We have finished our basement in our old house and again in our new place. Most important - lights - we put in 1.5 more high hats in our basement that we did on our first or second floors where we have more natural light. We put in a half bathroom if we had the room I would have put in a shower stall - a half bathroom is nice when you have company or if you have children their friends are over and they can stay in the basement and leave the adults alone and vice versa. We also put in a lot of built in storage areas with doors. We put in carpet and as long as you have good HVAC system you won't have any musty odors.

Tannantok, you're describing my DH's place when I met him! He also had a beer can collection growing on his back patio. He owned virtually no dishes (eating out of the pan was the norm). When you walked in the door you were greeted by a picture of a big haired blonde wearing suspenders and not much more. Laminated to a piece of charred wood. Given to him by his mother. Current decorating would be blankets tacked up to the windows, but he'd also have 1000 watt lights all over the place. I tell him the sun would not provide enough light for him. Clothing would adorn all the lamp shades (if he used lamp shades at all...probably adorn the curtain rods. Bathtowels would be the floor mats. Steak knives would pin up things to the walls, and EVERY wall would have something pinned to it. He'd have a ginormous sofa with blankies and his dogs. No pillows, except for what was on the floor. And every cupboard would be doorless and the drawers self closing.

This is my bid for a 3 feet by 6 feet walnut edge grain butcher block: $595.35 The edges will be simple eased edges. I believe this quote is for 1 3/4 inch thick. 2" thick is proportionally more. Truck shipping to from Ohio to NJ will cost $159.00 for a total $754.35. The wood top will arrive unfinished. I will have to do a light finish sanding with a 220 or 320 grit sandpaper and then oil or polyurethane all surfaces. That works out to about 33 dollars a square foot. I haven't asked for a price quote from Grothouse yet. But I plan to. I suspect that the price goes up significantly if there is a detailed ogee edge treatment and if it comes prefinished. The Grothous finish is supposed to be excellent. But now that I've seen the informative youtube video posted on GW I don't think I mind finishing the wood myself.

Home inspectors when I've sold houses before, note when things are not to code and with our previous minor issues (like a hand rail being too thin?), they don't prevent the sale of the house, they just alert the buyer. Anyways, not concerned about this specific picture's accordance to code, just looking for the cost estimate. Palimpsest - thanks! That's what I was estimating in my head, great to know!!!