New Project: Finishing the Basement

I fancy myself a fairly handy individual, but I can’t say I was born that way. Trying new things, and often failing, has helped me learn a lot of new stuff. I’ve successfully tackled a few projects around the house since we moved in, so why not kick it up a notch and try my hand at finishing the basement?  Warning: This won’t be a speedy project!   I don’t have a ton of time to devote to this, so I hope to have it done within a few years.

The plan is to have a main room, gym, and full bathroom. The main room will be pretty large at 40′ x 15′ and will have a bar of some sort, game table(s), TVs, and a few seating areas. The gym will be 22′ x 11.5′ with weights and a treadmill. The bathroom will be 6′ x 11.5′ with a 36″ vanity and 48″ shower. We’ll still have unfinished space for lawn equipment and other storage.

Here’s what we’re starting with:

You’ll notice we have a few items to work around like lally columns, ductwork, and propane piping. The first step is cleaning out the area we’re going to finish. There’s a lot of junk down there!  I’m going to apologize in advance for the quality of the photos during this project.  It’s pretty dark down there and I’m using my iPhone for the shots.

This could get interesting… stay tuned for updates!