The Esquire Theater!! Construction Begins... - Page 55

Hi Jimmy - All of the fabric came from fabricmate.com. I highly recommend them - good pricing and service.


Absolutely! I made a lot of progress last week and am trying to keep the ball rolling this week (easier said than done ). I intentionally added a bit of pressure to keep things moving...I am having some friends from law school over for a movie next Friday and I really hope to have everything done except for the top cap trim on all of the panels. Fingers crossed!


And TMcG - you're right...it is so weird to watch scenes that I'm used to now with one wall treated. The sound feels very lopsided - I'm amazed at the amount of difference the panels make.

It is slow going but I am continuing to make progress...

I have the frames up on the back wall except for the one that will go on the door to the equipment room. I need to make a cut-out section for the door handle (how did I forget that when I cut all of that wood?? DOH! )





All of the panels on the back wall are going to be gray...

Thanks 235! Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the threshold at this point...if it's outside the theater, it's pretty much not done. I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do for my entrance yet, so I haven't had the carpet guys come back to finish up that area, and that has prevented me from installing the auto door bottom. But that should be done by the end of October, so stay tuned!


I hope to have 11 of the 14 panels installed by the end of the night tonight...the acoustical changes to the space are nothing short of amazing!

Question of the day...is there such a thing as a 2" 4 gang electrical box extender?

As you can see from the old pic below, my Grafik Eye is flush against the wall in my HT. It falls within one of the panels I am adding now and I'm wondering if there's a way to move the box out so that the GE sits on top of the panel. Does anyone know how to do this?

Of course the other option is to make a C-shaped cutout in the panel and leave the GE flush with the wall...I just think it may look better if it sits on top of the panel.

Thanks all!

Awesome - thanks guys. Looks like I will be able to make this work one way or another.

TMcG - Moving the existing box forward was my initial thought as well, but unfortunately I don't have much slack at all in the wires. Booo.

Ahh - another great idea. Thank you Mario!

It has over two weeks since my last update! I have been pretty busy lately, but I have still made some progress in the HT. With the exception of the panel over the equipment room door, the panels are all up on the walls! I need to install cap molding around them to hide all of the staples...that's my project for this week.

I used Mario's idea above to build a box extender to mount the Grafik Eye flush with the face of the panel. And as you can also see in one of my earlier pics, the alarm keypad above the GE was white. I took the cover off to paint it black...apparently I touched some internal organs I shouldn't have touched and now the keypad is shorted out. Hoping to get that one fxed this week...


Here is a pic of the final panels on the left side of the room. I have been having problems with the doorhandle so I am swapping out that lever for a knob that won't look so squished in that space.

This is the stuff I decided on...pretty simple, and yes - eggshell black like the baseboard trim. Priming begins tonight! (Assuming I have power...)

I spoke to my alarm company last night and they said the problem sounds like I just have one of the buttons depressed on the controller and I may be able to fix it myself. I didn't have a chance to fiddle with it last night (busy with the project below!) but maybe I can avoid having to buy a new keypad...

So I was talking to michelmia yesterday and he convinced me that I needed a new toy. I have been meaning to get a generator to run my sump pump etc. for a while now but I haven't pulled the trigger because I keep telling myself that I'm going to get a whole home standby unit. Unfortunately the National Grid installation guys were apparently busy with some little storm called Sandy and weren't banging my door down to install it yesterday (and those units are pretty $$), so portable is the way to go for now. I searched hi and lo for a good portable unit and finally found one about a half hour from my house. Hopefully this one will do the trick for a number of years...




oh and after all of that...it barely rained here. Sheesh.

One of my not-so-lucky friends lives in this neighborhood. I'll stop complaining now.

So the first batch of panel trim is painted and installed. Unfortunately, HD didn't have enough stock when I was there the first time. I shopped around yesterday and picked up another 160 ft. of trim and now I have quite a bit of priming and painting to do!

One for the "what I would have done differently" thread - I absolutely should have bought a paint sprayer when I started this project. BIG recently posted a positive review of the Graco 2900 ($120 at Lowes) and that would have saved me a lot of time. However, I'm almost done with my project so I think I'll tough it out at this point.

Here are a couple of pics of the progress...

First finished panel:



Most of the left wall is complete:

Thanks guys - interesting find. I can't locate the 3900 model, but there is a reconditioned 2900 model on there for the same price ($49). I almost paid $119 for this yesterday at Lowes. I have never bought a reconditioned item before - should I be scared of this?