Basement Finishing Update

[Deleted]

Spent the weekend doing plumbing & painting in the basement - this DIY project is going to be lifechanging when it is done....if only because I will not be Ms. Bob the Builder every weekend!

I have attached 3 photos to give a little sneak preview as to where we are at.  No fun stuff (cabinets, flooring, etc all coming soon).

Photo 1 shows a view from our bar area into our Theater Room.  It's all primed, and next weekend we are planning on doing the actual COLOR on the walls, eek!  It will be a very dark navy that we have in our library.

Photo 2 is our wood burning stove area, where we have Hardiebacker Board on the floor, since we'll be installing slate tile there (which reminds me, I need to order that ASAP!)

Photo 3 is in the home gym, looking out into the bar area where H is standing in approval.  Thing on the wall covered in plastic is a rotating fan.

Our cabinets ship on Monday (!), and I have samples that I need to pore over to decide final flooring selections, etc.  We are getting SO close to the fun part.

I've been keeping a detailed budget, and we still have over $30k left to spend -- and we have spent a total of 475 hours on the job site (usually it's 2 of us, so x2 for man hours).

OK, I'm exhausted just typing this!  Happy Sunday, everyone!!!
kathybela

[krystee]

I'm nearly positive H and I would be divorced after 475 hours of DIY, so take pride in your strong marriage. It is looking good! Can't wait to see it when you start adding al the fun stuff!

[kathybela]

Fabulous job so far - can't wait to see it finished. I love that it's a walk out - so much light!

[gogreengowhite]

I am so impressed with the time and energy you have put into this project so far.

It looks great so far. I'm excited to see the finishings.

[aurora]

You are going to have the best basement ever when you're done. What's your estimated time frame?

[compassrose]

I'm so impressed. Thank you for sharing pics! Yay for almost being at the fun part. I love design choices.

[MrsE]

It's coming along and looks great! I love reading the progress posts with updates. Look forward to seeing it painted next weekend.

[whitemerlot]

It looks like it's coming along nicely! I'm very excited to see the finishes.

Thanks for sharing the updates. It's very nice to see the hours logged and the cost.

[WinterWine]

It looks so awesome!!! I love the wood stove- is that going to be a living room area? I'm super impressed you did that all yourself!!! Love hearing the updates and seeing pics :-)

[WinterWine]

Ooh, I just hit 1,000 posts and am now officially a full member!! Nerdish excited about that :-)

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2015 21:16:42 GMT -5 kathybela said:

Fabulous job so far - can't wait to see it finished. I love that it's a walk out - so much light!

Thank you! The walk out gives us a great chance to see the nature in our backyard...yesterday there was a little squirrel that was frantically burying nuts in our mulch (I think he knew big snow & cold was coming and felt he needed to prepare.) He was so cute and didn't notice us watching him from inside.

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2015 21:45:32 GMT -5 aurora said:

You are going to have the best basement ever when you're done. What's your estimated time frame?

We started in June of last year, and our neighbors who also DIY'ed their basement told us to estimate about one year of weekends.  So, our great hope is to have it complete by the fourth of July this year, which gives a new meaning to independence day!

Our project is a bit more detailed than theirs... but they have given us a ton of coaching on tips and tricks, which has absolutely saved us time.  So hoping we can meet our deadline...

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2015 1:27:16 GMT -5 WinterWine said:

It looks so awesome!!! I love the wood stove- is that going to be a living room area? I'm super impressed you did that all yourself!!! Love hearing the updates and seeing pics :-)

Congrats on your 1k posts!!! 

The wood stove area is going to be both a living room type area, and will also function in the summer as a sort of garden / prep area.  There is a big closet to store our seeds, hand tools, etc.

The wood stove has made a dent in our energy bills already - it is great!!!

[raangoli]

It looks fantastic! Strong work!

[IrishBelle]

It looks great. Can't wait to see it finished!

What was the space like before?

[Deleted]

IrishBelle - oh, man, the space was COMPLETELY unfinished.  We didn't take a ton of before photos, but here's one in our (future) Theater Room when we received our first shipment of supplies.  It was so "basementy"!  This was June 2014.

[M]

WOW!! That looks great!

Take LOTS of pics. I have pics of when H and I built our house and it's fun looking back at all the work we did...well it's nothing compared to what you're doing...just tiling and laying hardwood floors but still lol. We don't have the house anymore but I like the memories.

[mcfelix]

I'm so impressed! No way DH and I could do that on our own.

[IrishBelle]

Wow! That's awesome that you guys were able to do all that work yourselves!