Design Ideas for Basements

My wife bought this book for me. We are currently (slowly) in the process of finishing our basement. I think this book was meant as a motivational tool. It is great for that reason and there are hundreds of great pictures and ideas in this book. If you are looking for the details on construction, look elsewhere. This book is all about pictures of finished basements and inspiring you to get moving on your basement project. If you do not have construction experience and need it, you won't find it here. If all you are looking for is design ideas, this a very good place to look.

As a carpenter / remodelor, I purchased this book for design ideas for basement finishing. The book has some great ideas, but many do not seem like they are for basements, and so I often find myself using them for other remodeling projects as well. I as wrote, there are some great ideas in this book, but they all are geared toward finishing off basements under ideal conditions. Every room seems to have high ceilings with pipes and ductwork that is already inside the floor joists, a situation in which I rarely find myself. Many of my clients live in older homes around the metro Detroit area that have lower ceilings with even lower pipes and ductwork. I was hoping to find some great ideas for those spaces in this book. Can pipes and ductwork be moved as part of the project? Yes they can, but that either inflates the budget or steals money from other areas of the budget, neither of which is most profitable for me since it requires additional subcontractors (the expensive kind), so I was hoping to see some designs that worked around such issues. Again... I love the book. it has great photos or great design ideas, but these ideas just require ideal working conditions, which most of us do not have.