The Esquire Theater!! Construction Begins... - Page 57

Oooooo FUNNNNN! I have been conducting extensive negotiations with Santa. Unfortunately, she is pretty set on living room and dining room furniture before new speakers. But who knows, they may fall down the chimney anyway!

p.s. - I like how you gave yourself a deadline in your signature. Now we can really raz you if it isn't up tonight!

I posted this in the poster lightbox thread, but thought I would also add it here. When I ordered the LED strip lights for the box, I received black strips rather than white. I bought 6 strips so I could have 3 per box. Then I decided to switch to 4 strips per box, so I ordered two more strips. This time the correct white strips arrived and it turns out that the different colored strips do not play nicely together when used in one box.

The box on the left below is the new one and you can clearly see the difference in illumination (the black strips are in the middle - look around the "a" in break-up and just left of Jenifer Aniston's shoulder). Crap. Looks like I will have to order 2 more strips.

I'll take another pic tonight without a poster in the frame that better illustrates the problem.

Haha - well you know, a little subliminal messaging might be exactly what I need in these negotiations.



Here is the pic of the poster frame I'm having trouble with...new lights are on the way for the center of the frame...

Wow it has been quite a while without a post - I have been using the theater non-stop over the holidays and it has been great! What an amazing project this has been...I really am so glad that I decided to take this on.

So here's the latest. First I will start with the best way to counteract a post-Christmas winter storm:

1) Authentic Utica, NY chicken riggies
2) Beer
3) One awesome AVS-inspired home theater
4) A pile of new Xmas blu-rays




I have been pretty lazy construction-wise lately. (I have been watching too many movies to make any progress!) I did, however, fix the poster frame issue I had with the different-colored LED light strips. That 3M tape backer really sticks well - I was having an impossible time pulling the lights off and it was ruining the markerboard they were stuck to, so I ended up using a knife to score the markerboard on each side of the light strip. This eliminated tearing the markerboard and worked much better.

Pulling off the black lights...




White lights in place...




I also got a few new posters for Chrstmast...the Black Swan poster is really cool - lots of light from this one:




The Campaign:




Everyone needs a Hangover poster:




I also have one of the 40-Year Old Virgin around somewhere. Wow Steve Carell's grin in that one is so ridiculous it makes me laugh every time I look at it!


I also had an unfortunate incident that luckily didn't end up being catastrophic. I was taking some suitcases down to the basement at about midnight on Dec. 30. Walking back to my utility area, I stepped into water. UGH NOOOOO. I walked back to the hot water heater and it was not pretty. The heater was gushing water onto the ground. I am so lucky that I caught it when it did. The water got within about 10 feet of the theater but never actually got there. I spent about 5 hours moving stuff and vacuuming up water. (That shop-vac is a LIFE SAVER!!!) I have an 8 gallon shop vac and I emptied it at least 6 times after vacuuming up water from the floor!

I have some carpet & pad outside the theater that got very wet and I am considering having a restoration company come in to dry everything out. I have dehumidifiers running down there now but I am really afraid of mold etc. and the carpet is still wet after 48 hours. Time to call in the pros methinks. Unfortunately, a bunch of OC703 bit the dust with this one...

Here is a pic of the situation in my utility area after I moved a bunch of stuff and vacuumed about 25 gallons off the floor.



My alarm company is coming ASAP to install water sensors around the sump pump and water heater!

Thanks for the info TMcG - much appreciated! And spaceman - yes, grab some trays asap...they are great (although my seats have a separate slot for the tray). I use mine a lot for snacks and also for my computer when I'm half watching TV / half working in the theater.

Some good news on the water heater situation: I had a cleaning and restoration company out to look at the situation yesterday afternoon and they said that things are drying up nicely. I have two dehumidifiers running down there as well as some fans etc. and they said that there is no need to do much more. They said I am lucky that I have a felt pad underneath the carpet (I guess other materials are more prone to mold). I will hit the area again with the shop vac over the next few days and hopefully it will be good to go.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Mario - The snack trays actually came with the seats and have a built-in attachment point (not the cupholder). The model is Palliser Bullet and that's the main reason I bought them. (They also have LED lights underneath them, but I don't really use those.) The front row is Palliser Blade, which is the same seat without the lights and tray table.

Here is a pic of the attachment point. It works well and keeps the tray level, but could have been designed a bit better. The tray interferes with the cupholder at certain angles.

I finally took some time over the weekend and added the last acoustic panel to the equipment room door. I have been watching a lot of movies and enjoying the holidays over the past few weeks, so not too much actual work has been happening.

I really enjoyed getting back to work and finishing up a few of the remaining odds and ends. My last item inside the theater is to fill nail holes. Then outside I need to finish up the door jamb on the double stud wall for my entrance and create a soffit for an HVAC duct I moved.

I also intend to slowly add a few more things throughout this year...a projector hushbox, a more finished equipment room with MA racks, and a ticket booth.

I know this doesn't look like much but wow these always take more time than I think they will...cutting, painting, assembling, installing...then fabric and trim. I'm glad that was the last one!

Thanks a ton for all of the comments guys! Tony and fotto - haven't talked to you guys in a while...great to hear from you. I have been away on vacation and unplugged from the forum a little bit.

I am almost ready to declare the theater really finished! and I am looking forward to having a photographer friend take some good finished photos of the room.

On my vacation we stopped in at Disney and Universal's Islands of Adventure for a few days. It was a little colder than we would have liked, but the lines were short and we had a good time. It was my first time at Universal. I have to say that I thought the Spider Man and Harry Potter rides were very cool!

I don't know anything about the Harry Potter books and I haven't seen the movies (they're on my list), but I thought that the town Universal created around the ride was incredible! Oh...and the butterbeer was tasty too. Here are a few pics:










Then there were a few days of this...




And some of this...




And there was WAY too much eating like a fat kid...

This is a gigantic Rice Krispies treat. That is covered in milk chocolate. Then covered in mini m&m's. Then drizzled in dark chocolate. And I ate it. ALL. I feel sick just looking at it.




There was also some sort of pumpkin spice creme brulee involved at one point. Pastry crust outside or some sort of other magic voodoo. Uh. May. Zing.





And now I need to visit the gym.


p.s. - It is really nice to see so much building activity going on around here. It took me forever to get caught up in my forum reading!
Edited by AirBenji - 4/4/13 at 8:59am

Over two months without a post! Wow! I have been watching a ton of movies and really enjoying the theater.

Question: I'm finally finishing some (never-ending) odds and ends and am putting some flooring into my small equipment room (about 4.5' x 5.5'). My plan is to use rolled rubber flooring. Just wondering if anyone has experience with this stuff. I want to be sure the 1/4" thick version will be ok with a rack with casters on top of it. (The sales rep said it would be fine.) Here's what I'm planning on using: http://www.greatmats.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=436&reviewscr=1. Anyone have any input or a particularly good source for it? (I am also going to check local gym equipment stores today.) Thanks!