GREAT PHOTOS! Lisa is enjoying seeing what everyone else is doing with their similar rooms. We both thank you guys a LOT!

Beautiful rooms and ideas. Thanks so much.

barnwood walls look awesome lined with mounts. ill leave my suggestions at that.

i plan to do it as well use ceiling material that is easy to remove like a drop ceiling so if yo need to get to the floor above or pips for flood tile or concrete painted or a hardwood no carpet

on the wall make sure you insulate there is a spray foam insulation that you can put plaster of or just paint look up handi foam spray for the columns 1by4 or 1by6 or get a kit for the columns

another thought check your building codes most city's require a 2nd exit incase of fire be it a basement outside door or a special sized window

also there are other code you must follow and you must keep any combustible material 2 feet from the furnace

if you need any more info send me a pm i am remodeling my entire house and might be able to give you some points as to what to do and not to do

what i like about the basement is that it seems to stay cool in the Summer and not to hard to keep warm in the winter since most of it is under ground

Well,

Here's what I did..... (this might be long)

I needed an office (I run by business from home) so when I moved (about 5 years ago)I decided to split the basement into two rooms and make one half my office and the other a rec room for the family. I only had a half basement to work with as the rest is a concrete crawlspace, good for storage but nothing else. I laid it out so that the main load bearing "I" beam was hidden by the dividing wall between the two rooms. This also took care of the post problems, no support posts in the way.

I started by sealing the walls with a dry-Loc type paint. If there is one thing I hate, it's adamp basement! (I also go over board with sump pumps, back up pumps, and back up...back up pumps!!) Next I framed out the perimeter walls and the center wall. I then (with help from an electrician in the family) ran all of the conduit pipe and wires to all of the outlets, lights and switches.You can't have enough of them (outlets) so plan on a lot. I also ran the cable for the TV's and Internet as well as the phone lines. I then ran the rough plumbing for the service bar I was going to install.

After that was done, I framed out the doorswith 36in door openings. This is important as my furness, water heater, humidifier, etc.. are in the basement and I wanted to have enough roomto bring that stuff in, in case I needed to replace something down the road. I also needed to get some pretty big gun safes down the stairs and into the back room.

Next I installed the insulation, pretty straight forward, just roll it out, cut it to length and staple in place. I decided to insulate the interior divider wall because this would give me some quite while I worked if the kids were playing in the next room.

From there I started to hang the walls. I wanted to go with paneling as I like the look. It's important to get the good thick paneling otherwise the thin stuff will warp between the studs and look like crap. The thinner paneling is designed to go over drywall but I can't stand drywalling and I wanted paneling anyway so I just got the good stuff.

After that was done I cut, stained and installed all of the trim around the doors, windows, etc.... Theninstalled theoutlets, phone jacks, cable boxes, etc...

Next was the ceiling. First I plumbed the ducts for the central air then installed the ceiling. Again I was not about to do any drywall so I opted for a drop ceiling. This too is pretty straight forward and easy to install. Just take your time and make sure everything is level...peice of cake. After it wasup I installedmy air vents, main lights, can lights (over the bar and at the stair landing)andI was done with the ceiling.

I then put in the bar, had a company come in and install the carpetingand voilĂ* I was done!

It's not a big space, my office is 20x12 and the other side is 20x15. I had to leave some room in the back for my work bench, weights, freezer, gun safes...you get the picture, but it's plenty for me and the family.

Here are a few picks

My office:

Office..other side

Otherend.

That's the door to the back room, the door just to the left barely in the picture goes to the other side.

Close up of service bar.

Last one.....Other room(The wallbehind the couch divides the two rooms and hides the support poles and "I" beam)

The ceiling was a little tricky on this side as I had the main ducts (both forced and return air) to deal with.They hung lower than the height I wanted to keep the ceiling at.I ended up framing it out and covering it with paneling. I thought it added a nice touch.

That wall you see just starting at the right side of the picture is a closet I built. This also houses the electrical box, alarm system, sump pump, and cable hub. This way I can (and do) keep that door locked as well as the door to my office lockedso I don't have to worry about my kids (or their friends) getting into something they shouldn't when they go down to play.

Which brings me to why I didn't take a picture of the other side of this room......way too many toys all over the place.

The whole thing only cost me about $8,000.00 in materialsand took me exactly three weeks to complete. With the exception of the carpet, I did it all my self (little help with the electrical work).

Great work, John. Big question is.....I understand the supply.....but did you do the drain line for your bar sink, yourself? How did you tie it in? I have the treadmill/weights problem, too. How big is the space I'm actually looking at? I might have to leave my treadmill in my room when I'm finished. I think the weight center will fit into the new laundry area.

The paneling is a great look.....but likely more expensive than drywall (Lisa HATES paneling, though). I'll probably compromise (I like it) and hang drywall with some sort of wainscot.

Photos are great. Nice room