I am working on a preliminary finished basement floorplan, and I could use some help with the layout. No matter what I do it ends up clunky and with lots of wasted space!

Here is a blank layout of my basement. The utility, laundry and furnace rooms are STAYING. The entire right hand (east) wall is full walk-out, but the other 3 walls are mostly or entirely underground. I am all for moving the door around on that end wall, and windows can go on the end wall too. I greatly prefer the wood stove to stay where it is, since moving the chimney or building a new one is just more than I want to do. You will see I have put the location of the carrying beam and posts on the plan as well. I can reinforce/move posts as neccessary.

My GOAL is to have a bedroom down there, a half bath, A good sized family room, and ideally an additional office/gym/multipurpose room, but I understand its a small footprint so it might not all fit.. (its rough dimentions are 48' x 25')

Here is one layout I've been messing around with, but it results in a lot of wasted space it seems to me...

Any ideas would be appreciated!

I've built/renoed lots of basements. The first thing I do is bury all those support posts --and very likely a dropped beam --in a wall. And put in rooms that look fine with low ceilings under the beam, particularly closets and bathrooms. A bathroom does not have to be on an outside wall.

Without any scale, it's hard to be sure. But the furnace, laundry and bath rooms all look larger than they need to be.

With 1200 sf to work with--bigger than typical three bedroom bungalows--there's no shortage of space.

Unless reading plans and envisioning furniture/features in place is something you're experienced with, imagining a finished space from a print is difficult. Try placing masking tape on the floor to define rooms, that should help you.

Also, looks like you plan to use the space for daily living. Need for a kitchenette? How about planning for alternative uses, for example I allowed space for a pool table but have no personal expectation of installing one. Consider a "feature" or a wall at an angle to add interest.

Here is our basement plan and the link below shows it finished. Good luck.

I plan on doing a very simple "up-flush" bathroom, with like a saniflow or equivalent. I have put the main drain lines in RED, it would be simplest if the bathroom was on one of them, but I can plumb it in pretty much anywhere if the plan is good.

I have marked out the OC distance between the columns (standard lally). the distance between the end columns and the wall is to the UNFINISHED wall - I will lose 4" with my wall system.

I marked out the location of the trunk line for hvac, it is in purple. Where it is marked is the only places it is below the joist line - all the branch ducts are up between the joists.

The oil tanks, water heater, jet pump, w/d and all the hvac systems used to be walled of in a large ~24'x12' room in the back corner - I just redid the area, to close it in tighter and make more room for finishing the rest of it. I agree they are still large areas, but with the oil tanks cemented in place, and all the hvac stuff where it is, that was just the resulting needed allocation of space. On the plus side, I DID want a good size laundry room - it will provide for a nice storage area and maybe I will even put in like a folding table/ironing board type build-in.

the 2 tiny windows that are existing are inconsequential - I plan on moving them and/or making them bigger - their location will depend on the new plan.

I can put in an egress window or two, but only on the south/bottom side of the house. The west side of the house has the well water line coming in and the north side has the sewer line all along it. The limitation on the south side is the deck, which you can see in the plan. any egress window would have to be to the left or right of the deck.

Here is the updated blank floor plan:

Just so you can see the exterior grade, here is a picture of the house from the S/E (PLEASE forgive how crappy it is looking - I am midway through a complete renovation of the upstairs, and you can clearly see where I stopped on the outside when winter set in!). As you can also see, the deck isnt on yet, but I have the ledger board installed where it will go this spring.