I would put in a drop ceiling, drywall a room out for the kids, and cover the drywall with a pretty light paneling. That way you dont have to finish the drywall...or you could use a ceiling paint and get it colored to your choice and make the walls textured with a putty knife. We used the paneling in our billiard room and textured the walls in our bar. We even covered the theater walls with a cotton batting and then used curatins to hide the drywall. We spent about 8,000 on our basement including the tvs, pool table, pinball machine, and carpet. Not bad, huh? Here is a link that might be useful: Our basement

Now that he's broken through one of your basement walls and removed two feet of soil, it's a little late to be having second thoughts!! So it's labour only. Assuming this is a smallish house--say 2,000 sf or so, the price is low. But, for some parts of the country, I suppose, not absurd for a no-invoice deal. But, as you have described it, there may be a lot wrong with the way he's doing it! On a house I bought to renovate, I was presented with a similar situation. The previous owner had lowered the basement floor by about a foot by breaking the concrete floor up and and digging. Then he had laid a new wood floor directly on the soil! (The basement was totally finished when I bought the home, so I didn't realize what I was buying.) In lowering the floor, he had dug lower than the footings--in this case, bricks laid perpendicular to the brick foundation wall. Essentially, he undermined the house. (And since it was a semi-attached, he had partially undermined the adjoining home too.) A professional engineer designed the fix: a rebar reinforced retaining wall around the entire perimeter of the basement to provide lateral support to the footings. Since I was doing that, I also lowered the basement a bit further and put in new sewer lines. My concern on your home is that the excavation has undermined your footings too. He left a foot of undisturbed soil between his excavation and the walls. That's not adequate. Putting up stud walls to secure wall finishings is fine. None of this work was done with a building permit, I take it. Before you proceed any further, I strongly suggest you contact your local building officials or a qualified professional engineer to design this project properly. Don't be surprised if the municipal inspector puts a "stop work" order on it. It's only a bargain if it's done right!!

OK, I just looked at your pics and I still like the colonial full range...but if your heart is telling you that it's too brown, then go with the YOU like best. You might also ask the mason if they have any suggestions on a mortar that might make it look less brown. One year in our Parade of Homes, there were three houses with the same brick but different mortar...they looked like three different colors of brick. Also, the shingles aren't really right up on the brick....when they're on the house they take on a little different look because they're up so high and they are at an angle....I promise they won't look blue, just cool (as opposed to the brown weathered wood shingles that most people around me have). So, if you like the Old Williamsburg, then go with it : )

I think you can do this without a lot of outside contracting. If the tub and shower are good and the plumbing is where you want it, it's "all" cosmetics. Tiling walls isn't hard if you don't have to be concerned about waterproofing. Just need good prep work if it's not even under the wallpaper and old tiles. The blue tiles might come off easy and they might come off hard. So there may be some drywall repair in your future. You can probably find a decent match for the floor tile although getting new ones in place (or damaged old ones out) could be tricky. Do you have another bathroom to use while this one is out? I'd start with pulling off the wallpaper and tile. Then you'll have a better idea of how awesome it'll look gone. And (no offense) it won't look that much worse with a little demo in progress. :) You probably want to call in an electrician when you get your plan laid out...get some modern plugs and lighting and put in a ceiling fan if you can vent it.