One of the best decisions we made as a family was giving my teenage daughter her own bedroom and bathroom in the basement.
Our house didn’t have enough bedrooms for all our children to have their own space, but not all of them wanted their own space and they were happy sharing with a sibling. Our oldest daughter however was desperate for privacy and she hated sharing a room. We weren’t planning on moving in the near future, so my husband and I tried to think of ways to give our daughter her own bedroom without adding a new addition. Our basement was partially finished, but there was another half that needed to be finished as well. We decided to finish the rest of the basement and create a new space for our daughter. There was plenty of space to create a modest bedroom and a full bathroom. The space would be perfect, we just needed to add a source of heat. The basement was always cold during the winter months, so it wasn’t a suitable living space without heat. The previously finished space in the basement had a ductless mini split system to keep it warm, so we decided to do the same in the newly finished space. The ductless mini split system would run off of electricity and it would be easy for our daughter to control. The ductless system took up wall space, but we knew our daughter would love controlling the temperature of her own room.