How can anyone but you answer this? Do you have the money, time, skill, tools etc?

Yes we have the funds and skills just haven't done this before so was curious what others had done in this situation : )

I see no point in making a huge mess, cleaning it up, then doing it all over again. Make a huge mess once, then clean up and enjoy.

Thanks for your input Virgil.

All at once. There may be a marriage at stake.

Well we've already built a house and survived that so here's hoping the basement will be better

Last house we did it all at once. But it took a year. Have you done sheetrock before?

jn3344, oh wow yeah that's kind of what I was thinking time frame wise luckily my husband has experience in all aspects of construction but we are probably going to be hiring out the sheetrock just for time efficiency. Did you complete it as an extension of your main living space also carrying on the same color scheme and such?

How are you at understanding building codes?

Hi Mark, that is not an issue thankfully. My question really was just asking if other people had finished it in stages or done it all at once.

Building codes are always an issue, or maybe I should say safety is always an issue.

"... haven't done this before ..."

All at once. Get permits/inspections, and hire out the drywall. Seriously—don't even think of doing the drywall yourself.

We did everything in our basement with the exception of drywall. Except we didn't do one of the bathrooms and some plumbing in the laundry as we needed to do an upstairs bathroom plumbing first. (so the basement bathroom has been undone for a year, which is annoying). DH doesn't like sheetrocking, so we hired that along with a carpet layer. I would recommend to do the whole basement at once. Getting tools out and ready is about the most time consuming part of every project, no sense doing that twice! Even painting is so much more efficient if you can do it all at once. Not to mention the carpet and tile you pick may not be available the 2nd round! I also would not want sheetrock being done in one half of the basement with the other half finished. Don't forget to get a handful of cheap furnace filters to change daily during the drywall stage....our main floor was extra dusty regardless for a few weeks.

B Carey, Thanks so much for the response. All at once does make so much sense now, I can't imagine painting multiple times (I hate painting!) Great tip about the filters as well.