Sunday, December 30, 2012

How much would it cost to finish a basement?

Q. I just bought a house and was wondering if someone has a rough idea how much I'd have to spend finishing a basement. I already have a toilet and everything in the basement. It's not too big. About the size of a large living room and a big bedroom - sorry, don't know the dimensions yet. I wanted to either put a carpet or titles so the kids can have a bi playroom. It's just an idea. Thanks guys!

A. We spent $1500 for good-quality basement wall-to-wall carpeting (and liner) for about a 20' x 20' area of floor plus steps to the first floor. We use the area for our exercise equipment. Our new sump pump, plus backup safety and battery (which we got after learning the hard way that, just because the basement of your 11 yo home has never flooded before doesn't mean it won't flood if there's a big storm and the power goes out) cost $650. My husband did some nice overhead lighting, plus he partitioned off a wall and put in 2 louvered french doors to separate off the storage area for I think about $400. We'll ultimately put in a ceiling.

You can, of course, do it much less expensively. But the critical factor to keep in mind about a basement living area is, "Is it inviting?" If it's not inviting, then you and your family won't use it. Speaking for myself, carpeting was a must--tile would have been too cold and too hard for my tastes, especially since I'm most comfortable being barefoot.


how should I decorate this room. It is a 4 in one room?
Q. I mean it is my toddlers daughters main bedroom/ older kids 13 nd 11 and her playroom/ guest room and my office. I want it to be fun for her but mature enough for guests and nice for me too. But allow her imagination to come into play. It is light yellow at the moment but I planning on turning it light pink. I just do not know what to do. Any suggestions would be great.

A. I have an idea...I just ordered wall art from Phogos. Phogos is a company that makes custom wall art from your own digital camera. Maybe a family picture on your wall of everyone would be nice? There are some great ideas here http://www.phogos.com


How do I hook up two analog phones together as a toy for my child?
Q. I want to use two of our old telephones as a toy for our daughter and her friends. I want one of the phones to be in her playroom and one to be in her bedroom. This way she and her friends can be in different rooms and have a "real" phone conversation. My father did this for me when I was a child but I cannot remember how he did it. I only remember that he used "D cell" batteries. Does anyone know how to accomplish this and can give detailed directions on how to put the system together? Thanks.

A. This is pretty simple.

You need a stack of at eight D batteries connected in series - we are connecting the phones in series, so each phone will see six volts this way.

You can buy battery holders at Radio Shack that are all set up to connect the cells in series - this means each cell's positive terminal (the tip on the top) goes to the next cell's negative terminal (the flat bottom). This will give you a total of 12 volts.

If there are cords coming out of the phones, they probably include red and green wires - these are your connection points. If the phones have modular jacks, get a modular jack to baseboard adapter - this will have four screw terminals, red, green, black, and yellow. Again you need the red and green points.

If it's an old phone with no wire hanging out and no modular jack, take the cover off and look for a block with a whole bunch of screw terminals on top. This is the "425-B network." Two of the terminals are labeled L1 and L2. These are your connection points. I believe L1 is red and L2 is green, but I couldn't swear to it - anyway it won't matter.

The connections go like this:

From phone 1's red wire to the negative terminal of the battery pack

from the positive terminal of the battery pack to phone 2's green wire

from phone 2's red wire to phone 1's green wire

and that's it.

Yes, that's really all there is.

Except that i may have the polarities reversed; it's been a while - but this matters little (keep reading).

Of course dialing won't work, and the phones won't ring (that takes about 90 volts AC at about 20 Hz), and there will be no dial tone - all that stuff is provided by the central office. Your kids will just have to know to pick up the two phones.

If they're touch tone phones and you want the tones to work, first, the tones will not work unless both phones are off-hook. take both phones off hook and try some buttons on one phone- if the tones don't work, then just reverse its wires (red for green). Do the same test at the other phone. In fact, test both at the same time - if they both don't work, just reverse the connections to the battery.

Conversely if you don't care about the tones, then polarity doesn't matter. In that case polarity doesn't matter; it's just

either wire of phone 1 to one end of the battery pack
the other end of the battery pack to either wire of phone 2
the other wire of phone 2 to the other wire of phone 1

Have fun!


What would you do with this extra space in your home?
Q. We have a double parlor, the first half being slightly bigger than the second. In the bigger section, we have set up our living room, but we are clueless as to a great use for the second space. We have a formal dining room, we have a playroom for our kids, we have a sunroom for reading a book or having a cup of coffee, we have a seperate office..... what could we do with this space?
just to clarify, this isn't its own room, its part of a larger room and essentially part of our living room

A. From your question I am guessing that it is an open floor plan and there is no dividing door that you can close between the two spaces. That does produce a quagmire. You don't want it to appear as a place of clutter with sewing or crafts, nor would it be appropriate for a bedroom.
You could possible do an office space. Have built in bookshelves and a nice desk. Actually, I have a similar situation, the room being divided only by a fireplace. I choose to keep it as an extension of the living room. On one side I have a formal living room with leather furniture, the fireplace, grandfather clock, the works. The other side has large windows that face a river view, for that reason I choose a fabric love seat, a comfy chair and a piano and a few other musical instruments. I entertain a lot so I appreciate having the space open for my guests to mingle and not feel closed in. If you could do a music room that would be wonderful. If you don't play the piano, now may be a good time to learn. My mom began piano lessons at the age of 60 and she loved it. I play the piano my husband the violin and my son plays the violin, guitar and banjo. We have another son who has not developed an interest in playing an instrument.





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