Looking to refinish our basement, looking for contractors

Melrose MA

Description

Hello, We are new to Melrose as of this past summer and are excited to look into options to refinish our basement. We understand this is a significant project and would involve moving our heater, vents, washer dryer, etc - and we don't know if it's within our budget or reasonable to do so, and we're curious to learn more. I welcome any thoughts from the craigslist community about whether this is advisable, easy, hard, and anything in between. Our idea is to leave it as a relatively configurable space, as wide open and large as possible - so my fiancé and I might like to use it as a master bedroom, and someone in the future might use it as a family room or finished basement etc. The far wall with the window next to the plants is at ground level - so we were thing we'd put some French doors in there and have it open out to a patio. We really want to fit a bathroom somewhere in there, that's the initial motivation - we couldn't find a way to fit one on the main floor of the house, so we'd like to try to fit it in the basement. On the wall with the door with the wood beam across it to keep it closed - on the other side of that door is a small storage area, maybe 8 feet deep, same ceiling height, and 10 feet across. It is insulated and unfinished. This could be storage?? So what are the major costs here? - Since the ceiling is high, we don't need to dig down? - There are some fractures in the concrete foundation, especially in the back corner near the plant window. How much of a problem is that? - How hard is it to reposition that heating unit - would we want to get a new one or move it? - How hard is to to take out that old chimney?? it does run all the way up the house, through the dining room upstairs, it's walled off. - Any ideas around the placement of - heater, oil, water heater, washer dryer, bathroom We are in the early phases of looking at this, and we would love to find a nice local contractor who can give us more information, gather a couple of potential quotes, etc. How long do you think this would take, on the slow side, on the fast side? Email response only for now. I will try to respond to all responses but sometimes a post like this leads to many responses (we hired a handyman from craigslist in the past). Apologies for the crappy basement pics. Thank you, Alex