As I've mentioned in the past, I've been looking at finishing my basement. Back in January I got my permit to begin work and I promptly built my first wall. This took quite a lot of time. It was only 10 feet, but I also had to install the crossbeams so I could tie it in.

I also went out and bought a real framing hammer, since my crappy little hammer wasn't doing the job. I went from taking 10+ swings to drive a nail in to either 2 or 3... it was fantastic.

That first wall isn't actually shown on the above drawing. It is the invisible wall next to the treadmill on the bottom left. It hooks up into the door that goes to the outside.

After I got that wall up I didn't do anything for the next couple months. Cold weather kept me holed up and not wanting to do anything. Last weekend I finally had enough and put up the 'back' wall. Knowing it took me a full day to do a 10 foot (3.3 meters) section, I was a bit hesitant about buying enough wood to do two 12 foot sections (4 meters), but figured if I didn't get it all done, it wouldn't be an issue and I could keep going through this weekend.

Friday night I moved everything out of the way and Saturday morning I went and bought the wood. In the US, each stud has to be 16" on center (~40.6 cm), so for each 12 foot section, I needed 10 studs. I left the hardware store with 20 studs, two 2x4x12 treated and four 2x4x12 untreated pieces of wood. I nailed the topboard in and within about 5 hours I had built both walls and stood them up. On the basement drawing, this is the blue wall on the left side. It actually extends into the laundry room by about 3 feet.

Note: I hadn't actually put these in place yet... just didn't take a picture afterwards...

This past weekend I built the front wall. (Right on the diagram). This was a bit wonky. Our main sewage line goes down the wall there, so I had to built this in two sections. One is exactly 12 feet and is offset by about a foot to clear the pipe. The other one is offset by 7 inches (which is the standard width I'm using to get off the walls and insulation).

So that's what I've done so far. Back in January right after getting my permit, I wrote up a schedule of when I was going to do everything. I think this weekend I was supposed to be putting in the floors... so I'm about 10% of where I wanted to be. Oh well.

Next weekend if everything goes well, I should be done framing all of the exterior walls. I have about 36 more feet to go if I don't want to frame behind the washer/dryer (Or should I say, if my wife will let me not do that... haha).

Then I need to frame around my duct work... which should be a royal pain in the ass. And frame out the dividing wall.

I've already placed an order with Monoprice for 1000 ft (333 meters) of Cat 6 cable and a ton of electric boxes and covers. My dad's coming down in early April to help me get electrical run (I need to hire a certified electrician to plug everything in, but I'll save a serious amount of cash if I run the wires myself). Then it's drywall and flooring and then done! I've spent a total of $312 on this so far. (Although most of that has been gift cards I've gotten for my birthdays and christmas). Drywall will be about $700 and electrical (including all wiring) will be about another $300 (plus hiring an electrician).

Still unsure about flooring yet. Carpet is $4-$8 a square foot. Tile is ~$4 and wood I haven't really looked into yet. The flooring cost will probably be between $2000 and $3000. Admittedly, I don't really care about the floors anytime soon... so that will be my absolutely last priority.

Total cost is estimated at $3792.42 (I have a spreadsheet). I'm under budget so far by about $10. Yay for 'contractor' rates at my local home improvement shop! Considering the estimates I got from companies were between $20,000 and $30,000, I'm quite fucking happy.