Hi all. I have been interested in becoming more-self sufficient (I'm a specialist physician) and don't like farming out hands-on projects around the house any more. I've become reasonable at fixing and patching and easy non-plumbing stuff around the house. We cut out the cleaning people and do all of our own yard work. We are slowly turning from the somewhat stereotypical American physician lifestyle to a sustainable one
We have this huge concrete bunker of a basement/second garage - (I will say we have a house that MMM would face punch us for multiple times. But we can afford it and when our kids finish high school, we are aiming to downsize - our town is small and all homes expensive, so it is not worth the hassle/moving cost to do it yet - the MMM style is coming gradually to us...).
But I want to turn this concrete monstrosity of a basement - it is about 45 x 30 with 14 ft ceilings - into a fun space, maybe with a barn style feel to it. It now has bare concrete walls and overhead flouroescent lighting and some wall framing around heating equipment. The kids have had an indoor trampoline, basketball hoop, soccer nets, ping pong, weights, corn hole all in this space - you name it. It is actually a sight to behold, being so large but without any posts or columns. And it was part of the reason we bought the house - it was the nicest bank-owned house I'd ever seen. The prior owner must have spent a fortune on the basement alone (he was foreclosed on in the aftermath of 2008) as he used it to store and care for antique cars. There are floor drains, hot/cold water access, etc... And we have a more typical regular basement for our dwindling amount of "stuff"
Anyway, long lead in to ask what your favorite resources and tools are for learning how to build walls, putting up drywall/siding, wall finishing, etc. I know I can Youtube stuff - and maybe that's the best way these days - but was looking to the folks here for some basic suggestions in how they learned to build or books they read. I am planning to do plenty of experimenting and trial/error with my two teen sons but advice would be helpful. With the height of the ceiling I think I need some rolling scaffolding to start...