In article
>I am having a contractor come in soon to help on building a darkroom in >my basement. I went out to buy a book, but there is not much out >there. Where do I start, what do I need, and any good ideas. I want >it inexpensive and for black and white only.
In addition to all the other comments (unless this was already covered),
paint the darkroom either white or a close approximation of the safelight color - DO NOT paint it black! Also, being in a basement, you may need to run a dehumidifier as a necessary evil to keep mold away from lenses, film and paper (I can understand why mold loves to munch
on gelatin, but glass - why, oh, why?!). If you use a condenser enlarger, you may find that a cheap used (can be under-rated and still
be effective [mine is a 30 watter, works great on the 75 watt lamp])
constant-voltage transformer can save a lot of frustration - otherwise
you will see the enlarger light intensity vary as that dehumidifier
(and other things in the house) go on and off.
Hope this helps.