Do you have egress for two legal basement bedrooms?

How often do people visit and how many people come?

Is everyone who visits able to do stairs to the basement?

I prefer having guests stay on a different level. It is nice to get separation and space. Makes for a better visit.

Handicapped accessibility would be first in my list. So I would put one guest room on the first floor. If you have guest(s) requiring only one room, they could make their own choice.

regardless of keeping peeps together, I wouldn't put both in the basement.

A Murphy Bed is a great option for a guest space in an office or craft room.

neat and tidy when not in use, and my guests don't expect a plush guest room when they visit.

even a Murphy Bed in the basement won't disrupt the rec use of the family.

Basement guest rooms make great offices. Making your rec room smaller tells us nothing. How much smaller? What is it's size and use now? One guest room on each level makes sense if you have differeing guest combos.

Do you have a walkout basement ? Do you have windows large enogh in the basement for egress ? We had an awesome guest room in our basement and all of the guests loved the quiet and the seperation. I need a lot more info before saying one better than the other and what guests do you have the most often .

If you have a main floor office you can always add a bed to it at anytime. I would out two bedrooms downstairs if you frequently have family over that would need that. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother with two downstairs. My in laws have two bedrooms and a rec room with a Murphy bed in it in their basement and it is perfect for our family. The five of us sleep down there and have our own space when we visit. Upstairs thet still have an office too. Some people are weird abojt basements but if you are considering this it tells me that in your area they are common, same here :)

We've got two guest bedrooms in our walkout basement seperated by a bathroom. Also, there's an outdoor shower. I thought it would work for my sisters when they visit. Unfortunately one of them snores loudly and the other can't sleep even with both of their doors closed.

We also have two guest rooms (both with separate baths) and a living area in our walkout and it works great for families with children. Because we live in a ski resort area, we frequently have three generations of guests and house the grand generation in an upstairs guest room with its own bath and the younger parents and their children in the walkout. Works great! When we just have single guuests or a couple we give them a choice between upstairs or the walkout and they invariably choose the walkout.

"What should we do?

Also if we go 2 in the basement - what do we do with those rooms when family are not visiting? The main level room would just be used as a designated office in that case "

I don't understand the "what do you do with the spaces when there is no guest "question....."

They're bedrooms! Why must you "DO" anything with them?! You either will have enough "rec room" remaining, or you won't. Or ...and probably better?

You simply make a SINGLE guest room/bath in the basement, retain your office space up stairs as just office ! .I would sleep in neither of them, especially in someone's office but that's me.

Children and teens can sleep on a picket fence. On the floor in a sleeping bag, meaning no worry on them if with parents for an overnight stay in the basement . A pullout sofa in the rec room is a versatile option. An Aero blow up bed or two!

If you need an elderly bedroom? Send YOUR kids to the lower level, and grandma can use one of their bedrooms and you are still short a dedicated bath for a guest, on the main sleeping floor. Better yet? If granny has to stay a night or two? Give her your primary, and YOU go to the lower level. : )

And anther one who never comes back to answer questions and provide more info.

^^^

LOL Went to Florida for the long weekend ? Kids on winter break ? Who knows..

It is not easy evaluating who sleeps in the basement and who sleeps on the first floor with the normal people.

I am in no way "normal" ...

I would take a Red Roof/ We''ll Leave a Light on For Ya. before I stay with anyone.

Give me the anonymity . Preference of course is the Ritz Carlton, or similar. But in a pinch, anywhere, all alone , can be dealt with minus any and all "creatures" and given the all important/ necessary cleanliness.

To our Architect in residence? Please add definition of "Normal"? on any living floor in any home ,,,,,anywhere ?! 😂

In most areas, bedrooms need fire egress, so start there. It's a window that someone can crawl out of. Next, who are your guests and how often do you expect them to come? Children grow up pretty quickly, so a larger basement bedroom that is shared with smaller kids or the kids are on air mattresses in the rec room will work for until the kids grow, which they will do quite quickly.

Defining "Normal" shall be left to those that determine basement or first floor allocations.

If it were left up to me, I would be very lonely on the first floor.

My response to EE on another post:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6556612/white-vinyl-windows-off-white-trim-trim#n=0

No nothing? No "like", no response. I did like mine.

I am getting old and crabby, and I kind of like it.

Hi everyone thanks to those with helpful and kind comments. And for your patience while I was out of town. Sounds like a lot of people think two separate floors is better which has given me alot of food for thought. However we are leaning towards 2 in the basement as it’s working out to be more cost effective. One will be left as a guest room and the other maybe a hobby room for the kids then put a mattress in when guests need it.

There’s a lot of questions, can’t answer all but here’s some answers:

• egresses will be done
• All my family live out of town, visitors include sister and partner, cousins and young kids, aunts and uncles, and my mom who will visit for a month at a time. Would like to be able to accommodate 2 of these groups at a time
• rec room size will be large enough for a couch, TV, some area for toys/playing even with 2nd basement room
• everyone can do stairs, once my mom can’t she probably won’t be flying to us anymore and we will only be flying to her

Thank you again! This house building process sure is daunting.

Honestly we thought my in laws having so much space on the basement for us was overkill but we love it. Twenty years later and we are visiting more often, love having our own space, and feel very welcomed and comfortable. It is exactly what they envisioned. Do what works best for your family and the needs of your guests. And yes building is super daunting for sure! We built eight years ago and had a guest room that we have since converted to a workout room as we rarely have guests stay over. When needed we shove stuff aside and have a mattress for guests but in the last calendar year we had someone stay overnight three nights total. So not worth it to be set up all the time.

I have designed a wide spectrum of guest lodging solutions from each guest bedroom on the main level having its own bathroom, to designing a large expanse of flat grassy area on the site for guests to pitch their tents were there was no need for a bathroom because the grassy area was adjacent a dense forest.