Thanks for all the replies, I went to a rec room remodeling workshop last night and learned a lot. I guy running it has his own remodeling business and was helpful. Based on his info, I learned the following:
1)In my village, I HAVE to hire an electrician to do the wiring, there is no way around it. The building inspectors have cracked down on the electrician pulling the permit but the homeowner doing the work. It will be extra cost I wasn't counting on.
2)The framing and insulating won't be that hard, I have plenty of help for that. However, I have a guy I know who will frame it for cheap,so I may do that to save time.
3)I have done plenty of drywall over the years, so I think that will be the easy part.
4)I am doing a drop ceiling because my house has a lot of stuff stacked up in the joices and I need access in multiple areas, and I don't feel like drywalling it all and then carving it up with a Rotozip like some big jack-o-lantern........
5)After talking to the remodeling guy, I am going to do carpet, with a nice pad under. I have a couple cracks in the floor I need to epoxy up before I get too far.
6)No plans for a bedroom or bathroom down there, I already have 2 and a half baths, and that's plenty. The space I will finish off is 22 X 22. Got a quote on an egress window...........yikes!! Not sure about what to do there.........
7)The "other half" of the basement will stay the way it is. We have built in shelves on that side with can lights. Over the top of that area of the basement is a sunken family room, so the head space s limited. It's where the hot water heater, softener, and reverse osmosis filter exist, so I'll leave it status quo. I amy end up sealing it with paint or tiliing it if I get bored.
8)I told DW I think I can get it down for under $5000. We'll see..........
9)As far as water goes, the ONLY water I had in my basement ever came in from one of the basement windows, after we had 7 inches of rain in 8 hours. What I learned that day was I was missing a window well by that window, and after the ground got saturated, the water had to go somewhere, so it went down. After I dug a new window well and put in 260 pounds of various types of rock, along with sections of PVC pipe pitched into the ground at the bottom of the window well dug out area, no problems. Plus, I live on the top of a hill, so the water tends to flow away from me.........