"I don't want a projector" - new basement build - Page 2

Alright, dangerously close to drywall stage (no going back!)

Ceiling speakers are pre-wired. One zone in gym, one in Lounge area, and one in each bathroom. Purchased a couple DVC in ceiling speakers for the bathrooms.

Bedroom walls are insulated for sound.

Inspectors coming in on Friday.

To do list is getting much shorter, running a couple extra cold air returns, really debating if I should rough in the central vac or not. I've never used central vac and never will, so the $200 or so it would cost to rough in is hard to justify, but it could help in resale. Then again it's not going to make or break a deal, either.

What says you?

Well decided to go ahead and rough in for central vac. Total cost should be ~$150 or so, total time investment ~6 hrs. Not too bad.

Inspectors coming in Thu-Fri. Wish me luck! Gonna take a pile of pics this weekend before drywall, will update thread.

Ha ha what has my thread come to. 5 consecutive posts talking about central vac.

I'll post some pics of my completed rough in tomorrow. Hope you boys can contain your excitement.

Well what a weird feeling. I'm done, ready for drywall. I ended up buying a 60' HDMI cable from monoprice (Redmere technology), it is not much thicker or less flexible than pulling RG6. I'll have dual cat 6 and 3-RG6 as redundancy in case the cable fails. Tested OK, so fingers crossed.

Kind of boring, but here's some framing pics. Couple last minute jobs were running cold air returns to both bedrooms, insulating bedroom and furnace room walls, and of course roughing in central vac.

About that central vac, I was messing around in the ceiling today and found one missed (unglued) joint. Could you imagine lol, all that work and money and its opened up to the ceiling? Anyways I walked it down a few times and it's all good.

Ok here are some pics:

Walking down the stairs





View from bottom of the stairs:



To the left


To the right:

Computer desk area and closet:

Wet bar area and stairs, view from TV wall, the box in the framing is if we decide to do an aquarium in the wall, nothing planned in the near future.

Rec room/future pool table room: Talked to the guy who's gonna hang the drywall, he suggested using duct liner or cardboard to identify where I want the speaker wires to come out. Stuffed this makeshift box with insulation.

And a couple panoramics:

Drywall dropped off today. Last project I hung it myself and hired out the taping. This time it's just too big of a project and time is just too tight. Cost per square foot to hang, tape and texture the ceiling ranged from $7 per square foot up to $9 per foot with material. For a ~1550 ft basement that adds up.

We had issues on taking possession of this house with a shoddy drywalling job, so I'm not afraid to hire the guys charging on the high side to make sure I can get a quality job, he also is doing some repairs in our great room (14' ceilings) that the clowns that the builder hired couldn't fix. The guy sounded confident so fingers crossed.

The guys stopped by to measure for hanging, say they can get the whole basement done in 2 days. 2 guys, 8 hour days. Unbelievable. Have fun guys, better you than me.

Ya I know hey! They said they might need to come back for half day depending on if they could get a helper.

The mudder on the other hand will be here a good part of 2 weeks.

Drywall is hung. Took them about 3 full days. Room is starting to take shape.





They cut out a hole for the aquarium and shouldn't have. We'll have to put a new sheet of drywall in there I think.

Inside Gym/flex room

Lounge




Stairwell, again we'll have to replace the drywall with the hole cut.

Where we are at:

Taper should be coming early next week to start. He figures ~12-14 days to complete.

Going to place an order for interior doors and trim. 9 doors in total plus the bifold for the closet. I think for the three doors in the main living area we are going to go with stained maple and frosted glass. About 3-4X the price of a regular door so it adds up quick, BUT I think it will be worth it. I justify these expenses because no matter how much I splurge on extras it's still costing a lot less than what the builder would have charged for a basic basement.

Also stole an idea from another thread, picked up a relay thingie so that it remotely turns on my shop vac anytime I start my chop saw. Should be very handy when cutting trim in the basement.

Just stapled. I'm sure caulking/adhesive would have helped. I can be lazy with certain things.

Ordered my doors and baseboard. 9 doors in total plus a bifold for the closet. 500' of baseboard. 250' of trim. Add$ up:eek:, especially glass panel/maple doors.
Edited by IHaveAMullet - 3/27/13 at 12:46pm

Well my mudder has been down there most of the week. The joints are taped and he's going to finish up on the bead today. Been having withdrawls because all of my free time has been spend working down there and now its his domain.

So my project over the last few days: Kitchen backsplash. Man alive what a tedious job. Feels like I had to hang every single tile by itself. So many plugs and those little windows. The builder just put floor tile on for a backsplash, the wife and I didn't like that but couldn't agree so we decided to leave the backsplash unfinished and DIY. Progressing very slowly. Hope to be done today and grout tomorrow.



edit: finished the main area. Still have a bit left to do, not sure when I'll get at it.




Edited by IHaveAMullet - 4/8/13 at 5:31am

Update: Taper finished up on Saturday. I started tiling the main bathroom Sunday/Monday. Was hoping to be done that bathroom by the end of this week (on vacation) but unfortunately I'm waiting a week for tile. Bummer. Probably won't get looked at for a month as I'm getting busy at work right away.

Fortunately there is still a lot to do. I hired out the priming and she finished up late yesterday. I spend a good part of the day today hanging doors...I got 5 done in about 4 hours. Took a lot of doing but they all close very nicely.

Taper is coming back tomorrow to texture the ceiling, I'll install my in ceiling speakers, pot light surrounds, and vent covers. Update with pics in the next day or 2.

OK a little update. I've been very busy with work the last couple of weeks so not much time to work on the basement. The drywall and texture are complete, the walls are primed. I started tiling the main bathroom but ran out of tiles and time. They are still on backorder. Cabinets were delivered and installed today. I did get a chance to pull everything out of the storage and furnace rooms to paint the floor.

Contemplating between a 64-65" plasma and the sharp 80" LCD. The price for a 3d 80" is a little crazy but the wife really wants 3d. I don't care to have 3d, makes me sick.

Here's some pics: (please excuse the mess!)

And a new tool...Hitachi pin nailer (23 ga) for my maple finish work.

Any creative/good looking suggestions for a breaker panel in a bedroom?