Greely Basement Renovation: Home Gym and Bedroom
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| Don and John hanging drywall. |
These past two weeks we’ve had the true pleasure to renovate the Greely (just outside Ottawa) basement of Kim Chen and Gerard Chen, an Ottawa firefighter.
This project finished on time and on budget.
Not just because we were served an amazing BBQ lunch one Friday, this couple were a true pleasure to work for.
Kim and Gerard had clear plans, were very organized, had all materials that they were supplying at the ready and were even thoughtful in turning on the air conditioning during the heat wave.
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| AFTER: basement gym for Kim’s clients. |
The basement was mostly unfinished and being used as a gym. Now complete, they now have an additional bedroom and full-sized professional gym.
By the numbers
- project was over 750 square feet
- Built 60 feet of internal walls, drywalling both sides (external walls were already drywalled)
- Framed and drywalled 30 feet of bulkhead
- Laid 300 square feet of laminate flooring in the bedroom
- Laid 450 square feet of heavy duty gym flooring
- Installed 180 feet of baseboard
- Painted five gallons
- 2 bi-fold doors, 1 French door and 1 single door
The gym has wall-to-wall mats that were 100lbs each and the energetic paint colour in the gym is Blue Bayou by Benjamin Moore. Kim’s clients will now be able to come to the house to train.
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| After: Bedroom |
The bedroom has laminate flooring (Torleys from Flooring Canada) with great detail that makes it look like it came from an old farm house. The bedroom’s soothing paint colour is Philadelphia Cream by Benjamin Moore.
When we finished, Kim and Gerard were clearly happy clients.
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| Would you believe this is laminate? Great detail, like an old farmhouse |
A message from Kim and Gerard…
Before going ahead with finishing the last half of our basement (appx 700 sq ft) we got estimates from 3 separate contractors. Our decision to go with Paul Gratton was an easy one. Not only did he come back comfortably within our budget (and the other 2 significantly over budget), but his professionalism in answering all of our many questions, and his general pleasant attitude made us feel by far the most comfortable with having him and his team work in our home.
From day 1 Paul made us feel welcome to check in on the work regularly and stop him to ask questions along the way. We can’t speak highly enough about Paul’s punctuality each and every day, as well as his efficiency in returning calls and emails from us throughout the course of the project. Not once did he make us feel bad for calling him after hours for clarity on something.
He was so efficient in completing the project that he had time to do many ‘extras’ for us that were not originally agreed upon in the contract. Some of these extras included fixing errors left behind by other workers who were in to install mirrors. Without hesitation Paul fixed the walls that had been made a mess. It is obvious from the completion of our basement that Paul is a perfectionist and doesn’t miss any small detail. Our basement now looks above and beyond what we originally expected, and we are so happy we decided to go ahead with Paul.
We would be happy to recommend Paul to anyone. He is extremely genuine and such a nice guy, we can’t speak highly enough about him and his work, and our little puppy will definitely miss him too! 🙂
Sincerely,
Kim & Gerard Chen