Your home is your largest investment – it’s wise to protect or add value to it by renovating your home, like the basement for example. Whether you’re investing in your growing family, an income property or creating an oasis – such as a man cave, or craft area. You can be sure that investing in your basement is an investment in your future. According to some sources, basement renovations are trending for 2016 as Canadians continue to invest in their homes.

"Stay or Go?"

It’s a question that many homeowners ask themselves while their family is growing. With the price of homeownership skyrocketing in Toronto – it’s a wise consideration to stay in that great neighbourhood and expand your living space.

Once you’ve decided to expand your living space the possibilities are seemingly endless. It’s an opportunity to create an oasis, that can be great for guests, entertaining, or your kids. With great design, you may even be able to have the space to house all of your best ideas.

Craft Area

Let your creativity take flight. Picture a space where you could dream up any idea for a craft project. You may perhaps create greeting cards for any occasion, knit, crochet, tatt, sew, quilt or make jewelry. You could even incorporate a gift wrapping station! Imagine a space to encourage the kids to create unique gifts for special occasions or everyday occasions. An area to learn any art form from soldering to stain-glass to wood-burning. The only limits to your craft area would be your imagination.

Get Fit

Do you have an active lifestyle? Gym memberships can be costly and inconvenient to get to. Does your gym offer 24/7 access? How great would it be to get a solid workout done in your own home? You wouldn’t have to worry about the characters at the gym who don’t wipe down the equipment or hog the machines. The commute from your bedroom to your gym would be a whole lot shorter.

Home Theatre

Are you a movie fan or theatre buff? Why not make your own home entertainment paradise? Many of the most amazing basement renovations you will see online involve a giant home theatre projector and comfortable seating. At home you aren’t subject to the high prices at the concession stands nor do you have to wait in long lines for the bathroom.

The Man-Cave

Go a little further in making your basement the ultimate entertainment paradise, by adding a bar. Don’t forget the sink and mini-fridge. Typically, recreational rooms like this contain features like sports jerseys hung from the wall, a ping pong, foosball, billiard, or any type of table. The only potential downfall will be that you will have to host almost every Super Bowl party!

Playroom

Let your kids’ imagination soar. Install a stage or puppet theatre. Your children will absolutely love their own place to play in the basement and you can appreciate the other areas of your home becoming free of toys, such as Lego, Barbie’s and little trucks. For younger children, we’d advise a nice soft carpet to play on. As the children grow, you can make changes that accommodate older children, such as soundproofing, a fridge & popcorn maker.

Income Property

You can off-set your mortgage payments by upgrading your basement to a rental unit. The Toronto rental market is higher on average than other Canadian cities and renters are willing to pay fair-market prices for living in a well-appointed basement unit.

If you’re planning a basement retrofit, you’ll need to ensure that your space follows the City of Toronto regulations. A building permit is mandatory for any basement renovation that creates a separate unit. This ensures compliance with fire and electrical safety. Failure to do so could be costly.

When your renovation begins this is the perfect time to address all of those issues that often plague basements such as, any lingering moisture issues, as well as any ‘cool’ spots. There are several ways that your renovator could deal with these issues – it could include, completely waterproofing your basement. Installing a sump pump, installing a backwater valve to help stop sewer backups or installing new weeping tile. They may also consider better insulation and in-floor heating to give even distributed heat throughout the space.