I'm finishing my basement right now and am going to go with Zwave outlets for all the machines. There will be an iPad mounted in the wall running the app for my controller. Then it's just a matter of setting scenes for whatever I want to turn on. There will also be a list of all the machines so I can turn them on and off individually.

Everything but the theater is ready for drywall. I've been too busy to have them put me on the schedule.

Here is what I was quoted if it helps for your comparison. The theater is separate since it gets a double layer of 5/8" for soundproofing reasons.

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Looking good!!!

My drywallers just finished hanging yesterday and the finishers start on Friday.

Have you decided on flooring options yet? I'm hung up on if I want to go with a sub floor or not. It would run me $4,000+ just for the sub floor.

Thanks! It's a long road, but it's really starting to take shape. My dad and I have done everything (except drywall). We've been working on weekends since October. I'm hoping to have the main areas up and running in the next few months.

It's fun isn't it?

I was drilling through a stud and tagged a 110v line on the other side with the drill. It definitely hurt, that's for sure.

That's a lot of drywall to lug around. My guys went through 128 sheets, but 68 of them were 12 - 16' sheets.

Looking good! Have you started thinking about flooring?

I'm running out of money too.

Every time I turn around it's $700 here, $1,200 there. I don't think I can drive through Home Depot's parking lot without spending $200.

Actually, that is incorrect. I talked to two different agents from different agencies, they both told me that there is no way an insurance company can deny a claim because permits weren't pulled. To quote one agent, "Insurance covers stupid".

I didn't pull permits, but I did pay a licensed electrician and a licensed plumber to stop by and inspect my work. I also had the electrician make the final connections in the breaker box.

They really just want you to pull permits so they can reassess your house and jack up your property taxes. Eff them.

It looks great. My drywall guy is doing the finish sanding today and will be all done this afternoon. I picked up 10g of PVA primer from Sherwin Williams on the recommendation of my brother in law who is a painter by trade. I guess I'll be paining this weekend.

According to my real estate agent, no one cares about permits when you go to sell and I won't have any issues.

I'm so glad I didn't have to go that route. They take up so much space in the panel, are so expensive and according to my electrician can cause all sorts of issues. He said they like to false trip for no reason at all. I would have had to add a sub panel if I went the AFCI route because of not being able to use the double pole breakers.

Send him to my house when he's done there. My floor really needs mopped of all the drywall dust too.

I did 3 outlets on each 20a circuit in the game room so I was sure I'd have enough overhead for 6 pinball machines on each circuit. There were two circuits where I cheated and branched off for a TV, but these days they pull almost nothing.

In the other areas, you can pretty much do a room per 20A circuit, but code in my area is no more than 14 outlets on a single 20A circuit. I ran another 20A just for all my GFIs. I started in the bathroom and then branched off from there over to the bar, so there are only 5 outlets on that circuit. That way I can put one GFI at the start of the circuit and it will protect all the outlets down the line.

I'm installing a theater and ran two dedicated 20A outlets for all the equipment and the projector.

You're joking, right?

Looking great! I still haven't even picked out wall colors yet.

That unfortunate. I think LEDs are the way to go. I went that route and am very happy with them so far. A little on the expensive side, but nothing crazy.

Who needs furniture....we have pinball machines!!

My basement looked huge until we put up the walls, now, not so much. Takes forever to walk all the way around to grab a tool. We used to just walk through the studded walls to grab something.

I think, but don't quote me on this, that 20 amp outlets are tamper proof by default. It's the 15 amp where you have a choice.

I'm afraid if I moved anything into the basement before it was finished that I would never get it done.

Looking good though! I'm at a roadblock waiting for reclaimed lumber before I can pick out paint.

I'm actually going in the middle of dry laying my bathroom right now. We are going right over the slab.

I was watching some self leveling videos last night and ran across this one.

He specifically addresses the problem of separation which is apparently caused by too much water in the mix. Not sure if it will help or not?