We’ve been in our new house for a little over 4 years now. In that time we’ve landscaped the yard, painted all of the rooms, installed a fence, decorated, re-decorated, cleaned, cluttered and de-cluttered … and then it happened. My husband started finishing the basement.
It’s bad enough when your husband leaves for work before the sun comes up, and comes home long after it’s disappeared… but I had become a weekend widow to the cement walls beneath our happy home.
Then this past October, about 10 months into his project, our family got an unexpected surprise; we found out we’re having another baby. That’s #5 for anyone whose been counting. Together we decided that even though we are in the middle of a recession, finishing the basement couldn’t wait any longer, and I couldn’t afford to lose my husband for one more weekend!
I will warn you though, finding a contractor was not a pretty process. There was the good, the bad… and the just plain CRAZY!
Quotes for finishing our basement ranged from the reasonable to the insane. It seemed like the bigger the price tag, was an even bigger ego of the person giving the quote. One company quoted me $35K, and when I told him that was well beyond the budget we had in mind, he reduced his price by $15,000! He was obviously working with some very inflated numbers… in his very inflated head!
We opted for “reasonable” and we couldn’t be happier with the finished product, especially with the declining home values in the real estate market. I was really didn’t want to over spend on an investment that has no chance of being recouped in a market like this!
We chose to do our own painting and had a separate contractor install our carpeting which saved us quite a bit of money, and the additional sq. footage we added to our home is priceless. The two construction workers who completed the work in our house, Isaac and Mauricio, were professional, polite and most of all did great work.
If you’re in the market to finish the basement your own Plainfield home, I highly recommend Complete Remodeling and Painting Inc. They are licensed, insured, and bonded. Vice President Roger Wheeler came out to our house to price the quote for our home, and got back to us promptly with his estimate.
You can reach Complete Remodeling and Painting Inc at:
23915 W. Aero Ct. Ste 2
Plainfield, IL 60585
815-254-6997
Julie Ferenzi | Realtor®
Plainfield IL Homes
630-673-6233
