Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Our Wonderful Basement-to-be

Okay, so this will probably be extremely boring for 95% of you but I want to record this for me:) Besides, if you are ever finishing your basement, you could be interested! Also, I do want to know your opinion on two things:

1. What is your favourite warm looking basement paint colour? Kai says he refuses to use the basement unless it is purple but I refuse to use the basement if it is purple:)

2. Basement carpet with two lively boys...should we go with berber? (our stairs to the basement are berber)
(This is Koen's bedroom for the next two months...he has a fort made with the toddler bed and foosball table. All of our rooms look a little chaotic because we want to be able to park in the garage during the basement reno).

(We had our last studio session on Monday, which was a very fun Smash the Cake for a one year old, and have packed everything up)

So, here is our tentative timeline starting this Saturday. I could be way off because I have never done anything like this before. Here we go:

Week 1: Framer, Electrician, Plumber (done by professionals who we are connected to). Get tub put in.
Week 2: Insulation (done by Gary and I, shouldn't take this long but giving him lots of time!)
Week 3: Drywall (Gary and 3-4 drywalling buddies who will be paid in pizza and beer. Should be done in one day as our basement is half done already. Ceiling should be the hardest cutting around all the `stuff'. I will probably try to do some of it with Gary and have his friends aid with the ceiling.).
Week 4: Mudding (will take at least a week, possibly more. We are hiring someone for this for sure!!)
Week 5: Painting (Gary and I). Anyone have a paint sprayer?
Week 6: Carpet and plumbers/Gary put in bathroom fixtures (toilet and sink). We already have our sink and toilet and just need to find a well priced tub. I'm going to check out `Andrew Sheret' at Splashes this week and see if I can find a good one. We were going to put in a shower but alas, the drain size and location of the drain will only allow for a tub. Currently deciding on carpet and then getting a couple of quotes. Need to get on it ASAP as it can take a month to order it. At this point, the kids will be able to play downstairs again! Woohoo!!
Week 7: Put in floor in bathroom and laundry room (we are doing the floating floors that you can buy at Home Depot). Looks super easy and they look great! (us). Put up cabinets in laundry room and bathroom.
Week 8: Put in doors to bedroom, bathroom and closets. (us)
Week 9: Put in baseboards and crown molding around doors etc. (us)

This takes us to basketball season when we will no longer see Gary so hopefully everything happens according to this schedule. I feel that as long as I have people booked for the appropriate time and the supplies available when needed, we should be good to go! If it is way over our heads, I will bring in some finishers to do week 9's job.

My budget for this is $9,000.00 but I'm thinking it will be closer to $8000.00. We'll see!! If we had it done before we moved in, they were going to charge $20,000 and I know it will be nowhere near that.

And, the final thing that I am keeping track of? Number of visits to home depot:) So far, we are at two.

7 comments:

  1. i am going to LOVE following this process! Maybe i'm a geek this way, or maybe i feel 'connected' to it because our basement reno still feels so fresh (tho it was 2 years ago). glad you're going with professionals in certain areas - it's a huge stress reducer!
    yes, i vote for berber!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Planning's half the battle. Multiple home depot runs due to forgetfulness/poor anticipation eat up a day. Trust me, I'm an expert.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I enjoy watching the progress! Would laminate flooring be a possibility in a basement? I'm for as little wall to wall carpeting as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow - I'm impressed that you guys are doing so much of this yourself! I'm brutal at making ANY decisions around colour/flooring etc - things worked much better when Mike held up two options and said 'choose.' I have a hard time seeing a paint chip or tile and visualizing it as part of a finished product!

    ReplyDelete
  5. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

    Every time you post about renos and how they are going to take x amount of time, I'm going to laugh at you.

    The part that takes the longest is the unexpecteds. The 'oh, that can of paint doesn't match this can,' and the 'this floor has no subfloor and needs one,' and the 'the carpet installers were supposed to come today at 9 and it's 2:30 and I haven't heard from them,' and the 'I just need to run to Home Depot...'

    Rargh!

    Cost, I will give you. DIY saves scads of money. Time? I challenge you. If it takes longer than your schedule, you owe me one of your famous desserts. It must have chocolate. MUST. Maybe some fruit.

    I can taste it now...

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good thing you don't have football on Saturdays to keep you busy! I'm with you on the purple.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ha. I am sorry I am tardy on your email. Your question about how long renos took made me pavlovianially (? a word?) reach for the icecream, my therapy.

    I fully understand that you SHOULD be able to do mouldings in a day. Of course. Just somehow it will be sunny that afternoon and you decide to go for a swim instead.

    Good thing your renos are in winter.

    Until it floods

    Oh sorry. I didn't mean that.

    Good luck! My biggest advice - buy more than you think, you can always return it (to HD, don't bother with CDN TIRE unless you're receipt anal). Nothing sucks up more time than HD runs.

    We have lots of tools - mitre saw etc if you need them. unfortunately, no paint sprayer.

    If you do rent one ($80/day), do your fence at the same time (do I remember right cedar?). After the interior latex stuff. We seriously did our fence + the whole downstairs in 4 hours.

    T

    ReplyDelete