The making of a man cave

By Jodi MacLean

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How to save on a big reno

All homeowners want to save money during a home reno. And all want to do it without sacrificing the look and function of their new space. There were a few areas we cut down on, cut around or simply cut out to save some cash. (Diapers for the newborn are expensive!)

No bathroom

Our main-floor powder room is located directly at the top of the basement staircase. We saved about $3,000 and around 30 sq. ft. of space by deciding we could climb a few stairs when nature called.

Seating area

Seating area with HD projector

Go screenless

The HD projector mounted to the ceiling behind the couch beams its 130″ image directly onto the wall. A flat, light grey paint works well as a screen and still gives us excellent brightness and picture quality. We saved $500 by forgoing a screen.

Materials

We bought laminate flooring, not only for its durability and ease of installation but also because of a big sale that our nearby home-improvement store was having. It wasn’t exactly my first choice in finish or colour, but it still fit in well with our plan. We saved about $1,000 by avoiding hardwood (not to mention the sale).

Unfinished area

The space that houses the laundry room, furnace, hot-water tank and cold storage didn’t need to be pretty. While we use these areas a lot, we don’t spend quality time there. We closed them off from the rest of the basement and left them unfinished, simply adding some carpet remnants to make the floors more comfy on our feet. In total, we saved about $1,000 in materials.

Make the hallway wide enough to be comfortable, but not so wide that it takes up valuable space

Make the hallway wide enough to be comfortable, but not so wide that it takes up valuable space

Fireplace

Because the man cave is in the basement, it can get cold down there. We did have access to our natural-gas line, but adding a gas fireplace was going to cost us about $5,000 in materials and labour. So, we opted for an electric unit from a home-improvement store. (Again, we lucked out with a sale because of the time of year—near the end of winter. The newer units on the market are inexpensive and well designed for this type of use. They also look better than the clunky or flimsy units you may have seen in the past.

Stairs

We have four steps leading from the main-floor landing down to the laminate-wood basement floor. These steps started simply as treads with no risers. Since we use the area under the stairs for storage, we didn’t want to see our luggage and Christmas tree box every time we went up the stairs, so we added risers. If we wanted to clad these steps in a wood (or a woodlike) finish to match the flooring, it would have cost us another $800, not to mention the time. But since the stairs aren’t very visible within the basement, we decide they could be finished as simply as possible. We painted the stairs the same colour as the wall to blend in.

Drywall

While we hired a team to do the taping and mudding, our DIY team put up all the gypsum boards. This step saved a lot on labour, especially since our stairway into the basement is tight—so tight that every sheet of drywall had to be cut in half before we could bring it downstairs.



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