Framed basement walls question

[NewJeffCT]

Not sure how to phrase the Subject Line...

But, my wife and I have been looking at houses on and off for a few months now. Our daughter is getting close to school age and we would like to settle in a town with good public school systems.

One thing my wife has always dreamed of is either finishing a basement ourselves, or buying a home with an already nicely finished basement. (Well, neither my wife nor I are very handy, so we would be hiring somebody to finish the basement for us.)

But, we saw one house that we liked quite a bit that had a rather large walk-out basement. The people that lived there now had obviously planned to finish the basement themselves – the basement walls were all framed already. No sheetrock yet, no insulation or anything like that, no carpet on the floor & no ceiling yet. But, the wood frame is there and in place on top of the regular concrete. The rough plumbing is also in place for a bathroom there, and there is a separate room framed for a bathroom.

For my purposes, say the part we want to finish is 30’ x 30’, and the windows and door to the outside are already in place.

I am curious as to how much of the cost and end-work this takes out of the process. Is this like maybe 5% of the cost & time, or maybe a bit more? (Assuming nothing fancy, like a wet bar or a wall of built-in bookcases)

[Lautremont]

1. The framing's a big chunk of it, and wood is expensive,

so you're more than 5% of the way there, I'd say. As you say it depends how you want to finish it, but you're well on your way. (Don't forget the wiring - or maybe that's been done already.)

[NewJeffCT]

2. well, we haven't bought the house yet

It's just something that makes this house appealing, in that if we were planning on spending $30,000 to finish a basement and we can knock that expense down by $1,500 to $3,000 or more, it would be nice.

Thanks for the response.