Pretty topical subject, and much nicer than some. :-)
I live in California and one of the things builders never seem to do here
is build basements. Sure, there is the occasional one, but they are quite
rare. Given the astronomical price of housing (we have some new houses
being built at the end of our street) they _still_ don't put in a basement
but have "zero lot line" setbacks where the house basically fills the lot.
Weird.
Anyway, my "dream" room starts with me putting in a full basement. One of
the questions I haven't answered yet is if setback rules apply to
underground structures (can I build a basement the size of my lot and then
cover it up and put the house on top of it?) I know I could dig a basement
that had the same outline as the outside of the house. That's probably
close to 1400 sq'.
I would divide this into three rooms (actually four if you count the
replaced garage that would be twice as deep as the current garage making it
a "four car" garage rather than a three car garage.
There would be a library with "folding" stacks (to hold lots of books), an
office to hold workstations and terminals (hopefully a bit more quiet than
having a PDP-8/E howling at you :-) and a Machine room with the new 'semi'
raised floor (4" height)
+------------+-------------------+
| | |
| | |
| | Library |
| M | |
| A | |
| C +------- ---------+
| H | Garage/Shop area
| I
| N
| E |
| +------ ----------+
| R | |
| O | |
| O | Office |
| M | |
| | |
+------------+-------------------+
The driveway would slope down so it would be easy to get big iron "in" to
this arrangement :-) [I'd love to get rid of it dear but I can't see how to
get it out now :-)]
--Chuck