Project 4 - Basement Remodel

This is was the big one. It is going to cost a ton. But it's a fantastic blank canvas to work with - our unfinished basement.

My original project plan (not what we wound up going with.)

We'll be installing a second home theater downstairs, along with a couple of TVs, a bar, a pool table, and so on. 

We're currently restoring a 1960-70's era Deutscher Meister coin-op foosball table, which largely means "cleaning 50 years of dust off of the men/surface/foosballs, fixing chipped laminate, and polishing chrome wherever we can."

My father-in-law says he's giving us a 100+ year old Brunswick pool table once the project is finished, which provides some serious motivation. 

We've been taking bids from a handful of companies who can do the "rough-in" - that's plumbing, electrical, framing and drywall.

Everyone agrees that my floorplan, above, isn't ideal.

We're going to be adding a bedroom near the "top" of that floorplan, where the pool table appears.

We're also going to be "turning" the stairs, and creating an unfinished storage ahead near the "bottom" of the floorplan.

That will make our house a 5 BR / 3.5 bath, which will allow us to recoup more equity from this large investment.

It's going to be a 50-day install JUST for the rough-in. That will take a substantial amount of this winter.

UPDATE: December 2015 - We're underway!

Here's the updated plan (rotated 90 degrees to the left, for clarity):

It's 2 major "open spaces", with a bedroom, bathroom, utility room, and a storage room added.

One of the coolest decisions we've made is to tuck the bar under the stairs. It will mostly be wine storage, a beverage cooler, and a countertop - there won't be room for upper cabinets.

This isn't ours. This is from Pinterest or something.

But it will be out of the way, and have more visual interest, being underneath the staircase.

Cleaning out the basement was a MAJOR effort - and the crew took most of December and January to finish. But finally, we're done with the rough-in.

Here's our basement, sitting at the unfinished drink ledge. Bedroom door to the right.

The finish work is up to us - and we'll likely take our time, do a number of projects ourselves, and finish in mid-2016.

In the meantime, the basement will be usable "fun" space for the kids.

UPDATE - JUNE 2016

The finish work is wrapping up. We laid a NuCore floor throughout the entire area, and the only remaining work is paint - and the bathroom.

Flooring install - directly over concrete

Poles are now columns. 

The project was finally completed in early 2017.

Move-in ready... but still missing the countertops and the built-in bar...

Butcher block countertops, sealed with Waterlox. 

And there you have it!

PROJECT - COMPLETE!