it's the D5 LCD panels in that projector, which cannot produce black. From your perspective, it's probably a trivial point. But this is one reason why the darker screen materials are looking so nice with your projector, since they help compensate for the gray-blacks.
Interesting point. I believe that. I also have the projector set to low output mode. It has a setting to crank out an extra bright pic (at the expense of the bulb life Im sure).

Looking forward to getting the Da-lite samples to play with those as well. Hopefully, those will come this week.

I certainly wouldn't want you to do them just for my benefit.
Hey, its all about YOU, gremmy. Its all YOU! :D

I also have the projector set to low output mode. It has a setting to crank out an extra bright pic (at the expense of the bulb life Im sure).

Have you tried using your pj on the brighter setting for use with the gray screens? Gray screens generally require bright projectors.




Hey, its all about YOU, gremmy. Its all YOU! :D
:D

Have you tried using your pj on the brighter setting for use with the gray screens? Gray screens generally require bright projectors.
No. I forgot about that setting. I may have even tweaked the brightness and contrast settings on the prj at one point too. Will have to revisit my settings to double check when I play around with it later tonight.

See if you can find the line between the Studiotek (on left) and the Carada Brilliant White (on right). Pretty subtle, huh? And thats from 1' - 2'. Its even more subtle when you stand back 5'-6' (See below)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/spidey1.jpg

Ok, this ones a lot more obvious. Studiotek (on right) and Carada Classic Cinema (on left).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/spidey2.jpg

OK, starting from left to right. That big grey blemish on the wall (you can tell Im just wild about this screen, cant you?) is the Firehawk, Carada CW, ST, & Carada BW. Again, pretty difficult to see the transition from the ST to Carada BW, huh? From my observations with Spidey, I have a hard time telling the diff until the whites show up, and then its pretty obvious that the ST rules in that category.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/spidey3.jpg

Watching Spidey 2 has me leaning towards the Carada BW now. The ST is definitely clear. I gotta admit its a sharp picture. The (lack of) blacks dont bother me as much as just getting a nice bright TV-ish image. The Classic Cinema White offers a duller image that didnt grow as well on me with the DVD playing.

The Firehawk just doesnt work for me, period. Everytime I look at it, I see this grey shiny screen more than the movie. The ST & BW just blend in so well that I have a hard time telling theres a screen there.

Awesome screen shots!

With the standard caveat that I know it's hard to make judgements based on pictures posted on-line, I've gotta say that the picture on the BW looks so comparable to the ST130 that it would be hard to justify the added expense of the ST130. This is a viewpoint that I have seen expressed in more than one review too. Very interesting.

How did the screens fare on darker material? Spidey is a pretty bright movie, for the most part. You might want to make sure that the brighter screens still hold their own when there aren't any bright highlights on the screen. Good tests would be Alien, Dark City, or what I was watching this weekend on DVD (Episodes of the ABC TV series LOST).

I've gotta say that the picture on the BW looks so comparable to the ST130 that it would be hard to justify the added expense of the ST130.
Yea, it was extremely hard to tell the difference unless I paused the movie, got up out of my chair, walked up close, and then I could go, "Oh yea, the ST is brighter is little bit more." When I was just kicking back and letting an uncritical eye watch the movie, it was really tough. A few times, I had to pause the movie and go look where I positioned both samples on the wall as I lost them. I will say I think the ST offers a bit sharper image than the BW, but you really have to squint.

Ive got plenty of dark movies. Definitely have Alien. How about a real B&W movie? Does that make for good comparisons? ;) I was tempted to put on my personal fav movie, Night of the Living Dead. :)

Time to play the waiting game on the Da-lite samples and go do something else. Need to measure out how much fabric Im going to need and get that ordered. Im hopeful that I can be priming the walls this weekend too.

I will say I think the ST offers a bit sharper image than the BW, but you really have to squint.


Interesting. One thing I've noticed in screen shots of the BW is that fine detail appears to be slightly blurred, but that might be a problem with the screen-shot itself and not something that actually happens in real life.

Check out this screen shot: http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/images/2004/12/screen_review/hollow_dark.jpg

Notice how the BW section appears to be foggy, while in all the other screen shots it is clear that there are individual drops of falling water filling the air. Of course, it's impossible to tell from a screen shot whether that section of the image is really supposed to look like that or not. Note: The issue I am describing is much more visible if you're viewing the photo on a bright LCD monitor than on a dimmer CRT monitor. I've viewed on both, and the problem is hardly noticeable on the CRT.

EDIT: Since the person who wrote the article from which I pulled the picture describes the BW as having greater clarity, I suspect what I'm seeing is not present in real-life, or at least is not an issue with the screen material.

In fact, you might be interested in reading this entire article. Here, the reviewer seems to favor the BW over the other materials tested:
http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/2004/12/my_search_for_a.html


Ive got plenty of dark movies. Definitely have Alien. How about a real B&W movie? Does that make for good comparisons? ;) I was tempted to put on my personal fav movie, Night of the Living Dead. :)

My personal opinion is the B&W movies are excellent for evaluating color discontinuity issues on your projector or for telling if your screen imparts a certain cast to the image. But for shadow detail and black level, a movie like Alien is a better test in my opinion.


Time to play the waiting game on the Da-lite samples and go do something else. Need to measure out how much fabric Im going to need and get that ordered. Im hopeful that I can be priming the walls this weekend too.

It will be interesting to watch your fabric go down. I will be stretching fabric over my false wall and I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to do it.

Check out this screen shot: http://www.hometheaterblog.com/home...hollow_dark.jpg
Wow, thats interesting. Going to have to find that scene now in Alien. I definitely noticed (when looking really close) at the BW that it wasnt quite as crisp at the ST, but I think I was really splitting hairs there. If I had infinite money (which I dont), then Id splurge for the ST. I got samples of the Dalite, Cinema Vision & High Contrast CV on order so this will be a good comparison too. Thanks for the link!

It will be interesting to watch your fabric go down. I will be stretching fabric over my false wall and I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to do it.
Im more or less going to pre-build my frames and then industrial velcro them on the walls. I plan on using 5/4 cedar deck board (per Bud's thread) for the framing of the panels. I really liked what Gary Kagan is doing with his panels. I might just make mine a bit bigger though. I have the windows and HVAC duct to work around so my panel shapes are going to be catered towards working arond those.

Hopefully, those drywall guys are going to finish up this week so I can move on. Im chomping at the bit to get back in there. My wife and I are settled (more or less) on the carpet. Getting the upstairs done simulataneously as the theatre (which is of more interest to the wife of course. :)). Should be fun moving all the furniture out of the bedrooms upstairs and smoosh it all into my living room. :rolleyes:

Wow, thats interesting. Going to have to find that scene now in Alien.

Just FYI. That scene is from the movie Hollow man, not Alien. And I don't think the problem, in this case, is one with shadow detail per se, but rather it almost looks like slight blurring. In fact, I looked at the other BW screen shots in the larger review thread that I included, and I believe I see this slight smearing effect on several of them. Very strange, but it's probably nothing.

n fact, I looked at the other BW screen shots in the larger review thread that I included, and I believe I see this slight smearing effect on several of them. Very strange, but it's probably nothing.
Thanks. Ill keep that in mind when I do further comparing with the Da-lites (hopefully) sometime this week. I noticed it slightly as well when looking at the ST vs BW, but wasnt concentrating on that as much as brightness. The resolution did look a little clearer on the ST.

Thanks. Ill keep that in mind when I do further comparing with the Da-lites (hopefully) sometime this week. I noticed it slightly as well when looking at the ST vs BW, but wasnt concentrating on that as much as brightness. The resolution did look a little clearer on the ST.

A good test for this might be to run some text across both the BW and the ST130 at the same time to see if there is any difference in the perceived sharpness. You could try black text on a white background, and vice versa. You could also try pictures with lots of small detail.

Some pics of today's drying mud on my walls. My basement is too cool for this stuff to dry fast. I crank up the heat in the house to 76 during the day, but it all goes upstairs and the basement stays cool as a cucumber. Ha. Oh well. Things are progressing and I havent had to crack the whip in days with these guys so theyre on a roll now and winning my confidence back.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mud1-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mud2-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mud3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mud4.jpg

Snails eye view of the equipment closet mud. The ceiling was all bent and nasty when they slapped the bare sheetrock in. However, they mudded is up and now it looks almost even. I think theyll hit that up heavy again tomorrow and itll be fine. If it were me, I would have ripped down the busted up sheetrock and tried to be perfect about it, but I guess mud cures all in drywall, just like caulk cures evil too.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/closet-1.jpg

looks good...im envious but will have to wait to tackle drywall next time I am home...looks like it is coming together nicely!

Robert

looks good...im envious but will have to wait to tackle drywall next time I am home
Thanks. Im envious too as the drywall guys get more hours than me in the HT! :)

Da-lites came in today. Sorry if this comparison is taking away from the theater building spirit of the thread. Promise this is the last batch of screenshots.

Up-left = Studiotek130
Up-right = Carada Brilliant White
Low-left = Da-lite High Contrast Cinema Vision
Low-right = Da-lite Cinema Vision

White revealed a couple of things to me. The samples rippled easily, and the little sparkles were noticeable. My opinion is the sparkles make the ripples stand out more, but thats my opinion and probably isnt factual.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/screen-1.jpg

This one is from Alien and in my opinion the HCCV really made those bronze missiles/tubes/whatever really rich in color. The other 3 are pretty even really. The CV was slightly darker than ST & BW.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/alien2-1.jpg

Ok, this is so dang subtle I had to draw a little box on my pic so you could tell where all 4 samples meet. BTW, this is Alien right before this poor sod gets lunched. I may be off on the ST <-> BW transition. I cant even tell from the pic!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/subtle.jpg

Lastly, back to old spidey for some contrast.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/spidey.jpg

BTW, gremmy, I got some of the water as it was pouring down on the above guys face, and I think its more the source (movie) material than the screen material that makes the water droplets blurry. I couldnt get a clear water droplet on any of the screen material.

If you ask me, I think the AE900 matches up best with the Carada BW. I liked the Da-lite Cinema Vision though as well. Im not sure I care for screen sparkles though. ST is good too except the price tag I dont think justifies the cost (IMHO). Ill watch them some more and let you know if I waver onto another sample, but I think the BW is the winner for me.

BTW, no drywall got done today. :mad: GRRR. Mud hadnt completely dried yet, so theyll come back tomorrow and get going again. No problem really in the grand scheme of things.

I did go pick up some 2x8x10' & 2x8x8 lumber at Lowes tonight so I was ready for building the 2nd row when the drywall gets done. Got my #30 asphalt felt too. Need to make another trip with the Camry to get the rest of the 2x8 lumber tomorrow. I should be ready to POUNCE once theyre outta there. Got my Sherwin Williams primer today as well. My wife offered to pitch in on the painting duties. Thats always a good thing to have good help! :) I think its her subtle way of pushing me to get that carpet in there and make the room useable again. ;)

I'm glad to see that the Carada BW works out well, since this is also the screen I'm planning to buy in a few weeks. Great screen shots, BTW.

As Homer might drool, "Mmmmmm, wood. Ahhhhhh." My moldings came in the mail today. Here's my built up chair rail that Im going to do. In the below pix its resting on a 2x4, but that wont be part of the chair rail. Ill be ripping the top cap so its only 2" (or so) extending from the wall. Probably just rip the 1.5" from the back of the cap where the 2x4 meets up. As you see it, the entire chair rail is 4.5" tall. Pretty big chair rail, huh? Haha, its so big, its like a mantel around the room. Should be pretty sweet. Ill be trimming 0.75" off the bottom piece of the chair rail to get it around 3.75" .
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/molding1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/molding2.jpg

Now if only I had WALLS to put them onto! :) After (seemingly) a 2 day vacation, the drywall guys (finally) showed up again. To their credit, they did a ton of work. All the corner beading is on and mudded. They told me it would be another week though before completion. BOO! :( No painting this weekend. Its killing me!!!! ;)

As Homer might drool, "Mmmmmm, wood. Ahhhhhh."Your chair rails are going to look GREAT, David. :)

Now if only I had WALLS to put them onto! :) After (seemingly) a 2 day vacation, the drywall guys (finally) showed up again. To their credit, they did a ton of work. All the corner beading is on and mudded. They told me it would be another week though before completion. BOO! :( No painting this weekend. Its killing me!!!! ;)Hey, look at it this way: It's time for you to take a vacation from building the room and get some rest. ;)

Your chair rails are going to look GREAT, David.
Yea, I think so too. It helps solve the problem too of transition I was having between the upper part of the wall where Ill have the Lin + GOM and the lower part where itll be drywall + picture frame molding. The fabric frames can easily butt up snug to the top of the chair rail.

It's time for you to take a vacation from building the room and get some rest.
This is true. You know the wife & kids love it. Just have to bottle up the enthusiasm for a bit. Luckily, I can channel it all into an all day football fest! Oh wait, maybe the wife doesnt like me loafing around so much. :D

Yep, the title says it all. No drywall guys since last Thurs. I called the owner of the company when I came home today and flamed on. :mad: I hate to do it, but they havent figured out yet that they need to communicate with their customers. He first tried to big shot me and tell me mud takes time to dry. Of course, the reply was easy, "It takes 5 days for mud to dry?" Then the story changes, "Oh my crew is on vacation and we're thin." Ok, that may be legit, but nobody told me. I told him if I didnt show up to my job for 3 working days and didnt tell anyone where I was that Id be fired. He didnt like that remark one bit and started to get testy, but I think I got my point across whether he liked it or not. I told him I dont mind them not being here everyday as long as I know what the plan is. I dont think thats an unreasonable request. If theyre not going to be here, fine, just tell me. Thats all I need. Information is a good thing. Im not left guessing then. Sigh, on it goes. Hopefully, for not much longer. The work theyve done has been fine. Its their lack of communicaton that sucks. Im sure theres a mystical black science to drywall scheduling thats beyond my comprehension. :rolleyes: Enough said, I needed to vent a bit (more)... :)

Yep, the title says it all. No drywall guys since last Thurs. I called the owner of the company when I came home today and flamed on. :mad: I hate to do it, but they havent figured out yet that they need to communicate with their customers. He first tried to big shot me and tell me mud takes time to dry. Of course, the reply was easy, "It takes 5 days for mud to dry?" Then the story changes, "Oh my crew is on vacation and we're thin." Ok, that may be legit, but nobody told me. I told him if I didnt show up to my job for 3 working days and didnt tell anyone where I was that Id be fired. He didnt like that remark one bit and started to get testy, but I think I got my point across whether he liked it or not. I told him I dont mind them not being here everyday as long as I know what the plan is. I dont think thats an unreasonable request. If theyre not going to be here, fine, just tell me. Thats all I need. Information is a good thing. Im not left guessing then. Sigh, on it goes. Hopefully, for not much longer. The work theyve done has been fine. Its their lack of communicaton that sucks. Im sure theres a mystical black science to drywall scheduling thats beyond my comprehension. :rolleyes: Enough said, I needed to vent a bit (more)... :)


Ahh, the wonderful world of dealing with contractors. If you can find one who will provide regular, routine communication and progress reports as part of their general approach to customer service, hang on to that contractor for dear life.

I think there are a couple of factors that lead to crappy response from contractors. The first is that they generally suck at project management and scheduling, so they end up over-extended and over-booked. The second is that they generally suck at what the service industry would call the soft skills. The combined effect is that once you sign the contract, you find yourself living in contractor land.

The guy I'm working with right now has been a breath of fresh air. This guy actually stops by to check progress and to get my feedback. Contrast this with the experience of one of my co-workers, who hired a contractor to mount his projector. The contractor said he would be out within a week. A month later, he still would not return my friend's phone calls. When my friend finally got a hold of the contractor, my friend basically told the guy that some communication would have been nice so he could have known of the delay. To which the contractor responded, "Hey, I don't have time to be calling you everyday."

Seriously, a phone call takes 5 minutes if you're skilled at being brief. I think they do this stuff because they can get away with it.

reports as part of their general approach to customer service, hang on to that contractor for dear life.
Funny that you say that. I had a fantastic contractor for many years, but he died.

This guy actually stops by to check progress and to get my feedback. Wow.
Thats excellent. Thats what I had with my previous contractor. Maybe I just got spoiled over the years with his complete reliability and fantastic craftsmenship.

The first is that they generally suck at project management and scheduling, so they end up over-extended and over-booked.
That is definitely the crux of the biscuit. They are overbooked and they suck at project management. Of course, Im supposed to understand that, and just take it. However, the way I see it, thats their problem, not the customer's. Sigh, Ill probably bite the bullet on my next home project and just mess up the drywall myself. One more DIY task to put in my back pocket. I thought this was going to be relatively pain free, but the 'fun' isnt over yet!

Excuse me while I go work on my attitude. :)

I don't buy any of their excuses. I've got drywall guys that can do an entire room in two days flat. Two guys. Put it up, tape it, float it, texture it. They use quick drying mud and they don't sand. They don't sand because they don't have to. They're skilled. Their work is near flawless. If I'm super anal I can find tiny little mistakes that completely disappear when you stand 2 feet away. They're even considerate and go out of their way to clean up when they're done. Hell, they even say yes sir and no sir to me!!

Sorry. I'm don't mean to rub it in your face or anything David. It just pisses me off to see people jerked around by contractors.

I've got drywall guys that can do an entire room in two days flat. Two guys.
Do they travel to Seattle?! :)

Sorry. I'm don't mean to rub it in your face or anything David.
No problem. Im glad to hear good stories like this. It gives me hope. I dont buy much of the excuses either. Thats why Im just going to be all over the owner now. Im done with the supervisor. Im almost half tempted to just fire them and finish it myself. The owner is supposed to have a complete story for me by tomorrow. We shall see.

I don't buy any of their excuses. I've got drywall guys that can do an entire room in two days flat. Two guys. Put it up, tape it, float it, texture it. They use quick drying mud and they don't sand. They don't sand because they don't have to. They're skilled. Their work is near flawless. If I'm super anal I can find tiny little mistakes that completely disappear when you stand 2 feet away. They're even considerate and go out of their way to clean up when they're done. Hell, they even say yes sir and no sir to me!!I've seen commercial dryall specialists install a steel stud wall, screw down the sheet rock, then tape and mud it, all in one morning. They used high quality quick drying mud sparingly, then came back for the second and third coats in the afternoon. By the second day they were priming and painting the walls. I'd imagine guys of this calibre cost more, but without all that frustration and with their time savings, they're bound to be worth it.

Meanwhile, I'll just toss in a few dry logs and a barrel of gasoline for that fireball you're bound to be flinging at the boss :eek: if they don't show up tomorrow. Good luck!!

I've seen commercial dryall specialists install a steel stud wall, screw down the sheet rock, then tape and mud it, all in one morning.
Ok, now youre making me jealous. :)

Id go home at lunch to check up on these jokers, but Ive got work to do today and Im already pretty steamed. Dont need it ruining my good day (just yet). Especially after I just got free end zone tickets to Giants@Seahawks today. Should be fun!

Just got home from work to find a bunch of drywall dust everywhere. Good! Work was done and a fair bit of it! It almost looks done! The dust I can tolerate and expect. I estimate another day or two of work. A fire has been lit under someone! Of course, the owner hasnt called me back as he said he would to give me the schedule. He's probably fuming and cursing my name. Hey, if my tirade motivated them enough to finish up and get the heck away from me, all the better. Although, I still got another tirade bottled up for when they complete everything. ;)

I also have the idea of not paying them for a few weeks and see if they call me asking for payment so I can use some of their own lame excuses on them. "Oh I forgot" and "I was on vacation, we were kind of thin around here" and "I ran out of stamps" (for when they said they ran out of the corner beads and didnt show up the rest of the day). Ha, this experience has really let my cynical, sarcastic, Gen-X personality coming dripping through. Wheres it been hiding? :p

Quick pic of the blue LED rope light. It lights up the room all by itself. I can just paint everything white and let this light make everything blue. Wow. Needs that dimmer! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/blue.jpg

David, where did you get the rope light? I saw you said ebay, but was it a certain seller? I have been looking for some white for a dining room I am going to work on, but wherever I look, I see they say the LED ropes are not dimmable, but the old incandescent lights are dimmable. Did your seller say it was dimmable, or did you just hope for the best?

David, where did you get the rope light? I saw you said ebay, but was it a certain seller? I have been looking for some white for a dining room I am going to work on, but wherever I look, I see they say the LED ropes are not dimmable, but the old incandescent lights are dimmable. Did your seller say it was dimmable, or did you just hope for the best?
Michael,

Look for the ebay ID, mbj468mbj. They still have quite a few rope lights currently I saw just glancing tonight. If you need special lengths just email them. I did, and found them very accomodating and quick to reply. They answered all my questions. The lights I got were not dimmable (and I knew that). Mine are the 120 AC pluggable kind. I put a dimmer to an outlet thats in my ceiling. I rigged the outlet such that one of the plugs is on the dimmer (for the rope light) and the other plug is on all the time. I found that not all dimmers make my rope lights dim. I tried Lutron Maestro IR and it made the lights flicker. I currently have a Lutron Skylark (manual slider) for the switch and it dims the rope light like a champ. The style of it doesnt match my other Lutron Maestro IRs for my recessed cans & sconces, but it does work well. When the drywall guys FINALLY finish I have a Lutron Diva to try out as well. That one matches the style of the Maestro's. If that doesnt work, then Ill stick with the Skylark.

Hope that helps!
Dave

One more note on the ropes. These LEDs are bright! I can only imagine that whites are brighter still. Depending on your ceiling height, it might be ok, but these ropes are NOT subtle mood lighting by default. They really need a dimmer if thats the effect you want.

You are inspiring me! I am signing on a new house tomorrow and I will be starting pretty much from scratch. I'm glad to see that such an extensive project is going to be powered by a Yamaha 2600 - I was pretty impressed with the feature set, but haven't heard one yet. I feel safe doing so after seeing the confidence you must have in the unit.

You are inspiring me! I am signing on a new house tomorrow and I will be starting pretty much from scratch. I'm glad to see that such an extensive project is going to be powered by a Yamaha 2600
Glad to know my project helps inspire a bit. I think youll find quite a few people on this forum are using the 2600. Of course, the 2700 is coming out about now (or is out already). Sigh, such is life of tech. Outdated before you know it. Thats probably good news for you since thall inevitably mean price drops on the 2600. However, outdated or not, the 2600 seems really good from the playing around Ive done with it. I liked all the interconnect options it had (HDMI, component, S-video, optical audio). All that appealed to me (coming from a 15 yr old Pioneer rcvr that only had composites), plus it has THX. Ive watched a few movies with 5.1 surround (dont have 2 more speakers yet, :)) and its had plenty of horsepower to rock my house (and probably the neighbors).

The only drawback (if any), is it does generate heat. Just touching the top of the unit and you want to quickly remove your hand. Hot stuff!

Rounding the bend and heading for home on the drywall! The drywall guy showed up today and gave me a whole 90 min of effort. Thats on top of the strenuous 1 day of effort from last week. Whew, Im tired just thinking about all that work! :rolleyes: Mercifully, he told my wife (She happened to be home instead of me. She's more diplomatic than me) theyd be all done by Wed, possibly tomorrow. :eek: Done? :eek: Did you say done? :eek: Wow! And to think I was about to put this job completion into my will for my kids to oversee! Will I know what to do with myself with theyre all done? Honey, bring out the striaghtjacket, Im going to spend a little insanity time in the theater alone...

Two days in a row!!! The drywall guy showed up again today! Making a final push to clean up and be gone tomorrow (I hope). Its a war zone down there though. Dust and mess covers the concrete floor. Part of the contract is they scrape up all the slopped mud. i probably get the fun of the dust, but my shop vac & mop can make quick work of that.

They did some texturing under my stairs to blend in the patch work under the stairway landing. All the texturing is done and ready for paint. Wasnt much to texture anyway. My landing under the stairs and the hallway outside the texture connecting the theater to my home office and bathroom. (both 3x3 squares to texture, nothing really). The theater itself has one corner along the whole HVAC duct that needs a little sanding, but I think its all done other than that. Yay! Its almost over!

I think he's working too hard and needs a vacation though. :rolleyes:

The word deduct still comes to mind for me with your situation. Does it mention anything about service quality in your contract? If so, I would have them take care of the dust since it's the least they could do.

Does it mention anything about service quality in your contract?
Unfortunately, no. It would be great if they cleaned up the dust, but Im not counting on it. The contract is really quite plain vanilla. It doesnt even specify when I have to pay them. (Muahahahahaha). I still plan on invoking my privilege of delaying payment 1-for-1 for each day they werent on the job. I was told yesterday that they fired a couple of the guys that didnt bother showing up to start out the project, but Id really like to fire the owner myself. 1 month real time for an 8 day job is ludacris IMHO.

All complaints aside, the work being done is pretty good. I have no real complaints about the walls being crooked, bumpy, etc. It looks dang smooth in fact. Outside the theater, in the little hallway, the old drywall had this really hideously bad heavy texture on the wall. They skim coated that smooth and (I got to admit) it looks great (compared to the 35 year old shlock job the original builders did).

I feel your pain, David. I've been waiting for 4 days for the HVAC guy to show up and talk with me about where to put the vents and to move an AC compressor line. Until he moves that compressor line, nothing else can happen.

I'm trying to be patient because I know my job is only "worth it" for the contractor if he can do it on a paced schedue due to the fact that we're making a lot of little decisions as we go, and the crew has to stop every so often to get my approval on their plans before we proceed.

But 4 days waiting for one guy to show up and look around is getting a bit old.

But 4 days waiting for one guy to show up and look around is getting a bit old.
Hopefully they kept you in the loop on that and not leave you wondering on a day by day basis like me.

Hopefully they kept you in the loop on that and not leave you wondering on a day by day basis like me.

To his credit, the Owner dropped me an email early on Friday morning to let me know what was going on. He said that he was "Waiting for the HVAC guy."

But he didn't say how long we'd be "waiting for the HVAC guy."

I've officially entered contractor land.

To be honest, I'm not in any terrible hurry since I may not be buying a projector until early next year (due to the fact that I might wait for the new JVC, which has perhaps the best specs on any consumer priced digital projector ever.) But he did say the job would take about 3 weeks...

Holy frijoli! Its done! Woopie! They did a pretty reasonable job cleaning up the floor. Nevertheless, I took a mop to it tonight and tried to get as much junk up as I could in a first pass. Oh yea, they tied up my riser conduit, ha.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/dw5.jpg

Here's some perspective on leaving the HT and turning left into the little hallway leading to my bath/laundry room. The wall straight on (and to the left a tad) was the ugliest wall in the house and now its nice and smooth after the skim coat.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/hallway.jpg

As you turn left out of the HT, theres the bath/laundry room. A little closer view on the now smoothed out wall too.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/dw2.jpg

Here's the little spot under the landing on the stairway where things got a zap of texture to blend in with the rest of the stairway going upstairs.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/landing1.jpg

Yay! Back to work! Bring on the painting crew! Oh wait, thats me! Probably will have to wait until the weekend, but at least I can get things all prepped and ready for that. I plan on priming the ceiling and the side walls (up to chair rail height) on Sat and then hopefully painting the ceiling on Sunday.

Put the beer in the icebox and stock up on aspirin, David's about to get started again!! :D :D

David's about to get started again!!
Well said! Thats right! Feels good to have my room back in general. Still got more cleanup to do tonight and then Ill start masking the windows in the HT and the floors in the hallways to get ready for a weekend painting.

Just ordered up my GOM today!

Style Number: 3583 (Zirconia)
Color: 012 (Garnet)

Just like Gary Kagan's theater. Looking forward to getting to the point of building my acoustic panels someday.

Whew! Im tired today! Got a full days priming the ceiling and then putting the first coat on it. I like it! I'd complain about my neck being stiff after looking up all day, but after the drywall experience, Im not going to moan too much.

Here's the ceiling taken with a flash. This is definitely NOT the true color, but its interesting all the same.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ceil1.jpg

The following 2 pix are without a flash and thats basically the real color of the ceiling. Its Sherwin Williams, SW1539 - Cathedral Glass - Color Accents - Flat. It's a dark blue with hints of purple. Trying to go for the night sky thing.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ceil2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ceil4.jpg

Ill be putting another coat on it tomorrow. Yay progress again!

The good thing about the flash photos is they let you know it's not a black color at all. And I'll bet that blue/purple color looks gorgeous in person. :)

And I'll bet that blue/purple color looks gorgeous in person.
It does look really cool. I like when I walk downstairs, and take the turn into the HT and WHAM! The ceiling just hits you after being in the all white upstairs. You definitely dont expect to see it.

Got a 2nd coat of paint on the ceiling. Im really happy with the way it turned out. Still need to do the bottom of the walls (below chair rail height), but thats pretty easy. I could sit down to do that!

Starting cutting wood for my riser. Ultimately, the riser will be 10'x6'x8" with proably a 1" overhang. I put down the #30 asphalt paper. I'm cut some 2x8's to 64". I have a 2'x10'x1" for the front part of the riser so I can cut holes for 2 2-gang low voltage boxes. 1 for the game & VGA ports, and the other thatll just have a blank cover plate where the conduit will be behind for the future expansion.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/coat1.jpg

Here I just set up all the boards. Theyre not attached to anything yet. Just testing out how they all fit together. On the left, I drilled a 2.5" hole for the conduit to hold it in place. Ill have a 4" gap between that 2x10' and the 1x10' front for me to have the low voltage wires to run around. Forgot to drill another hole for the other low voltage wires. Have to do that tomorrow. That box in front has my Chief Projector mount. Just sizing it up to make sure Ill be able to mount everything soon! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/coat2.jpg

Here's a trivia question for you. Which board is not level? Answer below...
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/trick2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/trick1.jpg

Ah, its a trick question! Both boards are perfectly level. Its the floor thats NOT! The concrete takes a big old dip right there. Probably need to makes some shims out of the scrap 2x8 or something to level that off before the lid goes on. Wow, didnt even think that the floor might be so crooked.

Both boards are perfectly level. Its the floor thats NOT! The concrete takes a big old dip right there. Probably need to make some shims out of the scrap 2x8 or something to level that off before the lid goes on. Wow, didn't even think that the floor might be so crooked.I knew my old subfloor was sagging, but never realized just how bad :eek: it was until I started leveling the stage frame. If I had known, I would never have bothered buying a pack of shims. :(

I knew my old subfloor was sagging, but never realized just how bad it was until I started leveling the stage frame.
Yea, Im suprised I dont read more about it on others forums. Maybe everyone just has nice new houses and not 35+ yr old houses like mine. Heck, my subfloor is concrete even! You'd think that would be at least reasonably level. The good news is that its only that one spot. The next "joist" over (Im spacing them about 14" OC) is perfectly even again.

Today I came home from work to find part of the HT lower wall painted. My loving wife chips in! She was afraid to move the riser boards or she would have gone around the whole room. :) So, I moved them out of the way so she can finish what she started. Dont tell her this, but it suprisingly looks pretty smooth. Not many roller marks. Impressive! Must have been good paint (it was a gallon we never used for my living room remodel). ;)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/wife2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/wife1.jpg

Not sure if we'll stick with the color or not, but what the hey, I can always change my mind and paint it something else. Wanted some way to transition the dark blue ceiling into the wine red carpet. Thought some lighter colors might help break up the room a bit so its not all dreary.

I put up the Chief mount on the ceiling tonight. Hung the projector up. Wow, harder than I thought. A two-man job really. One to hold the projector and the other to screw in the thumb screws. I wound up balancing it on my head while trying to get in the thumb screws. Besides that, the cables need to be bent pretty extremely to get them out the side of the mount and routed to the back. Tight fit! With the help of a tie-wrap I got the cables out of the way to put the projector up. Hooked up the VGA cable and projected my laptop back onto ye ole brick wall. Yea, at least one cable still works. :) I took the projector back down right after. Need to cram up the slack on the cables into the ceiling a bit to clean it up before it goes up permanently. Probably will wait until after the carpet guys are done bashing around in there. I can just imagine a big old roll of carpet smackin the projector upside its head. Whack! CRASH! Oooops.:)

Here's some pix I took last night when I mounted the AE900 onto the Chief mount.

Here's just the mount and its tentacles. Ill be trimmed the conduit down so its flush with the ceiling, and then I plan on trying to make my own hardwood cover for it with a hole saw and some thin oak board I got.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/room3-1.jpg

Here's the AE900 mounted! I didnt have all the cables with the slack pushed up into the ceiling. This was just my trial to see how things would go.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/room2-2.jpg

Closeup of how smooshed the cables can be with those Chief mounts.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/room4-2.jpg

Tonight I slapped a 2nd coat of paint onto the lower wall. Got that all done so we can call in the carpet guys to come out and do a measurement. It also frees me up to get that riser built. Borrowing my brother in-law's truck on Sat for a trip to Lowes to get the plywood for the riser and some sheets of oak plywood for the equipment closet and my in-wall bookcase/media storage. Im sure itll be a few weeks before the carpet can go in. Plenty of time for me to finish up the riser and prep up for the post-carpet era.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/room1-2.jpg

ccxcI wound up balancing it on my head while trying to get in the thumb screws. Uh Dave, not to be a smartass but they've got these things called ladders.....

Also with the Chief mount, the projector will stay in the bracket without the thumbscrews being tightened all the way so you can use one hand to steady the pj and the other to tighten the screws.
I know it's tough to trust it until the screws are tight but it's actually a lot safer than balancing it on your head.
I tried that but with the point I've got going up there it just didn't work out ;)

I tried that but with the point I've got going up there it just didn't work out
LOL. Yea, I just ran out of arms. I was being very paranoid about trusting all the screws. I would have died a 1000 deaths if the projector fell. Im sure Ill get more comfortable on the 2nd go round. Getting the cables out of the way proved to be a challenge too. Thats where I really needed the extra arms. They kept getting in the way until I used a tie wrap to bend them in the direction I wanted. With the tight fit, the cables provided some resistence to getting those thumbscrews in and the projector semi-level. It was more challengine than I anticipated. When I do it "for real," Im sure to get my wife to help. She definitely needs the ladder at 5'0". :)

Looking very nice David......now onto the fun stuff.

Cheers,
Mark

Looking very nice David......now onto the fun stuff.
Thanks! I agree completely! I will feel better once I get the equipment closet all built and my gear fired up in there. That will be a grand moment for me.

David.

Your theater is coming along very well, I have been watching for awhile now. I am still at the dry wall stage. Man I hate drywall!, I would like to ask what brand and shade of blue you used on your ceiling. I have not picked colors out for mine yet, I like the look of your ceiling. I was leaning on a blue ceiling, with medium to dark grey for the walls.

Regards, ED

Your theater is coming along very well, I have been watching for awhile now. I am still at the dry wall stage. Man I hate drywall!,
Thanks! I hate drywall too. I still havent paid my drywall guys yet as they still have my house key. They said they were going to mail it to me, but of course it hasnt arrived yet so theyre not getting paid until I have it in my hand. :)

I like the look of your ceiling. I was leaning on a blue ceiling, with medium to dark grey for the walls.
I really like it too. Im sure it would blend well with grey. The blue Im using is on this post... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8551217&&#post8551217

Be careful of the flash photos Ive posted. The pics make it look shockingly bright blue, but the reality is a dark dark blue. That referenced post has unflashed photos.

Thanks David,

A really deep blue is what I am after, I will get a sample and give it a try. I think it will mix well with the grey. Now I will have to think about carpet :eek: . I just want to get the drywall done. I choose to do it myself, Work demands have really picked up in the last few months, and I find I only have maybe a day a week that I can spend more than a fews hours on it, and its really dragging. Once that gets done it should be smooth sailing. Thats why I keep coming back to these great construction threads, they are great for motivation. :D

Thank You again Ed

I just want to get the drywall done. I choose to do it myself, Work demands have really picked up in the last few months, and I find I only have maybe a day a week that I can spend more than a fews hours on it, and its really dragging.
I know what you mean about the time demands. I had about 10min this morning free and I snuck in screwing together 2 joists on the riser. Well, thats a good day's work.

Best of luck on the drywall! I want to see some pix someday of your theater! :)

LOL! I know exactly what you mean. I was hoping to run the wire for my sconces (through the columns) and hang the columns and ended up getting just the glue blocks done. I'm sure those would be really exciting if I took a picture of them for my thread ;)

Mike

hang the columns and ended up getting just the glue blocks done. I'm sure those would be really exciting if I took a picture of them for my thread
Actually, that DOES interest me. :) Seriously. How people go about mounting the columns onto the walls is interesting to me because I have a mental plan in my mind on my own, but love seeing how others mount theirs since Im not totally convinced my plan is solid. ;)

Oh, well then I'll take some photos for you :)

I'm taking the day off to watch a friend's kids (along with mine, my wife is at a 3 day teacher's conference) and so hopefully when they're occupied from time to time throughout the day I'll squeeze in what I can.

Mike

With the help of my brother in law today, we kicked some tail in the theater. Not without some comedy of errors, but we got a lot more done than I expected to.
First, a little shopping trip to Lowes to get:

(3) 4'x8'x0.75" plywood - for riser
(2) 4x8x0.25" oak plywood - for equipment closet and bookshelf back walls
(1) 4x8x0.75" oak plywood - for equipment closet side walls

We put together the "fascia" board on the front of the riser first. Its a 2x10'x1" board that I used to cut the holes for 2 2-gang outlets. One will have a blank plate for the conduit, and the other will be for the game center connectors and VGA. I used my drill to make some pilot holes and then a jig saw to cut the holes out.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/fascia2.jpg

Here's the back-side of the board after I installed the "old-work" low voltage boxes.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/fascia3.jpg

Here's the "final" product on the front of the riser. The conduit is "tamed" by the 2x8 that I set back 4" from the fascia board. Gives me room to put my hands in there and move cables around a bit.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/fascia4.jpg

Remember how I showed the pic of how uneven my floor was when I put the riser 2x8's down? Well, we used a bunch of shims and shimmed up the lower boards underneath to make everything level. From the above pix you can see we sprayed some Great Stuff underneath the raised board to fill up the gap. I had a can of the stuff I never used so why not try? The riser is a rock! My brother in law got a kick out of my screws. I was using some 2.5" #10 screws, but we ran out of screws. I had a bunch of 3" deck screws from my deck rebuild so I switched to those on the silly little 1" fascia board. Its solid though! Doesnt budge an inch. :)

Heres the riser as it stands right now. I bought a router today so I can put a bull-nose on the edge. Once I do that, then I can screw it down permanently (with my 3" deck screws :)).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/riser2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/riser1.jpg

After a quick lunch, I figured I was done with my brother in law, but he wanted to keep going. Guess he got into the spirit of the HT too and wanted to see some more stuff done. So, we started to tackle the equipment closet with my oak plywood.

First we put the 0.25" plywood into the back of the closet. That went in pretty easily. We cut it 1" shorter than the wall to make life easier moving it into the closet. I got 5.25" base molding that will hide gaps. Still need to cut the holes in that board for the 2 electrical outlets, but I can do that on my own tomorrow.

Next, we took the 0.75 plywood and started to build the side wall of the equipment closet closest to the fireplace. No outlets to worry about there, but we did have a notch to cut to get around the door frame. This is where we made a fatal error. We measured where we wanted to cut the notch. We went outside to cut the notch, but I questioned the measurements. Told my BIL to draw the lines for the notch while I double checked. He did, I came out and cut the notch with the jig saw, and we brought the board in. OOOOOOOPS! I realized right as we got in front of the closet that I cut the wrong freakin part of the notch! I cut off the part that was supposed to stay! As Charlie Brown once said, "AUGH!!!!!!" :eek: After we kicked each other in the rears for a bit and uttered a few non-kid friendly words, we decided to cut straight across and just put the wrong piece back on top, fill it in, and hope for the best. It doesnt look too bad.

After that, we stopped for the day figuring we were too tired and our brains turned to jelly. However, it was a GREAT day of work. Im really happy to have all his help today.

OK, heres the notched corner I screwed up. You can see the "cut" piece pretty easily. The good news is probably only he and I will ever really notice it. Itll be behind doors anyway. ;)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/closet2-1.jpg

This is looking into the back corner where the screwed up side wall meets the back wall.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/closet3-1.jpg

Here's the back wall going over to the over side wall. Boy, that side wall should be "fun" with all those outlets and conduits too.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/closet4-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/closet1-2.jpg

Here's the front of the equipment closet. We made the side wall come out flush with the drywall. Ill eventually build a face frame for it and hang the doors on the face frame. I plan on the face frame covering that little 3" bit of drywall there completely.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/closet5-1.jpg

Thats all for today. Going to crack a cold one and kick back...

Anther HT occurence today, the carpet guy came early this morning and measured everything out. Got to go in tomorrow to talk $$ with him.

Wow, you got a lot done this weekend!! The boo-boo in the closet will turn out fine -- a great craftsman is not only skilled at the job at hand but can also cover up a mistake so no one else will know (though that gets harder when you post it on the web for all to see as my buddy at work always reminds me ;) ).

Mike

though that gets harder when you post it on the web for all to see as my buddy at work always reminds me
LOL. Yea, I'll have to rethink trying to help others from my mistakes. :)

Nah, don't -- I still enjoy sharing my problems, if I can help one guy (or gal) avoid something stupid I've done then it's worth it right?

:)

Mike

Ruben,

Saw the email asking about where I got the rope light, but for some weird reason I dont see your post here. Anyway, look for the ebay ID, mbj468mbj. Thats the person I got mine from. Theyre very friendly and responsive to any requests and/or questions you may have.

-Dave

David - looking good. I sent you a PM about Insteon Dimmers you need to read. I hope it is not too late in your situation to fix. I am ticked off that there is nothing in the documentation about it...but oh well.

Ruben,

Saw the email asking about where I got the rope light, but for some weird reason I dont see your post here. Anyway, look for the ebay ID, mbj468mbj. Thats the person I got mine from. Theyre very friendly and responsive to any requests and/or questions you may have.

-Dave

I just used the same dealer, great experience. If you want to email them, then call you can order over the phone, and get the lengths you need.

Don't email on their web site, it is the wrong email, use their email from their ebay listings.

The lights are from china, and seem like they are great quality. They will say they are not dimmable, but David found some dimmers that will work.

David - looking good. I sent you a PM about Insteon Dimmers you need to read. I hope it is not too late in your situation to fix. I am ticked off that there is nothing in the documentation about it...but oh well.
Wow! :eek: I ultimately wound up using Lutron Maestro IR dimmers. Havent noticed heat issues with those (yet). I touch the heat sinks every once in a blue moon because I noticed a dimmer I used upstairs in my kitchen tends to get warm so Im curious about the Lutrons getting warm too. However, so far theyve been rather cool to the touch even if Ive been in the room for a couple of hours with the lights on.

The lights are from china, and seem like they are great quality. They will say they are not dimmable, but David found some dimmers that will work.
I used a Lutron Skylark dimmer on them that works rather well. I still have a Lutron Diva dimmer to try on them when I get a chance. The Diva matches the "box" style of the Lutron Maestro IR's I got for my cans & sconces. The Maestro IR makes these ropes flicker though (hence trying out the other dimmers).

Yesterday I decided to tackle the right side of the equipment closet. The one with all the cuts I would need to make for the outlets and conduit. :eek: I happened to have some spare plywood from the riser, so I figured I better make myself a template before I start hacking away on the good oak plywood. Boy, was that wise! My first measurements and cuts for the outlets were WAY off. A good 0.5" too low on all of them. The conduits were dead on, so I was lucky there. Not sure what I was smokin' on the outlet measurements. However, after a bunch of trial/error with the template, I finaly got it right.

Here's a pic of the template somewhat in place. Its a hair too wide to put in all the way, but Im not concerned with that as long as the holes all line up. I'll be transferring that over to the oak plywood sometime soon.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/template1.jpg

Tonight I decided to glue n screw the riser lid on permanently. I had to kludge on a chunk of 2x8" in one corner to give the plywood some extra meat to rest on since I didnt make my joists perfectly straight. Oh well, no one will ever notice. Shhhh.

Here's a couple of pix I took the other day to show a little more detail on how I put the fascia board on the front and 4" away from the 2x8" frame of the riser. Incidentally, I stuffed the riser with R-30 insulation followed by stuffing the gaps in the fascia with a roll of R-13. I had some extra R-13, so I just smashed that on top of the R-30 until I ran out.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/riser1-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/riser2-1.jpg

Im trying to do a little bit of everything now. I jumped back over to the window boxes and decided to try out the previously made paper template of the big window. I got the veneer a few weeks back while I was waiting for those Barnacle Head (to quote Squidward) drywall guys to finish. So, I took out my 4'x12' piece of red oak 10MIL paper backed veneer and went to town.

Here's the paper template positioned on top of the veneer. I trimmed off a 1' piece of the veneer to make it easier to work with. The window box depth is aobut 10.5" so I had room to play with.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven1.jpg

The "notch" fit perfect the first time, but I discovered not everything was butted up flush against the window. It was crooked along one edge. So I went back and forth trimming off the edge a little bit at a time not to trim off too much until everything fit just right. I just used my framing square as a straight edge and my trusty utility knife to score and cut. Had to change the blade out a couple of times since I was using the concrete floor as my workbench and it kept dulling the knife. :p Tomorrow, Ill bust out the contact cement and glue it down probably. One side down, 7 more to go (I guess a few more than that if you count the post in the middle of the big window).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven2.jpg

Havent cut off the excess overhang from the edge yet. I like to do that after its glued on nice and tight so it doesnt slip anywhere while Im trimming it flush to the 1" oak extensions I put on.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven3.jpg

Got busy with the veneer today. I need to finish all my "messy" work in the HT as the carpet will be installed in a little over a week. Just this weekend and one more to do the messy stuff. Trying to get the window boxes veneered and stained.

I finished the little window today. Probably needs some touch up on the stain. Was getting dark outside so I was having difficulty seeing if I got stain in all the grain. Morning will fix that. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven2-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven1-1.jpg

Here's a closeup of the veneer outside edge on the big window. I got on the bottom piece of veneer, but not the top or sides. I sanded that edge as smooth as I could get it. Really hard to tell that its veneer unless you look really close.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven4.jpg

Ok, here's the ugly of veneering. I ran out of Contact Cement so I went to HD and found some "environmentally friendly" contact cement. No smell and non-flammable. Only one problem with it. Its NOT STICKY! :mad: It was really watery and went on easy, but it did not get tacky at all. I was working on the top piece on the big window, but it wouldnt hold at all. Ran back to HD and got the regular contact cement. Lathered up the top piece (again) and went to put it on. OK, its a 10' piece of veneer. Its pretty hard to slap it up by yourself and get it on straight. One false move and it goes on crooked. Well, I had that false move. I tried to pull it off, but just tore the poor veneer. GRRR. Fortunately, I have more long veneer to try again (when I finish cooling off). Here's the ugly aftermath after I peeled off the veneer (in small pieces).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven3-1.jpg

David,

My heart goes out to you. I've been there several times on my project (and since I'm not done yet -- I'll do it at least one or two more times). I hate that panic/sick/angry feeling you get when it's all going south on you. Sorry about that.

Good luck with the next try and if you're interested you could also look into scribing to make getting your edge to line up a little easier (though it sounds like your method worked great and I'm usually too chicken to try learning a new skill on a final product myself :rolleyes: ).

Mike

I hate that panic/sick/angry feeling you get when it's all going south on you. Sorry about that.
Yea, but it wasnt a huge deal for me. I just knew I needed to grow 2 more arms to get it on right next time. Its not nearly as frustrating as watching the drywall contractors "work." :)

Fortunately, today was all good news. More on that later...

Today I grew some extra arms (via my ever handy brother in law) and we whipped the veneer into shape. We got all the hard parts of the big window done. Whee! I have to clean up the corners a bit with some wood fill. Not all the corners were perfectly straight so the veneer doesnt go on straight either. :) Its pretty close though. I think once I fill it up and stain, itll be really hard to notice.

Ahhh, glad to get this beast up. Those 2 extra arms made this piece go up soooo much easier!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven1-2.jpg

The sides of the big window. The upper corners are the ones needing some fill I referred to before.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven3-2.jpg

I can do the middle post myself. Only two arms needed for that! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ven2-2.jpg

With my handy brother in law around, we tackled the last side of the equipment closet. Took my plywood template I made earlier in the week and transferred that over to the oak plywood. Worked out well. We only had to recut one outlet a little larger, but other than that, I was thankful I made the template.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cab1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cab2.jpg

I plan on staining it all up and putting in the peg holes this week. Need to get my shelves in there so I can get the equipment hooked up! Need that equipment hooked up again for positive motivation. Bust out the construction paper screen! :) One of these days Ill get to building the entertainment center over the fireplace for the real screen. One step at a time...

Your closet looks great! Can't wait to see it finished. Must be nice to have an extra set of handy arms to put to use, that would be nice around my place (though I think I tend to scare help off -- once they come over I put them to work big time ;)).

Mike

Damn that is coming through pretty good man.. LOOKING GOOD!!

Thanks guys!

Yea, its great to have the extra arms. My brother in law loves construction and he ran out of projects around his house (temporarily), so he's happy to come over and help. He's great since I can bounce ideas off him and get sharp answers back or something I never thought of. I get to learn stuff too. Also, he knows I have all the tools now so he can borrow them whenever. :)

Tonight I pounded some nails (Hey, I just quoted The Talisman) into the plywood of the equipment closet. 6d 2" finish nails if youre keeping score. I set them back too with my nail set. Getting it al prepped up for staining. Probably start that tomorrow.

I also finished up the veneer on the window boxes. Yay! Put the veneer on the center post of the big window. Thats my favorite part. Looks like I found a big old hunk of 4x4 oak just laying around for a window box. Nice! Will start staining that up tomorrow as well. I can almost see that carpet.... :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/post2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/post1.jpg

Doing a bunch of staining in the HT the past two nights. Slipping in work whenever time allows. Yesterday I did the big window.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/stain3.jpg

Tonight I went at it with the equipment closet. In case, anyone is wondering, Im using a wipe on urethane from General Finishes - Georgian Cherry. Got it at the local Unfinished Furniture store. I struggled with many different stains of Minwax and Olympic at the big boxes, but nothing came really close to what I wanted. Even mixed my own stains. This one is the closest to the color I had in my mind. I was modelling it after this really rich dark red/black rosewood desk I have in my office. Its a really nice color. This stain is very close to that color. The stain is coming out pretty good on the wood. It has its imperfections for sure, but its definitely something I think Ill really enjoy long term.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/stain4.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/stain5.jpg

I have a lot of stuff left to do in the HT and around the house before the carpet comes on Monday. You can imagine the workload upstairs too since that is getting new carpet as well. 3 bedrooms need to be vacated completely this weekend. All the beds and everything will be squashed into the living room for a few days. Should be entertaining. This weekend is going to be fun moving all that stuff around. I started moving some of the stuff off the closet floors tonight. Packing the little knick-knacks and photo albums from the closets and putting them downstairs into my back rooms. Its almost like we're moving! :)

Finished up the equipment closet stain tonight. Got a big wide foam brush and that helped me whip through it pretty quick. Quicker than wiping it on with a rag which I was doing for the other sides.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/st2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/st3.jpg

I went around the window boxes and put a second coat of stain on them as well. Theyre ready for prime time now, or at least some blinds. :) Havent ordered any blinds yet. Need to do some research and browsing to find the right "black out" blinds for my windows. I had wood Roman shades there before that were original to the house and those certain blackened the room out. I suppose new blinds are more energy efficient these days than 35 years ago too.

I also moved everything out of the HT and cleaned up as much as I could. Even swept the floor. Its basically ready for carpet on Monday.

Looks great! You'll love having the carpet in. I could really see the room come together once I got my carpet :)

Mike

David, the pics look great. I am really enjoying watching your progress. Keep up the good work!!

Lane

Thanks guys! Glad people are enjoying the progress. I know Im enjoying the fact that Im dangerously close to hooking up electronics! Ill need to build a template for drilling the peg holes for the shelf supports tonight. Ive got a bunch of spare plywood and oak veneer so I think my shelves will all be oak veneered plywood. Id love to get at least two shelves in soon. One for the Yamaha 2600 rcvr and another for my DVD player. Ill be stylin' then! :)

After work Im picking up my B&W CCM80 in-ceiling speakers. Want to get the holes cut in the ceiling for those guys before the carpet goes in too. I can do it after the carpet, but Id like to get that mess over with beforehand. :)

BTW, in case anyone is curious. Ive got some desk grommets of various sizes on order so Im hoping theyll fit "just right" over the conduits and clean those up nicely. That includes the one by the projector. Hopefully, I wont be needing those conduits for a good long time. ;)

You'll love having the carpet in. I could really see the room come together once I got my carpet
I know what you mean. My kids (and wife) are looking forward to having the room carpeted again too so they have more space to go around and graze in. Im sure Ill be tripping over Legos and stuffed animals in no time flat. :)

Last night after work I eagerly skirted over to Definitive Audio in Bellevue to pick up my B&W CCM80 in-ceiling speakers. Got some inspiration as well diggin' around their theaters and asking lots of questions.

The speakers came with a cardboard template for cutting the holes in the drywall. I measured and hung them up last night to make sure everything was positioned where I needed them. Here are a couple of the templates hanging up. I just thumbtacked them in place.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/speak1.jpg

I then used my handy red Sharpie to draw the outline of the cut. I drilled a hole where I was going to stick my jigsaw and cut the hole out.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/speak2.jpg

Then I cut! Vaccumed up the dust a bit in the hole and put the speaker up.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/speak3.jpg

Do that times 4, and Ive got all 4 of my surrounds going! I dragged in the Yamaha 2600 and hooked them all up. Listening to the local metal station. Rock out! Wife and kids arent home to hear this. :) They sound nice and clear. Obviously, being in-ceilings, they arent "full" sounding, but these have pretty decent bass response on them I think. Theyll be great for movies and music once the fronts and subwoof are in place!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/speak4.jpg

Ok, gotta go work on the closet shelves after a break...

This afternoon I built a peg hole template out of some scrap 0.25" plywood I had. It was a 2" wide template that I drew a line right down the middle and then drilled a 3/8" hole every 1.5". My shelf supports fit in a 3/8" hole.

Once I got the template built, I stared at the wall, haha. Just trying to figure where all the peg holes would go. After deciding that I went to town. I set the template on the concrete floor and drilled my first row. After that, I needed my level and some shims to do the other 3 columns. The shims to adjust for the crooked floor and the level to make sure the peg holes were all even with each other. Took me a lot longer than I thought it would, but I was being extra paranoid. Had to sand up the peg holes after drilling and put some more stain on too to dress it up nicely.

Here's a pic of the work done. You can see I put on my 7.1 2-gang wall plate. Works like a champ. I also put on the bulk wall plate too for the cables coming to/from the projector and the game center (in the front of the riser). Oh yea, in the pic, you can see I put a 1x4 of solid oak in the door frame to cover the ugly 2x4. I still need to cut a piece of oak for the top of the door frame, but dont have a piece deep enough (6").
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/t1.jpg

I spray painted a metal plate for the thermostat (ivory to match) electrical box. I got a plate that has just a single 1" hole (approx) in the middle of it. I will pull the wires through that and into the thermostat (eventually). The thermostat will be mounted just above the electrical box.

Still need to wire up the keystone plate for the RG6s, ethernets, phone, & IR repeater on the one low voltage box. Not a big pressing issue though. Will get to that soon enough. ;)

Whew, Im beat. No helpers for me this weekend so I had to go solo. :)

Tomorrow I need to built a couple of shelves. I cut 3 pieces plywood to size (26.25" x 20"). Got a 4'x8' sheet of oak veneer leftover thatll Ill veneer them with. I plan on putting a notch in the rear of the shelves just to be able to run wires in the back (and for ventilation sort of).

OK, I was bored and home alone. I thought I was done for the day, but Im not. I am now though I promise. Cut a 2" deep notch 6" in from the sides of my shelves. Got 3 shelves all notched.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sh1.jpg

Ok, litmus test time (and some nail biting). The Yamaha 2600 is one heavy beast! The heaviest piece of equipment I got (and one of the more expensive). Dont fall shelf (or youre sawdust!). Hey, plenty of space to manuever. I turned the rcvr around so I could plug everything in and then turn it right back around.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sh2.jpg

Shot from underneath.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sh3.jpg

Ok, well I promise Ill rest and wont veneer until tomorrow morning. Gotta have strength for lifting 3 beds into the living room to clear out the bedrooms for Mondays carpet.

I love the super nice and organized wires. I know its not finished but, WOW! This is gonna look sweet when its done. Those wires are exactly how mine do NOT look. Great Job Man I do have a question though, How is heat handeled in the closet? I don't recall reading anything about it when the thread was started.

How is heat handeled in the closet?
I have a Panasonic Whisper Quiet fan in the ceiling of the closet. Its tied to the thermostat thatll be wired into the electrical box in the top of the closet. The fan vents outside. The front of the closet will have a 4" space between the shelves and the closet doors plus the 2" notch in the back of the shelves. That should help allow the hot air to move up to the fan (I hope). Im pretty sure Ive got plenty of air movement in there.

Thanks for the compliment on the wires! Theyre all tie wrapped up into bundles. I still have to take a wet rag to them and clean off some drywall dust from them. My wife and I took some colored electrical tape and put bands of color on each wire so I could remember which wire goes where. I tried to organize the bundles into functional bundles. Speakers in one bundle, projector in another, game center in another, etc.

Incidentally, the Yamaha 2600 will be on the top shelf closest to the fan and thermostat. Its a little furnace on its own. My other equipment doesnt produce much heat so they can be lower in the rack. The top shelf will be located right under the 7.1 wall plate and above the conduits.

Boy am I exhausted today. Through in yesterdays all day of work and pile on top of that moving 3 beds, clearing out the bedrooms of furniture, doing a ton of yardwork, and cleaning up the HT. Ill be sleeping good tonight. :)

Today I veneered two of my 3 shelves. Just ran out of glue to do the third. Im sure Ill need to build another shelf or two as time goes on, but Ill do those on an 'as needed' basis.

Hopefully Ill have some carpet pix tomorrow evening!

Woohoo! Carpet installers showed up nice and early today. Theyre busy scraping away the old carpet upstairs. Delivery truck with the actual carpet is on its way too. Should have lots of time to install the pads beforehand. I even snuck in and fixed a few squeaks in the floor that have really nagged me forever. SQUEAK! Grrr.

Carpet so beautiful!!! Wow, its so quiet and subdued in the room now after listening to my footsteps echo for weeks on end. Those carpet guys worked their tails off, and I couldnt be happier (what a contrast to the drywall guys)! Beaming with carpety goodness! :D

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/car1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/car2.jpg

This is without flash. Check out the natural shadow on the fireplace. Thatll be good for the screen. Yes, the ceiling does turn very dark now without the flash. Thats how it looks in real life too. NOTE: The hallway light will be off when watching movies. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/car4.jpg

Another pic without flash.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/car3.jpg

I also noticed that the carpet changed my paint color too. Its a heck of a lot more red now. :D

David,

Looking sweat!

I recollect you used Baird Brothers for your hardwood moldings. How was the quality - always a bit worried letting others pick my lumber.

I notice you don't have your base moulding down yet.......was this recommended by your carper installers? Did they leave sufficient room so when base molding is installed it does not cover the grip bars? I'm debatting whether to pit my base molding down prior to or after carpet install.

Cheers,
Mark

I recollect you used Baird Brothers for your hardwood moldings. How was the quality - always a bit worried letting others pick my lumber.
Quality was great. They came in big heavy cardboard boxes. Heavy as in some got dented when the UPS guy dropped them on my front step. It was no big deal really. In general, I have to say the moldings were very clean. I cringe when I go to the big box stores and pick through 20 pieces just to get one that isnt split bent or otherwise unuseable. These looked like they were hand picked. Im very pleased with them.

was this recommended by your carper installers?
No, thats my own personal choice. I like to have it stained before I install and I also dont trust that they will come out unscathed after a carpet install. I have these "thing" about my moldings looking pristine. Ive done that in most of my other rooms as well and never regretted it. Theres always room to cram in the base molding Ive found. Ive never had an issue with that myself. The only thing I need to noodle through is how to work the molding around the rounded edge of the riser.

Look, a real live shelf in my HT! This is where my rcvr shall live out its days & nights. I couldnt help myself even though itll have to come out so I get peel the blue tape away from my ceiling paint touch ups.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sh1-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sh2-1.jpg

Im just going nuts tonight with the carpet. Ill never get over the carpet in there. Wow. If I do, it must be time for a remodel. :)

Trying to wire up some of the outlets in the riser and get those done. Just have to do the keystone jack wiring for the RJ45 which is difficult holding all those wires in place while you push the back on to secure them in place.

Oh yea, and the shelf has to come out to finish the thermostat electrical AND cut the excess conduit away once the desk grommets come in. Always something. Oh well, Ill do something else in the meantime. Like build columns!!! Now, how was I going to do that again? Hmmm.... ponder mode on...

I notice you don't have your base moulding down yet.......was this recommended by your carper installers? Did they leave sufficient room so when base molding is installed it does not cover the grip bars? I'm debatting whether to pit my base molding down prior to or after carpet install.


I would agree that it's a good idea to wait until after the carpet guys come and go before putting down your molding. I put mine in first and they beat the CRAP out of my molding. I'm going to have to repaint them. Of course it didn't occur to me that I probably should have made them at least pay for my supplies to repaint (qt of paint, tape, paper) as I don't really mind doing the work but that's what I get for being such a softy (another reason why I do most of the work myself -- if I hired out more and started getting taken advantage of it wouldn't be pretty :().

SWEET carpet by the way -- I remember just sitting in my room staring after the carpet was in, made me VERY happy :D

Mike

David,

Awesome thread. Thanks for all the pictures and step by step descriptions.
I have a question about the in-wall speakers, do notice any rattle of the can lights when you have your speakesr turned on. Is there enough distance between the lights and speakers that it not a problem. My room dimensions are similiar and that seems like a good idea.

Thanks,
James

I have a question about the in-wall speakers, do notice any rattle of the can lights when you have your speakesr turned on.
Thanks for the compliment! Good question, and I hadnt even considered it. I was rocking out pretty hard over the weekend just to "test" them out :), and the cans never rattled once. If they did, I couldnt hear them. :) I had the rcvr cranked up way higher than normal listening volume (more like wife & kids not home and annoy the neighbors volume). I dont think there's enough bass in them to cause much rattling actually. I have the big square Air Tight cans so they do have some bulk to them plus the insulation gets to go right up against it too. I dont recall even my subwoofer giving them any issues (sconces are a different question. Woofer rattled those).

SWEET carpet by the way -- I remember just sitting in my room staring after the carpet was in, made me VERY happy
Thanks! It is so sweet to have the carpet in there. I did just sort of stare at the room for a bit last night. Mostly plotting my next moves (columns, molding, and Lin + GOM).

My kids already came up with a new use for the riser. Its temporarily their personal springboard. My nicely vaccumed carpet has about a million little footprints on it now after they had at it. :)

I did hook up the game center keystone jacks last night and got that all done. Need to finish out the interior of the equipment closet before I can really call the HT semi-functional. Thatll be another monumental moment when I know my electronics can just sit in the closet and be at my becon!

With the carpet and drywall done now, theres still soooo much to do. Thank goodness its all in my own power now. No more dependencies on anything. Woohoo! Time to kick some tail! BTW, Mike, I know how you feel about not giving people a hard time. Although, the drywall guys really brought out the worst in me this time. Im finding the older (and wiser) I get the more impatient with workers Im becoming. Yesterday I had 0 complaints! Those carpet guys worked from 9-6:30pm doing my upstairs and HT. They were great.

My room dimensions are similiar and that seems like a good idea.
BTW James, I went with the in-ceilings mostly for asthetic and layout reasons. Since I have the HVAC duct lowering the ceiling on one side, the room becomes non-symmetrical. The rears would have been ok against the back wall. I could have worked that out Im sure. The sides were the problems. Windows on one side and HVAC duct on the other. I thought about satellites hanging from the ceiling, but decided the rope light and crown molding would get in the way, so the in-ceilings seemed like the right choice for me. Ideally, Id love to have the space for some beefier speakers like a lot of people are using, but I think these will work out great for me. Im a big B&W guy so Im really happy with these speakers so far. Probably will bust out all my front speakers this weekend to really find out how much fun Ill be having. :)

OK, this is somewhat tongue in cheek. What is the correct spelling for "molding?" Is it "moulding" or "molding?" :) My friend and I debate this comically every now and again. Is one way Canadian or British and the other is typical slang American? :) The world may never know...

Well the British Oxford Dictionary say's its Moulding " moulded object, esp. ornamental strip of wood"

Baird Bros (Ohio) also call it Moulding.

But US Version of Microsofts spell checker does not like Moulding.......so looks like its an American English butchering of the Queens English :D

Cheers,
Mark

Brought out my front speakers tonight. Set up everything on the fireplace hearth including the rcvr. Wired them up and the PS2 at the game ports on the riser. Fired it all up and Hurrah! The kids go wild. Heck, even my wife was amused. Oh yea, forgot I brought in a little stand to set the projector onto temporarily and put up the brown construction paper screen. Im waiting for the desk grommets to arrive before I put up the projector permanently so I have room to trim the conduit with my utility knife. Should be here any day now. Yep, life is good. I have video games again. :)

I also wired up the keystone jacks in the last low voltage box in the closet. It has 2 ethernets (1 to game center in riser & 1 to my home office), phone (for my DSL wireless gateway), and two RG6 (satellite dish). There's one more port free in that has yet to be wired up to anything. I have another RG6 in the wall that I think was the old cable TV line so I brought it over. Id hook it up but it wont serve a purpose right now.

Thats all. Maybe Ill watch a DVD on the PS2... :) Later

Sorry for the lack of updates. Im in the middle of a job change so my mind is a little distracted at the moment. However, progress is still being made.

The HT is alive, or at least functional. I got my rcvr, DVD, and projector all up and running with all 7 speakers hooked up and blaring away . Even got some place to sit too. This isnt exactly a Berk, but it will do for awhile. No plans to rush out and get seating just yet, but that will come in due time. It is cozy, and provides a great vantage point. Already spun a few DVD's with the family. All is good!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ht1.jpg

In the closet, I put in the desk grommets I got in the mail the other day to clean up the conduit holes better. Built another shelf for the DVD player. Also, got the thermostat setup and all the low-voltage plates connected. The fan kicks on now when the rcvr is on for a bit and turns itself off after I turn off the receiver. Its working well. I can hear the fan a bit when watching the movies, but itll be muffled once I get doors built. Oh yea, Im working on the face frame for the closet now. The below pic shows the stiles positioned in place. Im staining the rails in the garage. Im splitting the cabinet such that the top half will have a set of doors and the bottom half will also have a set of doors. Not sure if Ill build or buy doors yet. Ill figure that out pretty soon. Once I get the face frame on completely.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ht3.jpg

Starting building the frames for the 4 columns Im putting on the sconce wall. Below is a pic of the first tow. For some odd reason, I forgot to get more 2x4's so I didnt have enough wood to do all 4 columns. I used some of the scrap 2x8s from the riser build for the backing of the column. When done, the columns will be about 13.5"w x 5"d. Im doing a rail/stile construction on the front, crown molding on the top, and then the chair rails will run around the middle dividing them into 2 sections. You can also see I framed around the sconce outlets with 5/4" deck boarding. Wont be doing the Lin + GOM until the columns are up so I can build the frames to be flush with them.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/ht2.jpg

Time to go relax before I have my face to face tomorrow with the soon-to-be-ex-boss when I graciously fire the company.

Carpeting looks like it came out really nice. Riser looks good finished off. Was wondering if you had a pic or close up of the conduit with the desk grommet, wanted to see how it looks.

Good luck with the ex-boss, not that you'll need it as it seems like a one sided conversation at this point.

Was wondering if you had a pic or close up of the conduit with the desk grommet, wanted to see how it looks.
Sure. Ill post one tonight. I like the grommet I used by the projector. A 3" grommet that wrapped around the outside of the 2.5" conduit. In the closet, I used 2" grommets that went on the inside of the conduit opening. They dont look too bad, but they dont cover up the 2.5" opening I have in the plywood like I would have hoped. I need to shop around and see if I can get a better fitting one sometime. However, for now, Im happy.

Heres some closeups of the 2" grommets. Im going to pop off the ones in the closet and stain the inside of the plywood hole. That should help not make it so obvious.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/grom1.jpg

3" Grommet hiding 2.5" conduit by projector. Nice and flush.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/grom2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/grom3.jpg

Last night in between trick o' treaters, I attached the face frame to the equipment closet. Used wood glue and a few nails to hold it in place. I thought about using my biscuit joiner, but the opening was a little non-square so I wanted to make sure everything was going to be flush. Oh yea, got a pocket screw jig for the middle rail and bottom rail. Ill be getting 2 sets of double doors for the closet eventually.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/r1.jpg

Started piecing together a column. Used some clamps to just hold the main pieces of the body in place so I could see if everything was cut correct and square. Needed to think through how best to attach everything including the stiles and rails when I get those cut. The front of the column is 3/4" oak plywood cut 12" w. The sides are solid hardwood cut 4.25" wide. I think Ill be attaching the stiles to the sides with my biscuit joiner and once both sides are done then I can biscuit the rails onto the stiles. The sides will be glued and nailed to the 2x4 frame close to the back so I can conceal with GOM & Lin eventually. The front body will be nail to the 2x4 frame on the sides so the stiles conceal those nails. Im going to put some crown molding around top and have the base molding wrap around the bottom of the column. Dont think Ill be wrapping the chair rail around the front and sides (not sure yet on that). However, seems like itll stick out too much with the chair rail wrapped around the front.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/r2.jpg

Here's a pic of the face frame on the bottom of the closet. The rails are 2" oak. Too small for biscuits, so I had to get a new toy, a pocket screw jig. Couldnt fit 2 screws on the end, so some wood glue plus the single pocket screw on each end made them rock solid. Time to make a decision on the doors. Build or buy? Any opinions from anyone thats faced this decision? Im leaning toward buying.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/r1-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/r2-1.jpg

Continued work on the columns. Its slow work since glue and stain are involved, but Im making progress. Got the sides and stiles biscuited together on one column. I used a clamp to hold them onto the frame temporarily so I could check my measurements before biscuiting on rails on the top, middle, and bottom. The stiles are 2". Im still debating the rail sizes, but leaning toward 2" on top and bottom and 4" on the middle (the chair rail is 3.5" so I thought that might make them match better).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/r3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/r4.jpg

BTW, I finally kicked in the Blockbuster 40 free rental card from the AE900 purchase. Watched Xmen 3 and Harry Potter Goblet of Fire with the family. Wow! Sound and video (even on brown paper) are just amazing. Heres one that should amuse. For my birthday, my mom bought me a pack of 50 Sci-Fi "Classics" on DVD. Its more like B-movie classics. I laughed my head off watching Santa Claus Conquers the Martians the other night. Easily the worst film ever put on film, but so dumb its hysterical. Im 100% sure Mystery Science Theater lampooned this at some point. Ill have to look for that.

Gotta go play PC repairman on my sister in laws PC now. Theyve got a pile of viruses....

Not much going on in the construction of the HT. Just finishing up my job. I get the rest of Nov off and Ill be home alone most of the day, so should be able to start making some significant progress starting tomorrow. I want to get the columns finished up so I can start working on the acoustic panels between the columns. Thatll get the ball rolling again for me.

Today I got busy with the columns. In general, I got the fronts on all of the columns. Here's a pic of the 4 columns with fronts on. I stuffed the cavity with insulation before putting the fronts on.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2.jpg

Built and installed the face frame on the first column. The top rail is 5 1/16" (to accomodate 3 1/16" crown molding and still have 2" exposed). The middle rail is 4" (slightly bigger than the chair rail 3.75"), and the bottom is 5.5" (same as base molding). Took me a long time to deliberate if the chair rail and base moldings were going to wrap around the columns, or just butt up next to it. I decided in the end to just butt them up next to the column so the column isnt too deep.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p4.jpg

Im working on cutting, staining, and assembling all of the sides and face frames in the garage. Most of my time today was just organizing my garage and getting things in order once again. Ive got one bay for assembling and glueing while the other is for staining. WAF not good (i.e. no garage space for cars :) )

Had a major "oh-****" on the first columns face frame. Was nailing the sides of the face frame onto the column and the oak split on me. ARGH! I already nailed the other side in. I event predrilled the hole before using the nails. I sat (and cursed) for awhile trying to figure out what to do. Live with it, or rip it all apart. In the end, I decided it wasnt too bad, and Ill live with it. Its in the back of one side, so I think the frame of the GOM + Lin will hold it in place and hide it mostly. Here it is...
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p3.jpg

I also started to stain the heat register covers. They didnt have any holes for screws in them (got from Baird Brothers incidentally). However, I was able to drill my own holes, and then set them back a bit so it looks really good now. The below pic is a closeup on one hanging on the ceiling under the hvac duct near the columns. There are a total of three of those I have to do along the hvac there.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1.jpg

I did struggle with the cove molding Im going to put on the inside of the column face frames. Just figuring out the right bevel and miter settings on my compound miter saw took some playing around with. The saw's manual gave me nothing and I couldnt easily find it googling so I played around with a piece until I got it right. I wasted one of my oak pieces messing around, but now Ive got it dialed in. miter 35 and bevel 30 with the cove molding face down and I save the right side of the cut. Im putting stain on them right now and should put a few 5/8" brads and wood glue when I assemble. Boy, just setting them in place really dresses up the columns nice. Cant wait to get them all done!

I also started to stain the heat register covers. They didnt have any holes for screws in them (got from Baird Brothers incidentally). However, I was able to drill my own holes, and then set them back a bit so it looks really good now. The below pic is a closeup on one hanging on the ceiling under the hvac duct near the columns. There are a total of three of those I have to do along the hvac there.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1.jpg




What a fantastic theater build!

I just did my very first ever router project this weekend and made a grill like this for a strange (oversize) register opening in my 75+ year old bungelow. It was quite a treat... I couldn't find anything like this until I saw the Baird catalog ! That's a nice tip.

Can't wait to see more pics I check your thread almost daily !

Your columns look really nice. I look forward to seeing them when completely finished.

Anyway, I am going to just show everyone my complete ignorance for woodworking and ask. I have no idea what stiles or biscuiting are. Can someone tell me?

Thanks,
Guy

Can't wait to see more pics I check your thread almost daily !
Thanks so much! Now if I only did daily work... :) Im getting busy again so Im sure to have more updates now that I have the rest of the month off. Yay!

I just did my very first ever router project this weekend and made a grill like this for a strange (oversize) register opening in my 75+ year old bungelow. It was quite a treat...
Boy, I couldnt imagine how difficult it must have been. I would have burned through a ton of wood myself just trying to do it right. I got lucky that my openings were all standard sizes 10x4".

Your columns look really nice. I look forward to seeing them when completely finished.
Thank you! I look forward to seeing them all done too! Means I can move on to the acoustic panels. :)

I have no idea what stiles or biscuiting are. Can someone tell me?
I can answer that I think. Stiles are the vertical pieces of wood on the "face frame." Rails are the horizontals. On my column pic, the stiles are the 2" pieces of oak on the front (left and right) of the column and goes from floor to ceiling. Its just a term for the vertical piece on the frame.

Biscuits are little flat footballs of wood about 2.25" long (what Im using to connect the rails and stiles together on my columns face frame). A power tool called a "biscuit joiner" cuts slots in the side of the pieces of wood that you want to join together. You put wood glue into the slots and on the biscuit, put the biscuit into the slot and then clamp the two pieces of wood together. Its very easy to do and makes for a very strong joint. No visible screws or nails. Ill take some pix of mine tomorrow morning since I need to do some more biscuit joining to make some more face frames for the columns tomorrow.

OK, while the kids were watching Monster House, I attached my first cove moldings on the top half of the column. Brads and glue. Havent cut any more for the bottom half so thatll have to wait until tomorrow (when I can see. Hard to measure things in the dark! ;) )
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-1.jpg

That trim on your columns is looking GREAT!! Sorry you sacrificed a stick of molding to get the cuts right, but your corners are gonna be sharp and tight, now. Keep up the good work...

Thanks Keith! Always happy to sacrifice some wood for the sake of getting it right! Theres always more trim at Lowes. :)

Here's a quick walkthrough on how Im doing the biscuit joints on the sides of the column to the front face frame.

First, I took the 4.25" side and set it on its edge and got some scrap wood set next to it so I can rest of of the front frame stiles on top. Positioning the pieces on how I want them to be.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s1.jpg

Next, I mark with a pencil a line about every 12" where I want a biscuit to be. These are the guide lines I use for the biscuit joiner to cut. Its crucial that the lines line up perfectly on both sides joint.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s2.jpg

Now I take off boards and start making the slot cuts with the biscuit joiner. Notice how it has a guide line on the tool that I align with my pencil mark. I make a slot in both sides of the joint.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s3.jpg

Here's what a slot looks like. Note, Im using size #0 biscuits on my frames which are about 2.25" wide biscuits.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s4.jpg

Now comes the messy part, glue. Get a wet rag handy, all your clamps ready, and all your clamping blocks too. You need to work somewhat quickly to capture glue drips, the biscuits from swelling too much, etc. I put a thin bead of glue all the way down both sides of the joint and I try to put a bunch of glue into the slot. The idea is that the biscuits soak up the glue and swell to fill the slot up to make a strong bond. For me, I put a bead of glue on each side of the biscuit (including the edges) before putting them in the slot. You can see one of the unglued biscuits in this pic.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s5.jpg

In my case, I had 6 biscuits running the length of the 81.5" boards. Once I placed the gluey biscuits into the slots, I press fit by hand the two pieces together. Then I used my clamps (with blocks so not to dent my wood) to tightly squeeze the boards together. I put the clamps right where each biscuit is. Now its time to use the wet rag to wipe off any excess glue. Sometimes, the edges arent perfectly flush, so I go back later with my palm sander or just sand it by hand to make sure everything is flush. Then I apply another coat of stain to finish it all up.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s6.jpg

If I only had more clamps, I could do more at a time, but alas only 8 clamps so I have to wait awhile for the glue to dry before moving on. Anyway, gave me time to go run errands and take the wife and kids out to lunch which makes the family happy (so I can barricade myself in the garage later. :)).

Thanks a lot for the biscuiting tutorial. I now have a clue what everyone has been talking about.

Guy

David,

Columns looking good.

Intresting piece on the Biscuit Joint. When I was evaluating whether to use biscuit joints or Kreg Jig the clamping issue was what swung it for me. I would have had the purchase a biscuit joiner and at least 6 x 6' clamps and had to wait for each section to dry before gluing the next section. The Kreg Jig ended up giving just as good tight joints and no clamping and no wait time.

Cheers,
Mark

The Kreg Jig ended up giving just as good tight joints and no clamping and no wait time.
Quite true. I just bought a Kreg Jig and used it when a biscuit was too wide. For a big long piece, how far apart would you space your screws? Same as biscuits? Maybe Ill try it out on my last column for practice. Right now, the wait isnt killing me too bad on waiting for the biscuits to dry. Gives me time to do something else. :) The pocket screws are definitely easier.

how far apart would you space your screws? Same as biscuits?

My application was a little different to your. I was using the Kreg Jig for pannelling. I used 2 screws and the end of each style to prevent twisting. In your cas 1 screw every 18" would probably done the job.

PS.....thanks for the Baird Bros tip....got my moulding & base boards from them. Quick service and excellent quality.

Cheers,
Mark

PS.....thanks for the Baird Bros tip....got my moulding & base boards from them. Quick service and excellent quality.
Nice! I only had problems since I couldnt see and touch the moulding (Hey, I spelled it with the Queen's English :)), I had trouble just making sure I got the right ones since I got styles not found at the big boxes. Otherwise, Ive been happy with them.

I got 3 of the column face frames attached now (minus the cove moulding). Working on the 4th (and last) in the garage right now. With luck, that last one should be attached tomorrow. Got loads of errands to run today so probably wont do too much, but getting more stain is one of those errands. ;)

I built part of my first section of the chair rail and attached that guy. I tried to biscuit together the top "ledge" of the chair rail to the bottom piece, but it was extremely difficult to get the clamps to lock on correctly without twisting the piece. I eventually got it to work, but Im going to experiment a bit and try pocket screws on the next because the clamps just werent as easy as Id hoped. Nevertheless, I got the chair rail on and some base moulding too.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-2.jpg

You can see in the pic that I ripped a 5/4" deck board in half and used that as the furring strips around the light switiches. The Carlon adjustable boxes allowed me to extend them easily out 1" to be flush. Im ready to play with some Gom + Lin now!!! You can even see a tiny bit of GOM I put in between the two switch boxes. :)

Today was fairly productive. Lots of staining in the garage and getting the last column face frame assembled. Tomorrow itll go up and all the columns will have "faces!" Yay!

So heres my first Lin & GOM experience too. Below are the pix from the first acoustic panel. Quite a learning experience for me. I went threw a billion staples in my staple gun, ha. It took awhile to stretch it out and staple, then stretch a little more, staple, etc. I just winged it in the corners and trimmed excess with the scissors and did lots of eyeballing to try and get it as seamless as possible. Im happy with it. My frame is the ripped 5/4" cedar deck boards. Theyre naturally round on the end so no bevel is needed IMHO. I attached the Lin to the wall using 3M spray adhesive like Ive seen others. Didnt use the roofing nails like others. The adhesive seemed to be just fine plus the frame and fabric will hold in place. I cut the frame corners 45 degrees and used pocket screws and wood glue to hold them together. To attach the frame to the wall I used 6d 2.5" finish nails. I just used my nail set to have the head of the nail poke through the fabric and you can never tell theres a hole there.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-2.jpg

Not sure if Ill get to another panel tomorrow or not. Ill be busy with the columns. Id like to get another on so I can attach a sconce back up. :)

David - the first panel turned out great!

I'll second the result of that panel, looks sweet!!! Good Job. Don't be shy about about posting those detailed pics.

Thank you, both!

I plan on doing some detailed pix on the next panel. I wanted to make sure I knew what my process was going to be first. :) Just got into a work groove too yesterday so didnt want to stop and hunt down the camera. Now that I almost know what Im doing, Ill be more informative. :) Read below for how I "almost" know what Im doing.

I did mess up the first panel initially by putting the fabric on the wrong side of the frame. I positioned the frame such that all its divots, dings, etc, were supposed to be on the back side (i.e. against the wall).Through my own haste I started putting on the fabric, got about 3/4 of the way done, and then started wondering how I missed seeing these big divots in the frame as the fabric was making them show through. OOOOPS! Wrong side genius! :o Out come all the staples I put in, flip it over, and try again. This time on the correct side! :o

This morning I decided to put on another acoustic panel. Here's how Im building the frame. Its not the strongest thing in the world, but it seemed to work well on the first panel.

First, I roughed in the Linacoustic. Used 3M spray adhesive. Boy, Im running out fast on the first can after 2 panels. HD trip coming up this afternoon! No, I didnt think it would do my whole room. Its my way of measuring how much Ill need. :p Also, notice theres a 2" gap around the edges to accomodate the 1.75" wide frame.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s1-1.jpg

Next, I cut all the frame to length. I try to leave 1/16" wiggle room to accomodate the fabric, especially in the corners where its a little bulkier. I also made sure that the round beveled part of the ripped 5/4 boards are on the outside (I only say that because I screwed up a cut this morning not paying attention and had to recut a new board). Once all the sides of the frame are cut to width, I drilled a hole at each corner for a pocket screw. I have a Krieg jig to help me with the drilling.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s2-1.jpg

Add liberal amounts of wood glue now to all the corners.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s3-1.jpg

Assemble all the corners with your pocket screws. Do your best to make sure the corners dont slip while putting in the screw. I had a knee on each side while I put in the screw.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s4-1.jpg

Here's the fully assembled frame. Time to each lunch while the glue dries. Also waiting for my last coat of stain for the last column face frame to dry. Will tackle that later this afternoon. Need to go run my errands now.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s5-1.jpg

OK, here's some of the steps I took building the 2nd acoustic panel.

I laid the frame onto the fabric and cut out about 2-3" around the edges.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s1-2.jpg

When I start a panel, Ive been stretching out both sides as best I can before I put any staples in. Ive been using my left hand to hold the fabric in place while I staple about 6" of the fabric to the frame.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s2-2.jpg

I then jump over to the opposite side and pull it as tight as I can and put in staples on that side. I repeat that for the entire side. I was leaving the last 2" or so around each corner unstapled so I could do those last. Like I said, I wing it in the corners. I put a ton of staples in there and Im sure there's a real technique, but so far its worked out ok for me.

Once Im all done stapling, I press fit the frame up and use my 6d finish nails to nail it into a stud. How am I hiding the nails? Look, heres a nail.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s3-2.jpg

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I use my nail set to smack the nail in deep enough that it pushes itself through the fabric. Now you see it...
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s4-2.jpg

Now you dont... Wiggling the fabric around the hole helps the fabric free itself of the nail.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s5-2.jpg

Without the flash on the camera, its impossible to see with regular light.

OK, so here are two acoustic panels done. I get to put my crown moulding on the first column now, yay!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s6-1.jpg

Oh yea, the lesson I learned on this panel is my corners are not strong enough on the frame. As I was pulling the fabric tight on one side it was twisting the other side. I had to do some damage control on the corners and smoosh in a 2nd screw to help stablize the corners. It got stable enough such that I could staple the fabric on, and then nail it up. Might rethink my corners on the frame for the next one.

Here's a moment I wasnt sure Id see again. A sconce hanging up! Hey, and it even works still. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-4.jpg

Time to slap some crown moulding onto the first column now. Woohoo!

Looking good, David!

Looking good. I LOVE the Kreg jig. I use it all of the time. It works really well when making frames.

Man, oh, man!!! That looks great!!

If you're having corner stability problems you might try a little brace in the corner (piece of wood cut 45 deg on each end and shoved up to the corner (not flush with the corner, picture about 2" from inside of corner to inside edge of brace). Kind of like you'd see if you turned a chair upside down and looked at how the frame is stabilized under the seat. You could pocket screw those in too.

I'm WAYYY jealous, your sound treatment not only looks great but I'm sure will sound awesome :)

Mike

If you're having corner stability problems you might try a little brace in the corner (piece of wood cut 45 deg on each end and shoved up to the corner (not flush with the corner, picture about 2" from inside of corner to inside edge of brace). Kind of like you'd see if you turned a chair upside down and looked at how the frame is stabilized under the seat. You could pocket screw those in too.

Yea. Great idea. I know what you mean. That would be perfect. Ill do that on my next one. Thanks for the tip!

Yea. Great idea. I know what you mean. That would be perfect. Ill do that on my next one. Thanks for the tip!

That should do the trick. When I used the Kreg to make my Screen frame I used the "L" braces that you can pick up at Lowes. It really adds strength.

I'm WAYYY jealous, your sound treatment not only looks great but I'm sure will sound awesome
I can tell just by walking by the panels that sound definitely deadens. When the furnace kicks on and the vents are blowing air I can step in front of them and hear an immediate difference (for the better).

Thanks everyone for the nice words! Im slowly working my way around the room. The columns really slowed me up with all the glue and all. I finally got the last face frame on tonight. Boy, Im glad to be done with them. Despite all my measuring and planning, it wasnt as easy as I hoped when it came time to install onto the column frame. However, given a little cursing and nudging, its looking like how I imagined it.

I got the crown moulding for the first column all cut and stained. WIll install that tomorrow. That makes a world of difference for me just holding it in place. Really dresses it up perfectly.

When I used the Kreg to make my Screen frame I used the "L" braces that you can pick up at Lowes. It really adds strength.
I thought about the metal supports, but wasnt sure Id be able to work around them easily with the staples and fabric. I know the metal supports would work great for the stability though. Im going to try Mike's suggestion I think thatll do the trick.

Or you could try this


deleted link.......


Should have read farther down........had the same idea as Mike :o

David,

I really like your pattern and color choice of fabric. Can you tell me what the pattern name/number is and where you got it? I'd like to order a sample.

Thanks,

I really like your pattern and color choice of fabric. Can you tell me what the pattern name/number is and where you got it? I'd like to order a sample.
Sure, its Guilford of Maine, Style Zirconia (3583), Color: Garnet (012). I bought mine through Fabricmate.com. I got my samples through Guilford of Maines sample center at guilfordofmaine.com.

Hi I just read and looked at all your pictures and I must say you are doing a great job. Looks great. I just recently finished my basement and about 2/3 through it I decided to put in a projector (Epson Powerlite 550) and use the space as a theater. You gave me a ton of ideas for my next house and theater project. I can't wait to see it finished as I bet you do to.

One more thing, watch the movie Over the Hedge when you get it done. Looks and sounds great on a home theater.

Adam

You gave me a ton of ideas for my next house and theater project. I can't wait to see it finished as I bet you do to.
Thanks Adam! Youre right. I cant wait to see it finished (patience isnt my thing :)).

BTW, this why Im doing the thread. I read others threads before I ever started on my theater, and it was such a great source of ideas that I knew I had to contribute for the benefit of others when I started building.

Hopefully, the 1/3 of your room that isnt finished yet can help you with hiding AV wires (or maybe you already wired up everything). I think you can do a lot with existing rooms and not have to gut everything to the frame (like I did). Projectors are great for that since theyre so small (relative to a huge TV). You can put them just about anywhere.

Got to put in a few hours this afternoon in the theater.

Put up some more Linacoustic on the wall after getting some more spray adhesive. Also put on another chair rail and base moulding section. The next sections mouldings are cut and being stained right now.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-5.jpg

I also cranked out another frame for an acoustic panel. This time I took Mike's suggestion and put little triangles of wood into each corer to strengthen it. I like it! Ill take a pic of it when the glue is done drying. Hopefully tomorrow Ill have that whole wall finished with acoustic panels. We'll see. Theres always some other things in life getting in the way of progress. ;)

ARGH! Here's todays lesson. Actually, Im not sure the lesson, but this joint needs more glue and clamping. I put plenty of glue in there to begin with. I think the column is just not perfectly square or something and it pulled itself apart settling in. Hopefully I can fix that with glue and heavy clamping. If not, Ill have to fill it in with something, wax pencil? Mental note after looking at the pic, erase your pencil marks!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-4.jpg

When the lights are down, they'll never see it... :cool:

When the lights are down, they'll never see it...
Quite true. :) However, there's always that part of my brain screaming on infinite loop, "DARN IT!!!" (insert stronger language) if I dont try to fix it. :D

Hey, a 2nd sconce and 3rd panel are up! Yay!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-5.jpg

The blue light reflecting on the wall is my rope light. I plugged it into the wall outlets and used it as my work light as I killed the circuit for the sconces while I wired the sconce up. :p
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p3-1.jpg

Here's a pic of the new and improved "Mike corners" as theyll now be referred to here. :) Thx Mike! Definitely worked much better for me this time! Explains why his theater looks so good.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-6.jpg

With my wife's help, I got to install the crown molding over the first column. Installed with 5/8" brads and some wood glue. This was my first crown molding that wasnt painted so I typically used 4d nails and just filled and painted over the nail holes. Hope the brads and glue hold well.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-6.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-7.jpg

Quite true. :) However, there's always that part of my brain screaming on infinite loop, "DARN IT!!!" (insert stronger language) if I dont try to fix it. :D

Hey, a 2nd sconce and 3rd panel are up! Yay!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-5.jpg

The blue light reflecting on the wall is my rope light. I plugged it into the wall outlets and used it as my work light as I killed the circuit for the sconces while I wired the sconce up. :p
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p3-1.jpg

Here's a pic of the new and improved "Mike corners" as theyll now be referred to here. :) Thx Mike! Definitely worked much better for me this time! Explains why his theater looks so good.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-6.jpg


Great idea! I think I will steal that one. :D

Great idea! I think I will steal that one.
It worked out much better than my single screw in the corner. :) No twisting as I pulled the fabric tight. It creaked a bit, but didnt move. Plus, I had all the triangles precut already from my scraps cutting the frames!

The crown molding really looks nice atop your columns - it's a great finishing detail for them.

I was able to complete the theater but did do a little no alot of cutting through drywall to run cables to speakers and equipment.

I think the room turned out good and i'm happy with the sound and picture.

I'll post a picture of the finished project if I can figure out how to attace pictures.

Adam

Here's a pic of the new and improved "Mike corners" as theyll now be referred to here. :) Thx Mike! Definitely worked much better for me this time! Explains why his theater looks so good.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-6.jpg

LOL!! I've never had anything named after me before -- cool :rolleyes:

Glad that worked, I gotta say your panels and sconces are just sweet! And you did a great job with the crown molding it really does finish things off quite nicely! Which reminds me, I need to get some colored wax to fill the nail holes on my own crown above the cabinets...which also reminds me I'm supposed to be finishing my own columns instead of reading AVS ;)

Okay, gotta go hang some column boxes :D

Later,
Mike

hich also reminds me I'm supposed to be finishing my own columns instead of reading AVS
LOL! Get to work, ya slacker (I say as I go off and read AVS for 1/2 hour)! :D

Your progress is all the motivation I need :) I've already hung the top boxes on my columns and I'm setting all the bolts for the sconces on my next set. I'm back in the groove! (And back on AVS -- bad Mike, bad Mike...)

Mike

I've already hung the top boxes on my columns and I'm setting all the bolts for the sconces on my next set. I'm back in the groove!
Excellent! Lets see some pix on your thread (pester, pester) already! Columns are hard (at least mine were) , but rewarding Im finding.

Lets see. Since last I posted I got all three sconces hung. Yay! That entire wall is paneled too! You can see in the pix my clamps to try and reglue that center rail in the column to tighten it up. It worked a bit, but wasnt perfect. Had to fill in a little gap with my wax pencil. That seemed to hide it well enough that I dont even notice it unless Im staring at it and analyzing it closely.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-8.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-7.jpg

Ok, those panels were relatively straight forward squares. Getting around the windows and HVAC are much more challenging since the shapes arent squares for the most part. The first one was the panel I called "Utah" since its the shape of the state. Here's the back side of the panel. You can see a vertical piece of wood down the center. I guess its for stability, but I really had in mind just a nailer in case we want to hang a picture there or something. Up in the "nook" of Utah, you can see a horizontal piece of 1x4 cedar too. Thats for the crown moulding (i.e. for the rope light) to be nailed into. The crown moulding will install just above the top of the back window.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p3-2.jpg

Here's "Utah" installed. That corner in the upper right where the HVAC ends (inside corner cut of frame), has loose fabric. Wasnt easy to pull it as tight as I wanted as the outside corners. Fortunately, I think its the only inside corner in the room for the acoustic panels, so Ill live with a wrinkle there.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p4-1.jpg

Glued up some more Linacoustic across the back of the room too. If you follow the chair rail, you can see a little obstruction in the wall. Thats my water main valve to the house. Its in the line of fire for the chair rail. I dont have a great concealment plan for it yet. Ive toyed with building a little box around it with a hinged door, but it seems like more work than its worth for me. I think Ill take a 6"x6" piece of 1/4" oak and drill a hole in the center for the valve to fit through and just butt the chair rail around it with the chair rail having returns on both sides. Its not the most elegant of solutions, but its behind my head and the sofa for the most part so its not a huge eye sore. Maybe someone smarter than me has a great idea? Ill take a pic of it when I get a chance.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p5.jpg

Here are some closeups of the valve. I removed the actual dial thingy (been sniffing 3M spray adhesive from attaching Linacoustic so name eludes me, but I feel good) for turning the valve.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v1.jpg

Here's what I had in mind for the chair rail just to butt up to the edge with a return on both sides.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v2.jpg

Use a large red Emergency Stop button (http://www.moeller.co.uk/emergency_stop.htm) to cover the valve and label it History Eraser Button (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_eraser_button).
Then just wait to see how many guests are Ren and Stimpy fanatics. :D

Use an oak rosette corner block (http://www.silversmill.com/html/rosettes.html) to cover it decoratively. Hollow out the back to accomodate the valve, or use two rosette blocks, cutting the center out of one to friction fit it inside the square frame of the other. (Now I don't feel quite so bad about suggesting the History Eraser Button. ;) )

Here's a pic of the new and improved "Mike corners" as theyll now be referred to here. :) Thx Mike! Definitely worked much better for me this time! Explains why his theater looks so good.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-6.jpg

I may have missed your explaination about your frame construction, but couldn't you have butted the frame pieces instead of mitering and used two pocket holes for the joint? That way you wouldn't need the triangular support while still having a strong joint.

I have a Kregg jig as well, but it has not gotten a lot of usage yet. It came with a few DVDs that show techniques and I don't think I saw one instance that it was used for anything other than a butt joint.

Andy

Did you get the Kregg jig with the clamping setup? I use mine all the time and love it. You can butt the joints together, clamp it down, and screw them together, when you are done you are left with a flush joint that does not need any scraping or sanding.

I started reading your thread out of curiosity and now I cant wait to see your home theater finished :D

You seem to be doing a fantastic job and you have given me a few ideas for my own home theater when I am ready to build one. Everything from the wall paneling and the woodwork is just great. Goodluck with the rest of the project.

Did you get the Kregg jig with the clamping setup? I use mine all the time and love it. You can butt the joints together, clamp it down, and screw them together, when you are done you are left with a flush joint that does not need any scraping or sanding.

I got mine from a wood working show and they had a deal that came with a boat load of stuff including several clamps, videos and those nifty drawer and drawer guide installation jigs. I plan on building my own kitchen cabinets so all this stuff will eventually get used...I'm just accumulating tools now.

Andy

I may have missed your explaination about your frame construction, but couldn't you have butted the frame pieces instead of mitering and used two pocket holes for the joint?
I think the problem with that is the frame isnt wide enough for 2 screws (1.75") so it would probably be unstable and twist. You might be able to put in two screws though I did not really experiment with it too much. Granted, it doesnt need to be the strongest thing in the world either since itll be nailed up eventually anyway so maybe your suggestion would work.

Did you get the Kregg jig with the clamping setup?
Yes, I got the Kreig jig with the clamps. It has been very nice and easy to use. The only problem I ran into is I ran out of the pocket screws that came with it and neither Lowes or HD have the fine threaded screws I was using. I made due with a box of cabinet self-threading screws that were the same length. Seemed to work just fine for me.

I started reading your thread out of curiosity and now I cant wait to see your home theater finished
Thank you very much! I cant wait either! It is functional and we've been watching a lot of movies, but there's still a lot of work to do (and I dont even have a proper screen yet! :)) There are days when it seems like work and Ive muttered a few choice words. :) Today was a good day though. I had a challenging frame to build but Im happy with the end result. More on that later once I download the pix from the camera..

I plan on building my own kitchen cabinets so all this stuff will eventually get used...I'm just accumulating tools now.
It would be perfect for cabinetry! My equipment cabinet used only a couple of the pocket screws, but Im sure to use it on the entertainment center Ill be building around the fireplace hearth.

BTW, tool accumulation is fun! This project has really added to my collection.

Today I glued up as much Linacoustic as I could to finish off the room. Ive got the little strips above the windows to do, but theyll be so small that itll be negligible. Most of it will be the frame for the fabric. Anyway here are a couple of pix of the Lin glued up.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v4.jpg

I worked on the chair rail and the water main valve. Its not the prettiest thing in the world, but Im reasonably satisfied (for now). I wasnt in the mood to take much more effort into make it beautiful as nobody can really see it behind the sofa. I do stil need to fill in the gaps with something. Have to figure out what makes a good dark filler there. Looking at it I can think of a few different things I could have tried, but I was running out of patience for it after I botched one piece of 1/4" oak on it and a section of chair rail too. I may take another stab at it someday, but not today. Im thinking of chopping off the bottom so its flush with the chair rail. Either that or maybe curve the bottom to make it more like a rosette like Vorlon sugested. I didnt go with the grain either as the only piece of 1/4" oak I had wasnt tall enough. Its easy enough to pop off and try again later.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v1-1.jpg

In the back corner by the window I had some rather interesting cuts to make on the acoustic panel frame to get around the window ledge. That took quite a bit of time to make that frame, but I got it. Hopefully, tomorrow, Ill have all the back wall done with the acoustic panels.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v2-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/v5.jpg

I popped on a Gov't Mule DVD while I was working to keep motivated. Let my receiver do its own calibration today too since 95% of the Linacoustic is now up. Boy, the room sounds great to me. Im sure an audiophile would have a field day with what Ive done, but Im happy. Im going to drag in my electric guitar and amp and have a little "session" tomorrow for some fun (i.e. as in nobody home). :)

Maybe spray paint it to match the wood a little more? Maybe cut the bottom corner to make it closer to an octagonal shape. Or you could just put the couch in front of it and forget about it :)

I think the problem with that is the frame isnt wide enough for 2 screws (1.75") so it would probably be unstable and twist. You might be able to put in two screws though I did not really experiment with it too much. Granted, it doesnt need to be the strongest thing in the world either since itll be nailed up eventually anyway so maybe your suggestion would work.

I think that if you centered the jig on the two hole guides that are closest together you'g get two screws to fit. If your method is working then sweet, but I noticed that your corner spread a little in your last example. That may screw you up if your tolerances are tight.

BTW I really like how your wood staining came out...nice and rich looking.

Andy

I think that if you centered the jig on the two hole guides that are closest together you'g get two screws to fit. If your method is working then sweet, but I noticed that your corner spread a little in your last example. That may screw you up if your tolerances are tight.
Yea, they have been spreading a little as I put the screws in. Thanks for the suggestions! Im going to fiddle around with the jig a bit on my next frame and see if I can get two screws in there safely. Always helps to try out new techniques to add to my aresenal. :)

I really like how your wood staining came out...nice and rich looking.
Thanks! Im happy with it too. Thats the look I was going for. The rest of my house is all light and bright so I thought Id try to really make this room as dark and colorful as I could.

Today I finished building the acoustic panels for the back wall. Yay! One more wall to go! After I finish building the acoustic panels, I want to hang the crown moulding for my rope light tray. Im looking forward to seeing that (as well are my kids! They just love the blue glow of those LEDs :)).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s2-3.jpg

Here's a closeup of one of the seams I have with the two panels bumped up next to each other. I like it. I think the small rounded bevels on the deck board works well for me.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/s1-3.jpg

Took the family last night to see Happy Feet. Wow! What amazing animation and sound. I went to a really exceptional theater in Redmond WA (Bella Botegga Cinemas) and was blown away by the AV experience of the movie. Undoubtedly, itll be the new standard DVD every HT enthusiast uses to judge their system. Simply incredible. The movie itself was thoroughly enjoyed by the kids. Im not a musical fan so I was only moderately amused by it (while my jaw kept hitting the floor from the AV of the movie). Robin Williams makes that film entertaining. Kind of like watching Grease if it was done in CGI and sillied down for kids.

On my theater, Ive been plodding away on the acoustic panels. Ive got 4 more panels to go before Im done with that. Ill be glad when thats done. I can move on to rebuilding the bookshelf for media storage and hanging the crown moulding for the light tray. Been feeling a bit under the weather so been taking it easy on building. Also, got in a ton of family time for T-giving. Ive got one more week of vacation to rest up before going back to work so hopefully, Ill be done with the panels in another day or so.

Incidentally, my wife and I went shopping for sofas for the HT. I dont plan on getting HT seats. More traditional sofas (albeit reclining sofas). HT seats are nice, but I think I prefer the standard sofas so I can flop down horizontally. I dont necessarily have the room width for them either. We found some nice dark brown microfiber reclining sofas that I think will be great. 8-10 weeks out before we get them. Plenty of time for me to have my floor space open to work.

We found some nice dark brown microfiber reclining sofas that I think will be great. 8-10 weeks out before we get them. Plenty of time for me to have my floor space open to work.

Was the pricing competitive with Berkline and Coaster, for the amount of seating? I have contemplated on using sofas since I don't like being seperated from my family by the massive arms of HT seats. I haven't seen any microfiber reclining sofas, however - where'd you get them?

Was the pricing competitive with Berkline and Coaster, for the amount of seating?
I actually didnt price the Berks for comparison this time around. I know theyll be more expensive than a "regular" sofa though. I like the sofa idea right now since my kids are still in grade school. All 4 of us can easily fit on one sofa. :)

I haven't seen any microfiber reclining sofas, however - where'd you get them?
Im getting mine at a place called Reclinerland. Ive seen them at LazyBoy though as well. Ive found Lazyboy to be good buys as well.

My last official day as an unemployed "bum." Sigh. It felt good. Back to work tomorrow at the new job. Yea, itll be a 1 day work week. That jobs killing me already. :rolleyes:

Ok, now that Im over my bout with Turkey Flu and Im once again vertical (not to mention that the sheet of ice called "Seattle" finally melted), I got to hit up HD for supplies. Got to finish my acoustic panels finally. Yay! Here's a pic of the last of them. Funny how even in daylight with a flash, that black in the fabric just sucks up the light. Nice! I had to brighten up the pic just to see the pattern, ha.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/org3.jpg

Here's the panels around the window as well. You can see some glow on the woodwork around the window? Thats the orange oil and wax I applied to both my columns and window boxes. It really made the wood glow wonderfully (IMHO). It is a bit "sticky" even after buffing a couple of times. Probably will be better in a day or two. Of course, I just slimed it on too. That might explain! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/org2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/org1.jpg

BTW, I finally finished all my columns! They all got crown moulding and the cove mouldings on the inside of the face frames. Forgot to take a pic though. My neighbor came over and complimented me on the woodwork by saying she'd never move from our house if she lived there. Ego boost! :) Must have done a decent job hiding my mistakes because theyre what I tend to focus on myself. :) Cant see the forest through the trees I guess.

I got started building the media storage cabinet/bookshelf today. Got all the oak plywood cut. 1/4" oak plywood back (not in pix) and 3/4" oak plywood sides. I plan on have two sets of double doors with adjustable peg hole shelving on each side. The entire opening measures 61"w x 35.25"h x 8.75"d. You might notice in the below pix the bottom of the shelf looks too thick. Thats just the the top part of the cabinet sitting there.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cab2-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cab1-1.jpg

Ill be staining the cabinet boards first, then applying some oak veneer to the fronts. Not sure yet how Ill be attaching everything together, but it seems like glue and screws are the way to go since nobody will see the screws on the outside of the cabinet.

I was planning on taking the two middle sections of the cabinet and glueing them together and then applying the veneer to the two pieces to make it look like one big fat piece.

I plan on have two sets of double doors with adjustable peg hole shelving on each side.

How do you plan to drill the holes for the pegs? Is there a science to it, or do you just mark where you want the holes and drill it?

Guy

How do you plan to drill the holes for the pegs? Is there a science to it, or do you just mark where you want the holes and drill it?

Guy

I've done this a few times and way I do is to:

1) mark the postions with a sharp pencil
2) drill a pilot with small bit (3/32")
3) finish with correct size bit

On my drill set that I use for detail work (Dewalt) the larger bits have a smaller tip that positions into the pilot nicely.

How do you plan to drill the holes for the pegs? Is there a science to it, or do you just mark where you want the holes and drill it?
Yea, its a bit of a science. For my equipment closet I made a drill hole template (Ive still got it and Ill reuse for my bookshelf). I had a long thin scrap piece of 1/4" plywood. I think it was a 2"x6' piece (wanted to go from top to bottom of closet with peg holes). I drew a straight line right down the center of the plywood. After that, I marked off every 1.5" on the line. Thats where you drill the holes. The shelf supports you buy tell you how big a drill bit to use. Making a template allows you to make mistakes, and I made a few. Ok, that was the easy part. The hard part is making sure all 4 sets of holes on both sides are all even and level. In my closet I drilled the very first holes willy nilly more or less using the template. The other 3 sets of holes will align to it. I used shims under the bottom of the template when I was drilling the next set of holes, and then would stick in shelf supports in the template and the hole I just drilled and put my level on them. Shim it up until its all nice and level. You might need a scrap board if your level isnt long enough.

BTW, I stuck some blue tape on my drill bit so I knew how deep to drill the holes. The shelf supports you buy also say how deep to drill.

Hope that helps!
Dave

Was the pricing competitive with Berkline and Coaster, for the amount of seating?
I went tonight to Reclinerland to actually place my order for the sofas. I took a quick peek at the microfiber HT seating vs the microfiber sofa. HT seats were a little more than 2X the price. Something like $1800 for the HT 3 seater vs the $800 for the "regular" recliner sofa. The HT 3-seater was around 10' wide vs the 7' wide sofa. Too wide for my room. I wanted to have a little end table for my PS2 near the game center ports in the riser so I needed a little space for that to stand. Plus, I just like to lay down on a sofa (boy, that Turkey Flu I just had made that abundantly clear). Kind of hard on the back over those arm rests in the HT seats. :)

How do you plan to drill the holes for the pegs? Is there a science to it, or do you just mark where you want the holes and drill it?

Guy

Another option is to by a small sheet of peg board (you know, that stuff in garages that you slip hooks into to hold your tools). Clamp it to your cabinet side and there is your templete! Perfectly spaced holes ready to be drilled. No measuring required.

Another option is to by a small sheet of peg board (you know, that stuff in garages that you slip hooks into to hold your tools). Clamp it to your cabinet side and there is your templete! Perfectly spaced holes ready to be drilled. No measuring required.
Excellent idea! Wish I had thought of that before!

After getting life settled back in to working stiff mode, I finally got some quality time with the HT. Back to weekend warrior for me! Man, loved that 7 day/wk of HT thing before. :)

Took me some time, but I finally got the carcass of the cabinet put together for my in-wall media storage (or bookcase havent decided). I measured it up initially so it would just slide right in and be nice and tight with no gaps. Well, it fit perfectly until I installed the 1/4 plywood on the back and made it rigid. Didnt fit in the recess when I tried to slide the entire thing in. GRRR! :mad: I was off by 1/16". Just couldnt force it no matter how hard I tried. I had glued and pocket screwed everything together so I had to gently take it all apart, shave off 1/8" and put Humpty-Dumpty back together. Today, Im happy to say it fits like a glove!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cab1-2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cab2-2.jpg

The blue tape in the pix is so I could touch up a bit of the stain once I saw it in the rooms lighting.

Next..the doors! <insert dramatic music> Ive been fooling around with scrap wood on the table saw to learn the cuts for the groove and tendon. I hope Ive got it right. I got some rails and stiles cut for 2 doors on the equipment closet so thatll be my first victim. Just havent done the groove and tendon cuts yet on them. Should be fun! ;)

An eighth of an inch, huh? :rolleyes: It's amazing how such a small dimension can make such a huge difference. I'd guess professional finish carpenters and cabinetmakers learned this stuff a long, long time ago, and it's just second nature to them.

It's a shame photography doesn't deliver the true color of everything. I'd really like to see that stained oak besides the GOM in person. I'll bet it looks insanely rich. :D

I'd guess professional finish carpenters and cabinetmakers learned this stuff a long, long time ago, and it's just second nature to them.
Yea, I'm sure they'd be snickering watching me in action. The funny part was how everything fit perfect as I was cutting it individually. A woodworking buddy of mine said he usually took 1/4" off his in-wall cabinets and just covered up the gaps with mouldings. Wont work in my case since Im not using molding, but I suppose the doors overlapping would suffice for that too.

It's a shame photography doesn't deliver the true color of everything. I'd really like to see that stained oak besides the GOM in person. I'll bet it looks insanely rich.
Thanks. Im really pleased with the stain color. Ive had to sand down some of the oak plywood after applying it because it makes EVERY blemish in the wood just stick out like a sore thumb. Cant see most of those blemishes on the bare wood.

Yea, the flash on the camera does mess with the color of the wood quite a bit. After visiting the "Street of Dreams" in the Seattle area (yearly open house of multi-million dollar houses), I got the idea for trying to get a rich color look to my HT. I think its an "old world" look thats missing from a lot of todays "make everything white and bright" house. IMHO, the HT is the perfect place for dark rich colors (without turning off future potential home buyers). Id love to get a true color pic someday of the room. Ill have to find a friend thats a camera buff so they can help me get some good lighting setup. Im a technology geek except with cameras. Just like to point n shoot. :)

Sorry for the delayed update. Last weekend the Seattle wind storm killed power at the house for 4 frigid nights. I lost a weekend of work there. Xmas shopping and all that really derailed HT work too. Ive been working on building and installing the cabinet doors on the equipment closet and book case. Also, putting in the peg holes and shelves on the bookshelf. Ill get some pix up soon. Need to kick some tail on this soon enough. Really want to get the crown molding up!

OK, so here are some new pix. I put in some peg holes into the bookshelf, and built some shelves for it as well. Each shelf in the bookcase was made out of 3/4" oak plywood and then I used some spare 10MIL paper backed oak veneer for the front edge (with contact cement to attach). Each shelf is approximately 28.75" long by 8" wide. I just took a big 2'x4' sheet of oak plywood and ripped it twice to get 3 8" shelves.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/bs1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/bs3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/bs2.jpg

You can see now I also am hacking away at building doors. Boy, what an experience! I ruined two doors already. One because I split the wood by accidentally over tightening the screws when I was attaching a hinge. :mad: The other was that the door was built with bowed wood. Lesson in door bulding...use perfectly straight doors! :mad: The door wont close right unless the frame is really straight!

So here's a pic of the split wood. Gives an idea of the hole and drill bit needed to make the nice flat bottomed hole for the cup of the hinge. 1 3/8" forestner bit. Im using 1/2" overlay European hinges incidentally. I suppose I could live with the cracked door, but it would drive me crazy forever, so Ill just chaulk it up as a learning experience and build another.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/crack1.jpg

How to fix a bowed door? Ha. This should amuse you. Maybe someone smart has a really good and easy method, but I'm trying this...Pic speaks a 1000 words (or laughs in this case). Dont think itll fix it, but it's fun trying in this case...
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/bow1.jpg

Here's my almost fully populated equipment closet with its shelves all done. I got a DirecTV R-15 DVR for XMas. Yay! DVR. Didnt go for the HDTV model. Too expensive for me. Im fine with S-video for TV. Give it a year and the HDTV model will be $50...;) So, the bottom shelf has my Monster surge protector for all the equipment, all the spare cables, and my DSL wireless modem. The only equipment left to hook up is the IR repeaters. Thats easy enough though. Also, hidden behind the DVD player is a Ethernet hub. I tested that I have Ethernet to the PS2 in the riser and all the way over to my home office in the adjacent room.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/shelves1.jpg

My brother in law is going to help me hang some crown moulding today! Yay! Light tray is going up. I've been looking forward to this! Hopefully, Ill have some pix of some of that later today...

Yay! :D Got 80% of the crown mouldings up! I only got the start and end points to finish up. Ran out of stained moulding so have to stain up a little bit more. Here are a couple of pix with the lights on.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cr2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cr1.jpg

And here is the rope light (looking at the same corner as the pic right above this.! It was blazingly bright when fully exposed, but not so much when behind a chunk of wood! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cr3.jpg

This perspective is from the equipment closet POV. Pay no attention to that reflection off the window (that looks like a couple of evil eyeballs... :)).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/cr4.jpg

BTW, the car seems to be doing the trick on my cabinet door, ha. It bent quite a bit back into shape. Ive adjust it a bit to try and get more bow out. It seems promising. Just got to remember to take it out before I try and back out of the garage. :)

Got the Buffalo IR repeaters hooked up. One repeater for the receiver, satellite, & DVD. Put the sensor temporarily over my center speaker. Works great! Eventually, the sensor will be built into the entertainment center over the fireplace so only the "eye" is visible.

This rope light is trick! Doesnt add anything in terms of brightening the room (not that was ever my intention), but dang theyre neat! Definitely adds some flare and "coolness" to the room. :cool: I gotta admit, its a little distracting while watching TV just because theyre so neat looking. Maybe my eye will tune them out in time. :)

David,

Looking good.

I find that if I dim the rope light to about 70% it provides sufficient 'mood' lighting without being distracting.

Cheers,
Mark

The good news is I was able to salvage both my previously thought "ruined" doors. The car squished the bowed door for the equipment closet into pretty decent shape. Its not perfectly straight, but the door closes fine and the bow isnt nearly as noticeable now. I can live with it.

As far as my cracked door. Some wood glue and clamping fixed that one up rather well. Better than I thought. I cant even tell theres a crack there. Yay! Saved myself a bunch of labor.

Built the last door for the bookshelf today. Got it built and a first coat of stain on it. I'll be able to get another coat on in the morning before work, and then I should be able to install the last couple of doors on the bookshelf tomorrow night (I hope). After that, Ill have two more doors to build for the equipment closet. Ill be glad when the door building is done, whew. Lot of work.

The other good news is the reclining sofas are going to be delivered next Saturday! Wow, much faster than their original estimate of 8-10 weeks (from Thanksgiving). Wasnt expecting them until late Jan - early Feb. Nice suprise! Cant wait to retire the old bachelor sofa (sniff, my first piece of furniture I ever bought).

Got the rest of the crown moulding hung today too. I found I had to stuff some black fabric in the bottom of the light tray to cover the cracks between the moulding and wall. The rope light was leaking through the bottom. Got 1yd of black corduroy. No light goes through it now. My wife cut it into 2" strips that I just sort of stuffed it into the light tray. Works great!

Side note. As a guy that staunchly stood by his VCR, I really like this R15 DirecTV DVR. It can be a bit slow to change channels while recording, but its a minor nuisance (especially evident during NFL Sunday Ticket). Its definitely made watching TV more tolerable. Commercial? Skip forward 30sec, nice! :)

Here's a couple of pix of the crown moulding where it begins next to the outlet. I put a return on the very end of the moulding. Wasnt sure exactly where to end/begin the whole thing since you can see the moulding cant go the length of the wall because the light fixture above the hall closet would interfere. Probably could have done a better job putting the outlet behind the moulding, but Im not done concerned with that. Boy, that flat paint is hard to take care of. Looking at these pix shows every scratch! Going to have to touch those up sooner or later.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mould2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mould3.jpg

Here's the other endpoint of the moulding that I put in tonight. I simply butted the end up to the equipment closet. I could have made the turn and put some moulding on the front of the closet, but it wouldnt mate up to the brick fireplace then. I didnt want to go across the front of the fireplace because I want the vertical space there for my screen! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mould1.jpg

Here's the two doors Ive hung for the equipment closet. Really helps kill the noise of the bathroom fan when it kicks on. I cant really even notice it now. It was quiet to begin with and I could tune it out easily enough, but now its really muffled. Plus, its fun now with the Buffalo IR repeater! What fun with the remote now. Just aim it sort of in the general direction of the sensor now. My wife still needs training on that though. Still wants to aim at the equipment itself. :) I find I do it too every once in a while.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/door1.jpg

Finally got the bookshelf/media storage done! The last two doors went up, and shockingly without (m)any problems. ;) Wow, I get to actually unbox my CDs and DVDs and put them somewhere handy. Yay! Just have the two more doors to build for the equipment closet and that will be done.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/door2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/door1-1.jpg

The last big thing then is to build the entertainment center. I've been plotting out my strategy on that. Ive got the part that will cover the hearth planned, but havent completely measured out the speaker cabinet portion that will rest on the hearth. I had a plan many moons ago, but I think Ive got a better idea now what to do now that I have a screen picked out (Carada Brilliant White - 88" D). The screen dictates a little bit how tall the center can be. Should be fun!

Oh yea, the sofas arrive today between 2-4pm. Puts a little damper on my suprise plans to go to the Seahawks/Cowboys playoff game tonight. Brother in law got a pair of free tickets last night. How lucky for me. Either Im watching the game from the freezing rain "comfort" of the stadium, or Im kickin back in the new sofa and watching on the big screen. Either way, I win! :)

Will post pix of the sofas when they get here...

Yay! The sofas arrived! Had a couple of really big dudes carry these guys in. They were good. Didnt even bump the wall or door frames. Boy, they feel great! After 15 years of sitting on a $300 sofa, this microfiber stuff feels like a cloud. They are recliners and really comfortable. I dozed off on them while watching The Aviator last night. No indictment of the movie, great movie, but after being at the Seahawks/Cowboys game all day (what a wacky game) and sitting on those comfy sofas, it felt great to take a little snooze! :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/seat1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/seat2.jpg

View from the "cheap seats." I have just enough room to fully recline in the 2nd row without my feet bumping the sofa in front. I can shove the front row forward a few more inches if I really need to no sweat. I can easily see over the sofa (even my 5'0" wife can see easily from row 2). Now, fully reclining with some sitting directly in front of me isnt optimal, but cant have everything. "Move kids! Youre blocking daddy's view of the game!" :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/seat3.jpg

One other note on the sofas. Boy, the sound REALLY deadened with those two sound barriers. The change was immediately noticed by me. The room is really quiet now. Its amazing what a big difference it made. I thought the room was a library without those guys, but now, wow!

I didnt really notice any sound hampering from sitting in row 2, but I can easily see that the front speakers might need to be lifted up 6" or so when I build the entertainment center. You can see from the above pic how the front row obstructs the L/R speakers a bit. I didnt notice any drop in the quality of the sound (might have been still deaf from the Seahawks game though. :))

Looking good! I really like the seating. It looks really comfortable.

Looking good! I really like the seating. It looks really comfortable.
Thx! They are the most comfortable sofa's Ive ever owned. I look forward to plopping down in the theater now and watching stuff.

Glad you have a link on your sig to your thread. Thats interesting material. I'm going to go check it out now!

After doing some curiosity digging around on Rahl's Doable board thread I found out about Black Out cloth. I figured at $5.99/yd, what the heck! Try it out. Took the trip to JoAnns Fabrics and picked out 3 yards tonight.

Here's a link to the Black Out Cloth. (http://www.joann.com/catalog.jhtml?CATID=110287&PRODID=110317&source=search)

Hilariously good enough for me. I slapped it up with some blue tape, and viola! Geez, its plenty bright. I held up the $1Billion (relatively speaking) Studiotek 130 sample next to it, and yes, the Studiotek is brighter (if youre splitting hairs). Is it worth an extra $2000?! In my opinion, no way! The Carada Brilliant White @ $600 is the same. Brighter, yes, but is it worth it? This BOC is basically identical to the Carada Cinema White.

Ha, Im excited enough to build a frame for it and french cleat it (I guess) onto the fireplace. I have an idea of putting fluted moldings on the side and a crown on top too in order to dress it up even more. Lets see, that might put me at $50 total materials. Unbelievable. Im sure others would split hairs and dish out the dough for a "nice" screen, but at $50 for material, why not try it for awhile and see if I can live with it. If not, then Ill "upgrade" to the expensive guys.

Maybe Im just tainted by looking at a picture on brown paper for weeks... ;)

Ill take some pix of the screen comparisons if anyone is interested.

Now just need some time to build this thing...

I can't wait to see your screen. I did the maxx mudd and it looks great except for the roller marks I seem to not be able to avoid. I am going out friday for some blackout cloth and try my own. BTW your theater is looking really good I love the woodwork.

Adam

I can't wait to see your screen.
Thanks Adam! Neither can I! Dang work, gets in the way of having real fun sometimes! :)

I actually took the screen down last night. Rather, it took itself down as the weight of it was too much for my blue tape. :) That was all the motivation I needed to go to HD and get some wood for the frame and some masonry anchors. I'm nervous about hammer drilling into the brickwork on the fireplace. I tried some TapCon screws in the side of the fireplace in the equipment closet and was really disappointed. Used the exact drill bit they sold with the screws, but the screws just slipped right out. I plan on using a 66"w French cleat on the front of the fireplace to hold up the screen. Got a 1x4x8 of popular to be my cleat with some hex screw anchors. This anchor is the kind that spreads out, so Ill bet those hold a lot better. If not, Ill get an adhesive and use the anchors! Doubt Ill need the adhesive though.

Just planning and measuring everything around the fireplace during the weeknights. Probably do some building this weekend. I'd love to have the screen built and hung by the end of the weekend.

Got some black velveteen from Joann Fabrics last night too. "Real" velvet ran $30/yd. Ooof! Velveteen was only $15 for 3 yards. Ill admit the fancy shmancy black velvet was indeed the blackest fabric there, but the velveteen wasnt too far behind. Should be ok for me. Im planning on using a 1x4 as the black border around the frame.

Thanks Adam! Neither can I! Dang work, gets in the way of having real fun sometimes! :)

I actually took the screen down last night. Rather, it took itself down as the weight of it was too much for my blue tape. :) That was all the motivation I needed to go to HD and get some wood for the frame and some masonry anchors. I'm nervous about hammer drilling into the brickwork on the fireplace. I tried some TapCon screws in the side of the fireplace in the equipment closet and was really disappointed. Used the exact drill bit they sold with the screws, but the screws just slipped right out. I plan on using a 66"w French cleat on the front of the fireplace to hold up the screen. Got a 1x4x8 of popular to be my cleat with some hex screw anchors. This anchor is the kind that spreads out, so Ill bet those hold a lot better. If not, Ill get an adhesive and use the anchors! Doubt Ill need the adhesive though.

Just planning and measuring everything around the fireplace during the weeknights. Probably do some building this weekend. I'd love to have the screen built and hung by the end of the weekend.

Got some black velveteen from Joann Fabrics last night too. "Real" velvet ran $30/yd. Ooof! Velveteen was only $15 for 3 yards. Ill admit the fancy shmancy black velvet was indeed the blackest fabric there, but the velveteen wasnt too far behind. Should be ok for me. Im planning on using a 1x4 as the black border around the frame.

David,

Are you drilling into the brick on your fireplace or the motar? The bricks are much to brittle and drilling into the bricks can cause them to break and possibly break out. Your best bet is drilling into the motar and using anchors. Anchors work really well in motar (much better than in a hollow wall) and with the weight of your screen, you shouldn't need anthing too fancy.

By the way, I like your thought pattern on the screen. Start cheap and if you don't like it, it's easy to upgrade. :D

I went with the Silver Screen Behr paint from HD and the wife and I love it. You can check it out at my thread below.

Lookin' great! :)

Are you drilling into the brick on your fireplace or the motar? The bricks are much to brittle and drilling into the bricks can cause them to break and possibly break out.
Good advice! I had been thinking of going into the mortar. Seemed like an easier proposition to fill the hole back up if I ever really needed to. Not that Id ever consider taking down my beautiful screen. :) Maybe the next home owner...

Incidentally, on the side of the fireplace when I was putting up the framing of the equipment closet, I went into the mortar as well. I think the drill bit just chipped away a bigger hole than needed for the screw probably.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice as to how deep an anchor I should get? I'm paranoid that I'd punch a hole too deep and into the fireplace flue or something like that (somehow that seems bad to me). I got (Qty: 3) 5/16" by 2.25" anchors. I figured the french cleat with 3 anchors in it would be plenty of strength to hold the screen + whatever decorative moldings around the screen.

If I needed an adhesive to hold the anchor, anyone got any recommendations?

-Dave

Any suggestions on the best way to build a frame and use this cloth? I'm looking to built a 100" screen and was going to do a 1X4 wood frame wrapped in felt and was wondering the best way to attach the BOC to the frame. What were your plans?

What were your plans?
I was planning on treating it like my acoustic panels. Build the frame to the dimensions that I need. Put the cloth face down on my soft carpet, lay the frame on top of that, and then pull & staple it with my staple gun. Once I have the screen stapled onto the frame, I was going to build the black border (out of 1x4's) around the outside edge. Ill probably use some pocket screws or metal brackets to join the 2 things into one unit. When I join the black border to the screen, I may try to recess the screen slightly so its not 100% flush with the black border. Thats my plan for now...

So I followed through tonight on my first step of my screen "masterplan." I ripped my 1x4's in half and made the initial frame for the screen to be wrapped around. Its 74"x42". I used poplar wood because its nice and straight (and a little more solid), but any straight board will do I think.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc5.jpg

I used pocket screws to hold the corners together.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc4.jpg

Next I put a 45 degree rip on a 1x4 and pocket screwed that in for the french cleat.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc3.jpg

With the wife's hands we stretched the black out cloth on and stapled it to the frame. Viola! About a $40 screen (so far).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc2.jpg

Here it is compared to brown paper. (and no Im not endorsing Cheer). :D Its precariously perched on my center speaker so the next step is the cleat on the brick. (insert dramatic music).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc1.jpg

This is incredible. I got Casino from Netflix on. I propped up the screen nice and straight. Why did I ever even think about paying $600 for a screen (maybe Ill change my mind someday)? The brightness is just great. I actually turned down the brightness on the projector a bit. Looks fine to me!

Attention anyone wanting to buy a screen... I'll gladly part with this screen for $1000! :) Heck, Ill build you 2! :p

Do you take Pay Pal?


Just Kidding, looks good, I headed to Jo anne's tomorrow, they are having a big weekend sale and with my wife being a scrapbooker I'd be going there anyway this time I'll actually get out of the truck and go inside. I'll start building my frame tonight and hopfully be finished with it this weekend. Wish me luck.

this time I'll actually get out of the truck and go inside. I'll start building my frame tonight and hopfully be finished with it this weekend. Wish me luck.
Good luck! Its not that hard. The black out cloth has some stretch to it, so be extra nice about JoAnn Fabrics so you can get your wife to help pull it over the frame. :) "Oh yes dear, I LOVE JoAnn Fabrics more than football!" Well, ok, thats pushing it... My cloth had quite a few wrinkles that I wasnt sure would come out when I stretched it over the frame, but they did. Creases would be a no-no, but dont worry if its a bit wrinkled as they cut the cloth for you in the store. The lady there asked if I wanted it folded or rolled on a cardboard tube. Take the rolled approach! I actually tried ironing out a wrinkle along the edge thinking it would be like any other cloth, but the wrinkle didnt budge until I stretched it out over the frame.

David,

screen looks great. I'll be interested to hear your opinion (or anyone else's for that matter) on the problem I had with my DIY BO cloth screen. My construction was exactly like yours, but screen size was 50x117.5. When I orginally stretched it, the screen was unbelievable! Nice and tight, no wrinkles. When the seasons changed and the weather got cold, however, I started noticing some wrinkles. I completely unstapled and restapled two different times, but the wrinkles kept returning. Finally, I ripped the cloth trying to stretch it for the third time. I am now the proud owner of a Wilsonart Designer White laminate screen of same dimensions.

Any thoughts?

sds

Interesting thought on the screen getting wrinkled over time. I put in a silly amount of staples. 1 every inch basically. I could envision that it might not hold perfectly tight over time though. Probably explains the use of snaps on the pro screens. No give with the snaps. Heck, it only took me an hour to build so if it lasts a year or two, Id be OK with rebuilding it again next year. If it slacks much sooner, then maybe that forces my hand to other sturdier options (never heard of the Wilsonart laminate screen, yet another option :)). Only time will tell there.

One other thought about that. I suppose if I had considered that before I stapled it down, then I may have thought about some adhesive to go along with the staples. Heck, Ive got enough slack on the back side after the staple that I could probably do that now. That might help the staples hold the screen in place. Maybe some hot melt glue?

David - I've been following your work! Great stuff and a real blast to read. Keep up the fantastic work!! :)

Hey thanks Michael! I really appreciate that. I've really enjoyed writing this thread. It's been helpful to hear opinions and get advice from those smarter than me (and it's sometimes therapeutic too :)).

Keep draining Scotland for me!

Hey thought I'd give you a link to my theater thread I just started. I built my frame for the new screen today. It came out really good, Thanks for your suggestion.

Adam

The Kwasnaza Home Cinema (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=785019) =785019

Hey thought I'd give you a link to my theater thread I just started. I built my frame for the new screen today. It came out really good, Thanks for your suggestion.
Excellent! Ah, another great theater building thread to subscribe to.

BTW, I put up the French cleat on the fireplace last night and hung my screen. It had its own set up headaches (i.e. anchoring, more on that later...). Still need to build the black border frame. Ran out of lumber and snow in Seattle has life pretty well bottled up at home...

Pix later...

BTW, I put up the French cleat on the fireplace last night and hung my screen. It had its own set up headaches (i.e. anchoring, more on that later...). Still need to build the black border frame. Ran out of lumber and snow in Seattle has life pretty well bottled up at home...

Pix later...


We want pics!! :D

Here are a couple of the hung screen you picture vultures! (Of which I am one. ;) )
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc2-1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/sc1-1.jpg

What headaches? Well, for starters its too high compared to my messed up measurements! :mad: I mean, it looks great where its at, but wasnt what I had in mind when measuring and drawing it up. Its 3" too high. I looked after I hung it back at my drawing and did a "whoops" forgot to put in the 3.5" for my border frame. :o If I leave it there, then Ive got just a hair under 3" between the top of the screen and the ceiling. I wanted a 3.5" border + some molding around that. I could just live with it (and I might) and go with a 2.75" border and call it a day. We'll see... Its hung and Im actually pleased as punch with that fact. Itll stay there for awhile.

The other headaches were the masonry anchors! They slipped in the hole fine, but didnt recess back into the 1x4 cleat properly because as I tightened the nut on the screw of the anchor, the screw just spun with the nut! The nut basically wouldnt tighten anymore as the anchor was doing barrel rolls in the hole. GRRR! :mad: I went to take the nut off and that didnt do anything either. Wont come off now either! I think I could yank the whole anchor out from the brick (BTW, I drilled into the mortar) if I had to, but that would make a bigger mess. The idea was the anchors would be recessed completely into the 1x4 cleat so the nut and screw in the anchor wouldnt poke into the screen! So, a little thing I call a 10lb sledge whacked in the anchors until they were deep enough and recessed in more, and that was that (as they say). Just one night I wasnt going to be patient about it. I may reconsider and pull it all off, fill the mortar, lower it the required 3" and try again, but Ive got other fish to fry (namely, the entertainment center over the hearth).

Being snowbound in Seattle has its advantages. Whats a guy to do with 2 football games to watch and a home theater to build? Being trapped at home rules! :D

I started to build the box around the hearth. I used some scrap oak plywood to make a little frame that will sit on top of the hearth itself. Im doing this because I wanted to make a little "channel" that will allow me to hide the wires coming out from the equipment closet and running to the front speakers.

Here's the front, sides, and top frame of the box just dry fit together. Ultimately, theyll all be pocket screwed together.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/box1.jpg

These two pics show the little channel for me to hide the wires. Theyll run behind the top frame and into the firebox area. Once the main cabinet is built, then theyll be punched in from the back side of the cabinet. Should be completely hidden when I'm done.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/box3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/box2.jpg

I put the lid on top and threw a coat of stain on it all. I had to chuckle after taking this below pic. Hey, I just made a coffin! :eek:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/box4.jpg

While the stain dried, I cut some of of the face frames that I will put on the sides and front of the box. I'm going for the exact same look that I put on the front of the columns. 2" oak face frame with some cove mouldings. Still got more wood to cut. Hopefully I'll have them all cut and attached (probably with biscuits) by tomorrow's end. I don't have any cove moulding on hand so the sheet of ice outside will crimp those plans probably.

Sweet!! :cool:

Looks good, I made progress on my screen, check out my link below. I'm really happy with the blackout cloth, thanks for the recommendation :)

After a week of sneaking in little bits of time here and there, I finally got the base of the entertainment center done! Shockingly, it fit perfectly over the hearth and gave me the exact little trough in the back for the wires. Also, it mated up to the equipment closet frame perfect too to hide the wires "escaping" through the front. Excellent. :) Next step is to build the cabinet that will sit on top. Ill probably have a door with some shelving on each side of the subwoofer. Yay, more storage space! Taking away the old closet and making it an equipment closet certain posed certain challenges of where to store my old junk. :) Any extra storage is a good thing for me right now.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/a4.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/a3.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/a2.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/a1.jpg

Ok, need to finish up my equipment closet doors now. Still got the bottom two doors to do. Off I go instead of slacking in front of the PC! Later!

I took down the screen and ripped off the french cleat so I could lower it about 4" and have it in its "true" position. Had to fill in the old drill holes with mortar. No big deal there though.

Here's the new french cleat on there. You can see the wet patched mortar there.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2882.jpg
The basic problem is the bolt on the anchor. When the screen is hanging, the canvas is flush with the cleat, so the bolt sticking out like it is, is not good. :) I didnt foresee that so I had to improvise with my Dremel and saw off the extra length on the bolt so it was perfectly recessed into the 1x4 cleat. Here's the before pic (didnt take an after, was too excited to hang it back up. :))
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2884.jpg

Building the black border was a little bit of a challenge. I used 3M spray adhesive to stick the Joann Fabric velveteen to the 1x4's. Man, that was a sticky mess. I dont think Id recommend it actually as getting the wrinkles out was a total pain. :mad: I think stapling would have been easier.

Also, I wanted to make sure the black border wasnt 100% flush with the screen. I wanted the screen to be recessed slightly. I took some scrap 1/4" plywood and glued it onto the back of the black border's 1x4's to give it some extra depth. I pocket screwed the border onto the screen frame. That little extra recess of the 1/4" ply worked well I think. Here's the finished product.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2890.jpg

Here's a general breakdown of the cost:
Velveteen - $10
(2) 1x4's (poplar) for screen frame - $15
(4) 1x4's (pine) for black border - $15
Black out cloth - $15

If my math serves me well it was about $55. I still cant believe how well it looks for the money. Watching Narnia now, and it looks great (IMHO).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2891.jpg

Ok, for the last time... Stewart Studiotek 130 on the left side of Edmunds face, black out cloth on the right. Brighter and a little bit richer, yes, but worth another $1800+? You can decide for yourself on that one. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2894.jpg

Had the day off from work today so I put in some quality time getting rolling on planning and building the entertainment cabinet on top of the hearth. Nothing exciting to pic yet. Bought some of the oak plywood for the sides of the cabinet. Lowes ran out of 4x8's so I will have to return for more. What I did get, I cut it up. The sides are 18"wx24"h. I got it planned so itll go run up to the bottom of the screen. Should really cover up the fireplace brick nicely.

Looking at what will be left of the brick when Im done, and I think some more velveteen will be in order to make some simple black drapes to cover that up.

I finally got the last two doors on the equipment closet built. One of them is hung on the hinges now, and the other is waiting for some extra arms to help (i.e. wife :).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/door1-2.jpg

Usually base molding is simple, but in this room Ive got obstacles to work around. First off, the heat vent. This gave me a chance to counter sink the screws in the heat vent while I was measuring and working around it. Had to use my jigsaw to carefully cut the notch around the bottom of the vent. With the pic you can see a slight gap, but really its unnoticeable.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/vent1.jpg

The next obstacle is the riser. Its challenging on a few levels. The 45 degree cuts to go up the side and then the bullnose of the riser itself made me pause and think for a bit. Fortunately, my 2.5" hole saw worked perfectly for this.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/corner3.jpg

Havent made the 45 degree cut on top of the riser yet, but thats pretty easy now that I conquered the hard part.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/corner1.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/corner2.jpg

Started to assemble the entertainment center today. Got all the sides stained with a coat. Here's a quick sample of one of the boxes Ill be putting around the L/R front speakers. Its 12"w x 24" h x 18" d. Need to put 2nd coat of stain on everything, but so far so good.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2903.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2902.jpg

Here are all the sides assembled together with some of the scrap 3/4" oak plywood cut to 1x4 sizes. The other 3 boxes are 20" wide. The center box will hopefully have the center speaker and woofer just as always. Itll be a tighter fit there since both sitting on top of each other are 23" and the sides of the box are 24" - 3/4"(i.e. top 1x4" brace). = 23 1/4". If they dont fit, no biggie, Ill just move around the subwoofer to another place.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2904.jpg

Top side of the cabinet showing the pocket screws.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2905.jpg

Lowes still out of 4x8' sheets of oak plywood today. Grr. :mad: Missing a top and bottom to the cabinet. Oh well. I can wait a few days.

One note on the entertainment center is I'm still figuring out exactly how Im going to build the speaker "grills" over the L/R & center speakers. I was planning on using my spare GOM framed (somehow) with a 3/4" oak frame. I was thinking of using some magnets to hold the frames onto the cabinets. Its easy enough to build the frame and just staple GOM to the back, but Id love to hide the staples. Hopefully someone can give me some ideas...

The space between the speakers should be general storage with adjustable shelves. Have decided if I will build doors, or just leave it open.

I haven't checked in on your progress in a while. Wow! The quality of your craftsmanship and the attention to detail always impresses. Looks great.

I like the magnet idea to attach the grills. Could you hide the staples with a thin (1/2" maybe?) frame of oak on the backside? You could even bevel the inside of the front frames so that the staples are facing the inside a bit and that way the back frame would have a flat area to attach to. Does that make sense? Then you could drill out little recessed pockets in the back frame for the magnets and glue them in. You're a much better wordworker than I, but that's how I would do it.

The quality of your craftsmanship and the attention to detail always impresses. Looks great.
Wow, thanks! I'm my worst critic. I'm still learning. I've screwed up plenty in this room, and I'll forever cringe looking at them, but fortunately nobody else will notice. ;)

Thanks for the idea on the frames. I think I get what youre saying. That gives me some other ideas too. Ill have to play around with some scrap (boy do I have a ton of scrap now. :)).

Question. I was planning on using 3/4" plywood for the bottom and top of the entertainment center cabinet. I actually have a big enough piece of 1/4" plywood that I could use on the bottom base. Would that be strong enough to screw into the sides? The lid would be 3/4" definitely. Want that nice and firm, but the bottom part is just there for support to keep things square. Would that work, or just be too flimsy?

I actually have a big enough piece of 1/4" plywood that I could use on the bottom base. Would that be strong enough to screw into the sides?

Hmmm. I guess it would be. You see freestanding bookshelves that are backed with 1/4" all the time. Are you going to permanently mount it to the base or is it just going to be sitting on top? I would be worried about the sub rattling it if it wasn't firmly attached.

Finally got a 4x8 sheet of oak plywood so I could build the bottom and top of the entertainment center. Yay! Got everything all cut up and stained.

I put the lid on in this pic.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2906.jpg

Clamping on the bead molding on the front of the top.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2911.jpg

Havent attached the bottom because I was thinking of how in the world I was going to lift this heavy wood thing into the theater. :) Figured Id leave the bottom and back off until I got it in the theater and then screw it all together.

Here's a quick view of covering the brick with the 1/4" plywood back of the entertainment center. Its pretty interesting. I'm hoping to somehow hang some more black velvet around the side of the fireplace to cover up the brick on the entry way, and then the little bits on each side of the screen too.l
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2914.jpg

I'm still undecided as to where to put the sensor of the IR repeater. Just resting on top of the center speaker for now. I'd like to have it mounted somewhere. Maybe I'll drill a hole for in a 1" square block of wood and mount that in a corner of the cabinet somewhere. We'll see...

Tomorrow, my nephew brings over his PS3 for some fun. Should be neat to see how Blu-ray looks on the big screen!