/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Hey /diy/, I want to finish my parents' basement so I can live in it when home from college. Pictured is a rough sketch; I plan to partition half the basement for storage/utilities/work area and keep the livable half very open. Basement dweller jokes aside, I have a few questions:

1. How important is insulation? Right now, the uninsulated basement maintains temperature quite well, staying pleasantly cool even in 90 degree weather. Can I get away with only insulating the exposed wall?
2. What wall covering is best? Most projects I've seen use drywall, but I'm considering birch plywood or simply painting the concrete walls.
3. Should I bother installing a shower at this point? The bathroom has a sink and toilet, but I don't think there's a drain for a shower/bath. I can always shower upstairs.

For completeness, I plan on using laminate flooring with some insulation underneath & leaving the ceiling exposed in its 4x10 (I think) glory.