I've used combinations of these all throughout the house. In the basement, I have 3 of the base consoles together for an 8' run of basecabinets. I added a marble tile countertop and use a wall mounted LCD above the cabinets. I ran electrical outlets inside the cabinet and all the kids games, vcr, etc are in the cabinets. I like them because they are easy to modify for custom applications, unlimited finishes, solid wood (large panels plywood) and cost effective. I use trim from the local big box the tie the pieces together and it looks like custom cabinetry. I drywalled the ceiling, prefer the look. I left 1/3 the basement unfinished and most of the access issues (plumbing, etc) are on the unfinished side. I used high quality carpet with 8 lb pad. Here is a link that might be useful: unfinished cabinets

Benjamin, I would think that an experienced builder could look at it and tell you what needs to be done right off the bat, without going to the expense of hiring an engineer. There's nothing wrong with getting a quote and then deciding to do all or part of the work yourself. The reason I asked if the original builder put up the wall, is that the work looks kind of amateurish to me. Why go to the trouble of building a wall, using that much wood and not finishing it, when a simple beam with support posts would have been much easier to do. What is on the floor over that wall? Maybe a previous owner was trying to correct a problem or trying to put in additional support for something heavy (like a waterbed). If the wall is a true bearing wall, I would think that it's also supporting another bearing wall on top of it. I'm having a bearing wall taken down on my first floor and wanted to move one of the supports for the beam that the builder is putting in. My builder told me that the support had to be there because it would sit over a support in the basement and it's important to transmit the load from above all the way to the ground.

If you take $1,500/1150SF= $1.30 Per SF. I don't know what flooring you can buy today for $1.30 per SF and I don't know who will install flooring for less than $1.50-2.50 per SF. unless you will be doing the installation yourself... Not to mention you have to remove/dispose existing flooring, get underlayment, trim, etc. Windows depend on what you be replacing them with, size, type, opening prep, etc you looking anywhere $700-1000 per window if you are lucky unless you be doing the install yourself. That said, what anyone paid here that price is useless to you. If you really want to see if doing everything is within your budget, get a few estimates and compare apples to apples unless you can work with the related cost being anywhere "between $5-10k" Good luck

Thank you all for the feedback! I like the ideas. Picked up a vinyl plank floor a few days ago that was a mixture of light and dark woods but I think as many of you indicated, it clearly did not look right with the pine walls at all. Appreciate the tips and suggestions. I think I'm kind of leaning with the idea of perhaps a darker slate or tile floor or perhaps a paint over the pine to allow for some vinyl wood floor. That does help narrow things down a little better I think though.