Nick's Homebrew Bar and Entertainment Area - Page 17

I don't know yet, that is why I wanted to get samples. My understanding is that they stamp them so that there is a recessed ridge around the edges so that they sit flush with the metal grid. I think they may just be the stamped tin. If so, I will probably put insulation between the joists to cut down on the noise. They also include plastic clips to hold the tiles tight against the grid.

I did think about that. The tin ceiling will only be in the bar area, so hopefully it won't be too bad. A friend of mine had a tile floor and metal ceiling throughout his entire basement. He had over 25 pinball machines and it wasn't much different than my current basement with concrete floors and walls (before drywall). Hopefully the carpet will absorb some of the sound.

I made some good progress this week. I met my goal for the most part. I didn't buy enough cover plates for the outlets, so those aren't all installed, but other than that, I got everything painted and the outlets and fixtures installed.

There are 6" cans on the main ceiling of the game area and 3" cans on the soffit. I was a bit worried about my color selection, but I really like it now. Here are a few shots of the rooms. Sorry for the mess in the bar area. I took the photos before finishing up.









Bar area:





I also installed a couple of these clock outlets for my neon signs. I was shocked at how hard they were to find. I asked at both Home Depot and Lowes and got a strange look at both. I ended up ordering them online.





Next will be trim and doors (don't know when yet), and then a short break to catch up on a few other items around the house. Plus, with the end of the school year upon us, things are crazy (two kids and my wife is a teacher).

Tim,

I did get the samples last Friday. I meant to comment on that in my last post. I will post some pictures. when I have time. I am really glad I ordered them. Seeing the actual colors in the room with the paint makes a big difference. I am starting to lean towards a different color now.

Mike,

I still have a long way to go, but you never know - maybe I will have everyone out.

Ok, sorry for falling behind (again). I was going to post some of the ceiling tile samples and then time slipped by. With that said, I have a few updates. First - the ceiling tiles. As previously mentioned, I got the color samples from the company that makes the tiles. I'm really glad I did this before ordering. The photos on the web just can't show the depth of some of the colors. Some that I thought I would like a lot were rather plain and a couple of others I ordered "just because" turned out really nice. I have narrowed it down to 3 colors and probably one pattern (not 100% certain yet). I just need to talk with the manufacturer tomorrow about matching the color on the grid/rails. Here are some pictures of the colors I am considering in the pattern I like the best. It is a 6" pattern (each of the smaller squares is 6"). This was recommended for small rooms.

Antique Rustic Copper


Rustic Copper


Satin Copper


I didn't realize how long it was going to take to get the tiles, so I need to get them ordered ASAP. The site says it will take up to 21 working days to make them. If that is the case, I may not get them installed until some time in July.

The other thing I wanted to get completed prior to moving on to other projects was the doors and trim. I am happy to say that they are installed. I painted the base moldings and door casings last week and got them hung on Friday. I still have some nail holes to fill and touch up, plus the doors need to be painted, but I am just happy that they are installed. I can't believe how different the room looks now.

A couple of shots of the bar area. the door in the corner is for the electrical/data closet.



This door goes into the pinball workshop. The wall with no base moldings will have cabinets for the back bar.



This is the game area





Even though I have a few things to finish up, I was really happy to get the doors and trim in. My kids finished school on Friday and were really anxious to play some pinball. I decided to go ahead and bring some of the games out and let them start playing them again. I want them to be able to enjoy them this summer. Plus, this will clear out the theater so I can move back in there .





A couple of my older games are in the bar area:



One thing that worked out really well was the accent lighting I put in above the games. I am really happy with how it turned out. I was worried it would cause a huge glare on the playfield glass, but they are in the perfect position, and with them angled slightly, they highlight the toppers on the games. It looks great.



The Giovas Game Room is officially open again. My older son told a couple of the neighborhood kids and before I knew what was happening, I had eight kids in the basement playing for an hour.



While I am waiting for the ceiling tiles, I promised my wife I would get some other projects done in other parts of the house. I hope to knock those out quickly so I can put the ceiling tiles in as soon as they arrive and then get back to work on the main project - the theater.

Thanks RTRose. My wife and I were thinking the same thing - provide the boys a fun, yet safe and supervised place to hang out. It's a lot easier when they suggest something that their friends really like doing.

The rustic copper is a really great color. I am hoping I can duplicate it on the rails. It is somewhat transparent, so I don't know how well I will be able to match it if the rails are white. That is what I need to talk to them about tomorrow. If I can duplicate that color, that is probably what I will go with. My second choice is the antique rustic copper, but I am worried that will be too dark. I may have them ship me one can of each color and run some tests to see how it looks next to the samples I already have. The satin copper is a solid color and should be easy to duplicate. That would be my third choice.

Mike,

If it was up to my older son, the quarters would be going into his pocket :roll eyes:. Fortunately for the kids in the neighborhood, all of the games are on free play. No money needed. I had a friend who thought it would be fun to use quarters for his games, so he just put a bowl of quarters out for people to use. That worked ok until he discovered that his kids' friends were filling their pockets when they came over. He switched to tokens and the coins magically stopped disappearing.

I made the decision to go with the satin copper tiles. I was leaning towards the rustic copper, but after talking with the manufacturer about how difficult the color match would be for the ceiling grid, I decided to go with satin since it is easier to match. Because the rustic copper is translucent, it would look different when painted on the white grids vs the tin tiles which have a silver base color. I looked into spraying a silver base and then spraying the translucent color, but it still would be difficult to match. The tiles are made to order, so hopefully they will be ready in the next couple of weeks.

While waiting for the tiles, I am taking a brief break from the basement so I can catch up on some other projects that have been waiting in the queue. Since the game and bar areas of the basement are a side bar from the theater project already, I won't touch the details of the other projects . I have a vacation planned in a few weeks, so I hope to finish the other projects before then and return to the basement when I get back.

It took me a while, but I finally found my thread again. I took some time off from the basement while waiting for the ceiling tiles to be made. I took a vacation, installed a wood floor in my family room and caught up on a long list of items around the house. Now I just need to get my ceiling in and then get back to the theater build.

My ceiling tiles for the bar area arrived last week. They look exactly as expected. I can't wait to get them installed. I also ordered paint from the tile manufacturer so that I could match the grid to the tile color. I put a coat of paint on the grid pieces earlier today. They look good, but I think they are going to need a second coat to make the color consistent. Unfortunately, this means I need to order more paint. I will order it tomorrow. Hopefully it will be here before the weekend. The person helping with the install is going on vacation next week, so I'm not sure when we will finish the job.

I probably will be back in the theater prior to the ceiling being finished. Stay tuned for updates.

The paint I ordered for the copper ceiling hasn't shown up yet. I will call them tomorrow to check on the ETA. In the mean time, I was in the theater today to do some planning. I had stored a bunch of stuff in the theater while I was finishing the rest of the basement so that it wouldn't get coated in drywall dust. I had previously pulled the games out, but still had some other miscelanious things that needed to be put into the storage room. I got a lot of it cleaned out this afternoon. I hope to get into the theater a couple of evenings this week so that I can finish cleaning up and re-organize the tool room (the future bathroom is being used to store tools and supplies).

Sorry, no more speculation on this particular topic

I am finally finishing up the second coat of paint on my drop ceiling grid. I should have the painting completed today. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some time to work in the theater.

I haven't owned a truck for a couple of years and I am getting tired of asking friends to pick up materials for me. I am thinking of picking up a trailer that I can pull behind my Jeep. The only worry I have is finding a place to store it.

I am really getting motivated on the theater again. All day yesterday I kept thinking about going home and working on the theater. I got home late, but decided I would still put some time in on the theater. Well, after going down to the basement I discovered a force that will slow down progress just as fast (if not faster) than hanging the projector - putting up the pinball machines. When I got into the basement I couldn't resist playing at least one game of Family Guy. Unfortunatley, I sucked up a lot more time than expected.

The good news is that the desire to get the theater completed was still strong, so I spent some time doing some more cleaning in the theater. All that remains are some left over HVAC supplies and insulation. Tonight I hope to caulk the base of the walls where the drywall meets the floor. Then I can begin measuing out the stage and riser. I am thinking of renting a trailer this weekend so I can take the leftover rolls of insulation back to Home Depot and pick up some wood for the stage and riser.

I also called my friend who will be helping with the copper ceiling above the bar area to see if he can come by this weekend. He has a car show this weekend, but if it looks like rain he siad he could come by and work on it. Does anyone know how far in advance I need to start my rain dance?

I finally got around to caulking the bottom of the walls where the drywall meets the concrete. Pictures of caulk are pretty boring, so I won't bother posting any. Caulking didn't take a great deal of time so I decided to start designing my stage.

I have been combing through many of the build threads over the years and had a couple of stage designs in mind. I finally decided that I like a two tiered stage with a step across the front. Below are a couple of photos I had saved at some point for reference. If I remember correctly the drawing was posted by BIG and the stage belongs to Damelon.





This room is a little over 4' narrower than mine, so I will need to slightly modify this plan. I have started laying the design out on the floor in pencil just to determine the layout and scale. Once I finalize the design I will take some measurements so that I can mirror the contour on the soffit above the stage.

My house was built 11 years ago, but most (if not all) of the cracks formed in the first year. I filled them as a precautionary measure.

This weekend I finalized my stage design and got the stage, riser and screen mocked up with some tape. I think that it is going to work out well. Sometimes I think it is going to be too cramped with the design I have in mind, but there are other theaters on AVS that are a similar size and things seem to fit fine.

I need to finish up my materials list for the stage and riser and finalize the design for the steps on the riser. As far as materials, how do I calculate how much sand I need to fill the stage. I remember seeing a formula on one of the threads, but now I can't find it.

As I previously mentioned, I no longer have a truck, so I am going to rent a trailer. I can get a 5x9 trailer from Uhaul for $15 a day. I plan to use it to return some extra rolls of insulation, pick up my supplies and then get some gravel for a drainage project I am working on. Hopefully I can get everything figured out so I can do all of that this coming weekend. Once I pick up the supplies, the wheels will be in motion again and hopefully I can begin making progress again.

I have the trailer reserved for Saturday morning. My original plan was to get up early, pick up the trailer with my son and head straight to Home Depot to get the wood for the riser and stage. I may need to shuffle things around. My friend called and asked if we could work on the drop ceiling on Saturday. I certainly didn't want to turn that down.

I think the new plan is going to be to pick up the trailer early, swing by the landscape supply yard to get some gravel for a french drain I am building and then have my son unload the gravel while we work on the ceiling (having kids is great!). Once the ceiling is done, we can run down and pick up the wood.

I plan to build the riser without the top for now so I can run wiring before sealing it up. Is there any wire I would need in the stage? I am not planning for any outlets or other connectors in front of the screen. I have everything planned for the wall behind the screen. Am I missing anything?