Our house has an in-law apartment in the basement. When we moved in I freshened it up with a new kitchen and a few other upgrades. I replaced the wood fireplace with a gas insert. There’s a wet bar in the living area and I did a new Oak bar top (got rid of the mid-century formica top), etc. I’ve had a family member down there for 6 years, but he and his girlfriend have bought a house and are moving out. Good for them. But now I have all this space I really don’t need, but at the same time I don’t want to let it go to shit either.
So… Any ideas? Thoughts I’ve had:
I could set up the bar like a real bar. Get a few high-top tables, put a glass door refrigerator under the counter behind the bar (so you’d see what was in there while you sat at the bar), get another pinball machine and a MAME cabinet, and so on. Make it awesome. BUT- I’m in my 50s. We have friends and family. But I’d be surprised if I could get more than 5 friends over to enjoy the bar at any one time. You know how it is, kids, jobs, non-drinkers, etc.
I want a workshop. I built a 120 square foot shed in the back yard and that’s my workshop. There’s only one 15A circuit, I have to heat it with a diesel heater, which means that when it’s 22F like it is now I have to start the heater an hour before I want to do something, whine, whine, whine. I could turn the kitchen (about 20x15) into the bestest workshop ever. All those cabinets and countertops, and a sink. It would be pretty epic. But I know me. I’ll destroy it. Paint, stain, urethane everywhere. I’ll drop hammers and break ceramic tiles. I’ll ruin it. And that seems wrong.
Less wrong would be to turn the bedroom into a much less epic workshop. BUT if I do that, I’ll end up building in lots of cabinets, shelves, etc. which will take a bunch of time. Also, my wife would like an exercise room (we have a couple of large items like a Peleton knock-off). Of course, she ALSO wants to keep the kitchen.
Anyway- what would you do if you suddenly have a 1600 square foot apartment to do with as you wish? I’m looking for ideas. And I should mention that while it does have a door directly to the back yard, it ALSO has a stairway directly to my kitchen, so there’s no way I’m renting it out. ALSO, I’m fairly certain- no, certain- that it isn’t exactly legal.
My woodshop was in my basement – 2,000sf w/9’ ceilings and a separate HVAC zone. Heavenly. You know all the upsides. For me? Really, no downsides whatsoever.
If you can split the space and create a win-win, all the better. You can throw Harbor Freight ‘anti-fatigue’ mats over the entirety of the tile, and – given enough time and motivation – can probably learn not to mess things up unreasonably (I managed).
The likelihood that the two of you can be ‘neighbors’ down there with disparate uses diminishes based on the number of power tools you use and the frequency with which you use them. Could you be(come) a hand-tool only guy?
I also built a rolling filtration cabinet centered around an explosion-proof motor w/furnace filters rated at HEPA levels. Keeping a clean shop ensured a clean upstairs. I installed a timer in it and would let it run for a few hours after I left the shop.
Oh, and one cabinet can always be the de facto bar. Fancy liquor beats fancy ambience for me … every time
If it were me, I would go slowly, and do your wife’s exercise room first, plus whatever else she wants, to get her to agree to the following.
The kitchen might well make a great shop, but I would look at these things: How much actual open floor space is there in the kitchen? Do you use a table saw or any other space-eating tools? If you take out the appliances and everything that isn’t nailed down, do you really have enough space for the tools you want/need? Can you separate the kitchen from the rest of the space well enough to prevent sawdust getting everywhere? I would want to install a top-quality air system to keep the sawdust at bay, and replace the sink with a utility sink (sans disposer) that you won’t mind pouring dirty gunk into. And if the cabinets are really nice, I would want to take them out and replace them with builder-grade, and cover or remove and replace the countertops with workbench-type surfaces. In other words, put the work in to save what you have so it can be put back in there when you’re finished having a shop. You could store all that stuff in your current workshop/shed too. That way you’re not destroying anything, and you don’t have to tiptoe around your new shop while you’re working in it.
Anyway, it sounds like a fun problem to have, if you like working with your hands.
If you don’t know what to do w the space (and I sure wouldn’t) that suggests to me that you really don’t want what that house has to offer.
So sell it and move to someplace else with the right amount of space configured as you want it.
I’ve lived in 4000SF. I now live in just under 1000SF. The latter fits my current situation far better than remaining in the former would have.
Your details are of course different from mine. But I suggest the out-of-the-box thinking you need is not how to repurpose unneeded space into different mostly unneeded space. But rather to re-envision how you both want to live starting with this new phase in your life.
IOW, optimize for where you’re going, not try to reuse where you’ve been.
If you can get a bowling alley (2 lanes?) into a 40x50 footprint, you’re hired.
We can compromise, and we can be neighbors. I could make the kitchen the exercise room, and the bedroom the workshop. That would preserve the investment I’ve made in the kitchen.
In case I wasn’t clear, there are 4 main and separate places down there:
Kitchen, Bedroom, Bar (which is 15x25 and serves as the living room for the apt), and bathroom. The rest of the space is taken up by things like the boiler room, landing at the bottom of the stairs, back hall to the exterior door, etc
It is. And the open floor space in the kitchen is about 15x20; the bedroom is a bit of an odd shape, but probably “averages” 15x15
It’s not legal, and as it is there’s no safe way to separate this space from my space. So it’s family only.
You are correct. There is a long story behind us buying this house. It’s massive, and it’s in a very working-class area. We bought it for a variety of reasons including location and its ability to accommodate the entertaining we do. We had to buy what was available, and will downsize for retirement. But I’m not dealing with moving more than one more time. Next one is last one. It’s 5000 sq ft (incl the illegal apt) and when the time comes we’ll go back to about 1500.
I’ve moved 3x since I bought what I thought was my [retire here and coast out until it’s time for the Oldde Fartes’ Home or the pine box.]
I’m 66 & about to move again. And it probably won’t be the last.
You do you, but expecting your future moves are one and done is IMO/IME unrealistic bordering on silly. The real bottom line being that treating the number of lifetime moves as a vital variable to manage is (IMO) silly. Living in the wrong place e.g. a year is far worse than moving out of it to a right(er) place.
Again best wishes for a wise and happy joint decision whatever it turns out to be.
Probably 95% of my library is paperback. No shame.
If I suddenly found 1600 sq ft of floor space, it would become the new craft space. My 3D printers and paint station would have a new home and my wife would have a new place for her yarn bins and new comfy crochet chair.
Forget Beck’s offer. You can have my pool table, and as a bonus I will let you haul off have a grandfather clock and a piano.
The thread title threw me off. I expected something like the time some shady house seller tried to quitclaim 50% ownership of a 4’ by 640’ strip of land to me (that wasn’t disclosed as part of the deal). Now I am starting to regret killing that deal. A 640 foot long bowling alley? Hmm.
We had a sorta similar situation - we’d built an apartment for our daughter and her now-ex in about 1000 sq ft of our 1600 sq ft basement. When they broke up and she moved out of state, my husband converted it back to his workshop until he built a 1300 sq ft building just for his shop.
We decided to reclaim the basement as living space, since in the interim, Daughter remarried and had a kid. So, some paint, some adhesive carpet tiles, and assorted furniture, and we’ve got a nice area for the grandkids (2 of them now) to run amok when they visit. Spousal unit has claimed the area where he wants a pool table some day (we shall see if that happens) plus we have a futon where guests can stay, and we left the bathroom intact. We have a treadmill and a stationary bike and a big screen TV and I actually use the exercise equipment for more than a clothes rack!
It worked out well for us, even tho we didn’t need more living space. Like I said, it’s perfect for the grands to go wild without destroying the rest of the house.
A regulation lane is 60 feet from foul line to head pin. So in a 640 foot space there’s not quite room to make a 10-frame bowling alley that’s set up end to end so you could play it like a golf course, walking from one “tee box” to the next in pursuit of your ball. But it’s close.
I figure you need to get an easement for about 20 more feet per lane for the approach, the lane area behind the headpin, and the gutter & machinery off the back end. So another 200 feet, 840 in total. Time to approach whoever owns that land near yours and ask nicely!
I have established a law that we shall never have any of those things. I do have a pinball machine, which I love, but even that is no fun to move. And most of the people who will work on it want you to bring it to them.
If it was me, I would divy it up into two small apartments, maybe share a kitchen. Then I’d rent to student studying social work and caregiving. Get them in, size them up, then discount their rent. Because what they do helps others and is important! Now they love you, intend only to please you, and will stay on a couple of years. Their boyfriends will be helping with your yard work. When they graduate, get more students.
When the day arrives that you need assistance, if it’s immediate, they’re right there! If it’s otherwise, I feel like they’d gladly reach back and see you get great care, whatever your needs become.
You’d definitely be able to age in place. And sleep well at night too!
