Remodeling... Need advice

queen

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 7:07 am

We have four bedrooms upstairs, one of which is my office.
This leaves us with three bedrooms plus office. (too much equipment to have bed in office)

We are thinking to redo basement, and move office down there...
I like having my office so close to kids bedrooms and mine. When kids in bed I can easily slip into office but still feel as if I'm part of the house.

Down side to that is I will only have three bedrooms upstairs... and a growing family. (we have three kids right now bH)

Any thoughts? leave upstairs... or move down to basement?

Rubber Ducky

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 8:23 am

For now the arrangement you have is working for you. For the future...do you only work when the kids are sleeping? How much visual and acoustical privacy do you need? Does all the "equipment" you have for your job need to be in your office space or can you set up in a small space if you have the rest of your stuff somewhere else?

If you work when the kids are up...
Is there a family room or play area where you could set up near the edges? Could you set up a family room or den in the basement adjacent to the work area? Right now I'm typing this from my "home office" in the breakfast area of my home -- easy to keep an eye on kids and cooking. Some of my reference books and such are in the nearby guest room. This arrangement works for me because I like being in the middle of things and am OK with interruptions. But my DH needs a closed space with a door on it.

If you only work when the kids are asleep...
If you move to the basement, well, intercoms were invented for this. But take a good look at the upstairs -- and at the main floor of your home. Sometimes a closet can be "re-purposed" into a home office. Perhaps you can steal a few feet from one of the upstairs rooms and still have 4 bedrooms upstairs.

queen

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 11:02 am

Thanks Rubber Ducky for responding, I appreciate your help.

I work during the day while all the kids are out, and then in evening once kids are sleeping. I can NEVER work while kids are home and needing my supervision, they are too little....

My equipment = computer, printer, xerox, scanner, extensive library of books and supplies.

It's important to me that all supplies/equipment are contained in one room with door. My "privacy" needs extend only as far that I need to be able to lock up office to prevent little hands touching/making mess/messing up my paper work etc.

I guess my last hesitation is: Three bedrooms upstairs.... when one is master, only leaves you two for kids. and forces guest room into basement. Plenty of people manage with this plus less..... it's just that we bought the house liking that it had four bedrooms upstairs. BUT one can't have everything!

Thank you for helping me clarify this!

newToNeighborhood

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 1:16 pm

If I were you, I’d leave the arrangement as is because it’s working for you, but still make an office/guest room in the basement. For now you can use the room downstairs as a guest room (guests might enjoy more privacy down there) and in the future, when you need the bedroom for your growing family, you can move your office downstairs. If possible, you can make the room downstairs so it can function as both your office and guest room. I’m curious to know what you decide to do- good luck!

Tova

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 3:32 pm

I was thinking along the lines of New to the Neighborhood.

Personally, my dining room table becomes my work area. I love still being in the hub of the household while working, and it is big enough for me to spread out, right by the kitchen so I can check up on cooking/baking, and only a flight away from the bedrooms so I can hear the kids if they get up.

The only equipment I have, though, is a laptop and second monitor (so I can see 2 things at once). Now that my office has went paperless, no need to even shlep home files. All my tax research is done online through the servers that my company subscribes to, so no weighty volumes either.

queen

Tue, Nov 10 2009, 10:44 pm

Thank you all for helping me clarify all these things (!) We will definitely be putting a bathroom in the basement.

Tonight my husband and I put down masking tape where all the walls would be.... which is really helping us 'feel' the area.

About keeping office upstairs, that would leave us with 2 kids rooms plus master bedroom. In this scenario, where do people put newborn/young babies? I'd think being in same room with other older kids wouldn't work too well???

and having baby in office wouldn't either work as lights on, and I'm quite often working in there during evening hours.

so what's with young baby/baby room??????????

TwinsMommy

Wed, Nov 11 2009, 12:01 am

If you're a sole proprieter you can't have a bed in your office if you're claiming business use percentage of home. On the other hand, if you spend money to put a bathroom in your basement and your basement is currently used as your office that could be nice tax wise if later on you decided to move your office again and then you'd have a great guest area in the basement with a bedroom and bathroom. but then what about the depreciation you'd already claimed on the remodel--- not sure--- it's been a while since I studied business use of home tax law.

Lots of stuff to consider. I'm going through something similar. I have 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms downstairs. My office is currently both bedrooms upstairs. My 2 year old twins have one bedroom downstairs and we have the other bedroom downstairs. We have no guest room. Fine for now, but in less than a year I'll want the twins to have separate rooms (they're boy/girl) so I'm trying to decide whether to make one of the officey rooms upstairs into a bedroom for one of the twins (could be a guest room- when we have guests, put a twin on the couch or back in with the other twin temporarily). If so, I'd have to babyproof my office because you have to walk through one room to get to the other. The bedrooms are connected that way- weird.