3 months worth of weekends and about 6-7k worth of tools and materials = buddy's finished basement
This was a great project and it turned out very well. I wish I had some before pictures but basically it was like any other basement; concrete floor, concrete walls, and a cieling full wires and duct work. Now it's 450 sq feet of whatever he wants it to be, and an isolated utility room. It was satisfying to do a top to bottom project like this because you experience a little bit of everything. Some things I knew how to do from past projects and other things I only knew how to do in theory. As long as your not in a hurry though you can do anything.
Most useful tool:
This dinky little impact driver was the surprise hit of the project. The only reason my buddy had it was because it the homebuilder threw it in as a promotional item or something. For it's size it packed a wallop and would easily get through most days without needing a battery swap. It saw use during every stage of the project and never came up short. It'll sink a 3 inch screw and keep on going if you want it to. As hard as we were on it it never showed any sign of wear. The only time we switched to a standard drill was if we needed the adjustable chuck, otherwise it was Makita all the way.
Most difficult stage:Drywalling. Not hard to do, but hard to do well. We knew it would be, and it was. I consider myself fairly handy and even still it took a long time to get what I would call satisfactory results. It's an ugly stage of the project and so you want to get through it quickly. That's the problem. When you think your done and it looks good, do more. More mud, more sanding. You can be sure that once you get the paint on any flaws will stand out 10x more. Mad props to pros who do this.
Easiest stage:
Surprisingly, electrical. At the outset it seemed like the biggest wildcard aspect of the project (because neither of us had done it before) but it turned out to be incredibly simple. We ran 4 new circuits, modified 2, and never had any problems. Bought this book at home depot and it told us everything we needed to know.
We've passed all the inspections and everything is to code or better. It feels good. My DIY bug is satisfied for a while. Next project, reno the condo when I move in.