The Basement Project: Floor Plans
The most difficult part of coming up with a workable floor plan in any renovation is visualizing the final product. In a large open unfinished space such as a basement, the easiest thing to do is to follow the lead of Les Nessman (WKRP in Cincinnati) and put tape where walls will go. That way you can see how your proposed layout will affect traffic patterns.
While I tweaked small details over the five years of working on the basement renovation, the basic layout that I originally developed remained the same. The original floor plan is to the left, the new and improved floorplan is to the right.
Moving the furnace and / or the laundry fixtures would have been cost-prohibitive.
The hot water tank was a twelve year old rental unit and was due to be replaced so I took the opportunity to have the location changed when the new unit was installed. Even gaining a couple of inches was a huge accomplishment, and it allowed me to have a straight wall in the new computer room
Despite the fact that I was actually adding more walls and closing part of the basement off, the new floor plan emphasizes the open space, making the new family room appear much larger than it was originally.
The angled wall to the mechanical room looks good on paper. It also looks really good in its finished state and adds to the openness and airiness of the basement. However, it was a royal pain to frame out in the construction phase, especially given the slope of the floor. A general rule of thumb: anything that adds any character exponentially increases the level of difficulty in construction.
A late change to the plan involved changing the laundry tub from a double to a single, thereby gaining more space in the laundry room.