Basement Build Log - Part 4

Above you have the current state of the basement. Got the closet walls done, as well as the last wall in the office. Other than that I just have the half-wall for the bar and a good bit of soffit work to do. That turns out to be a good thing to have not yet done. The cable I will need to run to put in an auxiliary circuit box it pretty thick (2 gauge), and will be much easier to run without a bunch of soffit studs in the way. I did make it to Lowe's to get the 2x2s for the remaining soffits.



Good friend of mine (with a good knowledge of all things electric) came down today to help plan out the outlets and lighting. One thing I was disappointed in with the last house was the lighting. We found some guidelines that said ~3 watts per square foot. We settled on 12 lights all at 100-150 watts. it's considerably more than I put in the last house, hopefully it works well. The above picture has rough layouts of the outlets and lights. I didn't honestly feel like measuring the pixels out, so they are not exact. Red = outlet. Blue = light. Green = switch. (Groupings below.) The new circuit box is going to be 100 amps and will be placed on the exterior wall nearest the water heater. The 2 gauge cable to link it to the main box will be ~65'. All the calculations said we were very close to being able to use 4 gauge, but recommended 3 gauge... we're going to go 1 better for good measure.

Some of the outlets are high outlets (especially in the bar area). One of the outlets in the bar area will be on a circuit by itself, that will serve the garbage disposal, and hopefully the ice maker. Both of those said to not use a GFI and both recommend them being on their own circuit. Hopefully they will be fine on the same circuit together. If the inspector turns me down on it, it's only another 15' cable run to give each a dedicated circuit. Won't be a big deal, and I'll likely have 15+' of cable left over anyway.



The red blobs represent the outlet circuits for the basement. The odd, sideways T-shaped circuit in the middle that covers the office, bathroom and theater room a little bit is mostly existing outlets. The existing basement runs off a single switch. There are 6 outlets and 6 lights on that switch. We're going to be removing all of the lights completely and adding 1 switch in the bathroom over the counter. The rest of the circuits will be completely new, I'll lay them out below.

Media Cabinet (20 amp)
- 6 outlets, maybe more just in case

Theater room walls (15 amp)
- 6 outlets

Bar, exterior walls (15 amp)
- 6 outlets, 2 will eventually be covered by cabinets, 3 will be above the cabinets, 1 will be off to the side to meet code

Bar, Sink peninsula (15 amp)
- 3 outlets, 1 will eventually be covered by cabinets, 2 will be above the cabinets

Bar, garbage disposal / ice maker (15 amp)
- 1 dedicated circuit for these 2 devices, this is the only one that will not be GFI'd

Office (20 amp)
- 7 total outlets, 3 on the front wall for the 2 computers to use; 2 on left wall to meet code; 2 more on the right wall to use for the computers temporarily until we have out final office desk.

Bath (15 amp)
- Adding just 1 outlet over the counter to the existing basement circuit



The blue blobs are the lighting circuits. The office, bathroom and 2 storage areas will be on 1 circuit. The bar and theater room will be on a 2nd circuit. The switch groups will be detailed below.



The green blobs represent the switch groups. The theater, the foyer and the office will all be 3-wayed. The back door will have a 2 switch panel on the right, 1 switch for the foyer; 1 for the theater room. There will be another 2 switch panel on the left at the entrance to the bar; 1 switch for the overhead light, the other for the middle outlet above the counters in the back of the bar. I hope to have a set of glass shelves back there to display bourbon bottles on, with a light underneath, this would let me control that light with a switch... this will be the only switched outlet. The other switch for the theater room will be near the media cabinet. The other switch for the foyer will be just inside the foyer from the office doorway. The 2 switches for the office will be: 1 in the stairwell (existing) and 1 just inside the office from the foyer doorway. Switches for the bath, and 2 storage areas will be just inside and to the left of the door to each area.

Basement Build Log - Part 3

I put in a new wall in the bathroom, ~12-13 inches away from the concrete. The finished wall needs to be 12" from the center of the toilet rough-in. Currently the new wall is 11.75" from that. Needless to say, I fucked up, and will now have to move that wall. That's going to be a pain in my ass.

I also put in the free-standing wall between the bar area and the water heater. The bar area looks a LOT smaller than I was picturing in my head. I think it'll be fine though. I put in an opening for a 36" door in that wall. I don't think it's going to open inward very well though, unless maybe I get a double-door-type thing, so that it really has 2 - 18" doors opening inward. Will just have to see.

Oh, I also finished the soffit along the exterior wall in the office. That sucked too, and it was the easiest of all the soffits I have to do. I also started on the soffit in the bathroom, just nailed in the runners for now though. I got my new computer in, so it's hard to focus on manual labor.

Basement Build Log - Part 2

First real update. The pic at the top is the current state of the basement. Mostly it's just some stud walls put in. I backed off my original plans for the media cabinet. Originally I was going to have another small (4' x 4') square room by the stairs (where the angled wall is above) and the components would be open to the back of the house, and a door would be on the right side for access to the back of the components. Would also have been putting the circuit breaker for the basement there, that will be in the closet by the bar now.

The Media Cabinet Plans:

The plan is to have a 24" rough opening, which will be about 22" once finished. There should be room for at least 17" of depth as well. Not sure whether I will leave the back open or not. If I leave it open, I'll put a line of outlets on the existing stud wall directly behind the opening. If I close it off, I'll have to put the outlets IN the cabinet somewhere. I really think I'd rather have it closed, but not sure I'll be able to squeeze so many outlets in there andstill have the shelves be adjustable. Will have to ponder that some.

The Wet Bar:
And here are the bar plans. The yellow represents granite counter tops. The ice and sink are as close to the water heater as possible. I still need to get a plumber out here to make sure everything that's needed is nearby, I think it is. There appears to be a drain going down into the concrete on the other side of the HVAC.

The wall around the back of the bar and going halfway out the side will only be a half wall. It's necessary to cover the ~3' tall concrete wall there. It may also have to be extended to about a foot from the door, to cover the ~2' tall wall. In fact, that's likely. I'm hoping 36" or 32" is plenty of walking space around the bar itself. I think it will be.

The wall through the middle of the front countertops will obviously be the backer for the cabinetry in the front, and the support for the bar-height area on the outside. (Left side countertop will be counter-height, right side will be bar-height.) I may well end up making this wall out of 2"x6"s so it's more stable. It will definitely be attached to the concrete with 2 concrete screws per stud opening instead of 1 nail per opening. May also cover the front of the wall in 0.5" plywood to help it not wobble. Very worried about this wall being stable if you can't tell. ;-)

I'm still pondering whether to make the door to the HVAC/water heater area a pocket door. It'd be nice, but it'd also be a PITA and possibly unnecessary.

You'll also notice a small closet just to the right of the HVAC/water heater area. It'll be a low ceiling closet. And I may well put a large access panel in the back to help in removing the HVAC, if that ever needs to happen. Again, that may be unnecessary.

Some actual pics:
- 2nd picture is the media cabinet, I think maybe I didn't make the opening go up high enough, thoughts?
- 6th picture i sthe main water valve for the house. I took this picture to illustrate how I offset the stud wall from the concrete wall, so that the valve would be completely inside the wall. Thus, I can avoid building a complex buttress-like structure around it like I did at the old house.

Basement Build Log - Part 1

I'm several weeks into finishing the basement on my new house, and thought I'd start a build log. I've really only done about 1/2 of the stud walls so far, so I'm not too far into the process.

The above picture is a crude representation of the basement as it was when I moved in. The brown area in the middle are the stairs. The black areas in the bottom-left corner room are the HVAC and the water heater and associated pipes, etc. The dark gray areas all around are various obstacles, most of them are the ductwork or I-beams running across the ceiling; the small circles in the small room at the top are the bathroom rough-in pipes in the floor. The green areas at the bottom are the double doors and windows on the back of the house. The small blue rectangle in the top-left room is the main water shutoff valve for the house.

The plan is as follows: The top-left room will be the office. The top-middle area will be split into a bathroom and a storage closet. The bottom-middle room will be a wet bar, with a bit of storage next to the water heater. And the bottom-right room will be a home theater, with the screen on the rightmost wall. I'm going to put in a media cabinet in the corner of that room, attached to the stairs.

That's it for now, will update with some progress soon.