I ended up having to completely sheetrock the entire basement (many thanks to Mom, Dad and Cheryl who helped me get it all ready to texture!!)as well as plumb in a bathroom/laundry room and add 10 can lights. I have no idea why people 30 years ago thought a basement room only needed 2 lights. With 2 lights, a nice dark red shag carpet and cedar walls this basement was like a dungeon, the spiders loved it. Mice evidently did as well, we pulled 8 dead ones out of the walls as we cleaned it up.
We ended up going with a very similar setup downstairs as we did up stairs. French doors with windows on either side. This really added a lot more natural light in as well. After all this we now have a basement that I can live with. After all this we can possibly move in by mid February. Jason has offered to help me put the rest of the flooring down in the bedrooms. I am half way done with the slate entry and laundry room. Once all the flooring is down and the stair rail is complete we will get to move in!!!