Well, I think I skipped some important parts in this series – but I took some time off from blogging and spent a lot of effort on this project so really did not get to document it properly. Well here is an update on my DIY basement finishing project.

In the first part of the series I talked about budget and time line. Well I blew both of those. I originally wanted to get the project done before Thanksgiving but it took me almost until Christmas to complete. Granted I wasn’t in a big rush so I took my time with some things, but there were a few things that took a lot longer than expected. One was drywall – its not so much effort consuming, but you put on a layer, then wait a day for it to dry, repeat… repeat… repeat. Then my fiance decided she wanted some of the imperfections in the wall fixed that were done by the previous owner so that ate up more precious time.

My budget was blown on the flooring. I budgeted for the cheapest stuff available, but after actually looking at it closer at the store we realized it looked, well, really cheap. We decided to go with (much) more expensive laminate that looked closer to real wood, and were able to get quite a deal at Lowes again on both that and the carpet. At the time they were offering 10% off carpet with installation and free padding. In addition they took a 20% off Home Depot coupon on the instock laminate floor.

FLOOR – $2190

With the ceiling I was pretty close. There were some additional expenses (extra peice of drywall, 12-2 wire for the lights, paint) but I overestimated a couple things so I actually come in under budget.

CEILING – $463

Total Spent – $2653

Overall even though it was a lot more work than I thought it would be it was a great learning experience. I did all the work myself with the exception of the carpet installation with a great of help from my dad and a few friends. Probably saved at least a few thousand dollars by doing so, and it came out better than I expected. Below are some pictures of the finished product.

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