Starting Construction Name Suggestions Gladly Accepted

Before I begin, I would like to thank everyone on this forum who has helped with my questions, and given me advice both publicly and through PM. I am sure I will have many more before this build is complete.

For those of you who get offended by construction threads that include areas of the basement/home outside of the dedicated theater, I apologize ahead of time because this thread will do that.

I will be building my HT literally from the ground up as I build my new home, and it just seems natural to include other parts of the build as well as the HT, but I promise to keep the majority of the focus on the HT as I get to that point.

I think the thing I most enjoy on this forum are the "before and after" photos that are posted showing how the talented people of this forum transformed a dreary basement or attic into an incredible showpiece of an HT, and I am actually a bit envious of those of you that have been able to do that, but I will use my pre-build photos as my "before" and feel a little better.

As background, for those who do not yet know, I am a contractor and have worked in the construction industry for many years. I will be doing a large amount of the work with the help of people that work with me on a daily basis, and because I build for a living I am confused as to whether or not this still qualifies as a DIY project. Since I am heading into uncharted waters with the theater portion of the home, and I am doing all of the planning, and installation without the assistance of someone who specializes in theaters, then I am going to say it does qualify as DIY.

Lastly, I love the theater names that everyone has come up with and would appreciate any suggestions or ideas that you may think of along the way. When it comes to that type of creativity, I simply do not have it. I could do something that plays on my last name (Funston) since it has the word fun in it, but I thought I would see if anybody else has any suggestions before I do that.

Thanks again for everyones input and help. I am very excited about HT portion of the build and I can not wait to get into the new house and enjoy the show.

I was asked to add a construction timeline with projected dates and actual dates, so here it is:

 

Construction Schedule 3-6-08.pdf 367.2783203125k . file

As I mentioned, one of my favorite parts of the forum are all of the "before and after" photos. Here are my "Before" shots of the lot right after we staked it out last week.

If I had known how much excitement is generated by backhoes on the forum, I would have included pictures of us digging the basement and strawing in the dig over the weekend. Here is what it looked like on Monday afternoon.



The footings are under the straw. You can see the rebar sticking up through it.



This is the corner of the basement where the HT will be.



9' dig generates a lot of dirt.

Started forming the foundation yesterday. I was hoping to get it the last of the forms up and squared, and pour it today, but the weather is not cooperating. I need 48 hours above 20 degrees after the pour, and they are calling for single digit temps tonight and Friday. We might be able to pour Saturday.



This is a view of the "Safe Room" being formed. The room will have 8" thick concrete walls and 6" thick ceiling and floor with a steel door.



Corner of basement where HT will be.



View from garage looking towards the back of the house.

You need them just as much in hurricane country as we do here in tornado alley. A little easier putting one in the basement than it is for you down there, but we made sure my parents house in Sebring has one.

I hope it comes together as easily as my last one.


Great suggestion on the schedule. First post has been edited to include an attachment of the current schedule. Even though I am in the business it is just as nerve racking as it is for someone who is not directly involved in construction because this is a huge investment and you always want it to come out just the way you want, and that doesn't always happen.


Thanks vili!


I had never heard of that before, but will keep it in mind. We usually get most of the straw out, but I have not gotten it all out in the past. I will look into it more. Thanks TL!

Three months to build, but we have spent 5 months designing the house and picking colors and finishes. Now that everything is set up, the timeline shouldn't be too hard to meet.

I will be doing all of the structural, wiring, drywall, etc of the HT simultaneous with the house, and will have it 80% + complete when I move into the house. I will be doing all of the fabric treatments, and installing the equipment after we move in.

I will put together a separate HT schedule and post it as well.

It is time for an update on the progress of the house and theater. The weather has not been real cooperative, but what should I expect from a Midwest Spring. Even though there have been some delays, we have been able to work some longer hours thanks to Daylight Savings Time, so we are actually still on schedule. I am posting the latest and greatest schedule and I have taken the advice of MT and I have added HT milestones to it.

I am still struggling for a name for the theater. There is a creek that runs through the treeline that you see at the back of the property, and I think I will incorporate that into the name somehow. It would be nice if the creek had a catchy name, but it is called Four Mile Creek and that just doesn't roll off the tongue. I am leaning towards Creekside Cinema or Creekside Theater or something along those lines.

I took the advice of Bud and others on the forum, and I have contacted BPape about designing the acoustical needs of the room. He is really busy at the moment, but we are going to go through the room information in detail this week so he can get started on calculations. I am really looking forward to getting his input and doing it right the first time.

I have my Green Glue Order in. I did not go through the website. I have a long history with a drywall supply company that is headquartered in the St. Louis area that is a distributor of Green Glue. I am getting it from them with a "customer loyalty discount" so I will end up paying about $137/case delivered. This is a ridiculously low price for Green Glue, but last year I purchased nearly 11 million square feet of drywall from them for new construction projects, so they are just showing some love.

I sent a request for fabric samples to Interface over two weeks ago, and have not received them yet. Others on the forum have said they usually arrive in a week or so. I resubmitted the request this morning. It will be nice to get those so my wife can begin to get involved. She has no interest in the technical aspect of the HT, just the decorating portion.

Here is the updated schedule, pictures will follow in sequence.

 

Construction schedule 3-24-08.doc 162.5k . file

I know some of the forum members like hearing about large construction equipment, so here is the concrete pump truck pouring my basement.



View from the street as the pour was going on.



I am glad I was standing to the side supervising. Man-handling the discharge hose with thousands of pounds of concrete pouring through it while balancing on a 3" wide ledge is not my idea of a good time.



Almost have the safe room completely poured.



We maxed out the reach of the concrete pump, but got the deck footing poured.

The next day the forms were stripped, and the plumber dug and installed the water and sewer approaches, and began the ground works. Within a couple days we managed to get the plumbing inspected, the exterior waterproofing done, and everything backfilled. My pictures of these steps did not come out at all which upset me a bit because I know waterproofing is a subject that comes up often on the forum.

In summary, I have both and interior and exterior drain tile that dump into my sump basket. The municipality that I am building in lets you discharge the sump pump into the storm sewer, so there is PVC piping running from the sump discharge location to the storm sewer. The outside of the foundation is coated in this:

http://www.tremcobarriersolutions.co...fault.asp?id=2

Watchdog is a rubberized product that will span typical cracks and maintain the water tight seal.

After the waterproofing and plumbing were complete we prepped for the slabs.



A view of the 2" styrofoam insulation along the perimeter of the frost wall for the walk-out basement.



Another view of the insulation for the edge of the slab.



Looking into the safe room.

Once the slab was poured, it was finally time to start what I enjoy most. The framing!

We started framing this past Friday. We originally planned to work on Saturday as well, but we have hit a small snag. One of the load bearing beams was sent out from the lumberyard incorrectly, and we can not get the replacement until this afternoon, so we got as much framing done as we could until we get the replacement material. We have fabricated a lot of the components on the garage slab so once the beam comes in, we can drop them in place with the truss boom and make up lost time.



Sill plates laid out first morning.



Basement load bearing walls, walkout and side walls laid out and in progress (About 10:30 a.m.)



Looking into the SW corner of the basement where the HT will be.



Large gaping hole where floor joists can't be completed due to incorrect support beam. (picture taken about 4:30 p.m. on first day of framing)

That is the updates to this point. I will keep everyone up to date as it moves along.

Thanks Mark! I do this work everyday, but still get a rush seeing the site change from a bare lot to a completed structure.

I am learning a lot on this build because we are doing some things, and using some products I have not used before and if it goes well, I plan to use them in homes for clients. I am also learning a great deal about sound isolation and acoustics for the HT that I did not previously know, and we are taking that learned knowledge and applying it to our multi-family construction projects to try to make them more livable and quiet environments.

Definitely a possibility.

Chad,

I am actually building the house on the North side of Ankeny.

Well, so far this morning we have had rain, hail, sleet, and snow, so we are not working right now. If the weather forcast is right, we should be able to start again this afternoon, so I thought I would check in and give some updates.


As a matter of fact



Granted the stones on the right bank are not natural and were placed there for erosion control, but still, that is great name and is appropriate. It is going to the top of the list.



An excellent point. I guess I should share more specifics about the theater.

The room is going to have finished dimensions of 12'-2"x16'-3" and I did these renderings in Sketch-Up a few weeks ago.


View from the right side of the room with exterior wall removed


View from back of room with rear wall removed

Here is a detail of screen wall/stage/proscenium



The colors in the renderings are not accurate, but gave me a starting point to discuss the project with my wife. She is actually excited about decorating the room and picking out the fabrics for the wall treatments.

The safe room is something we have not had before. Our last house had a full, in-ground basement, but the new house is on a walk-out lot so my wife was a bit nervous about having someplace to go if there is a tornado. The room is being built underneath the front porch of the home. We decided to put it there so it would not take any usable space out of the rest of the basement.

Thanks for checking in, things should get going pretty fast in the next few weeks.

I really do have the best of both worlds. On really nice days I strap on the bags and work boots and enjoy being outside getting my hands dirty, but when the weather is foul and nasty, like this morning, I get to head into the office and take care of bids, plan development, and meeting with buyers/clients to build their dream home.

It is pretty rewarding when it is all said and done.

As for the "speed and accuracy of the pros", I forgot to frame the window opening for the breakfast nook and have to go back and cut that in later. My 7 year old daughter pointed it out to me last night. I built the wall two days ago and it never dawned on me it wasn't there.

Just proof, that if you try to do it too fast and not double check your measurements you will regret it later

Thanks for the encouragement, I was seriously questioning the size of my room until I saw what a great job you did with yours and realized smaller rooms can be just as nice as the big HT's

After waiting a couple of weeks to get the fabric samples from Interface, I was seriously disapointed last night. The samples I received are about 2"x2" square. There was one in particular that has a pattern, but you can't see the pattern well because the sample is so small. I have seen other peoples pictures of their fabric samples, and they appear to be much bigger than this, so my question is, how do you get the larger samples from Interface?

Here are the latest pics:


Correct beam arrived and there no longer is a large gaping hole in the floor.


Looking into the corner of the basement with the HT. The wall on the left is front wall of the HT.


View of front of house after the 2nd day of framing


Standing in the great room looking towards the dining nook/kitchen. The missing window is supposed to be on the side wall to the left of the opening for the sliding glass door.


Front Porch beams in place. You can see the safe room under the porch.


Front of house after the 3rd day of framing

Yes, it is 92" wide. After seeing all the 2:35 screens on the forum I am wishing I had a bigger room for one, but overall, I think we are going to be really pleased with room and equipment.

For those following along on the schedule, we are now behind a week due to weather. You will see what we were dealing with in some of the following pictures. Even on the days that were sunny, the mud was so thick our equipment would get stuck, you couldn't hardly carry material without falling on your a**, and it just slowed us way down.

On a positive theater based note, the wife and I finally agreed on this color scheme for the HT.



The carpet is Shaw "Backstage" in "Heart" color, the GOM is the "Anchorage" in "Cobalt" for the wall treatments on the lower half of the wall, with red paint on top half of wall. Black paint ceiling and "Onyx" fabric for the screen wall.

I got my green glue yesterday since I thought we would be starting drywall this next week.

We spotted otters swimming in the creek and we are now considering the name "Otter Creek Cinema" for the theater.

Here are the framing updates.



It rained



ALOT!



Not a dry space to work in.



Finally got roof trusses set.



Cut in the missing window.



Got more rain.



Finished roof, set windows and doors and tried to get the roof dried in so we wouldn't lose any more days, but it rained again. On the calendar it has been over two weeks since we started framing, but have only actually worked 6 days.

The HVAC contractor is coming in to start running the first floor runs and we should finish framing the basement tomorrow. If the weather holds, we will finally get the roof dried in tomorrow and the weather will no longer be an issue.