The Basement Project is a GO!

While I was away I was also emailing with our chosen contractor on the last few details of the basement project. We're finishing the unfinished basement!

To catch you up, we weeded out the contractors we didn't like or had a HUGE price tag and decided to go with the guy who built our deck. His proposal was good and he was willing to work with us on price.

I met with him yesterday, approved the proposal and hit the GREEN LIGHT to get this puppy started! He's going to redraw up the plans based on some changes we made and get to the city permits office to get that ball rolling.

So exciting!

Here's the second, but not final, version of the floor plan:

Highlights: 

  • We're adding a bathroom with a shower. This was a deal-breaker for my hubby since we are also adding a bedroom. There was NO rough-in for a bathroom so a large part of the budget is being spent on a plumber to add the necessary utilities. The bathroom is in this location because it's close to the ejector pit and other pipes -- making it as low cost as we could get it. 
  • We are adding a bedroom! There's an egress window in this areas, so it was a easy decision to place the bedroom there. It's going to have a HUGE closet. 
  • There's an unfinished space around the furnace and water heater. We'll use it to store all the holiday decorations, suitcases, etc. 
  • The HEART represents Phase 3 of the project -- which will be to add pretty cabinets to the wall. Maybe next year? In the meantime, the electrician will be placing the outlets at counter height. 
  • The large room will be divided into workout area (near the "!"), ping-pong table and the TV/movie/football area in that back corner (represented by the "X"). 
Now that we've given the green light, there are a LOT of decisions that need to be made quickly -- especially in the bathroom. And I'd like to start deciding on color schemes for the whole space. Mood boards coming soon! 

But first, I need to clean out the space -- donate all that unused junk, trash all that I can and re-box anything we want to keep. This will keep me busy for the weeks we're waiting for the permit. 

Lots and lots more posts coming about this huge project. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The $80 Kitchen Pantry Update

Image
It took two days and about $80 in supplies, and now our kitchen pantry is REBORN! Here's a quick review of the project in pictures, starting with the BEFORE pictures: My main issue with the wire shelves were bottles or anything "thin" would tip over. And with my commitment to bulk, I wanted to store glass containers in here but knew they wouldn't be "safe." I foresaw broken glass at some point. Plus, it's a great space, so I knew I could add more storage space if I was strategic. Last, wire shelves are ugly. So then I demo'd the pantry and painted the walls (which was just primer) with leftover paint from the rest of the house. It's called Polar Bear. I paid an electrician to install an outlet at "counter height" in the pantry, so I could move the dumb microwave off the counter. (The electrician did a slew of other small jobs around the house, not just this outlet, including a motion-activated light in this pantry. Tres Fancy
Keep reading »

Family Calendar Improvement

Image
 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don
Keep reading »

Basement Shiplap Project

Image
The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 
Keep reading »