Finishing the basement?

So I had hinted in a blog the other week...and it's looking more and more likely we will be refinishing our half basement (half crawl will remain untouched) starting here in the next 6 weeks.  I hate the phrase "man cave" as it's a party room for me too!  So we'll have to think on what to call it if we don't just call it the basement. Here are some before pics of our current ugly ass basement.  

This is looking toward the backwall.  Image the bar toward the righthand corner.  The arcade/Golden tee will probably be along the back wall left side hidden currently by the water heater/air conditioning which we'll have to room off with a little bump out room.  

Pic to the left is looking toward the front of the house.  This far wall will have a TV hanging above an electric fireplace insert (or that's the dream) with our 16 year old black leather couch & chair, and the big old stereo system from Jeff's youth.  

Next is a pic below the stairs.  We plan to put a wall just to the right of where the mud sink is and have the toilet right there with a sink tucked under the stairs.  Don't know if the support beam post will be walled over or visible. See water heater to the left? Want to change to a wall mounted tankless, shove that blue water softner closer to the crawl space and make a little utility room with these two and furnace.

So anyway, we have been talking a lot more about what we're hoping to do, and what items we really want.  What's funny is I've been loosely looking into this for two years - Jeff has barely taken a peak online.  And he said he thought it would cost us $5k. Bwahaha!  Yeah OK. More like $15k.  Turns out he meant just the cost of walls, floor, and half bath.  Not all the items that go INTO the basement.  But still buddy - I think you're off.  If it was only $5k we could have done it this fall when we came back from Vegas with our entire bank roll intact.  I want to see how close we stick to what *I* think it will cost and be able to look back at our dreams and plans vs reality.  First off let's look at the items on our wish list:

Tankless water heater - average cost of midrange unit $800
6-8 foot bar nothing especially fancy  - $1400
Big Screen TV - $450
Electric Fireplace Insert - $350
Jeff's *Ultimate Basement Item* Golden Tee & Arcade Legends Console - $3,100

That's $6,100 just in stuff to put in it and I didn't even look at rando stuff like a small fridge, window cling & drapes (who wants to look at a basement window well?), end tables to go with our couch & chair that we're moving down there next week when our new family room furniture arrives. Eventually I think we'll also want a mini shuffle board (if there is room) and table/chairs for game nights/poker games and an area rug for the couch area. Now lets look at the cost of actually finishing it.  

It's about 600 square feet.  In terms of flooring, we're both on a similar page of wanting wood-looking vinyl because we obviously can't have real wood in a basement that *could* flood and we're not the biggest fans of parquet. I think tile for a cold basement just adds to the cold factor so vinyl it is.  Going on the lower end of mid-range stuff...below is what I like. We are not putting in a drop ceiling, so we've decided we'll paint the ceiling and do the floors & bath vanity in a grey color.  Stair treds leading down; I'd like to match the upstairs wood with the risers being the same grey as the ceiling to tie the brown wood and grey colors together. Furniture we're moving down there is black leather and I think a black bar with a white or wood top would then pop.  Walls will remain white with sports and or Vegas artworks.    So main colors of the room are white, grey, and black in a sort of modern farmhouse chic look which is different that the rest of the house and yet still clean lines with ties to the look of upstairs without everything being too "matchy- matchy".

Floor choice at Lowes 

  This cost 1.68 per sq ft. And will cost us just under $1200.  Add a toilet $200, 24 inch sink vanity $200, and stair treds and risers $450 and lighting $250(looking at 4 lights like right picture as main lighting, and 2 pictured below for the bathroom vanity area and a six pack of can lights on a dimmer for mood lighting/movie nights).  Add in tax & delivery and suddenly we're talking about $2500 and no one's even roughed in the bathroom or put up walls and dry wall! Let alone paint the ceiling and walls once they're up.   

Vanity Lighting...see? Farmhouse chic

So thankfully with a lot of our home improvement projects; while Jeff and I are willing to tackle a little here or there (We recently did the closet organizers.  And Jeff is super proud of the outlet he installed in order to have a microwave over the stove instead of just an exhaust fan.  And don't even get me started on the hours and hours we spent rebuilding our deck in Treks engineered boards two summers ago).  For bigger stuff, we contract with his cousin Brian.  So Brian gets work, but gives us a bit of a deal so we save compared to if we hired non-family.  And we take on smaller aspects of it.  We've decided we can put in the floor and baseboards, stairs tred covers, paint and install the toilet/vanity/lighting.  We just need him to rough out the bathroom, frame the walls/prepare electrical, and drywall and maybe hire someone to paint the ceiling.  We won't know his costs until he comes and give us a quote.  I suppose it can be as low as $3k, can be as much as $7k so I'm hoping/guessing $5,000.   So my estimate of $13,600 is VERY thought out.  But I'm guessing there's always a little extra cost here and there so $15,000.  This *might* include the mini fridge, rug, end tables, etc I talked about earlier.  Maybe not.  Earliest we can get Brian in for a quote is Mid February, and we could start Early March.  Eeek!!!  

It's looking more like Jeff will get *something* of a cash bonus.  But won't know the amount until late Feb.  And we have some stocks from last years bonus we can sell.  And what if the next round of stimulus checks comes and still includes us? And can't forget the small amount we have in savings that's not earmarked for Vegas and paying Taxes come April?  What if we come back from Vegas with some money? (We've come back the last 4 trips with anywhere from $2-8k) If everything falls into place (except Vegas winnings - never ever count on that LOL) we'll have enough.  If one or two of the smaller things fall off (stimulus checks don't include our income level or taxes are more than last year etc.) I can see putting a *little* on credit cards (and by this I mean under 3k).  If his bonus is vastly different or the stock price makes selling them stupid we've decided we'll look into a home equity line of credit.  But he knows I really really don't want to do that.  I want to have cash up front.  As we've done for all our projects so far.  I'm a planner.  I plan for every scenario.  Now I just have to sit here and be patient as we wait for news of all of these balls in the air over the next six weeks.  If you knew me well, you'd know I am sooooo not a patient person.  Once we decide to do something I'm like - OK ITS GO TIME.  But here I sit.  Thus why I thought a post of my brain vomit on this might help me.  NOPE.  Only more excited and want answers NOW.