We are having our basement finished. We are undertaking no small project, might I add, and when you add up the costs, you could probably get a pretty nice car for what you pay to finish a basement. You could always cut corners and do it rather cheap but then, you get what you pay for. We decided we would do it right or not at all and so we went straight forward. In looking at companies, we did everything - I did the service magic thing but in the end, we narrowed it down to two companies whom we had referrals for. Both came highly recommended. I was comfortable with one company and my husband another. Since my husband is the more picky one of the two of us, we went with who he wanted. Frankly, I did not want to hear about it later when things went wrong - and they usually do :-)
The "sales" side of the construction company assured us the basement would be done in 3 to 4 weeks. WRONG! As anyone who is familiar with construction knows, that is never the case. If they tell you 4 weeks, assume double that and you won't be disappointed. At this point, 3 weeks into it, I will be happy if they are out of my home in August. Needless to say, things are going okay. The basement looks great thus far - the dry wall has almost been finished and soon, it will be time for the bigger items like the paint, the walls, and the fixtures and cabinetry. It is coming together nicely and I am looking forward to the end product but it is interesting picking out things like countertop laminates, lighting fixtures, and cabinet colors. A remodel can be exciting but also tedious. You get what you want but at the same time it is a little work too. You get to design and build and it is kinda neat to see it all go down. Let's hope they finish soon so we can get in there and enjoy it before summer turns to fall.
