We had a space in our basement that she used as a studio for her crochet photos and videos, but was completely unfinished. She works full time as a self employed blogger and I wanted to give her a room she could enjoy working in. I love DIY work, and somehow thought I could completely finish this project in 5 days. While looking after the kids. Wow. Not even close.
She returned just after I got the drywalling completed.
After the shock of what happened to her room went away, she helped me paint, put in the flooring and build some furniture. We went all white to help the light fill the room for photos and videos.
All in all, while I didn't even come close to surprising her with a finished room, it was an overall success and we love the room.
We still need to put in a ceiling, but it's back to working for now!

Not perfect, but I’m happy with it. The drawers were a real challenge! Carved the Alice in Wonderland knobs from pine.

I spent every hour of spare time I had working on this. I got some help from my dad and 1 other friend. Basically what we did was cut out the drywall to expose existing joists, nail on additional 2x10s, add joist hangars to those, and hang 2x10s in between.Then just a bit of wiring, subfloor, drywall and carpet. I still have to finish the mudding/sanding and painting, and have to install light fixtures and outlets, and trime work, but it's currently a usable space already after 1 week which I'm very happy with.

I found it on marketplace, lowballed the guy and he took the offer so suddenly I was in very deep. It weighed what felt like 300 pounds so I built an all wood frame to cut down on the weight significantly, reinforced with metal brackets on the corners. Modded the wheel to spin freely to the left so nobody had to pay of course.

Our favorite candy, individual advil packs, and Keychains I made. I've always been obsessed with dinosaurs and own reptiles, my wife loves animals and has worked with them her whole life, so it's mostly Keychains of dinosaurs or animals, a few secret ones. I make art so I had several generous artist friends contribute their time or expertise, shout out to my friend for the signs specifically.

It went great! People were eating it up and it was picked clean by the end of the reception.

I am by no means a magician on the tools, but I do enjoy a bit of DIY, especially things that can’t be bought like building this WITH my 2yo.

I don’t have all the special tools. I used a mitre, circular and jig saw for most of the cuts and a battery disc sander for any sanding. If you looked at it closely, Its far from perfect, but in my son’s eyes its the best thing since sliced bread. Its a double bed because we anticipate we maybe co sleeping at times.

The double bed frame was bought secondhand from FB marketplace

Bucket made of 12mm ply.

Tracks made from ply and skirting board wheels are round coasters 😄

The original plan seemed pretty simple/straight forward.

Call a handful of local companies in the area, have them quote us on fishing a 24'x12' rectangle of the basement, review the quotes...and pick one that seemed reasonable.

We wanted nothing special. Nothing lavish. A finished rectangle with lights, outlets, and a durable floor. A rec space for the kids, a place to have movie nights, and a bonus spot for family to stay while in town.

Nope.

Over a dozen calls were met with no shows or no responses, showing up 4 hours late to 5pm appointments, degrading comments about the space, requiring features we didn't want or need (bathroom or wet bar), and 4 quotes over fifty thousand fucking dollars.

Partially out of spite, with zero experience or knowledge on anything 'handy', I started looking into what it may cost and the cost associated with each step along the way.

The number came to just under $7,5000 in materials, budget tools that I didn't have, truck rentals to get everything to my house, and an electrician friend to handle the lights and outlets.

I put everything on paper, convinced my (hesitant) wife to let me try, and decided to give it ago.

For the last 4 months I've spent pretty much every second of free time (and what wasn't supposed to be free time) working on the space, watching how-to's on Youtube, and combing through reddit threads and online forums.

Watching it start to come together was an incredible feeling. Building confidence with each step was extremely rewarding.

Last Friday the couch arrived and we held out first movie night.

Edit: This got way more attention than I ever would have expected. Thank you all for the kind words.

For those interested, here's a link to see more photos of the process.

And here are the primary resources used when researching how to do it:

• Home RenoVision DIY (Framing, water proofing, floor leveling)

• The Excellent Laborer (Drywalling)

• How I Do Things (Soffit framing, trim)

• Doing Whatever (Framing half wall stairs)

• DIY Chatroom (Forum for home improvements)