The day has finally come..and gone actually. On Monday, our basement finishing project officially began. We have been working with a contractor to design the space since last fall, but just recently signed on the dotted line to start the work. The project literally started with a bit of ground-breaking. The first order of business was cutting the cement floor to reroute some plumbing for the bathroom and add a line for a wet bar sink. Here is a sneak peak of what needs to be cut out:
The basement plans include a family/media room, game area, kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom, play room, and exercise room. You’ll notice that some of the framing was already done by the builder, but there is more to be done to get our dream lower level. I am so excited about the potential in this space. The walk-out basement in this house was a huge selling point. There are lots of windows along the walk-out side. The ceiling height is also 9′, so it hardly feels anything like a basement.
I thought it would be fun to share the before pictures today and the new floor plan to let you know what is in store. For each set of before pictures I have highlighted the area you are looking at on the floor plan.
Family Room/Media Room – We are not planning an official media room, but we will be putting a large screen tv in the family room. We prefer to hang out in a larger open space as opposed to a segregated media room.
Game Area – There is a really cool nook in the basement, similar to the one in our eat in kitchen on the main floor. I want to have a game table in this area.
Wet Bar – We have the space to include a mini kitchen in the basement, which will be wonderful for entertaining. We plan to have a small fridge, a small sink, and a microwave. Building the kitchenette is one of the DIY projects I am really looking forward too.
Bedroom/Bathroom – For resale we are building out the bedroom, but it is going to become my studio. Since my current space in the laundry room has been overrun by the kids crafts and laundry, I am really looking forward to a space to call my own. I am going to be supremely selfish and not allow this room to be used for anything else. The basement already had the rough-ins for the bathroom next to the bedroom, although we had to have some of the plumbing reworked to reorient the bathroom and make the bedroom larger. We are skipping a tub and just putting in a shower.
Play Room – There is this really neat space off the family room that will become a play room for the boys. It will be open to the family room (no door), but because of the angle it is not really that visible from the family room (no staring at piles of toys).
Exercise Room – This room was suggested as the media room, but we have decided fitness is a bigger priority for us and something we want to be commonplace for our kids as they grow up. We already have a treadmill and some other exercise equipment we were using in the unfinished basement. Now they will have a permanent home. I am looking forward to the challenge of making a functional, yet attractive exercise room. This will be the one room in my house where I might allow wall to wall mirrors (maybe just on one wall).
I will be sharing frequent updates on the project progress. We will be having the professionals do the heavy lifting, like plumbing, electrical, framing, and drywall. We hope to tackle some of the smaller jobs like trim, installing the kitchen, and flooring. Of course, I will be doing all the decorating. My hubby is also super engaged and we are having fun sharing ideas and starting a shopping list of dream items for the new space. I will be sharing mood boards soon. My hubby has also been working on an awesome SketchUp mockup to help visualize the space in 3D. I will share that soon too.
Wow! Your house is already amazing, but this will really add to it once it’s all said and done. I love your floor plan. Do you mind sharing what your budget is for the renovation? I know it depends on a lot of things including where you live, but I’m curious. My husband and I have thought about finishing at least part of our basement at some point and you’re giving us lots of inspiration!
Lauren, great question and I do not mind sharing at all…but I think the cost and our approach to the project is worthy of a post. I will post about it next week for you. I certainly want to share, because I know how helpful it was to wrap our heads around the numbers when we learned what others paid. The unknown can certainly be intimidating to even starting. I will try to breakdown what we are paying the professionals to do and what the budget is for things we want to do ourselves.
How exciting! We’re in the process of buying our first house, and a major selling (or buying?) point of the one we’ve chosen is the walkout basement. It’s already partially finished, but there’s a very large amount of space that hasn’t been touched. We’re going to sit on it for a while to see what we need…bedrooms? workout room? craft room? all of the above :)
Looking forward to seeing all the plans and progress!
Kara, that is exactly what we did. We have been in this house for two years and it was nice to daydream and figure out what we really wanted for the basement. It was nice to see how the rest of the house lived first!
I’d love to know the square footage of your basement. It looks huge! My husband and I just bought our first house and are planning on finishing our basement eventually and I think it’s about 1,000 sq. ft., give or take.
Hi Amber, I think ours might be closer to 1500 sq feet. I will double check and include it in my post next week about project approach and cost. Is it silly to say our basement project finishing is fun so far? We have not been doing any of the work, so it is fun to come home everyday and take a peek at the progress. Later on when we become the labor force to finish the project it might start going slower. For now I will revel in the fun of someone else doing all the work.