Would you feel comfortable having your guest sleep in your windowless, finished basement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you all aware that Tony Hsieh, the billionaire founder of Zappo's, died in exactly this manner just a couple of months ago? Sleeping in a basement and the house caught on fire.

It wasn't a basement and it was a suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not considered legally finished unless there is a window. It is a safety issue as well.

OP here.
This is interesting. If it is not legally finished, are they allowed to count it as square footage in the sales listing? Because they definitely did, and gave the measurements of the room (they called it a "den.")
I'm thinking that if it wasn't "legal" the realtor would know not to include it.

She’s talking about a legal bedroom. I have other rooms in my basement without windows that are still finished but not legal bedrooms. Like my craft room and workout room.

And there’s no realtor standard for sq footage. It’s like the wild wild west

+1 exactly

OP, it's fine. Plenty of houses have a basement bedroom that can't be called a bedroom (with windows but not large ones). The only downside is that you can't list it as a bedroom when selling your home. But people get that. Let the kid sleep in a room with a door and be done with it. People are being weirdly alarmist with this. It's not like you're asking if he can sleep in the fireplace. Good grief.

[Anonymous]

I would not be comfortable putting anyone in there. Install an egress window. We enlarged two basement window and glad we did.

[Anonymous]

technically, it is not a bedroom if it does not have a window (ditto if it's missing a closet). I would not have anyone sleep in there, as a permanent bedroom or guest bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you all aware that Tony Hsieh, the billionaire founder of Zappo's, died in exactly this manner just a couple of months ago? Sleeping in a basement and the house caught on fire.

It wasn't a basement and it was a suicide.

I don't think it was a suicide. Multiple reports have said he wanted to go into rehab after T-giving. He had a weird fascination with fire. Report said it was not determined if he was locked in the room on accident or intentionally. Regardless, not having a window definitely prevented people from entering the room he was trapped in.

[Anonymous]

I think it is fine. We have a guest room, but if we have more than one visitor they sleep in our finished basement.