50s House Basement Suite
How many of you, when thinking about a basement suite, think of something a bit dark and a little dingy?
When I set out to create this 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom basement suite in our own home, I wanted to ensure that it was not dark and definitely not dingy. One reason we bought the overall home was because it technically had a suite in the basement (although not a legal one), however, it was everything I didn’t want our basement suite to be.
Listing Photos
Every chef’s dream kitchen…
For those relaxing spa-like baths
Comforting bedroom
Glamorous laundry room
Let the Demolition Begin
So obviously we were gutting the basement. But there were a few additional headaches included in that process. First, notice those white tiles by the laundry area - asbestos. Oh and the walls that are not panelled, but drywalled - asbestos. And that sump pump sitting under the dryer, well its water collection area was a wooden box and it drained into the home’s sewer line. And the raised tub - plumbing above the floor. Fun, right?
Now we knew a bit of that in advance. We knew we had some asbestos remediation to do, we knew we would be digging the cement floor out for running new plumbing and putting in a new sump, etc. However, we didn’t realize the drywall would have asbestos in, so the contingency budget was gone once we found out just how much and how involved the remediation was going to be.
So, asbestos remediation and then a full gut (except for the structural wall and chimney) and then jackhammering to run new plumbing. As it turned out, the original sewer line was also compromised so we replaced the portion of it that runs under the house (the portion from the house to the street will be a future project - because it’s a lovely tar-paper sewer line). We also closed up the chimney (the old furnace / hot water tank vented through it) as we decided to move the mechanical room so it wasn’t in the middle of the space.
For a while - this was the only functioning toilet in the whole house…
New trench for the water meter so it could be located in the new mech room and for drainage from the mech room as well.
And then there was no functioning toilet in the house… (shout out to the nearby Home Depot and McDonald’s!)
Added a backwater valve here and you can see the spray paint indicating where we were to dig out another trench for the new sewer line.
Since everything was open, we also had the more major cracks in the foundation walls repaired before we started putting it back together.
The Design & the Details
There were a few changes I wanted for the space that I just couldn’t have. One of them, was a bathtub in the bathroom. I just couldn’t make it work, no matter how much I moved things around, without giving up something that was more important - or having to modify the structural wall (no thanks). So in the end, we went with 2 bedrooms - both able to accommodate queen sized beds if needed - a better located and minimal mechanical room (which caused issues… keep reading), a good sized bathroom with a tiled shower and a more functional kitchen space. Since we live close to the University, it was likely our future tenants would be students, so we designed for that while also having a layout that would work if the tenants were a couple as well.
Unfortunately, permits also delayed our project because we didn’t get approval for about 2 months as our application ended up in some sort of void, apparently. So instead of focusing on completing the suite first, we moved our attentions upstairs to the renovations required there (more on that in future posts!).
The initial floor plan. The black walls are what we preserved from the original basement… the plan did change a bit once we started framing.
I should also mention that the basement had essentially no insulation originally. I think we found the equivalent of about 4 batts when we took it apart. So we made sure that it was much more energy efficient going forward. We utilized the DRICORE Subfloor R+ throughout the space to help keep the floor warm (and dry). The exterior walls got R14 insulation and between the suite and the mechanical room, and in the ceiling between the basement and main floor, we added Roxul Safe & Sound to protect in case of fire and to dampen noise transfer between the spaces (along with using resilient channel for the ceiling drywall). We also put in new windows throughout.
For legal suites in Edmonton that are new, separate heating / ventilation systems are required. As a result, we were planning to have two high efficiency furnaces, standard return air / bathroom fans, and a shared hot water tank. Our initial mechanical contractor had given the thumbs up to the design, we framed it all out, ran the gas lines, they started on the upstairs work, delivered furnaces and then one of the employees doing the work said, there is no way it will work the way you want it to. I was obviously not happy about this since I’d reviewed everything with the owner before submitting my permit applications. And then the owner just “disappeared” multiple texts, emails, nothing. And by this point, it was late September and the house had no heat.
Luckily, the contractor hadn’t invoiced us yet, so from that aspect it could have been much worse, but once we found a new contractor we had to completely redo the plan for the HVAC and also redo some of the work done by the previous one. As a result, we ended up with a high velocity system heating our portion of the house via a shared tankless hot water heater and in the basement we put in an HRV system for their ventilation and ended up doing the most efficient (and minimal) electric baseboard heating that would work for the basement.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking - Kierstin we don’t care about insulation and HRV systems- get to the pretty!
Fine.
The Results
Welcome!
The space is set up with basic furnishings as we did manage to find two lovely students to make the space their home. To keep everything bright and modern, we installed a light-toned luxury vinyl plank flooring (Twelve Oaks Endure in Light Drizzle) throughout the space (with the exception of the bathroom) and we chose to utilize varying shades of white throughout, including the walls (Sherwin Williams Pearly White) and trim (Sherwin Williams High Reflective White) with brushed nickel hardware. Recessed lighting is used throughout the common areas of the space to ensure that even in the evenings the basement feels welcoming.
Right off the entry is a small cubby for storage with two hooks for hanging items.
The entry space is to the right when you get down the stairs with access to the in-suite laundry and bathroom, as well as the main closet built into the space under the stairs. I struggled with how to finish the closet but luckily two of my Instagram followers convinced me that a barn door was the best idea.
Entry space with the laundry space on the left and bathroom entry on the right. Also added a “landing area” shelf near the window.
Closet created under the stairs with a space saving barn door.
The bathroom has white 12 x 24 tiles (Prima True White) on the floor and shower walls, with a 2” hex (Soho) on the shower floor. The vanity has two drawers with lots of storage. Since the outside wall has the baseboard heater on, we decided to do towel hooks behind the door to minimize any chance of mishap.
A slight improvement over the original laundry.
To the left of the stairs is the Mechanical room, Bedroom 1 and then we added a linen closet between the Bedroom and the original chimney which was enclosed.
Linen Closet
We fitted each bedroom with IKEA Pax wardrobes and a built in desk with drawer cabinet. The wardrobes were designed to optimize storage with a full section of double rod space, several drawers and full height rod space for longer items. Both wardrobes have the middle two doors in a mirrored finish to reflect light and also just for getting ready.
The first bedroom is slightly larger than the second but with a smaller closet.
The second bedroom has a larger closet but is slightly smaller in overall size.
An IKEA kitchen with Bodbyn off-white doors was paired with quartz countertops (Caesarstone Organic White). A shelf ties together the fridge section and the shorter upper cabinets under the bulkhead and matches the desks and entry landing shelf. The peninsula has bar seating and lots of storage. The backsplash is a warm grey subway tile (Soho 3x6) to offset all the white and a darker grey grout for added contrast. We set up the living room area with a sofa, shelving and tv. Depending on how it is laid out, the space could also accommodate a small table and chairs as well. Continuing with the recessed lighting throughout the peninsula has two cement pendants (Kendal) for feature lighting.
We are incredibly happy with how the space turned out and the overwhelming response we received to our initial For Rent posting validated the work that we had done. It wasn’t an easy undertaking but completely worth it!
So what do you think - does this space feel like a typical basement suite?
Kierstin Smyth Design
Edmonton Interior Design Consultant