meganmm, Thank you, we are enjoying it. I see I listed the name of the granite incorrectly in the above post. We have Madura gold in our master bath, the basement bath is kashmir gold. Let me give you some background on the countertop. Lowes had advertised last summer, in the Sunday supplement, a 48" pre fab granite top in Desert Gold for something like $269. In a little section to the side it said also available in Kashmir Gold, Black Absolute and Blue Pearl. Kashmir gold was close to what I was considering in "real" granite, so I went in to order it. No luck. The salesperson couldn't find a sku for it. After several days and plenty of phone calls, it became apparent that it was a misprint. After talking with the manager he agreed to sell me one for the advertised price, but it should have been closer to $600! So I got a really good deal on that. The tile is travertine and was a special order from Home Depot. The floor tiles were 18x18 and we cut them to do the hopscotch pattern. The wall tiles in the shower are 12x12 below the insert and the same tiles cut into 6x12 subways above. The insert itself is a 12x12 sheet of kashmir gold mosaic with a travertine pencil liner. We purchased all of the tile during a 20% off sale on special order tile at HD. Good luck with your project. Feel free to email me if you have anymore questions, since now that I have gone back to work I don't check in here very often.

Thanks for the nice comments. To answer some of the questions: ekoreilly: the ceiling height is almost 8' (maybe 2" shy). We had a lot more height in some areas, but large heat runs would have had to be boxed, and they would have gone down the center of each room. So we sacrificed the extra 8 inches to have a level ceiling. It feels nice and high down there, especially for a basement. Yes, the stairs originally took that turn. We had to have them redone, though, because the landing was too narrow (once the drywall was up). The rise of each step was left the same, but the tread was cut down 1 inch/stair to allow for a reaonably-sized landing. We technically may be breaking code on the staiar tread. It may be something like 7/8 inch too narrow. But the inspector didn't notice, and it feels quite safe walking up and down. The estimate (which included the whole bathroom minus some of the fixtures) was approximately $40 K--maybe a few thousand more in the end with changes/upgrades. This included digging a sanitary pit for the bathroom. It's a little more than we originally hoped to spend, but we really wanted to get the bathroom done at the same time. We did paint and carpet ourselves. legardhome: that's reallly amusing (re: your 5 year-old and the carpet tiles. I think my 5 year-old knows they are tiles, but he hasn't tried to pick any up. My 3 year-old would be the one who wants to chalk on the floor. Shhh. Don't give him any ideas. baoknguyen: thanks. We like the colors too. The paint color is Benjamin Moore's Monroe Bisque. It's 100% downstairs and 50% in the stairwell. We used a flat finish, which I already regret. I very much wish we'd went with either scrubbable matte or eggshell. The walls are looking bad already, and we've only been using the space for 3 weeks. The carpet panels are Miliken Tesserae Spectrum, and the color is called Snowflake.

Hi - I am planning a basement for my new construction home and need some advice on room layout. What was key for me is having a small window in the bathroom and having the playroom leading out to the walkout stairs. But any other ideas? Is the media room too small? Is the gym too small? Any other layout considerations you think I should make?

It's a great space! Have you thought about finishing the ceiling? That would certainly make it feel cozier, though I know there are lots of logistical and economic reasons that might prevent this. I'd divide the space in two and make one end into a family room/home theatre space with a big tv and comfy sofas (maybe one could be a pullout as an extra guest accommodation spot?), and keep the other end as the kids' free play area and your gym area. I'd probably get some shelving/cabinets for toy storage so the kids can use this as their space to really make a mess with toys and then have somewhere to tidy them into. In my home I need to use the basement for misc other storage (eg camping gear, tools, out of season clothes, rarely used specialty kitchen items), so if this was me I'd set up a storage area as well. As your kids grow up, a basement is a great play area and teenager zone. A perfect place for your kids to have their friends over to watch movies, hang out, eat chips, practice for a group presentation, host a rock band rehearsal, plan a sleepover... all while staying out of your main space and minimizing mess in the "nicer" areas upstairs. We have an unfinished basement and plan to dig it down and fully refinish it by the time our kids hit their teens for exactly this reason (we've got time though, I'm currently pregnant with #1). My husband and i both lived out most of our teen social lives in our own and our friends' basements, and have fond memories.