Finally finished a basement, and have a new space!

[armaraas]

Ok, I finally finished our basement and got around to taking some pictures, thought I’d post some. The only things left to do is acoustic treatments, maybe some crown molding if I can make a decision on what/how. I put a switched outlet near the ceiling in the TV area with the idea at some point I’d do crown molding about 6” below the ceiling, and put a rope light in it. The sconces I have are on a remote dimmer, so I leave them on at about 5% or so when watching movies.

I did about 95% of the work in the basement myself, with the occasional help from my dad and wife (she helped me carry in 130 pieces of drywall, she will never help me carry drywall again…). The only things we paid to have done was plumbing rough in, drywall finished (after I taped the walls), and carpet installed. Took about 10 months, finished around 1100 sq ft for about $10-$12 per sq ft, with about 40% of that being carpet and wet bar. It’s a walkout basement with 2 windows and a patio door. I had to make compromises with the room being right next to the furnace room, and we wanted to keep the basement open (ie. No dedicated theater room). We put in a full bathroom and a room on the opposite end of the TV that will be used as a workout area- we put a half wall there so if we need another bedroom at some point it’s under a joist so we just have to frame in the top half. I did 2 layers of drywall on the ceiling with 1 tube of Green Glue per sheet. Also did 2 layers around the furnace room with GG, and used a steel exterior door.

The first 2 pictures are from a couple of years ago, I had everything setup in a 13'x15' bedroom (got pretty warm in there during the summer). The equipment from there was-
Samsung 56" DLP
Aperion 6T's, 5C
MWF-15 Sub
Axiom M2's, QS8's
Elite EL-906 TV stand
Some cheaper power conditioner
Harman Kardon 235
Xbox, Xbox 360, Dreamcast, and a Fisher dvd player that doesn't work anymore, and a 6 year old custom pc

Curret equipment list-
Samsung 61A750 61" DLP
Aperion 6T's, 5C, 5DB's, and 4BP's
MWF-15
BDI Avion 8929 stand
APC H15
Denon 3808
Emotiva XPA-3
Xbox 360, PS3, and still my 6 year old custom pc that I move back and forth from here to the office. I'll be building a htpc shortly.

 

[armaraas]

A couple more pictures.
I have 6 2'x2' ATS Acoustic panels to start with. I'm thinking I might use 4 of them, 1 each under each sconce in the diamond rotation. There's a corner right behind the left side of the couch, I'm thinking I might need a tri-trap there, and maybe some in the front corners too. I like having the solid dark wall behind the TV, everything just kind of disappears except the tv when the lights are dimmed, so I'm not sure what to do there for treatments. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to share, and thanks for looking!

 

[sawzalot]

That is a good looking HT room, nice job and thanks for the pics

 

[Alex2507]

I just realized that this was you with the 5DB's!

That's quite an undertaking to self perform and something tells me you have defiled yourself in the world of construction prior to doing all that drywall. There's no way a normal person would ever manage 130 sheets with their wife and not die. I mean I know how to carry board and I dislike carrying it with somebody who doesn't know how. Two people who don't know how to carry it is just painful to even watch.

Congrats on that space and good going with the 2 layers on the lid.
12' foot 5/8" right?

 

[dapack69]

Whats a basement?

Very nice job with everything.

 

[armaraas]

I just realized that this was you with the 5DB's!

That's quite an undertaking to self perform and something tells me you have defiled yourself in the world of construction prior to doing all that drywall. There's no way a normal person would ever manage 130 sheets with their wife and not die. I mean I know how to carry board and I dislike carrying it with somebody who doesn't know how. Two people who don't know how to carry it is just painful to even watch.

Congrats on that space and good going with the 2 layers on the lid.
12' foot 5/8" right?

Thanks...when we bought the house we're in now almost 5 years ago, we still owned our previous house. I had been working on that basement for about 6 months, and had the sheetrock 90% hung at the time. It was a smaller basement, so about 70 sheets there 8', 1/2", only doing the walls (ceiling was going to be a drop ceiling there). That was a full basement, so we had to take them down the stairs that had a U turn. I had 3 people help me with that.

This basement is a walkout, so I could back my truck up to the side of the house for a few bigger loads (about 28 sheets), and just carry it down the hill and around the corner to drop it inside the patio door. I also did a lot of picking up 12 sheets on the way home from work, so it was broken up quite a bit which made it easier for my wife to help.

I tend to do things the hard way, and at the beginning of the project was trying to be cost conscience, that is why we moved it ourselves. My dad is working on his basement now, and had about 100 sheets delivered, 10', 1/2" for around $1.50+ per sheet I think. I have decided for any similar future endeavors, that is the way to go.

I guess for his delivery, it was just one guy who brought it in. The basement has no exterior door and the stairs down had a U turn. I guess it took that guy well over 2 hours to get it all down. There's no way I'd even consider doing that much by myself, I'd pass out for sure.

 

[armaraas]

Whats a basement?

Very nice job with everything.

Thanks.
I know basements aren't put in everywhere in the US, and I'm assuming also may not be common in a lot of countries. It's another level of the house that's typically under the main level, per the dictionary- a story of a building, partly or wholly underground..

If the house is on a flat lot, the basement will be underground all the way around. If the lot is sloped, the back of the basement may have windows and/or a door, which is what we have.

 

[Alex2507]

My dad is working on his basement now, and had about 100 sheets delivered, 10', 1/2"

The basement has no exterior door and the stairs down had a U turn.

There's where ordering 8' sheets really would have been a mercy.
... and the 10's aren't really going to save that many joints either.

I see you've moved up the food chain rec'r wise and got ya some nice amplification to run the Aperion towers and center. What's your next upgrade?

Whats a basement?

... a cellar.

 

[armaraas]

There's where ordering 8' sheets really would have been a mercy.
... and the 10's aren't really going to save that many joints either.

I see you've moved up the food chain rec'r wise and got ya some nice amplification to run the Aperion towers and center. What's your next upgrade?

.

Well, my dad's basement has a 9 foot ceiling, so he put up most of the sheetrock vertically and took off the top foot.

I have not decided what I'll upgrade next. I've recently added a new home theater pc. My computer's power supply blew up a couple of months ago, so I reused some of the parts to build a new one for the office, then also built another one for the htpc. I have been playing with that, using it as a dvr and media player.

I've been keeping an eye out for 70"+ tv's. I'm not exactly sold on the Mitsubishi DLP's yet, so waiting to see when new plasmas/LCDs come out.
I sit further from the tv now, and use it to play computer games and surf the internet- it's getting harder to read the text. That seems like a good reason to upgrade to me, though my wife most likely disagrees.

The other thing I've been considering is doing something with the sub. Originally I wanted to add a second. With the events in the last year so however, I haven't decided if I should sell the MWF15 and go with a different brand. The MWF15 matches closely to the speakers and cabinet, so I may end up going with the Sandbagger/Seaton Turbo Kit once more details come out on that and production is rolling. My woodworking skills and tools are pretty lacking, so I haven't been able to convince myself to try DIY.