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Here is a link that might be useful: Basement photos

I like your choice for the paint color.

In photos 5 & 6, I see a brown door with white trims on one part of the wall. Is that the electric panel? What did you used to cover it?

I would appreciate the help.
Sofia.

Sofia,
Yes, that is the electrical panel. Here is the story with that: the contractor first covered it by cutting down a hollow core door (same as he used for the closet door--white with the panels). It looked really bad up there. I had the idea of turning it into a cork board for my kids' art projects. I ordered thick cork (in a big sheet) from a place on line, and my contractor attached it to a piece of plywood and then attached the plywood to the door. He trimmed it with quarter round, and there you have it. I am not sure why he put the white molding around the whole board, Frankly, it's not really necessary and might look even better removed. I'm still trying to decide. I may paint the quarter round a fun color (like red) for the kids. Their art table is below, so I think it will look "planned" to have a cork board above it.

Hope that helps!

Looks great.. Did you use the same carpet tiles for the steps? How did that work out for you?

Thanks!

No, no carpet tiles on the steps. It wasn't recommended, and now that I've worked with them, I'm not sure how we would have been able to do that well. We had stair carpet installed. It's also a frieze. We just brought a carpet tile into a carpet store and matched it up as well as possible. It's certainly not a perfect match, but if you weren't looking for it, you probably wouldn't notice.

You have a very nice basement. The play area will most likely confine toys to one space rather than throughout the house.

Ours is more for entertainment than family as we are empty nesters now. Your pocket doors are a nice touch. We used French doors to get wide openings because internal wall space was not available for pockets. And the sconce is nice too - something overlooked by most. We still have to build the bath - probably another winter before tackling that.

Enjoy the space.

First congrats and good choice , TOTO all the way babe!

What was your criling hieght and what is it now?

Your stiars, did they turn like they before or did you construct them like that? Can that only be done with higher height basements?

Good job with sheetrocking in the windows, I always wondered how it looked because my windows are like that too.

Super work, and what was your estimate on the job?

Isn't it nice to have all that extra space? Love the cork board idea and the pocket doors and the bath turned out beautiful!

We used the Legato carpet squares in the playroom and the gym and I was really happy with them. The only problem is my 5 year old knows how they are and will pull them up so he can draw on the concrete with his chalk!

I like the paint and carpet color. Would you please tell me the name of both colors.
thanks

Thanks for the nice comments.

To answer some of the questions:

ekoreilly: the ceiling height is almost 8' (maybe 2" shy). We had a lot more height in some areas, but large heat runs would have had to be boxed, and they would have gone down the center of each room. So we sacrificed the extra 8 inches to have a level ceiling. It feels nice and high down there, especially for a basement.

Yes, the stairs originally took that turn. We had to have them redone, though, because the landing was too narrow (once the drywall was up). The rise of each step was left the same, but the tread was cut down 1 inch/stair to allow for a reaonably-sized landing. We technically may be breaking code on the staiar tread. It may be something like 7/8 inch too narrow. But the inspector didn't notice, and it feels quite safe walking up and down.

The estimate (which included the whole bathroom minus some of the fixtures) was approximately $40 K--maybe a few thousand more in the end with changes/upgrades. This included digging a sanitary pit for the bathroom. It's a little more than we originally hoped to spend, but we really wanted to get the bathroom done at the same time. We did paint and carpet ourselves.

legardhome: that's reallly amusing (re: your 5 year-old and the carpet tiles. I think my 5 year-old knows they are tiles, but he hasn't tried to pick any up. My 3 year-old would be the one who wants to chalk on the floor. Shhh. Don't give him any ideas.

baoknguyen: thanks. We like the colors too. The paint color is Benjamin Moore's Monroe Bisque. It's 100% downstairs and 50% in the stairwell. We used a flat finish, which I already regret. I very much wish we'd went with either scrubbable matte or eggshell. The walls are looking bad already, and we've only been using the space for 3 weeks. The carpet panels are Miliken Tesserae Spectrum, and the color is called Snowflake.

I have been researching for what seems like forever about tesserae. I have found so much conflictin info about it and the carpet cushion. I did manage to get samples of the tesserae esentials and found the padding to be not that great. I'm having medical problems, which started shortly after moving into my home which has hardwood and ceramic tile. in regards to comfort and cushioneyness, how would you say the spectrum compares to traditional broadloom carpeting? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
I find the Spectrum pretty cushy. we have ours right over concrete. It's maybe a slightly less cushy than traditional carpet, but that depends on the pad used under the broadloom, of course.

We looked at the Essentials first and were underwhelmed. I agree with you entirely--that pad was so-so at best. The Spectrum is better. See if you can order a sample from somewhere, and you'll feel better about it.