DIY Basement

A few years ago, we took on the industrious project of finishing our basement. It was framed and there were three completed bedrooms when we moved in, but that was it. (One of the rooms is our acting office/computer room, one is our workout room and one is a guest bedroom) Hubby's friend and others came in and put up the sheet rock for us. Later, a friend of mine at work gave us the name of someone who could mud and tape. It took them an amazingly fast two days. Next, hubby primed the walls and I helped him paint. The color is sort of an off peach (I didn't want our basement to be all dark, doom and gloom. Bright and inviting was our goal). Our neighbor, and electrician, put in our ceiling fans and canister (recessed) lighting. Lastly, hubby's friend (will call him Matt) taught hubby how to tile. Matt and hubby tiled the storage room together and hubby tiled the exit way and entryway himself. It looks terrific!

The tiling took place sometime last year and not much has gotten done since then. We've had a couple of road blocks like hubby leaving the outside faucet on, causing the basement partial flooding and crazy rain storms that did the same thing. The carpet in the computer room has been completely ripped out and replaced by a large area rug. We've also had things like getting pregnant and having babies intrude in our lives, which doesn't make working on the basement easy.

We're now ready to tackle the project again and spent last night cleaning out the storage room (which has somehow become the babe's holding pen for all of her toys and crap). Goodness! I never knew a child could have so much stuff! We separated the things to give to the donation center from the things we wanted to keep and pretty much ended up with a truckload. Hubby and Matt will take these things to the donation center next week. The next bit of the project is in my hands.

Once upon a time, we had a file cabinet for all of our medical records, tax materials, and receipts. That cabinet was damaged in one of our last apartments and was replaced by two new ones. Unfortunately, the two new ones have never been filled and all of the old files are in boxes. I will be going through those, sorting out things that are old and creating file folders to put into the cabinets. It's going to be a huge project, but I hope to get it done by next week's due date.

The goal? To have the basement mostly finished before Christmas. That way, we can move all of our current living room furniture downstairs to the basement where there is more space. The upstairs room will become a sitting room(that will be void of furniture for a bit, I think). It will be so nice to have that area done. The last project will be the third bathroom and we will take our time with that, since it is a costly and involved process.

Having watched enough DIY programs, we know that this will take the value of our home up substantially. We also know that it could hinder sales because new owners will not be able to do what they want to the basement. It's sort of a catch-22, but I'm really not worried. I think our home is lovely and has a lot to offer the large families that exist here in Utah (minivan capitol of the world). The next project? A lovely deck to host outdoor parties and barbecues. Guess I better start looking for that second job, huh?