The Esquire Theater!! Construction Begins... - Page 49

Adam - The carpet installer is coming to measure today and I will certainly ask him what he prefers as I don't know anything about carpet. However, my understanding is that the baseboard should be installed first because it gives the carpet installer a spot to nicely tuck the carpet in. Also, having the baseboard there first prevents the tack strip from being located under the baseboard. If that were to happen, you'd have to remove the baseboards if you wished to change carpet. aka PITA.

Tonight I am building the riser steps (and the step in the equipment room) and then may do a little shopping for baseboard trim if I have time.

Question - Am I making a mistake if I shop for trim at the big boxes? I see a lot of guys are buying it at specialty stores but I don't know if that's necessary...especially because I think I'm going to go with black painted trim rather than stain...

Thanks for all of the input on the trim. I am going to a specialty place to look at doors on Saturday and will see if I can knock the trim off my list at the same time.

The carpet installer came to my house today to measure and I'm really happy with the company so far. The same company did some work in my parents' house a long time ago and they did a great job. The best part is that they also had the lowest pricing.

For others who are looking at carpet, I am paying about $50/sq. yd. including pad and installed. A local competitor's price for the exact same product and pad was $75.50/sq. yd. so be sure to shop around!

Carpet should be installed in 2 weeks!

Dylan - I'm up in the air on colors, but I think I may try to tie in some of the carpet colors. Potentially a straw-like color for the walls (but a bit darker) and then a contrasting darker color for the panels. The panels will be the majority of the room so I'm not concerned with having a lighter color in the background.

Michel - You're coming over to help, right?!? I'm not planning on fabric for the entire wall - it will just be panels for now. I could always change that in the future without too much trouble if I decide I want to.

Last night I finished the step in the equipment room. (Am I EVER going to be done with Green Glue?!?!) I also checked out the trim options at Lowe's and wasn't particularly impressed. Tonight I will build the two riser steps in the theater.

I ordered carpet today! It is Stanton Lake Boden in black. I decided to upgrade the pad (at Michel's suggestion - thanks!) and the price was still just shy of $3K...much better than other estimates I received even with a lower quality pad.

Doors
I went to the door shop today. They can do 1.75" solid core flush mount doors (birch) prehung for $200. A few questions on this...

1 - Do I want birch? I'm planning to paint one side and stain the other side. Is birch the right species? They had some other species available but the sales associate recommended birch and didn't give me prices on the others

2 - Is $200 a reasonable price for a solid core prehung door?

3 - I think this is just personal taste but should I get flush mount or some sort of panels on the door? I don't know what they're called but I like the doors that have just two panels (top and bottom) and the top panel has an arch. Like this: http://www.jeld-wen.com/catalog/inte...model=model432. I wonder if they can make a door that has panels on one side and is flush mount on the other...I suppose I could have asked the door guy that question haha...

My concern with a panel door is the acoustic panel sitting on top of it inside the theater. I don't want it to look like a mistake if the acoustic panel doesn't cover the entire design on the door. So I guess I'm leaning towards a simple slab door.

I have been moving along on my pre-carpet punch list over the past week...

Carpet should be installed around the end of next week. I also finished the riser steps and equipment room step. There is one layer of ply left to add in the equipment room and then I need to cut the vent holes in the riser.

Completed Steps:




I ordered doors today and they should be ready to be picked up on Friday! I don't have a final price yet, but they should be simlar to what others have mentioned. I'm getting two 1.75" thick prehung doors (32" for the equipment room and 36" for the theater entry) for around $500. One will have a 4.75" jamb and the other will have an 8" jamb. Yup, 8". It had to be that big so that I could cover the gap in the double stud wall...and the gap had to be that large due to some obstructions that I didn't want to change. Given the weird sizing and height issues, the pricing seems reasonable to me.

Next steps are to select grills for the riser bass trap ports and a door threshold. I found a place that sells cool granite thresholds, so I am going over there tomorrow. I also picked out a base trim profile. Once I finalize my color scheme, I will be able to paint and install that.

Revised Color Scheme - I'm really on the fence on making a change here. I went to the paint store this weekend and looked at some colors that would compliment the colors in the carpet. I ended up with a sort of tan/gold color for the walls and a chocolate color for the panels. Some brown samples should arrive from GOM today. The lighting is terrible in this pic and the colors are much deeper than they appear, but here's an idea of this option:

I think I like the slate gray color I have on the walls now and I'm going to stick with it. I will either do graphite or black panels with black base trim & crown. Do you all think the color will be too monochromatic if I go with black panels? I think that if I do use black panels I will add some sort of trim around them...




Damaged Chairs - The Theater Seat Store has been great and new chairs are being delivered on Monday. No hassle from them at all - I just sent pics of the damage and new chairs were on the way. I'm very impressed and as long as the replacements are acceptable, I give them a big endorsement based on their service and resolution of the issue.

So it looks like I will have a busy weekend, but I should be ready for carpet in a week!

Punch List Before Carpet:
1 - Build Riser Steps DONE
2 - Cut Vent Holes in Riser
3 - Purchase and Install Doors (Purchased - need to install)
4 - Select New Colors/Repaint (I'll finalize this tonight)
5 - Purchase/Paint/Install Base Trim & Crown Molding (Saturday's project )

Trim Finish? - What's the standard for baseboards and crown molding? I'm going to paint mine black this weekend...should I go with a flat finish? Eggshell? Could I go with a gloss or would that look weird? I'm stuck here and would like some opinions if you have them...thanks all!

Excellent advice as usual - thanks Mario. And I have been using Benjamin Moore paint as well - a little more $ but it is the best paint I have ever used by far.

Spaceman - that one is Stanton hickory in black. Mark Labelle and Jesto each used that one in their theaters but in the berry wine color.

Hmmm...looks like I'm going to have a busy week and weekend! I wasn't anywhere near as productive as I had hoped to be this past weekend. But I did at least get most of my materials together. I picked up the doors and all of the trim for the room (minus crown moulding - I still haven't decided on a design for that). I also picked up paint for the trim and will put the first coat on tonight. (I got Benjamin Moore Regal Black in Eggshell.) I forgot to get the grills for the riser vents this weekend so that's also on my list for tonight. I need to call some local places and ask about powder coating them. (Thanks for that idea Michel!)

I don't have an install date for the carpet yet, although I'm hoping to schedule it for early next week!

Theater Chairs - MORE Damage So the new chairs were delivered today. The guys brought them inside and set them up, but when they opened the last box...the same damage as last time. It looked like someone speared it with the forklift. GRRRRRR. So now I have 7 of my 8 chairs. Frustrating. Hopefully Theater Seat Store will be as good about replacing it again this time as they were last time.

I also received some additional fabric samples and now I'm thinking about red/burgundy panels. At this point, I will hold off on this decision until the carpet is installed, but right now I like the two that are up against the wall and on the left below.

Calimark - Yes, that sounds like pricing pretty similar to what I found. Mine $5.80/sq ft for carpet, pad, and installation, but then I upgraded to the better pad. Not exactly sure how much that added to the cost, but I think about $300.


I painted the trim with the first coat of black last night. I wasn't as happy with the coverage as I had been previously with this brand and then I realized that I had the wrong paint. I asked for Benjamin Moore Aura but got their Regal line instead. No biggie - the paints are similar, but I definitely need two coats. The flash really accentuates the imperfect coverage below...

Action shot:

Haha yes! I hate to admit it but they sat there for the entire winter. But now I have a big truck, so they are going to disappear this weekend.

Nah - still have the same car but a friend lives in FL for the winter and I'm hanging onto his GIANT Yukon XL while he's there. I brought home a bunch of full sheets of plywood and drywall in that thing. I'm not an SUV guy, but 4x8' sheets fight right in. (had to tie down the tailgate, but there was only about 8" of drywall in the way.) Then I brought home a fully assembled grill, doors for the theater, the list goes on...

I think I'm changing my opinion - that thing is amazingly handy and I would really like one as a second vehicle.

Thanks Mark! Hope you're well - and I owe you a visit the next time I'm in FL. I will be sure to make it sometime this summer!


Chairs - This time it did not go well. After the second shipment arrived damaged, I called the Theater Seat Store and they said they had the correct chair in stock and would ship a third attempt the next day. That never happened.

I let it go, trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I finally lost my patience on Monday and called. Result: 1) An authorization for a new chair was never even processed. 2) Over the last week, they have apparently sold out of the chair I need.

The next container is supposed to arrive to them on JUNE 10. ANNNNND they can't even tell me if the left arm chair I need will be in the container. And even if the chair is in the new container "some time" to get it out to me. And a week or two for shipping. So it sounds like I'll get my final chair in JULY...the chair that was in stock when I paid for it on APRIL 3.

Obviously that scenario wasn't working for me. So after some headache on Monday and Tuesday, they miraculously "found" the chair I need in the warehouse and it was supposedly shipping to me yesterday. Hopefully I will finally have a set of undamaged chairs next week.

In other better news, carpet is being installed on Monday! I finished painting the trim a few days ago and am painting the door jambs now - I hope to start installing trim tonight!