Small Update and Designing my own Man Cave/Basement Area

Not much update for today other than I had a long day at work and didnt get to the house until pretty late tonight. Did a quick walk through and noticed some Copper Pipes run throughout the crawl space of the house and the a new Water Heater was installed and the older one was removed from the basement.

We went on to mount the water heater outside because it made the most sense and was cost effective. Though its not as clean as Id like it to be, its on the side of the house where no one will probably ever walk by and is close to the gas line which is a requirement and/or is just better as far as placement.

I had originally wanted it inside the crawl space, but that was just me talking as if I knew what was best...ha. Anyhow, the water heater is mounted - we were going to flush mount it to the exterior, but that was a fail too due to space requirements. It was possible, but it would have cost much more to get framing done. No thanks...not a big deal.

New Water Heater - Mounted Outside

Model #

Old Water heater was mounted on this corner before

So I got a little bored and started to layout the "Man Cave" tonight. Its was a bit time consuming and difficult as I am not a home designer and I decided to use designer software. Well...its not as easy as designing say, a network for a business or creating flow charts, this was more challenging and the more I learned, the more I kept changing things. This was a bit difficult because I also had no instructions for the software I used. Determined to get something on paper (for my own use and for the electricians), I decided to press forward and force myself to learn it today through trial and error.

So I got most of what I wanted done, just a basic layout of what I think I want to end up with. Clearly the choices of colors and cabinet styles were limited (of I just didnt know how to change that), but I think I captured the overall feel of what I want it to look like.

In the middle of creating the garage, I decided to challenge myself even more and draft a layout for the basement and what it will look like sometime down the road when we get to it. Since that project is VERY involved, we are waiting a few years (my guess) before we are able to make it what we want it. For now, it will look pretty close to what I had put on the CAD software. A few details missing, but when all the stuff is out of there and its nice and clean, it should be fairly close to how it looks in these pictures I have. I was too lazy to save pics to the computer, so I decided to just snap some photos of the computer screen with my phone and post it that way.

Again, colors and cabinetry is not exact, but the layout is basically identical and measurements are accurate. I will be using these to basically plot out where I want cables, lighting and where I will have furniture when I complete the space. It will serve as a good starting point and Im sure it will change as I move forward, but its better to draw something up so I can play with it. Now that I have the software, its much easier to visualize as I can essentially drag and drop things and place it in the room so I see how it looks. The good thing about this software is it allows me to walk through the layout as if I were standing in it.

Heres what I got so far and hopefully the real thing looks close to the pictures if not better when all is said and done!

View of the RIGHT side of the garage

View of the BACK WALL/LEFT CORNER of the garage - that door goes to the crawl space (not outside as it is pictured). The left side doorway is to the basement.

Shot of the ceiling - Started Placing the recessed lighting to get a feel for it. Decided on 6 in the garage (though for is shown due to view limitations)

View if the BASEMENT from the garage entrance. Yes, thats the Mens Bathroom (HA HA HA - It will probably hold true)

View of the BASEMENT from the other side (corner by the stairs is my Network Box - a gotta have). 

Pretty simple drawings...but to get it accurate and to learn the software honestly took me 4 hrs or so. I will be adding more and making changes as I learn it. Overall Id say 95% accurate as far as the layout. If we can make it look remotely this close in the interim for the basement, that would be amazing. Not likely...but it will definitely be empty unlike it is today.