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The Dream House

post #1 of 25
10/22/08 at 6:39pm
Thread Starter 
At least for a teenager...

So what do you do with a life size doll house when the kids out grow it? My two girls really liked the doll house while they were growing up, just a year ago it had a little stove, refrigerator and little table for tea.

Around a year ago my oldest girl question if we could convert it to a music, tv hangout room. I wasn't to inclined to do it and spend money on it, but between my wife and the girls clean it out, painted it and all of the sudden the little house had new life.





the idea first was to put some been bags an ipod dock and maybe a tv ... and ofcourse they wanted a flat tv for the hang out little house. They even had the price range and size that they wanted..."comm'n Dad they are ONLY $600 at walmart or sams. I did not want to spend money on a room that I thought they wouldn't use that much.





For those of you woundering, the little house has electricity, telephone and coax ready, so to put a tv there wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Here comes DESTINY, karma, luck or what ever you want to call it.. It just happened that I needed to get a projector... which in itself is awhole other story, anyways... got my Ebay talent to work and landed a inexpensive good Epson Homecinema 200+ projector, now after what I needed for came and went what to do to it? Well set it up in the little house.

First, my wife and kids told me that that was way to big for it... but hey don't we believe that the bigger the better?

I researched DIY screens and made my own ...





I have a thread on how I made it ...http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1064427

It turn out great and the velvet frame around it looks phenomenal and helps with the minor projection adjustments.



Most of the equipment I had, and I was about to give it away to my brother, I'm glad I didn't, it turn out to be perfect for this space. The equipment consist of a Yamaha 5.1 100wats HTIB, a DirecTV H21, an Insignia BluRay, and a DLO Ipod dock.







The seating arrangement, so far, is a futon and we are looking on adding acouple of been bags.





The projector is mounted on the far end wall above the futon. The aprox. dimension are 11' x 6.5', the seating distance is probably around 10'







Here is the way it looks from the seating are. The projector is semi calibrated, since I haven't had the time to finish with the calibration. So far gamma and grayscale is done, I still need to do color.

I think it looks and sound very good for an old projector and entry level equipment.

















So this project turn out very nice, now everyone wants to hag out in the little house, including myself.

So what do you do with the little house when the kids out grow it? You turn it into a screening room...



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post #2 of 25
10/22/08 at 7:17pm
Please resize your pictures.
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post #3 of 25
10/22/08 at 9:14pm
Holy crap!!!! I have personally been in that doll house and I'm blown away that that he was able to get that set up in there! Absolutely amazing! I can't wait to come over and check out the new and improved doll house.

What does the family think of it? I'm sure the girls were cool with you turning the place into a movie theater.

Very, very cool. Congrats!
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post #4 of 25
10/22/08 at 9:16pm
By the way, I like the paint job much better than the old one! Looks much nicer
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post #5 of 25
10/23/08 at 6:42am
Thread Starter 
It took some effort and cooperation from the whole family, the girls and my wife helped with the paint, our boy help with cleaning and setting up the new floor.

My wife was instrumental on building the screen, she even took me shopping for the BOC (black out cloth) and velvet and help stretching and stapleing the fabric to the frame, as well as made the curtains for the windows.

It turned out very nice ... the girls have movie night on Saturdays with a couple of their friends, they jam to some music while they get ready for the movie and every one gets situated, very nice to see.

I have the Bluray and the Directv receiver set to output 1080i and it looks phenomenal. The sound is more than adecuate for that little space, the only drawback is the A/C window unit, it is loud but nothing that can't be masked by the sound. Overall it is a great hagout room for the kids (and the adults too).
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post #6 of 25
6/14/10 at 6:57am
Thread Starter 
An update to the seating; I got 2 chair/ottomans as additional seating, we haven't use them for extended time yet, but they look pretty good.

Some more pics:

The chairs as ottomans under the screen.





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post #7 of 25
6/14/10 at 7:00am
Thread Starter 
Coffee tables out of the way and chairs ready for movie viewing:





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post #8 of 25
6/14/10 at 7:10am
Nice job.

Now let's see, the teenage boys in the area learn that these teenage girls have their own private theater room away from the main house...

Better get a security camera installed in there fast!!
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post #9 of 25
6/14/10 at 7:32am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dixon View Post

Nice job.

Now let's see, the teenage boys in the area learn that these teenage girls have their own private theater room away from the main house...

Better get a security camera installed in there fast!!

That is correct! that's why we have a better security system... its called little brother but when you have teenage girls even going out for ice cream makes you worried.

But it has been a very cool place to hang out.
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post #10 of 25
6/14/10 at 10:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dixon View Post

Nice job.

Now let's see, the teenage boys in the area learn that these teenage girls have their own private theater room away from the main house...

Better get a security camera installed in there fast!!

lol, that's the first thing I thought of too. Little brothers can be bribed. Seriously though, teenage girls + futon + teenage boys + room outside of the house = trouble.
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post #11 of 25
6/14/10 at 10:42am
That is a very cool mini HT Leo. Your daughters are lucky to have you as a dad!
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post #12 of 25
6/14/10 at 11:08am


Best use of lens shift I've ever seen. Please link your theater to the small theaters build. Another great addition! Thanks

Victor
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post #13 of 25
6/14/10 at 9:08pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by spivonious View Post

lol, that's the first thing I thought of too. Little brothers can be bribed. Seriously though, teenage girls + futon + teenage boys + room outside of the house = trouble.

You teach them high morals and values, give them some guidedence through faith or some universal law of what is right and wrong and hope and pray that they some how get and follow it... That's all you can do, because one they leave the house, even if it is to the backyard, you can't dictate what they do.

Although, I would have ton agree, no supervision in generl is trouble.
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post #14 of 25
6/14/10 at 9:11pm
Thread Starter 
Thnks for the complements guys, even though it is a small space it works very good. We all had enjoyed it a lot.
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post #15 of 25
6/14/10 at 9:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by victor-eyd View Post


Best use of lens shift I've ever seen. Please link your theater to the small theaters build. Another great addition! Thanks

Victor

Thank you Victor... Done.
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post #16 of 25
6/17/10 at 10:19am
Leo -

As you well know I too have seen your ideal little heaven, out back, in action! Love seeing that it's carrying on a well worn tradition: we adults need our alone time too! Esp. if we have families, esp. daughters! A little cottage like that in the back yard is just what the doctor ordered, now and then - sure your kids enjoy it, but you enjoy it personally, too...




b
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post #17 of 25
6/17/10 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Bob View Post

Leo -

As you well know I too have seen your ideal little heaven, out back, in action! Love seeing that it's carrying on a well worn tradition: we adults need our alone time too! Esp. if we have families, esp. daughters! A little cottage like that in the back yard is just what the doctor ordered, now and then - sure your kids enjoy it, but you enjoy it personally, too...




b

I would only like that someone would make smaller CRT projectors!!!
Then It be closer to perfect. Have to settle for an LCD, not even close to a CRT, but good experience still.
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post #18 of 25
11/11/10 at 5:00pm
Came across this theater build and saw your convertible ottoman/chairs... Where did you get those or what brand are they? I would like to find something similar for my theater.

Thanks..
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post #19 of 25
11/11/10 at 7:22pm
Thread Starter 
These specific ones are from Sears, but for what I know they have them at Target too.
The original ones that I was looking for were from Costco.

Here is the thread about all the chairs.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=768144
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post #20 of 25
11/11/10 at 8:20pm
All you need is a couple of Danley DTS-10's and you're done!
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post #21 of 25
11/12/10 at 7:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyng_fool View Post

All you need is a couple of Danley DTS-10's and you're done!

Wouldn't that be cool!?!

It has a small powered 150W Yamaha front firing sub, that of course does not compare with the Danley DTS-10, but it adds the necessary bass for the small space.
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post #22 of 25
8/17/11 at 12:40pm
Thread Starter 
Some one just asked me about the ottoman chairs and where to get them. Here is the link of the "Perfect Front-Row Overflow Seating from Costco" which is the thread that has all the information for the chairs.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...768144&page=10

My specific chairs are through Sears, but for what other people had mentioned they also have them available at Target and Walmart. These are very similar to the original chairs from Costco.

I would say that that the quality of these are B quality, not top notch A+, but even so are very functional and had held pretty good.
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post #23 of 25
11/25/11 at 9:38am
Hey, Leo! Can't wait to visit you and experience your little slice of heaven again!


This was just posted on another thread, thought I'd share it with you here. It's more about your incredible Hitachi CRT RPTV inside the house than the little slice outside mentioned here, but still needs to be seen by owners of "older" CRT tech, like you and me. Thanks in advance for allowing me to share it here -


Quote:
Originally Posted by najames View Post

Holy Cow Dave Harper!!! You said ISF is in Florida, so I decided to see where they're located. They're about 5-10 minutes from my house!! Didn't even know it, too darned funny.

I have an elderly Pioneer SD-532HD5 like this one.

http://www4.shopping.com/xFS?KW=pion...Video&FD=85747

I might just need to have this thing calibrated some day. It works OK and has been moved across the country twice, in storage for a couple years, never been touched except when I used the Avia disk set it up initially and when I moved here in Boca Raton 3 years ago.

Just noticed this post in another thread, from way back in '05.

Just so you know, those "elderly" CRT RPTVs are not old, they have a 20 year service life - or more, I've seen it, recently heard about a 29 year old Panny CRT 50" that's still cranking away just fine - and at today's stage are only halfway thru it. I know of an "old" curved screen bounce-off-the-screen Sears CRT whose guns fire at the hinged mirror that you pull out and let fall into place to start it up, that's still cranking away just fine too. We've been looking for someone to take it home and keep it going, or hopefully get it to some sort of video museum, tho I have never actually heard of one...

Well treated by their owners re. usage, light levels and avoidance of screenburn, they are capable of WAY better than new performance, even at 11 years old.

I am being flown all over the country cleaning and calibrating these "elderly" beasts, which are capable of incredible HD, head and shoulders better than a lot of the "affordable" fixed pixel offerings out there in today's marketplace. And better looking in some ways than all fixed pixel offerings.

The main thing that not everybody knows about them is that their optics need to be cleaned yearly, and on some brands - like the Pioneers, be they Elite or non-Elite - the "deeper optics" need it every few years as well. That's because of the air gap between the lens barrels and the CRT coolant covers, where 6 additional surfaces get invaded by dust, soot, smoke and all manner of other airborn contaminants, and thus compromised because of the high voltage turning them into powerful, continuous dust magnets every moment they are powered on. There's 28 optical surfaces in there that need to stay crystal clear, 10 of which get heavily compromised because of the HV. When all 28 surfaces are clean and polished and you have a crystal clear light path again, the results are truly astonishing. Like getting a brand new TV for a simple hour's work.

Just doing this one thing gives your "elderly" set a brand new looking picture - in my area my calibrations are called "The Sparkle Process" - and calibration after that is just incredible icing on the cake.

I started the "Don't Dump Your CRT RPTV!" thread here on AVS more than 5 years ago, and it is still going strong, with over 300 complete pages so far and over 9000 posts. If you have a CRT RPTV at all, HD or non-HD, I invite you to go over there and check it out.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...95922&page=327

If you have a CRT RPTV or know someone who does and want info about how to do your optics cleaning with no damage - those soft plastic surfaces in there are incredibly delicate, vulnerable and easily scratched, and any damage to them is permanent - contact me directly, by email or phone. No pm's please!

Thx -

Mr Bob
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post #24 of 25
11/25/11 at 10:15am
This is a great build. I love how whimsical it is!!! Very nice!!

Matt
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post #25 of 25
11/25/11 at 8:12pm
This is great. My project after I finish the theater is to build a playhouse.
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