Basement Renovation Before And After

I've been working on a basement renovation for the past year.  I'm doing a lot of it myself, which is part of the reason why I've been working on it for the past YEAR.  It's taking longer, but I'm saving a poop load of money.

Here is a picture of a section of the basement after I had emptied it of junk (I actually just moved the junk from one place to another.....sigh).  I painted the walls with Drylok to seal the walls.  I was told that a gallon or two would be sufficient to cover the walls that were underground.  Six gallons later....

I decided that this would be the place for the bathroom and the wet bar.  To me there was no point in having a small hallway to the side of the stairs with a small room against the foundation walls.  Therefore, the bathroom goes in corner and the wet bar goes on the other side of the wall.  That way I could keep the pipe in the wall and the flush valve hidden, though accessible.

I framed the basement with my brother-in-law and a couple of others, with all required permits, of course.  This next phase actually went really fast.  It was amazing how quickly the basement renovation went from an abstract concept to visible reality.  I could suddenly see how the basement would look.  You can see the plumbing and electric in the wall, both of which I outsourced to licensed contractors - Willoughby Plumbing and Hammand Electric.  Both companies did a great job and were professional.  I have to admit, however, that I was a bit stunned at the price.  If any of my kids say that they want to be plumbers or electricians when they grow up, they have my blessing.

I can't believe that I didn't take a picture of the area after the drywall went up.  Perhaps I did and I just can't find the picture in the thousands of pictures that I took last year.  If I do find any, I'll update this post.

Funny story - I contracted a father and son team to do the drywall.  The father was like 80 and the son was probably near 50.  They said they'd be at our house at 7am.  No problem.  I leave for work early.  That morning, I went for a jog at 5:45 am and when I got back at 6:15 am, they were sitting there in the truck.  I said they could come in and get started.  They asked if they could come at 6:15 the next morning.  Sure, I didn't care.  The next morning, I was walking out the door to go for a jog at 5:45 am and sure enough they were sitting there on the street in their truck.  I told them to come on in.  I then told them they could come at 5:45 am.  Of course, the next day I awoke at 5:30 am, looked out the window, and they were sitting there waiting.  Apparently they like to get an early start.

I ordered Norcraft cabinets and a granite counter top from East Coast Stone in Dundalk.  Here's the cabinet story - I picked out the design of the door and chose cherry wood.  They gave me a quote and I thought it was ridiculous.  I then changed to a plain door and maple.  The price dropped by a few hundred dollars.  If I was going to spend that much, I might as well get what I want!

I designed the area to have high-end track lights shining on the cabinets to make it a point of focus.  I got a copper pin hammered sink with a copper faucet (I think - or it's just black).  I think it looks great and I'm really excited about it.

Here's a close-up of the sink and faucet.  The backsplash will come later this year.  I just love my new sink!!!  What do you think?