Rebirth of the “Man Cave” Basement Remodel Project

Our Complete
Basement Remodel
Project

Of all of our renovation, makeovers, upgrading, whatever you want to call it, the basement remodel project in our old house was the largest that we completed.

I suppose this was because it was the biggest room in the house. But the fact that the basement remodel project was the rebirth of the “man cave” I think gave Kevin some extra motivation!

Looking at all of the pictures on my phone of our old basement makes me miss our old flooring more than anything. This is definitely something that is on our current house project to-do list and something that we will be doing soon!

Where The Basement Remodel Project All Began

What the basement looked like when Kevin bought the house before I was even in the picture!

As I started documenting our finished basement project, I realized that I didn’t really have a good “before” photo.

First, I looked through all of Kevin’s Google photos, and of course, I found zero helpful pictures.

Then I decided I would try to google and find the listing photos from when Kevin bought the house, and voila, I found one!

Though a little grainy and dark, it was the best I could find.

Basement Remodel
To-Do List

This was actually quite a long list and definitely a project that was completed over time.

– Paint The Walls
– Paint The Wood Paneling
– Replace The Window Sills & Paint Them White
– Frame Out All The Windows
– Install New Faux Wood Blinds
– Install New Drop Ceiling
– Add Recessed Lighting
– Install New Doors
– Paint Current Bi-Fold Doors To The Utility Room/Laundry Room White
– Install New Flooring
– Install New Baseboards
– New Wooden Box To Cover The Breaker Box

Time To Start Tackling The “Man Cave”

Starting From The Top And Working Our Way Down.

The basement initially had lots of issues and needs of repair, to say the least. I would say the biggest issue that we tackled was the new drop ceiling and recessed lights.

Initially, the basement had only one light installed in the whole space. So to say that it was beyond dark down there was an understatement.

Basement Remodel – Drop Ceiling & Lights

This made a world of difference in the room. However, when we added lights, we could see more clearly all the other things we needed to complete.

So one of the first projects we completed down in the basement was to replace the dilapidated drop ceiling and add two recessed lights to each side of the room

We replace the whole ceiling from the hanging wires and metal grid to the ceiling tiles. There was a point in the process where there were just metal wires hanging from the ceiling. It gave off a meat-freezer vibe. Though there was no meat or coldness, of course, it was kind of creepy.

My father-in-law helped with installing the lights. It is always nice to have an electrical engineer in the family when you have wiring projects! I know Kevin has learned a lot from all of his Dad’s help with all the wiring projects he did, in our old house.

Painting The Walls And Wood Paneling

A Little Paint Makes A Huge Difference.

So once the new drop ceiling and recessed lights were installed, it was time to work on the walls. The basement initially had unfinished wood paneling on the bottom half of the walls. We decided that we liked the idea of keeping the wood paneling and painting it white.

This was definitely a project because we had to go through and fix some of the boards and sand all of them. Then we primed and painted them white. It was quite a project, but it turned out really nice. Once we were done painting the paneling, we added a white chair rail, which made a world of difference.

We decided on a burnt orange-red color for the top portion of the walls. This is somewhat of a comprises on my end because we changed the master bedroom color from an orange color that Kevin had initially painted to a darker gray color. So I decided that I could live with an “orangish” color against the white in the man cave.

Bye Bye Indoor/Outdoor Carpet, Hello Nice New Wood Laminate

I think the new flooring was my favorite change we made!

Once the walls were done, it was onto the floors. The initial flooring that was down there was a horrendous blue-speckled indoor/outdoor carpet. It was beyond dated, stained, and just all-around gross. I didn’t even want to help carry the carpet out when we ripped it up, though I did!

We decided on flooring from Sam’s Club, which was the same brand of flooring that we had done in the living room upstairs. The color of wood that we settled on actually ended up going really well with the orange wall color we chose.

Related: Living Room Makeover – Our Top To Bottom DIY Project

This definitely took a significantly larger amount of boxes to complete because the basement was the biggest room in the house. Kevin definitely got to use his favorite “special” cuts to complete the installation.

The flooring absolutely turned out perfect, and just looking at the pictures makes me want new flooring in our new house even more.

Our Completed Basement Remodel Project

Finally, all of the tasks on our to-do list are completed!

We eventually, over time, completed everything on our to-do list. The basement was a complete NIGHT & DAY difference when we were done. This is quite fitting because when we started, there was one light, and when we were done, there were four.

I know that Kevin would gawk at my missing descriptions of all the projects that went into the remodel of the whole basement. The to-do list was quite large and I think a good gauge of most of the projects we did. Part of our basement remodel project was to also remodel the half bath which I have already documented.

The project as a whole turned out better than we planned, and it is definitely a room that we miss. Especially Kevin, since now, we don’t technically have a “man cave” area anymore. This means that the garage has turned into his “man cave” or place to escape!