My big home improvement project for this year

My big home improvement project for this year will be the start of a large basement remodeling project. I’m going to start with a partially finished room we already have in the basement and then slowly expand the finishing to other parts of my basement that are currently concrete and cinder blocks. I’ve never done any sort of interior home improvement project like this, so it should be interesting to see and learn a lot as I go along.

My basement before remodeling

The partially finished room in my basement has some potential.
A lot of people see a basement remodeling project as the ultimate do-it-yourself home improvement project because these sort of remodels take a lot of different skils and time, but almost every aspect of the job can be completed by an amateur handyman if needed. Building an addition on to a house often requires a contractor and heavy equipment, but taking an existing unfinished interior space like a basement (or attic) and turning it into a finished space simply takes some tools and skills with framing, drywall, flooring and sometimes electrical and plumbing systems.

I’m no different. My wife and I bought our home largely because of the additional living space “potential” of the basement in our Ranch style house. The Ranch style has also proven to be a home improvement dream because it means we have easy and complete attic as well as basement access to just about every inch of main living floor.

Our current basement is mostly unfinished, but we have a “partially finished” room that takes up just about 25% of the approximately 1,200 square foot basement. This partially finished room is framed out with wood, has walls consisting of dark paneling that probably dates back to the late 1970s, has some electricity and even has a drywall ceiling. The ceiling has that sharp “pointy” stucco ceiling covering that was so popular back in 1979 but just seems stupid for a low ceiling these days. There are two rusty heating vents which work but probably shouldn’t be there. The floor is covered with not one but two left-over old rugs but otherwise unfinished.

The first part of my basement remodeling project will be to make this partially finished room more “finished” and livable. I’ll take what I learn and move into other parts of the basement as time and money permit. My general plan for this first phase in my basement finishing project:

Organizing the basement is an important first step before finishing it.

What a bunch of junk!

Organize the Basement Junk: Our basement was nearly empty when we first moved into our home. But a new baby, furniture upgrades, countless “deliveries” from our own parents and our general philosophy of keeping everything until it was useless has turned out basement into a mess. Our basement is so dark and out of the way that we’ve gotten into a “dump and run” sort of habit when it came to storing things down there. We regularly just take a box of stuff down, drop it anywhere and get out as fast as possible. The result is hundreds of boxes of junk, books and old toys spread out with no rhyme or reason. To really work on this partially finished room I’ll need to move some things around, but we’re running out of space. So some basement organization and clean out is in order.

Basement Ceilings and Walls: The partially finished part of my basement has wood framing and walls of dark paneling for most of the room. The one exception is the lovely drywall wallpaper mural. Yes, it’s a wallpaper mural. It’s on Sheetrock. It’s even framed out nicely. I personally want to keep this as a monument to 1979 kitch, but my wife will have none of it. I’ll need to clean up the walls, remove some of the framing and generally get the room ready to paint. I’ve thought about actually insulating the walls of this room (that has heat ducts) from the rest of the slightly cooler unfinished basement. I’m not entirely sure that will make much of a difference in the long run, though. As I mentioned before, the ceiling has that pointy stucco covering on it. I’m not yet sure if I’m going to bother trying to sand that off or not. I’m thinking it might fall into the realm of “too much work” for this room. On a side note, I’d also like to install a cat door in one of the walls and keep our kitty litter in the unfinished part of the basement for the time being.

Brighten the Basement With Paint: Once I have the partially finished area uncluttered and the walls and ceiling taken care of I’m going to apply a few coats of light paint to brighten up the room. The dark panelling is oppressive, especially with the single floor lamp we have down there now. This may actually take a fair bit of time because it may need multiple coats. I’m told there are some tricks to painting over laminate paneling. I’ll have to look into them.

Brighten the Basement With Lighting: As I mentioned before, it’s fairly dark down in my basement. My basement ceiling height is only about seven feet (and I’m over six feet tall) so any sort of ceiling light fixture I choose has to either be recessed or out of the walking path. I may initially pass on the recessed lighting because the ceiling of the partially finished area is covered with sheetrock and stucco I think it might be a little easier to use some sort of track lighting around the perimeter of the room. Another possible lighting option in my basement are wall sconces.

Upgrade the Basement Flooring: I have some options when it comes to basement flooring. Our basement has no visible water damage and there have been no moisture problems in the four years that I’ve been here, so I’m comfortable going with some sort of thick (but affordable) carpeting. This is one part of the project I may simply pay to have this done.
Basement Heat: My home used forced hot air for heat and this partially finished room has two air vents stemming off the main duct trunk into this room. I have a fairly new furnace, but I don’t think the duct design was really meant to have another room. I’m not sure if I’ll close off those vents and install an auxiliary heater or not. I suspect I won’t know how cold or warm it is down there until most everything else is done and I end up spending some time down there.

That’s the general finishing plan for the first part of my basement. I also need to install a basement stair railing for safety and do a few more little things to make the area more livable. It really isn’t a lot of work, but some of the steps are time consuming and some will be too noisy to do when my toddler son goes to sleep each night. I would love to have a usable room ready in just a few months, but I’m giving myself the whole year to get everything completed. I have even thought about putting in some cabinets and shelves along one wall to increase our “usable” storage space in the basement, but that remains to be seen.