Money Matters
hoffse
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What would MM do? Basement kitchenette
The upstairs of our house is nearly finished, and H and I are starting to talk about the basement.
We have a basement that's designed to be a rental space or MIL suite. It has a separate bedroom (with closet), full bath, living space with fireplace, and a tiny kitchenette. The space overall is not huge, but it would be functional for one person. It even has its own driveway and patio. Right now, it's really shabby and needs some cosmetic sprucing up.
Practically, we will probably never rent it out. We have used the bed/bath down there for overflow when we have multiple guests spending the night, and I don't see us wanting to give up that space to a tenant. I think that if/when we have kids it will be most useful for a playroom because the floors are tile throughout.
One interesting thing is that there really isn't much storage space down there, even though it's a basically built as a small apartment. The closet off the bedroom is very small, and our holiday stuff fills it up. If we end up using it as a playroom, we will need some additional storage, and right now I would like some storage down there for craft supplies, etc. We are thinking of using part of the kitchenette for this purpose.
Right now our kitchenette has an old set of cabinets and sink on one side (sink does not work), and a huge stove on the other. It's a tiny galley. We are thinking of tearing out the cabinets and re-installing lowers only with a sink and built-in beverage fridge. Then do some floating shelves above because the upper cabinets really close in the space visually.
On the opposite wall, remove the enormous stove and install a floor-to-ceiling open shelving unit where we can put in some nice baskets. We could use that to store craft supplies and toys in the future. With the sink on the other side, I sort of envision it being a combo craft storage/clean-up area.
We think if we do it like this, then future owners could easily convert it back to a rentable space by removing the shelving and installing appliances instead. It would give us some added storage in an area that's not part of the main living space. That's important because we actually have almost no wall space in the main living area because of windows, the fireplace, etc.
What does MM think? I really don't want to do anything that would lower the value of our house, but the kitchenette is just wasted/dead space for us right now.
Re: What would MM do? Basement kitchenette
I love your idea. I like that you are planning to keep sink & put a fridge down there and basically make it for lack of better terms "a bar area". With going with your plan, you don't loose your guest space and for now you can leave the other area as a living room area/craft area and when the time comes, adjust for play area for kids.
The bedroom area, just a thought, how many times a year does it get used as a guest room? You said you use it for guest overflow. My first thought is make it the primary guest room since there is a full bathroom down there & it would give your guests basically their own private suite with the living room area down there. Then the room you have upstairs can be utilized for something else. My other thought is if you don't want to that & don't use that room for guests very often, maybe consider installing a murphy bed so that way when you don't have guests you can use the room for something else, like your craft room. Then you just set up your craft room in a way that when you have guests, you maybe move 1 or 2 things around, pull down the bed & you have a guest room again. That would free up more space in the basement living room area for other possible storage options.
Last thing, love the idea of a small fridge, but think, would you be better off with a regular size or apartment size fridge so you would have space needed for when you entertain or to allow you to buy in larger quantities to get better deals?
Agree with pps, it sounds like you'd essentially be creating a 'bar' area, which I think is a good idea. Seems to be pretty popular these days, especially in basements. Plus, by not removing the plumbing, it would be easy to convert in the future.
I agree that I'd consider a bigger fridge. And I also like the idea that @Erikan had to make it the main guest bedroom space, but that would depend on the situation in the rest of the house.
I don't know what the norm is, but speaking for myself, I'd probably never rent a room out, so having a kitchenette in a house I bought would just be something I'd want to get rid of right away. You'd be doing me a favor
I really like your idea to make it functional but also able to be a kitchenette. Depending on how much upgrading you plan to do to the space you could make it resemble a bar. I'm not sure about your area but that is a HOT selling point in ours. H is dying to have a wet bar (or any bar) in our next house.
kmurphy2131 said:
That's not a bad thing. While it won't guarantee a bad result when you move out, it'll greatly reduce the odds. Honestly, myself, I'd even be thinking about it for my forever home. Sure, I'll be dead and won't care, but what about my loved ones who now need to sell my house?Actually, I totally agree with you. For a forever home or a home people plan to stay in for the long haul, make the house what is most advantageous for your lifestyle, even if its not what "the market" would most want.
I like the plans. It sounds like it will be most functional for you, your H, and future kids while you all are living in the house.
For future resale, I'd think people buying the home just for themselves would also appreciate what you all are doing better than what is there now. However, if someone wanted to turn it back into a rental, it sounds like that would be fairly easy also. Especially if you all don't mess with the rough-ins for plumbing or electricity.
I've installed a new kitchen for a rental twice. Both times the rough-ins were already there. In the present market, it costs about $3K (labor and supplies) and takes one week, tops. It shouldn't be a deterant (sp?) for either a real estate investor or someone who just wants to earn side income renting out part of their house. Especially since it sounds like the kitchenette cabinetry would need to be replaced anyway to attract a tenant.