The basement - what would we do without it? Most American homes (sorry, Texas!) are built on soil conditions that permit a full depth basement, and builders have been routinely constructing them on new homes since the turn of the last century. For most of its existence, the lowly basement was a place for the laundry or storage but over the years builders have been installing improvements in drainage, water proofing, and larger windows, all in an effort to make the space an integral part of the living space of the house. Today, it is very common here in the Chicago suburbs for builders to offer a fully finished basement as part of new construction.
In my case, my home was built in 1983 and includes a full basement under two thirds of the house (the other third is a half-depth crawlspace with a concrete floor. Odd: why didn't the builder dig out the extra four feet??). Anyway, when we bought the house about five years ago, the basement was still unfinished and full of possibilities. After living in the house for four years, my wife and I decided that it was time to finish the space. Here is the story of our basement project. Fortunately, like the other home remodelling projects that I have done over the past ten years, it went fairly smoothly - yes, we did exceed the budget (but not by very much) and it did take longer than planned to finish (also not by very much), but in the end it turned out very well and is becoming our favorite room in the house.
Read on for how we planned this project, the step-by-step construction process, and the end result!