So, as some of you may know me and SWMBO emmigrated to Canada back in July '07. We purchased a house in December '07. One of the great things about houses in Canada is that they have basements which are a nice blank canvas to develop into a cool media/games/kids playpen/storage/bar/party area. We decided we would have a bash at doing ours so this is what happened......

First of all, welcome to our basement. As you can see, one big open space of approx 900sq ft that sits about 2ft below ground level (or below grade as they call it here).

The basement holds all the plumbing, heating, electrical and networking (cable/internet) for the house so in some ways is the nerve centre. All the ground plumbing is below the basement floor to guard against the cold and the heating system is forced air through ductwork and vents in the floor for upstairs and ceiling for the basement. The basement is sat in a large concrete lined hole to which the wood framed house is built on, its then insulated and studs run every 24" or so. the ceiling height is 8'.

this view is looking towards the front of the house

this view shows the stairs up to the main floor and some of the heating ductwork

this shows the heating system or "furnace". the white object is the hot water tank, 50gal.

facing the rear of the house, soon to be the focal point of the project. for reference that end wall is 14' wide.

more to follow in the next few days, any questions/comments etc, feel free!

Mark

Edited 21 October, 200916 yr by m17rkj

Fantastic development opportunity there. I'd be straight in there measuring where the projector screen and HD projector would fit

I wish I had that space to do something!

Good luck with it

Fantastic development opportunity there. I'd be straight in there measuring where the projector screen and HD projector would fit

funny you should mention that

its actually very nearly finished, it just takes a while to upload pictures and write it all down.

plenty more to come

Mark

Nice. I've seen quite a few Canadian 'dens' like this - uber cool

Look forward to the finished results Mark

Steve

I would love a space like that - Good luck and keep the thread updated

Next installment...

So next we had to work out a plan of exactly what we wanted to do with the space, as you can see in the plan (complete with approval stamp!) the area layout works quite well as it is, just a few stud walls to put up and you're away.

The main plan was always to have a media room with projector, a bedroom (labelled as "study" on the plans for legal reasons ) a bathroom with shower and a storage area,

A bar would be nice too

Plans all approved it was down to work

First off, get the plumbing roughed in for the toilet, shower and sink unit. There is already black water and grey water hook ups in the basement floor when the houses are built but unfortunately the grey water for the shower had to be moved into the correct position, hence the hole in the floor! a plumber friend got lumbered with this job for copious amounts of beer and a bit of cash as he had all the tools for the job and considerably more know-how than I.

The large black flexi pipe hanging from the ceiling is a rough in for the extractor fan. That came with the house.

So the first stage plumbing done it was down to the stud walling, framing as they call it here. It was decided that 4x2 was the way to go so it was off to The Home Depot with ny buddy's truck to fetch the wood

and in through the window

So up went the framing with much help from an expat geordie named Andy who just happens to be a chippy

small storage room and bathroom done

ductwork boxed in by lowering the ceiling about 10"

bedroom walls up

ceiling lowered in bedroom, again to accommodate the ductwork. ceiling height now 7'

More to follow!

Mark

Edited 22 October, 200916 yr by m17rkj

Looking good so far.

Great to see it finished.

Thats a huge space you've got.

Though cant shake the feeling of a horror movie set, Is the electrical breaker box down there:D

Wow! This is brilliant mate!

Ah, the good old basement dwelling regs

Good to see it coming on Mark. Is this 'live' or have you finished everything and are keeping us waiting for the finished article?

Steve

its pretty near finished, the carpet is going down on saturday and the rather large sofa is being delivered next tuesday so yes, I'm keeping you guys in suspense

Mark

- ah well, we'll let you off.

Not as if we can just pop in for a look is it?! And I don't even know anyone in Calgary anymore; they've all moved back to Van

Steve

It's huge!

Episode 3 Arrival of the Electrics

So the framing all done time to turn to the electrics. Enter Jay, a Jamaican from London who just happens to be pretty handy with domestic electrics and and mad as a box of frogs to boot.

I took this opportunity to map out some lighting plans in my head and put up some cable carriers for the AV system. some vacuum tubing i had kicking around came in very handy for this enabling cable replacement in the future if needed.

power for the projector and HDMi/component cable installed

and same at the other end where the AV amp, PS3, cable PVR and our multi region DVD player will live.

The spotlights were hung in rough position ready for the ceiling to go up and the wall sockets were mounted every 8ft to building code (they don't like people using extension leads!)

4 gang dimmer for the media room spots and sidelights and a thermostat to control the electric skirting board heater

all the spots are GU10 halogen units with silver bezels for the media room and white for the bedroom (sorry, study:D )

Next time the ceiling goes up and a moment of panic! stay tuned!

Mark

Edited 23 October, 200916 yr by m17rkj

Looking great

Steve

Amazing work there!

WOW Mark - I had no idea of the scale of this space - looking excellent.

Hopefully I'll do the same one day.

Good luck.

Lee

Now, Apart from the kitchen you've managed to render the rest of your house completely pointless:D

Now, Apart from the kitchen you've managed to render the rest of your house completely pointless:D

ah well, nevermind!

Mark

Quality Thread

Episode 4, Ceiling.

All the lights in position, time to start on getting the ceiling up, what fun....

this was possibly the worst part of the whole project, 8x4 sheets of plasterboard, lots of screws and enough colourful language to make Gordon Ramsay proud

But with the assistance of SWMBO and a custom made prop we battled through

65 sheets of 8'x4' plasterboard, or 'drywall' as they call it here. enough to do the walls too

then up it went

so with all the lights in position we decided to power them up from the board and give them a test. one whole lighting circuit didn't work, gutted. we had visions of having to take the ceiling back down to find the fault but fortunately our sparky friend found a small earthing fault at the switch, panic over:hooray:

Next time, walls!

Mark

Edited 26 October, 200916 yr by m17rkj

It looks even bigger!

Top work!

Brilliant. The amount of plasterboard there gives some idea of the den scale!

Steve

Den? :eek: Its bigger than our house!!!

It must be great having such a blank canvas to play with too. Should be epic when finished!

Very nice. As said above the rest of your house apart from the kitchen is redundant.