The UN-Theater Build - Page 45

Sorry to hear about your buddy's heart attack, Chad. That sucks. Hope his recovery goes well.

And here's hoping my new basement window is at least an improvement over the 60 year old single pane, drafty POS that was there previously. We should know soon enough, as winter weather can't be too far off now.

Thanks Chad - that's helpful. As I mentioned in your build thread, I haven't called Ness Electronics, simply because I have decided I will just stick with the external wiring route (for now anyway) because I have already drywalled the entire basement, and as part of that I already ran a RG6 cable from the equipment closet all the way across the basement and out the back of the house. So to finish it off now using that cable should be pretty simple. Here's the best photo I could find of the cable sitting there (circled in red), waiting to be pulled to the attic.



I should add that there is already old cable running on the exterior of my house back there that the Comcast guys installed years ago before I owned the house. So adding on more run won't be ruining an otherwise clean exterior.

OTOH, even if I successfully pulled a cable down from the attic through some closets I would still have to then get it almost the entire length of the basement through freshly painted drywall to reach the equipment closet, which would require far more drywall patching than I have the appetite for. If I hadn't drywalled already I would go the interior cabling route for sure but as it is ... well, it's good enough for the likes of me.

I'm going with an attic mount, not a roof top one, using the RCA ANT751, which one of the AVS antenna gurus recommended based on my TV Fool chart (I'm less than 10 miles from the transmitters). I'll ground it using the same method as the current cable that is back there.

I'll have the one home run between the antenna and the media closet. For now that is all I'll need, as we only have one TV.



Shocking, I know! But by design (mine) we're more of a movie watching family than a TV watching family. If this changes in the future I'll add splitters & amplifiers and whatnot then. But for now I just want one OTA signal to the main equipment closet where I have HDHomerun with two digital tuners that is networked to our LAN, so if we want we are able to watch the occasional game or TV show from one of the computers, or even on the PJ/big screen. But I really prefer to do the movie watching family as an event thing.

I know - one TV ... weird, right?

... and now for an update on my lightning fast rack build.

When last I reported on this (over a month ago for those of you keeping track!) I had gotten the basic shell of the rack installed. In my usual snails pace way, I've f-i-n-a-l-l-y made another push.

The main thing slowing me down (other than my own incompetence and laziness) was the need to terminate the two circuits I had run to the under-the-stairs equipment closet. And before I could install the outlets & light I needed to pull the romex across the closet without leaving things hanging in the way - which meant some drilling through studs. And that, in turn, meant needing to buy or borrow a drill, since the one I had been using so far had long ago been returned to it's rightful owner. (I know, I know -- how pathetic is it when a friend can't even have a tool out on the Indefinite Loan plan anymore? )

So after a couple of martinis (give or take) I came up with an ingenious plan to power the closet without messing with the romex & drilling there:



But when that didn't work quite as planned, I tried Plan B:



Incredibly, Plan B was also problematic (), so I took my lumps and went back to the stupid plan to drill and pull the romex. Of course, this all meant that instead of taking ten minutes to drill a couple holes and wire up a couple outlets, it took me a couple weeks just to locate and borrow a drill! And then I had to take a week's vacation to go drinking - I mean, FISHING with my brothers. So it's fair to say things dragged out a bit at this stage.

OK, at every stage. Satisfied?

At any rate I've learned an important lesson here: a guy needs to pick his friends better, to make sure a few of them have a decent selection of tools to loan out to their friends! Otherwise things take much longer than they should!

Where was I? Oh, yes - so eventually I got a drill, and pulled the romex to where power would be needed. Here is a shot of the soon-to-be outlet ... and light:





Once I had power there, it was time to start relocating the equipment from the temporary table in the closet to the shelf. It sure was a neat bundle of chaos before, wasn't it?





But wait! Not so fast! First I needed to dress up the rack a bit, as the spray paint I used previously just looked very faded and dull. So first I put on some of the laminate tape strips on the leading shelf edges, then I painted everything again with a better quality paint. Before:



During, with the shelves drying (Notice the perfectly upright mini-tramp this time, Brian?)



And after (before the shelves went back in):



And here it is with the shelves and the equipment in:



How is that ^^ for an over-the-top, extravagant array of equipment, eh? A receiver AND a BD player AND a Wii?! I know - eat your envious hearts out, suckers!!

And finally, here is a shot of the back of the rack. It's such tight quarters there, underneath the stairs, that it's hard to get back enough to take a decent shot of it.



Maybe this angle gives a truer representation of it:



Now I just have to get the equipment properly hooked up ...



And to think that some people here questioned my ability to get this job done ...

My carpenter ordered them through a local lumberyard, but I can't recall the name of it off hand. I'll check my receipts and see if I can find it.

That's the beauty of my thread/blog: you can ignore the words and just from the photos alone manage to glean every piece of worthwhile information contained therein (i.e. absolutely none).

Thanks - I may take you up on your offer next time I need a drill! I actually had a drill like that once upon a time ... it was just my speed! Wonder where it went?

It was Sherer Brothers Lumber. As I recall they were a touch more expensive than one of the big box stores, but my carpenter insisted the quality difference was worth it as well, and we were also buying some trim/mill work from them and delivery was included, so we went with them for the doors as well.

Thanks for all that grief-giving from the usual suspects, as well as that of the more recent Twin Cities contingent (Chad, Noah & Fusion). I may have to awaken the Sleeping Giant (BWCAfishing) to come over and keep you guys in line!

In the meantime I've stumbled through with a tiny bit more progress, although nothing that lends itself well to photos: Pete the Tall Electrician finished connecting a few more electric circuits at the breaker box so finally almost all of the outlets are now active and in use. I pitched in by installing a few more light switches, outlets, dimmers, closet lights & such, so now I have just a few more outlets in the laundry area to wire in and that should be it for electric in the basement!

Here is the only photo worth showing related to this push: the outlet above the fireplace.



And just to show you that I actually know what and where the breaker box is ...



Pretty impressive display of electrical knowledge, no?

I could have never done it without the crucial help of my talented electrical subcontractors, pictured below hard at work "helping" ol' Uncle Hanes the Workerman:



At least they brought their own tools along ...

Oh that's right - you and your dad are both basketball playing height and then some - I almost forgot! Who knew they even grew 'em that big in Sweden?!

BWCAfishing (a.k.a. Sasquatch) is just a relative shorty at 6' 4" or 6'5", but he's an expert on some sort of online war world video game, so his craziness and hairiness helps compensate for his "shorter" stature!

FusionRx,

When in the world are you going to start your own build thread?!

Någon jätte som kan installera trägolv som du måste ha sina egna bygga tråd!