Finishing the Basement

Wow it has been so long since I've posted!  I have a good excuse though!  We finished our basement!  I wish I was better at posting real time on here to share, but I just am not.  Can't change that about me haha!  And, I am writing this quickly and I am not double checking it so I am sure there will be spelling and grammar mistakes but I don't care! ;) 

So, here is an update and summary of finishing the basement for you:

April 2017

1. We first framed and hired a plumber to do the rough in for the plumbing.  He helped me convince Trey to make the bathroom (my own design baby of the basement) a 2-room, 2-sink bathroom with the shower and toilet separate from the vanity so that our 3 kids could all be using it to get ready in the mornings.  It is pretty small and we have some door issues, but it is a good start and my plan is to eventually do a pocket door and a barn door on the hallway doorway.  

The eternal debate on whether or not to remove this part of the wall and the door.  It lasted a few months and we finally did it before drywall.

2. We hired out a guy to do the HVAC because we have no idea what we are doing when it comes to that and he didn't charge very much.  

3. Trey did all the electrical himself.  He used to wire houses in between high school and college and he is REALLY good at it.  He did an excellent job and did it really fast too.

September 2017

4. We hired out the drywall because it was only a couple thousand for the labor and we knew they would do it 10x faster than we could and also make it look 10x better haha!

October 2017

5. So we had the drywall all done in September and ordered the doors the week after it was done.  The doors ended up taking over 3 months to get to Home Depot so after we did most of the trim the basement just sat untouched for 3 months!  It was driving us crazy!  We had to keep calling the door company and Home Depot and going into Home Depot and it was just so frustrating because no one could help us get them sooner.  We got the doorknobs to match the chrome ones upstairs and also the hardware on the doors we got in chrome. 

6. When the doors finally came in January we were able to hang them and do all the rest of the trim.  

January 2018

7. We caulked all the trim- this took about 2 weeks

8.  We took all the doors down to paint and taped off everything for paint

9. We painted the whole basement and doors and trim a bright white in Satin paint with a sprayer to get it done fast.  I went through 26 gallons of paint in 2 days and was so sore afterwards! haha!

10. I have to mention that in between each step we had to clean and vacuum the basement.  After the paint I had to use the shopvac on every square inch of the basement to get all the dried paint dust off.  It took hours. Pretty much every time we cleaned it would take a couple/few hours.

11. Finally we were able to get the floors in and Trey put up all the lights and electrical finishes.  He did it all in 2 nights!  He is so fast!  We got our flooring from Ward's Discount Carpets and I could not be happier with that company and our floors.  They are really awesome if you need flooring and live in Utah!

 February 2018- Passed Inspection!

Here are the kid's finished rooms!  We are still waiting on the plumber to finish the bathroom and I am getting all the rooms put together and decorated and will share updates as I do them! :)