To want my dds to sleep in the cellar, and is my friend B U to report me to SS

[elfinblast]

OK, I have smallish 3 bedroom house. Me and DH have one bedroom, DD's 10 & 8 share a room and DS has the teeny tiny bedroom.

A few years back, and at not inconsiderable expense we had the cellar done up. It has proper plastered walls, carpets and cute ceiling lights. It is 2 rooms and the same size/shape as the upstairs hall/back/front rooms.

It is dry, has heating, electricity and is full of crap.

My plan is to clear the crap and either let the girls have a room each (but there are no doors and you have to walk through one to get to the other so one would have no privacy) or they share a "bedroom" and have the other room as a lounge/tv/toy room.

Told my friend (well more a foaf) of my plans and she seems to think I am some sort of monster who plans to keep them locked in the cellar, and as there are no windows (well, it is a cellar) it is cruel and she will contact the authorities.

DD's will still be allowed upstairs and to see daylight. I'm not creating a jail. We will NEED another room in erm...9 months or so

My friend(ish) is being totally unreasonable yes?

ffs
in some psrts of the world they live in houses in caves, eg Spain
take no bloody notice of her

Cant you have it as a big playroom with all their toys/books/desks and just keep the bedrooms for sleeping ??

I think there might be some red tape around cellars as sleeping accommodation
Check that, but sounds a promising plan

Wouldn't bother me at all but having read the points here about fire escapes, I might be inclined to ask the local fire brigade for advice (they do free home safety checks). Although presumably a smoke alarm would make it more likely your children would get out before the stairs were impassable.

You could also contact the building regs. people at the local council.

Radon wouldn't bother me at all unless I lived in Cornwall or Aberdeen or somewhere else on granite.

Friend of friend is a nutter, btw, ignore her!

Don't tell this FOAF anymore of your business, and even if she did call SS you aren't doing anything wrong, your girls will love it,
I'd be abit about putting in an exit door (they'd love that when they are teenagers and theyre boyfriends)

Fair point from Plumbum, maybe you could have an office-style fire exit with bar across that sounds an alarm if boyfriends try to sneak in?

Check the regulations, but I'd also think your girls will love having all that space for themselves. Re the "no windows" issue, I suspect that will be more of an issue for you than for them (particularly if they go through a goth phase when teenagers! )

...I feel a teen Goth phase is fairly certain after they have been fried by radon for a few years.

Perhaps you should also consider the potential threat posed by giant, killer moles....

One can never be too careful.

Try using the term "Basement" rather than "cellar". If it meets building regs re; habitable room then it will be fine.

Is it offically a habitable room ie with buildings regs , proper stairs, fire retardancy etc. I suspect not if there is no opening window and the stairs are the only exit in an emergency

elfinblast Congratulations on your news!

Please know that if your friend does report this to SS she'll be given very short shrift. It's a load of cak.

Maybe you & dh should sleep in the cellar? The girls could then have your room.

The natural light thing doesnt worry me. My lot seem to spend their time in the living room or outside and are only in their room for bed when the curtains get shut anyway. And as they get older they'll be moody teens with the curtains shut anyway.
I would be more worried about the fire exit aspect and would be tempted to make the room nearer the stairs their bedroom.

Congratulations btw

We have a cellar (basement conversion in our house which provides a very large room. This is hugely popular with our DSs and their friends who regularly sleep down there. It is certainly VERY dark in there at night but it never seems to bother them as they usually don't wake up till lunchtime anyway. The room is pretty much always used in the evenings and for watching tv/playing computer games etc so lack of natural light certainly not an issue. Tell friend to mhob!!

Bet there aren't many conversations going on like this in Austria atm....

Norty Ronaldinhio (wipes coffee from keyboard)

I think you should get it checked out as others have said before you go ahead with this.

I think plans for it to be a bedroom may be rejected if you live in a flood plain.

LOL Ronaldino
I thought that but couldnt bring my self to type it.
Bad girl!!

Thanks for all the advice.

Radon is not an issue here.

I'd love to sleep down there myself, however as DC4 is on the way and s/he would have the 3rd room upstairs I'd prefer to be up there so I can hear him/her.

There is ventilation down there already, and I think there may be a possibility that we could put some sort of window in place in the back room and maybe the front. It's a bit odd as the ceiling height in the cellar is about 9 inches higher than the pavement at the front, and the same at the back. (You go up 2 steps to get into the house).

It really is a lovely set up. You go down the steps into the back room. In front is a small corridor and off that is the second room. Actually, there is a covered grid above the corridor. It's the old coal chute. Some up the street have see through covers so that could be done, and make an emergency exit.

Foaf (yes, friend of a friend) is pretty much unavoidable unless I dump a couple of my good friends. I do try to keep out of her way but she hears things then phones me or turns up whinging that I am doing something terrible.

I think you should put in a fire exit and you should alarm it

purely in case one of them suddenly starts sleep walking (yeah I know its a minimal risk but it does happen)

There are 2 floor between you ..you would never forgive yourself if they were trapped or if they got out without your knowledge and something happened

I wish ds didnt have natural light in his bedroom... then maybe I could sleep beyond 6.45am

here are some sites that might help or I am sure u looked into it already
basement living and polycrete and room for improvement there are 2 episodes u can watch on 17th march and 27th there are few days left

Have just told dh about this thread & his reaction was unequivocal - "terrible idea, what the bloody h*ll are they thinking, dangerous, radon, fire escape, etc" & final comment before stomping upstairs: "the last thing these people should be doing is having another baby as they clearly can't afford it."

This is the AIBU thread so don't get cross with me!

Get advice from professionals ie fire brigade and architects re building regs, then if it's all ok go ahead. Best thing to do with that silly cow of a 'friend' is to feed her insane bullshit stories until SS note her down as a malicious busybody. (Ie tell her that you are going to feed DC nothing but watermelon for 2 years to detox their colons, or that you have discovered this group on the internet which advocates whipping children on a daily basis to improve family morale, invite her to a Satanic ritual etc etc).

cariboo - it might be AIBU, doesn't mean you have to say anything that's on your (or your DH's mind) without an iota of tact...