Have you ever noticed that along with all the freedoms and space that come with owning a home there are also many chores and responsibilities. It seems like there is always something to do to keep the house in shape or the property looking nice. There are many joys that come with owning a home, but the responsibilities are also there. I think it is the large number of responsibilities that make the option of town homes or condominiums such a popular choice of real estate among the elderly and singles.
 
My husband and I have discussed moving into a town home for our retirement years. We think we would like the freedom of having the care needs taken care of by the association fees. In the mean time we are spending our time and resources maintaining our own home. Now that are children are grown and out of the house we have decided we wanted to look at changing our basement. Each of the children took their turn having the basement room as they aged out to be the oldest child left in the house. They preferred the basement because they had a bedroom, bathroom and recreation area in the space. When the oldest moved out of the space the middle child took over and then the youngest. Now that the youngest is gone we decided that we could create a space where our children can spend time as a family when they come to visit.

 Two of our son’s are now married and we anticipate grandchildren in the near future they live several hundred miles away so when they come to visit it will be for overnights and probably extended time periods. We started looking at different plans for remodeling a basement and found that there were some creative uses of space available. The bedroom we have in our basement is good sized; however it has been decorated for teenage boys. I knew that the cosmetic changes would be easy to fix.

 The bathroom also needed updating. We were looking at plans for remodeling a basement to find a way to put in another bedroom. The recreation space is quite large. We thought we would have enough room to keep a space for the pool table and television and still add another bedroom. One of our neighbors that have a similar style home to ours had a blue print for remodeling a basement. Their area was completely unfinished so they had more options available to them.

 We did get some good ideas off of their blue print and we are in the process of changing things. The added bedroom space will allow a couple with children to stay in the lower level of the home. We thought this would allow everyone more privacy. When they come for a visit they can take all of their things directly to the basement area and have a space of their own during their stay.