Buying A Home
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Who has lived in a home with a walk-out basement?
We're looking at a lot with full rear exposure that would require the home to have a walk-out basement. Pros? Cons?
I'm just worried because we would use our yard a lot and I don't like the idea of walking up & down a full flight of stairs just to get to my back yard. What other benefits/negatives are there?
Re: Who has lived in a home with a walk-out basement?
I would make the walkout basement the main living and entertaining area... You could have sliding glass doors - NanaWalls or similar - that open to a patio with barbecue area/outdoor kitchen. Make sure there's a full bathroom and extra bedroom down there for guests as well. Maybe even your home office/gym/kid's play room, etc.
Don't think of the basement as the basement, but rather the "entertainment level" of your home.
http://www.nanawall.com/
I had a similiar concern since at our last house we could just let the dog right out from the kitchen (vs. now having to go onto the deck and down.)
Now that we are in the house I LOVE our walk out basement. It's only partially finished, and we use it mostly for storage, but there is a full bath down there and we have plans to do a workout room and either an extra guest room since there are full size windows down there (we have a lot of out of town family) or a media room.
We've been able to use a room under the deck as our "shed" vs. having to put lawn stuff in the garage or buy a shed for the yard.
One thing we did do was add window sensors down there along with our alarm system, since the full windows are another access point to the house.
We're building a house with a walkout and can't wait! We already plans on how we going to finish it in the future.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
walk out basements add HUGE value to homes, not only as single family homes, but the potential to put a suite in is a highly attractive morgage help for people looking to get into the market when you go to sell (ever). That was the number one thing on our list when we went house hunting, we need a walk out basement and suite potential...wether or not we need it right now, I would way rather have to lose my basement to a suite and a tenent then to the bank if we ever hit hard times and have trouble paying the morgage.
My Blog:Through My Eyes
I have kids and it affects my answer... My last house, we had a walk out basement with a deck above, off of the kitchen. Before I had kids, I loved the deck. After, I hated it because the steps were dangerous, my kids wanted to run around down on the grass while we were up on the deck eating, etc. My new house has a below-ground basement and a patio off of the kitchen with an outdoor kitchen and plenty of play area for the kids - it's bliss :-)
I should add that my below ground basement is unfinished, and we don't need the space as our house is 4500 sq ft without the basement counted. I might have a different opinion if I needed the living space down there and didn't want it to be dark and gloomy. Walkouts are great for light if you want to use your basement space.
I live in an area without basements, but grew up in an area with full walk out basements - lots of windows and natural light and loved it! I'd love to have one.
My suggestion is to pay extra to make the ceilings in the basement extra tall - it will feel even more light the upstairs level of the house when you finish it (eventually or right away). Also, make sure to have double doors that can both open at the back so you can drive in a riding mower or move in big pieces of furniture (pool table, etc.). Sliding doors will hinder you. Also, some people like to have access on both sides of the basement - esp. if you leave part unfinished storage and part finished you may want access outside in both areas.
GL and have fun with it!