Last winter we finished the first half of the basement family room because I was returning to work after my maternity leave and I needed a relatively clean space to work with a backdrop that wasn’t our brown waterproofing membrane.
With another winter coming our way, we decided to push forward with the rest of the family room and finally finish the basement so we could have extra playing space for the kids and a nice tv room for us!
We had some outstanding plumbing and electrical work to finish, but once it was done, we were ready to frame, drywall and finally close up all of the walls and ceiling.
Once we were ready for framing, we all went to Home Depot and got a bunch of 2x4s. And everything – plus all the kids – fit in the van!
Framing was relatively easy since I didn’t have any complicated things to frame around except the future window and our electrical panel.
Alex then went to work and install all of the electrical boxes and did a final check that all of our plumbing and electrical were done so we could close up the walls.
It was very quick to install the insulation since our walls are 8 feet and simply require 2 pieces of insulation per stud space. I also installed pieces of wood behind the studs to keep the insulation from falling into the gap behind the studs. Everything is so much easier when it’s newly built. The Rockwool in the ceiling was a bit more trouble because our joist spaces aren’t the same.
To cover the electrical panel, I ordered a flush hatch door, similar to the one I used to cover our water meter. One lesson I learned from installing this previously was that it’s really finicky to fit the frame inside the drywall so I left it in the wall before I installed the drywall boards so I wouldn’t have to fight with it.
Once the drywall was up, I taped and mudded the walls and ceiling and it was really starting to take shape.
After 6 days of sanding and mudding, the walls were finally done!
I primed the new drywall and then painted to match the rest of the room.
The only part of the room that remains unfinished is a small 2-foot gap where our new window will be installed.
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