Basement build update: stud walls and underslab plumbing with a surprise

Given a deadline of Christmas to finish the build, each free night or day needs to be spent on the basement.  However, Kim had other plans for me last week.  She decided to get Macie's toddler room set up and finished.  This room is across from the nursery.  Here are some pictures of the room before (actually we don't have a any good before picture but you can see that every room in the house looked like this below with oak trim and beige walls:

 Actual room before with junk in the middle:

Kim fell in love with a bedding set from pottery barn kids and designed the room around it.  We ended up choosing 4' bead board wainscoting with a sky blue paint color above.

The first thing I did was paint the oak trim white as I have in every other room we touched.  I also replaced the bedroom door with a solid core six panel mdf door.  The oak veneer closet doors were also changed out to hollow core six panel doors.  I also replaced all the tan receptacles and covers with white ones.

Here are some progress photos:

Completed pics:

Kim found the tree on etsy I believe along with the chalk board owl cling.  Kim and her mom also mad the awesome window treatments with items from Michaels or Jo Annes.

The wainscoting was very easy to install.  We bought 4x8 sheets of the board at Home Depot and had them cut the sheets in half.  To tack the panels in place we used white panel board nails and liquid nails adhesive.  Honestly the adhesive was worthless.  Once the boards were in place we painted them and used a nail gun to install the top rail and base.  Total cost for the bead board was about $120.  In the end I think it turned out great.  Kim and her mom did a great job decorating.

Back to the basement.  It's been a few weeks since I have posted progress photos.  I have been focusing on the rough in plumbing for the bathroom and finishing the metal stud walls.  Plumbing photos:

As you can see in the first photo we (Kevin and I) thought the existing drain went one way but realized after about 45 mins of labor it went another direction.  The top photo shows the trench for the shower drain on the left.  The middle picture shows the trench for the toilet and vent.  The bottom picture shows the corner where the vanity will sit.  We used a circular saw with a diamond blade to score the concrete.    Since the saw made too much dust we ended up just using an 8lb sledge to break up the concrete.  The lines aren't as pretty or straight but I figure the flooring will cover up the patched concrete slab. A smaller hammer was used to break up the concrete near the pipe.  We used 5 gallon buckets to remove the broken up material from the basement. 
Planned fixtures:

  I found the shower glass and base at overstock.com and the vanity/mirror was bought at home depot.  I still have not decided on flooring or shower tile materials.  I'm leaning towards cork flooring and glass tile for the shower.

Okay back to the progress:
I have finished all the steel stud walls with the exception of two bathroom walls.  I have not fastened all the studs to the track yet either.  I have also begun installing the wood framing where the doors will go.  I ended up buying solid pre-hung MDF 6 panel doors from Home Depot when they were on sale for the same price as hollow pre-hung doors.

Framing around the mechanicals.

 Future bedroom closet - still need to install the closet studs.

 bedroom/ play area

 hall way to bathroom (on left) and laundry room

You can finally start making out the different areas of the basement.  The last picture shows the stair nook outline.  In the next couple of weeks I would like to complete the actual plumbing rough in, patch the concrete slab, finish all the steel studs, and paint the ceiling grey.  Lots to do!!!! Thanks for reading.

Basement build update - insulation and wall studs

Well let's just say little Macie aka the Macinator is army crawling around like a maniac lately.  This is not at all conducive to finishing a basement.  Anytime Kim is around I try to get down to the basement to keep working.  I was probably able to work about 15 hours during the last week.  I think I made some good progress:

Insulation.  I ended up going with 1" rigid foam insulation.  The R value is 6.5.  I bought 4'x8' sheets of the insulation at Home Depot.  The sheets are easy to cut using a utility knife and a straight edge.  I began adhering the insulation to the block wall with construction adhesive but stopped using it since the studs would eventually holding the sheets in place.  After all the sheets were in place I taped the seems with tyvek tape.

Here are some pictures of the insulation:

 Stud installation:

I ended up going with metal studs for a few reasons.  They are lighter to lug around, easier to cut, and cleaner to cut in the basement than wood.  I ended up getting the studs into the basement through the egress window.  Too bad its not big enough to get dry wall through.  I am using 2-1/2" studs and tracks for the exterior walls and 3-5/8" studs and tracks for the interior walls (all 25 gauge steel).  To attach the track to the concrete floor I used a hammer drill and 1/4" x 1-1/4" tapcons.  To attach the studs to the track I used #8 x 1/2" metal screws.  


Here are some pictures of the exterior wall progress:

One thing Macie does like to do is go to Home Depot and Lowes.  This week we were able to buy the toilet, vanity, faucet, and mirror for the bathroom.  During the next week I hope to complete the walls with the exception of the bathroom walls.  The bathroom walls will have to wait until I break up the concrete and install the rough plumbing.  Fun Stuff.  Thanks for reading.

Our basement build plan

With the mounds of toys piling up around the house.  Kim and I figured it was time to add some more living space to the house.  The most logical thing to do is finish the basement to add about 400 SF.  The following is our plan.  After researching lots of different basement designs we have borrowed ideas from many of them:

The layout:
Click here to see a sketch of the planned layout.  You may have to turn your head because I couldn't figure out how to rotate the sketch.

Here are a few pics we are using for inspiration:

Stair nook - it will be a nice little place for Macie to hang out.

Since the ceiling height in the basement is less that 8 ft we are not going to finish the ceiling with drywall instead we are going for the loft look as shown here:

These bunk beds would be pretty cool too but we don't have the room:

Here are the before pictures of our basement:

The goal is to have this build done by Christmas so family members can stay here.  I plan to update the build blog each week.  Week one consists of installing rigid insulation on the exterior walls.

Thanks for reading