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Contractors for finishing basement

Discussion in 'Homeowners Corner' started by ssripada, Jul 19, 2004.

  1. BSWR

    BSWR New Member

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    JSM, we are in the process of looking for contractors to finish our basement, any update on your project? Thanks in advance..
     
  2. Hayes

    Hayes New Member

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    Hello,
    I live in Ashburn and am a professional home remodeler with a lot of basement experience. We have a class A general contractors license and may be able to assist you. Please give me a call at your convenience, which will probably be while we are all snowed in and lets talk.
    703-856-1840
     
  3. JSM

    JSM New Member

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    BSWR, so far so good with Blue Moon Construction. Flooring is next week and I hope to be 100% complete by V-day : - ).

    I'll write up a post once we're done... with PICs etc.
     
  4. SchwarzFamily

    SchwarzFamily New Member

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    Blue Moon just kicked off our project - framed out in 2 days. Flexible in working with our schedule. So far it's been excellent.
     
  5. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    ohhh PLEEASE keep us posted! we are also considering Blue Moon for a future basement project...
     
  6. SchwarzFamily

    SchwarzFamily New Member

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    You're welcome to come check out the work in progress. PM me if interested.
     
  7. JSM

    JSM New Member

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    Here is what we started with:

    Main area
    [​IMG]


    Exercise area
    [​IMG]


    My office
    [​IMG]


    We have a rough in for a full bath so we're getting that finished... there is space for a L shaped closet under the stairs so we're getting that done too.

    I'll post the finished work soon as JK and team are complete!
     
  8. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    i mentioned this to hubby and he thought i was cruel for dangling a carrot in front of him... lol Thanks thought Schwartz, we may take you up on it!

    JSM- LOVE the pics of the job in progress... i hope you keep posting!
     
  9. BSWR

    BSWR New Member

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    JSM, Schwartzfamily,
    thank you so much for the update.. please keep us posted... thanks again.
     
  10. JSM

    JSM New Member

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    Update: with all the snow last week, we are essentially delayed 1 week. So our goal to be done by Valentine’s Day for a special party didn’t happen. No worries though as we had to push the party out due to the snow anyways. Flooring should be this week and then final touches. Stay tuned for an update with pics.
     
  11. Zeratul

    Zeratul Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for keeping this alive. And did any of you who did this recently rely upon home equity loans for construction? With the drop in home values, it seems rather tough to get a loan right now. Obviously there are a lot of variables to financing but we hope to pay for most of ours with a "slush" fund and not use an equity loan if we can help it.

    And any of you doing any kind of Home Theater or entertainment system as part of your basements? We have room to do 1 bedroom, bath, exercise room, theater, game room and wine cellar... so I am trying to prioritize the expenses....
     
  12. SchwarzFamily

    SchwarzFamily New Member

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    We opened a HELOC years ago that I'll access if necessary, but hoping not to. Can't speak to current access to such financial vehicles.

    We're putting in a home theater-ish room that will double as a family room with storage for kids toys. Decided against a projector, as it would limit our storage and require us to keep the room dark (we have a walkout with several windows). All in, it was also more expensive than a flat panel. We're currently kicking around options for a fireplace, floor-to-ceiling built-ins flanking the flat screen, etc. Not sure where we'll end up. We did wire for 7.1 surround sound and put in a small media closet in our entry hall (recommended to keep component clutter out of the media room). Picked up a good deal on a surround sound system that's well rated and reasonably priced - http://reviews.cnet.com/home-theater-systems/onkyo-ht-s9100thx/4505-6740_7-33332676.html?tag=rnav. Tray ceilings with rope lighting were pretty cost effective and should also make for nice movie mood lighting. We're still looking for ideas on the design for this room, so any pics/thoughts are welcome.

    We added a 5th bedroom that I'll use as our excercise room, along with a full bar. The bar was pretty big and was by far the most expensive component. Between counters, cabinets, appliances, etc. we're in for $15k+ on that piece alone. My guess is a nice wine cellar will be less expensive, though I'm sure you can easily drop serious coin on it if you chose to.

    At the recommendation of our neighbors, we're including several pocket doors, including double pockets to the bedroom/gym. We're hoping it will make passage easier and open up the layout. It's pretty easy/cheap to do on an unfinished space - expensive to do once the dry wall is up.

    Other thoughts - be sure to drop a conduit in case you want to wire future components. we're also dropping an outlet/conduit to the center of the ceiling in case we ever want to add a projector in the future.

    Cheers,
    Jeremy
     
  13. Zeratul

    Zeratul Well-Known Member

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    Yea the bar... almost forgot about that expense... but it is a priority. I was guessing around $12K for the bar so I hope that works. Yea, I will wire all the spots I think I need, for 7.1 and CAT5. A media closet is a good way to go and I plan to do that as well. I plan to do some of the media stuff myself and I do hope to go with a projector and screen. Our movie room will be dark and I just really hope to have about a 120" screen. Yea I like the tray ceiling with the rope lights... on a dimmer control that should work well for lighting.

    I want to do more like a large wine cellar closet... with racks I install myself. There are some good resources for supplies online and the climate control will be easier if the room is not too big. I typically have 150-250 bottles... depending upon the level of thirst!

    Well, we are early in our planning stages so it will be good to see how some of these other projects go as well.

    And for what its worth, I did notice on your home theater equipment choice that the Onkyo receiver there only does 1080i video upconversion. It would be better in the long run to have a receiver that could do decent 1080p video upconversion... that way all your older DVDs "should" look much better and all your content would be given the full 1080p treatment. Just food for thought.... and actually as I looked at it some more, there seems to be contradictory information... later it says it does 1080p upconversion. You may want to look further into this.
     
  14. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    Do yourself a favor and use CAT6 instead...
     
  15. JSM

    JSM New Member

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    Jeremy,
    It sounds like you got JK and team busy working on a very nice basement :). For us, we’re keeping it simple: 1 large area for the kids (carpet), 1 smaller area to be used as an exercise room (carpet), 1 full bath (12x12 tiles), 1 closet underneath the stairs (carpet) and one “L” shaped room for my office (Pergo like flooring)… + cable TV and network wiring and my 8x4 dry erase board in my office. That’s pretty much it!
    I just got off the phone with JK (Blue Moon) and we should be going on final county inspection next week (probably Monday).
     
  16. JSM

    JSM New Member

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    Zeratul,

    We are not using a home equity loan - we used our "slush" fund as well :)

    I'll post the pics and a verbose update once we are done.
     
  17. boomertsfx

    boomertsfx Booyakasha!

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    I just re-purposed my projector from my man cave (before kids -- now it's a romper room :( ) to be our new MBR HDTV -- worked out well as we only watch TV there at night... nice having an 80" screen in bed!
     
  18. Zeratul

    Zeratul Well-Known Member

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    Yea Eric you are actually right... I really meant CAT6, just old habit writing that. I might try and set up a media NAS box in the new basement too... I think the Media Center in Windows 7 might do a decent job as my GUI on the screen for movie browsing... but I would need about 6-8 TB of storage if I tried to digitize the DVD collection.... someday.
     
  19. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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  20. MyCrosswind26

    MyCrosswind26 New Member

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    I hired NT Handyman Services 571-214-2937
    www.NTHandymanservices.com

    they are very good in what they are doing. they quoted me only $300 for hardwood floor installation which was very complex and need a lot of precision because it meet another area in the kitchen that already have floor tiles. they make sure they are the same level and smooth transition. they committed to deliver a good quality work even it tooks them longer than planned.
     

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