Construction is done

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week I had my carpet installed in both the basement and my entire 2nd floor. And on Thursday I had my final building inspection and final electrical inspections. Both inspections went perfectly and I passed both.

THAT MEANS I'M DONE!

I'm working on furnishing the room and will some post some pics once everything is in place. So far I have my big TV down there and I bought a Lazy Boy reclining leather sofa. I'm also going to post some final numbers to give you an idea how much it really costs and I will include some final thoughts.

Here are the before and after pictures and videos.

Before

After



Before

After



Before

After



Before

After



Before

After



Before

After




And here are some extra pictures showing my quality work.

Quick post

I haven't updated the blog in a couple of weeks because I'm waiting for carpet to be installed. The good news is carpet is going in Tuesday and Wednesday next week. It will take 2 days because I'm having the upstairs re-carpeted as well. I'm home next week so I will also have my final electrical and final building inspections too.

• patch concrete small floor cracks (not really necessary but I might as well do it while it's open)
• touch up paint in new rec room
• have carpet installed
• final electrical inspection
• final building inspection

In the next set of pictures the basement will be done.

Ceiling and Lights

Tonight I finished the ceiling and lights. It was pretty rewarding because I was the last big phase of this project other than carpet.

The room is looking good.






Here's what I have left to do:

• paint one more coat on baseboards
• paint one more coat in hallway
• paint doors
• touch up paint in new rec room
• buy and install warm air vent
• install coax and cat outlets
• trim window and paint it
• have carpet installed
• install door hardware

I can't believe it's almost done. I can call to have the final electrical inspection now. After everything else is done I'll get the final building inspection. I will have some more posts when things are done. I'm going to post a summary of costs and a good lessons learned list.

Ceiling hardware is up

Monday night and Tuesday night I put up all the suspended ceiling hardware. It was kind of fun because it really wasn't that tough. And it looks good. Tomorrow night I should be able to get the ceiling up and the lights in. Tomorrow's pictures will hopefully feature a finished ceiling lighting a crappy concrete floor.

FYI I had picked out the carpet last week and I'm called in the order on Sunday. Now I'm just waiting for the installers to measure the room and schedule installation. I would to get it in on Friday.

Paint

Sunday Tracy and I were really sore from the 10 hours of priming and painting and we weren't looking forward to painting again. PS I hate painting. I am pretty good at painting but I hate it.

Sunday we had to put up our last coat of paint. I also got the outlets in and ripped up the carpet.

It's looking pretty good.

It also took another 4 hours to rip up the carper from the stairs. They used a million staples and it will take me another 4 hours to get the rest of them out.

Baseboards and Primer

I haven't been updating the blog lately because I've been working so hard. Thursday I cleaned up the mess from the sanding. It was a real pain because the dust was everywhere and wiping down the walls was brutally messy.

Friday I put up all the door casing, all the baseboards and the post cover. I'm not a big fan of doing trim work but I'm in the home stretch. I worked on it from 6pm to 3am in order to get ready to primer Saturday morning. It took so long because not only did I install the trim I also had to fill the holes and caulked the trim.

Saturday morning Tracy and I started putting primer on the walls. It took about 6 hours. Don't ask me why it took so long. It's not like we were worried about getting any on the ceiling or floor. I think the primer was just a pain to use and the drywall sucked it up.

In the following pictures you can see the room after the primer went up.

And a close-up of the post cover. Another good investment.

Sanding done

They came in with 4 guys and got it done in 30 minutes and it looks good. I took pictures but it looks exactly like to previous set... just smoother.

Tonight I cleaned up and briefly went to Rona to pick up: primer, paint, baseboards, door trim, rollers, caulk and a post cover. I was surprised how expensive it was considering I bought the cheapest of everything except paint. I would have made my own post cover but it's kind of like a pre-hung door... relatively speaking the extra money it costs will outweighs the time spent putting one together myself.

I wanted to get primer on the walls today but I spent a little time cleaning up. I'm still feeling under the weather so I figured I wouldn't push too much. I might take a vacation day or two to get it done if I can't get the suspended ceiling and lights in over the weekend. I sent out my Superbowl invites yesterday so now there is extra incentive to get it done.

FYI Tracy has been keeping close eye on the budget and has debriefed me on my expenses. According to my initial estimates I think I'm under budget. Should be pretty close.