fidgiegirl
11-29-12, 7:24pm
We are looking to remodel our basement. I took a stab at posting the following on the MMM forums a few days ago, but almost all the responses have been to criticize the business idea or other posters, so going to try it here with my trusty friends. :)
I would like to remodel our basement and have a vision for how we can do it so that we can make some extra $$ renting it out on AirBNB (https://www.airbnb.com/), and when not doing that, it would make a nice guest suite. It would be almost a studio apartment, but without a full kitchen. In a future with children (uncertain, but a possibility) it would be a very complete family room.
I have combed AirBNB pretty thoroughly, and in the area on this side of the river and immediately on the other side, there are very few offerings of what we would have - they are either entire homes or host's guest room & sharing the host's bathroom - not much in between. We have a separate entrance available for total privacy and are just 4 blocks from a sizable University and two other smaller ones. We're have 3 bus lines within 4 blocks, and a freeway 5 min. away. In the summer, there are rental bikes available. We have a pretty attractive neighborhood!
We don't want a full-fledged tenant, because we'd want to use the downstairs for our own purposes sometimes, and if we did well on AirBNB (consistently renting out), we'd actually make more money.
In the dream plan, we'd:
- Reroute plumbing to swap location of bathroom and laundry. This would add a shower, making a 3/4 bath in the basement (currently we have a toilet/sink down there, and not in a "guest acceptable" configuration), adding overall value to our home. It would also keep our laundry in the same room as our laundry chute AND keep it accessible for us if we had a guest without having to go through their space. We could also then lock it off to a guest, or make it available. If we left it in its current location that would not be a possibility. There are two bathroom ideas right now. The preferable one would be more rerouting, and the less preferable-but-still-acceptable one would be less.
- Rewire (dad can help with this)
- Replace studs as needed.
- Add an egress window, making a legal bedroom in the basement, also adding value to the home. I don't know if we could do AirBNB without this, either. Actually that reminds me that legal bedrooms have closets. Not sure we'd add that at this time, but it's a big room . . . it could be added later if we sold.
- Add a kitchenette - sink, micro, mini fridge (biiiiig dream there - wouldn't be a must, but would make it nice for someone staying a few days. Sharing our kitchen/living area is not going to be part of our AirBNB offering.) We could still set up fridge/micro with no sink and that would be better than restauranting for every single meal.
- Wall off utility room.
- Sheetrock or another alternative.
- Drop ceiling to cover pipes/wires.
- Install new flooring, something non-carpet
- Add radiators or another source of heat. We already have a boiler and good HVAC guy. But not sure if this can even be done. Radiators are the dream :) Would like to avoid electric heat.
I think that's all. We did a lot of the remodeling on our house and we'd be prepared to do much of this ourselves. Not sure how confident we'd be with the rerouting of the plumbing (under the floor), but we have a pretty good guy we could call on for that. The rest of it - almost all of it, maybe except installing an egress window - we could do.
So my question is, how do I go about calculating the full cost of the remodel?
And something that bothered me with our house, we did it ourselves to save money, but then that took longer, costing us lost opportunity with rent. It's kind of the same thing here. And if we stretch it out over maaaaaany months, well . . . all the more opportunity lost. What are your thoughts on that?
Also, do basements need to be insulated?
Oh my, that is a long post! Thank you my friends.
I would like to remodel our basement and have a vision for how we can do it so that we can make some extra $$ renting it out on AirBNB (https://www.airbnb.com/), and when not doing that, it would make a nice guest suite. It would be almost a studio apartment, but without a full kitchen. In a future with children (uncertain, but a possibility) it would be a very complete family room.
I have combed AirBNB pretty thoroughly, and in the area on this side of the river and immediately on the other side, there are very few offerings of what we would have - they are either entire homes or host's guest room & sharing the host's bathroom - not much in between. We have a separate entrance available for total privacy and are just 4 blocks from a sizable University and two other smaller ones. We're have 3 bus lines within 4 blocks, and a freeway 5 min. away. In the summer, there are rental bikes available. We have a pretty attractive neighborhood!
We don't want a full-fledged tenant, because we'd want to use the downstairs for our own purposes sometimes, and if we did well on AirBNB (consistently renting out), we'd actually make more money.
In the dream plan, we'd:
- Reroute plumbing to swap location of bathroom and laundry. This would add a shower, making a 3/4 bath in the basement (currently we have a toilet/sink down there, and not in a "guest acceptable" configuration), adding overall value to our home. It would also keep our laundry in the same room as our laundry chute AND keep it accessible for us if we had a guest without having to go through their space. We could also then lock it off to a guest, or make it available. If we left it in its current location that would not be a possibility. There are two bathroom ideas right now. The preferable one would be more rerouting, and the less preferable-but-still-acceptable one would be less.
- Rewire (dad can help with this)
- Replace studs as needed.
- Add an egress window, making a legal bedroom in the basement, also adding value to the home. I don't know if we could do AirBNB without this, either. Actually that reminds me that legal bedrooms have closets. Not sure we'd add that at this time, but it's a big room . . . it could be added later if we sold.
- Add a kitchenette - sink, micro, mini fridge (biiiiig dream there - wouldn't be a must, but would make it nice for someone staying a few days. Sharing our kitchen/living area is not going to be part of our AirBNB offering.) We could still set up fridge/micro with no sink and that would be better than restauranting for every single meal.
- Wall off utility room.
- Sheetrock or another alternative.
- Drop ceiling to cover pipes/wires.
- Install new flooring, something non-carpet
- Add radiators or another source of heat. We already have a boiler and good HVAC guy. But not sure if this can even be done. Radiators are the dream :) Would like to avoid electric heat.
I think that's all. We did a lot of the remodeling on our house and we'd be prepared to do much of this ourselves. Not sure how confident we'd be with the rerouting of the plumbing (under the floor), but we have a pretty good guy we could call on for that. The rest of it - almost all of it, maybe except installing an egress window - we could do.
So my question is, how do I go about calculating the full cost of the remodel?
And something that bothered me with our house, we did it ourselves to save money, but then that took longer, costing us lost opportunity with rent. It's kind of the same thing here. And if we stretch it out over maaaaaany months, well . . . all the more opportunity lost. What are your thoughts on that?
Also, do basements need to be insulated?
Oh my, that is a long post! Thank you my friends.