Quote Originally Posted by New Guy View Post
Drew get it done! It is a great use of extra space and it is by far the cheapest square footage that you will ever add to you house.
Unfortunately, I recently experienced the other end of "cheapest" when in comes to the basement. In our last home, our finished basement was FANTASTIC with a theatre room, full bath, bedroom, office, bar, play area and workshop. Sheetroock ceilings, trey ceilings, crown molding, tile & carpet all on it's own heatpump system. Frankly, it was finished nicer then the first 2 floors and we spent the majority of our time there.

BUT, when we sold the home, we learned (and confirmed with an appraiser we hired ourselves) that below grade square footage is calculated at a severly discounted rate. So, why floors 1 & 2 were calculated at $100/sqft, the basement was calculated at $15/sqft. No positive adjustments for any of the items I mentioned. Just a simple sqft measurement X $15. In the end, while I did a lot of the work in the basement myself, I lost $$ but was OK with it b/c we did enjoy that part of our house tremendously.