovations that make sense to our budget and can make the best of what we already have are a great idea. For instance, maybe you have access to an attic or basement space you can renovate and turn into a functional room.
In this post, we’ll focus on the basement, because it’s more likely to have the space for purposeful conversion, and can abet a wider array of hobbies and indulgences there. For instance, a speaker system or instruments are much easier to soundproof in a basement than they are in an attic.
Basement Remodeling
Waterproof Your Basement
It’s important to make sure that the basement is livable, and of course, viable, and in line with the building code. Using waterproofing contractors to make sure that the basement space is not at risk of encountering leaks is essential for obvious reasons. One summer, our basement flooded four times in a single month — while I was out of the country. It was pretty devastating to come home to that; tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage not just to the property, but to everything in the basement. Waterproof before you need to — not after.
Have Adequate Ventilation
Basements lack natural light, which is why essential ventilation is key to creating a bright space. This includes restoring certain top-level windows that may or may not be there, integrating ventilation tunnels as part of the crawlspace, and using extractor fans to bring smoke or other odors out of the room as necessary. With proper building code solutions, you can ensure that no matter what, your space is breathable and safe. It can also be a good idea to make sure a fire alarm and carbon monoxide alarm are present in this space, too. {This exact carbon monoxide alarm saved my family’s life twice one winter—we almost went to bed with a terrible gas leak each time.}
Situate Furniture Safely
The most important thing about arranging furniture isn’t to make it aesthetically pleasing. Instead, it’s essential to keep furniture in a way that doesn’t overcrowd (that’s a fire hazard), block outlets, or impede exits (another fire hazard). Safety should be your priority; you need it in the event of a home evacuation.
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