Well, we are in the finishing stretch ourselves. We found in our house was perhaps Âblack mold but I think we were being taken for a ride; however, we wanted to be on the safe side. What was really going on? We were able to find an air quality consultant $500 including air tests and 2 visits, great guy Removing the moldy insulation from our 1,500 sq ft basement, sheetrock and clean all wood with bleach and other mold killers. The first quote was $24,000 and the pushy jerk said Âyou get what you pay forÂÂBy the time the 3rd quote came it was $1,600 for, yes one thousand six hundred even. Rick @ Rapco in Lehigh Valley was great! He promised a great job and gave a great job; I cannot say enough wonderful things about Rick. http://rapcousa.net/ Next we put a French drain in the interior walls of the basement, we used www.basements.com MidAtalantic DO NOT USE THEM big DISAPPOINT MENT AND VERY VERY EXPENSIVE $15,000. The had to come back so many times and still I have a poor job. The salesman was very convincing and promised the world. There was only me complaining and my losing sleep. The biggest improvement was running 2 dehumidifiers, this keeps it dry. We have insulated and have not been considering mold is an issue since.

It seems you have made the decision to update the space. I totally understand your desire to do the update over time on your schedule. DIY'ing everything? Here would be my probable event sequence. Sounds like your basement was dug before a requirement for egress windows so a grandfather clause should prevent your having to install one provided, as you say, this isn't living space. Develop a scale drawing for everything in the finished space. Include walls, lights/outlets/switches and any features to build around (stairs / mechanicals) or added (Powder Room/Bar etc.) Place masking tape on the floor for wall location(s), can lights and anything else planned. This will force you to completely think through the build, develop a materials list and enable you to begin shopping even before beginning the project. I'd include a back-up sump pump as further protection for the investment. Remove the carpet. Remove the existing drywall and insulation. Now you can inspect the existing studs and the construction quality. Possibly you can leave many in place. Kill any mold and replace any infected studs. Now is when you need to think about permitting. Know the requirements! Talk with them, submit the plan for review and approval. You'll probably need plumbing/electrical/insulation and final inspections. HVAC? If you have forced air at minimum install a cold air return. Generally minimal heat will be necessary for a basement except seasonally (spring/fall) when auxiliary may be necessary. I installed an electric fireplace to accomplish this. Any plumbing required? You don't mention the need. Proceed with electrical. Inspection upon completion. Have expansive foam insulation installed professionally, then have the insulation inspection. Drywall. Not familiar with Thermex so can't advise. Final inspection. Recarpet or tile the floors. Trim the doors/walls. I'm sure this is a simplistic overview absent more specific facts. Good luck.

Paintguy, Thanks for the input, I'm not home at the moment but am going to check to make sure that Oil was used on my place and then will check with a few neighbors to see exactly what was used on their house. Hoping that they used Acrylic so that there's an explanation. If I use Jomax/Bleach to clean everything up, can Acrylic be applied right over the Oil based stuff? Would it hurt to add a mold inhibitor to the Acrylic for the belt/suspenders approach? What exterior opaque acrylic and mold inhibitor brand would you recommend? Lastly, (this is more or less common sense 101) but... when I cover the place in jomax/bleach and then powerwash it, I really need to be on a ladder angling the sprayer down so that I don't drive water under the boards-no? I'd love to be lazy and try to powerwash from the ground but could be asking for trouble. Thanks for your help.

Thanks Cameron. I've admired punamystike's ceiling photos in other threads too, but I'm going for a little more understated look. Doesn't look like there's much interest in ceiling treatments on this forum, so I'll wing it on my own and see how it turns out.