Nick's Homebrew Bar and Entertainment Area - Page 18

Thanks for the replies. The room will really begin to transform with the addition of the riser and stage. I can't wait to compete them.

So a few things happened today. First, my son and I got up early to go get the trailer. On the way home we stopped to pick up rock for the french drain I am building in my yard. It worked out well - my two sons unloaded the rock from the trailer while we began work on the drop ceiling in the bar area of my basement. It took about 4 hours start to finish to install. I am really happy with the end result. I am happy with my color selection and I am really happy that I chose to go with a stamped metal ceiling instead of the standard white drop ceiling.

Now that the ceiling is installed, I can begin designing and installing the lighting in this area. I am going to try to find more of a "bar" type fixture instead of more of a standard lighting fixture. I also need to install some plastic clips on top of the tiles that will hold them tight against the rails. I didn't install them yet since I knew I would be removing the tiles to work on the lighting.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ceiling. The color of the metal rails is a much better match to the tiles than they appear in the pictures. The painted rails turned out quite nice. Also keep in mind that the tiles aren't sitting flat yet which will help their appearance. I will take a few more pictures once the lighting and clips are installed.

Bottom of the stairs:



Bar area:



After the ceiling was completed, I headed to Home Depot with my shopping list to get the materials for the stage and riser. As we started to pick out the materials, I began to realize that it may take me a couple of trips to get all of the materials home. Once I was done picking out the materials, I knew that it was going to take much more than a couple of trips . I should have taken a picture of the carts filled with wood. That didn't even include the 5,000 pounds of sand! It didn't take much time for the HD employee who helped me pull everything to convince me to just get it delivered. My son was certainly on his side. The thought of loading everything in the trailer, unloading it in the garage and then hauling it to the basement just wasn't that appealing any longer. I broke down and scheduled everything for a Monday delivery.

Of course this means I won't get any work done in the theater tomorrow, but that's ok. I may work on some of my lighting in the storage area.

Now that I am fully back into theater mode, I have also been combing through some of the other AVS sub forums. I have been fairly certain for some time that I am going to order 8 Fusion chairs from Roman. I am wondering if it is still too early to order them. It would be nice to have them on hand when working on the curve of the riser. On the other hand, they take up lots of space and could get damaged while sitting around. Yet another decision.

I had another nugget of brilliance today. My neighbor has been talking about their son starting college in a few weeks and how he has been working two jobs to make money for school. One of his jobs is moving furniture at a warehouse for a local furniture store, but they only pay minimum wage. He is trying to figure out how he can make some extra money before school starts. I told his mom tonight that if he and his brother want to make some extra money, I would pay them double minimum wage to move my plywood and sand into the basement.

I figure I can't move the plywood by myself and the money would be for a good cause. He has always been a hard worker and I know he is trying to pay for all of his living expenses himself. Hopefully they are up for the challenge.

Thanks MrWicked. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. They not only have drop in tiles, but also nail up tiles and pieces for back splashes.

I called this morning to check what time they were going to deliver my wood. They were just about to call me - the guy who put the order in the system didn't complete the delivery order correctly and it wasn't scheduled. I wasn't real happy since I moved my schedule around so I could be home when they delivered the wood. They rescheduled the delivery for tomorrow morning. Hopefully it shows up and it doesn't rain.

I locked my kids in the basement and had them hand stamp each one. I withheld food when they made mistakes to ensure perfection....

OK, maybe not. I ordered them from American Tin Ceilings

All of the materials for the stage and riser were finally delivered today (even if they were a couple of hours late ). The neighbor boys stopped up to get started on moving materials to the basement. They got all of the dimensional lumber and 1/3 of the plywood moved to the basement in about an hour. The younger one had to be up for football early tomorrow morning, so he stopped after an hour, but his brother stuck around for another 30 minutes and got 27 of the 100 sand bags moved to the basement. All I can say is these two boys worked there rear end off!

When the sand arrived, I realized they delivered the standard paver sand instead of the clean dry play sand. I checked my receipt and realized that the person at HD wrote down the wrong item. It was $1 less per bag, so I will just deal with it. It will mean some extra drying time, but I'm not in a hurry.

The boys said they wanted to work again tomorrow. I'm hoping they get the rest of the plywood down there tomorrow.

I noticed in a few threads that people had bought the regular sand and dried it, so I figured it can be done with a little extra effort. My plan is to line each section with plastic and then pour two bags into each of the 12 bays and spread the sand to allow it to dry. I will run a dehumidifier and a couple of fans in the theater to assist. Hopefully I can add a couple more bags every few days and have it all installed and dried within a week or two while I am working on the riser. Most of the sand they brought was on a unopened, sealed pallet that they said had been stored inside. There were a few bags that they threw on a second pallet, but they were stored inside as well. They gave me an extra bag because one had a hole in it. The sand that was coming out of that bag seemed pretty dry, so I am crossing my fingers.

Geordon, with regards to the chairs, I'm sure I can find somewhere to store them. My goal throughout this build has been to not buy anything until I was actually ready to use it. I figure why tie up the money I could use for other things. Plus I have read so many stories about people buying projectors, etc. only to finish the theater a couple of years later and the projector was outdated before they even opened it. Suddenly that great deal wasn't so great. With that said, chairs don't change much. Plus the price isn't likely to go down. It would also be nice to have them on hand to ensure the curve in my riser is correct.

I was doing the math - 8 chairs (2 rows of 4) in a curved formation will probably be one of the largest investments in my theater . The projector will be more if you include the CIH lens, but most other single pieces won't cost as much as 8 chairs. I guess that just means that the spending will just get easier from here .

Here is what 100 bags of sand looks like stacked in the basement



I also began work on the stage. I got the roofing felt down and cut. I also got the main pieces for the left side of the stage cut. Hopefully this weekend I can make some progress. Sorry for the bad pics. The room was really dusty from cutting wood.

I just sent a note to Roman. It's time to get this ball rolling. I plan to order two curved rows of 4. More info to come once everything is confirmed.

Now it is time to get back to the basement. I'm working the stage today.

I made some good progress this weekend. I don't have time to post all of the details right now, but I will follow up with photos and more info in the next couple of days.

I built the main portion of the stage. I still need to do the curves and steps, but the main portion is complete. I also purchased some 6 mil plastic today to line the cavities of the stage before putting in the sand. Before I can complete the curves, I need the thinner plywood I purchased. Unfortunately, it is under the stack of OSB that still needs to be moved to the basement. The neighbor boys didn't have time to come up this weekend, but they said they could finish moving the plywood on Tuesday.

I also got all of the pieces cut for the main portion of my riser. I got the first half built and pushed into place. I need to assemble the other half. Hopefully I will have time to work on it tomorrow evening. Once that is complete, I will need to build out the curve and the steps.

Roman sent me some leather samples for the Fusion chairs. I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on a set. I am ordering two rows of 4 Fusion Escape chairs in a curved configuration. It was a bit pricey buying 8 chairs, but I feel that they are the best value on the market and Roman's service is outstanding. I am really excited. I am hoping to get a little more work done on the theater before the chairs arrive, so I asked Roman to wait until the next batch of chairs arrives before shipping them to me. This will give me some time to make some more progress. Here is the configuration that I ordered:



I think that once the stage and riser are complete, it will start to feel much more like a theater. I can't wait.

As previously note, this will probably be the largest single purchase for the theater (unless I count the projector and CIH lens as one item). That is another reason I wanted to get it out of the way now, so my wife doesn't see one large bill for everything at the same time .

The chairs come with the tray tables standard. It is a nice to have for me, but not a necessity.

I wanted to post some additional details about this weekend's progress. As I mentioned in my previous post, I built the main portion of the stage as well as half of the riser.

I started with the stage. I laid out some roofing paper as an underlayment for the stage. I then built the main portion of the stage in two sections with the cross members spaced 16" on center. While building the stage in two halves and then pushing them in place made it much easier, I had one lesson learned from this portion of the build. I made each half of the stage exactly half the width of the room. The issue with this was that I ended up having one crossmember at the end of this section that was just beyond 16" on center. This caused me to have to use an extra piece to have the proper supports for the plywood. When I made the riser sections, I made one side slightly shorter so that it would end with a board at exactly 16" on center. Then the second half just continued from there. Not a big deal, but would have made things slightly easier/cleaner.

First half in place:



Second half before pushing into place:



Both halves in place (with some extra lumber stacked up):




I used foam gasket material on any piece that was against the wall. I also left a 1/4" gap along the wall on all sides to avoid any coupling issues.



One issue I ran into was these strange reflective circles that were stapled all over my lumber. I know they weren't originally there because I picked the lumber myself. The only thing I can figure out was that they were used as a "warning" for the forklift driver. The staples that held them in place were heavy gauge and 1" long. They were really nasty to get out. Some of the pieces of wood had as many as four of these stapled to it. I wanted to get all of them out of the lumber to ensure I didn't damage the saw blade and so that the pieces would sit flat. It took a while to get them all out. There were over thirty of these in my entire load.



Now I just need to work on the curved front and step of the stage. Hopefully it turns out well.

The riser was very similar, but much larger. I am making the main portion of my riser 8' deep. I will have a curve on the front of the riser to match the curve of the chairs. I cut all of the pieces at once and got the first half built and pushed into place.



The riser was much heavier than I thought. It would have been easier to move into place with someone to help, but I got it done. Hopefully I can get the other half assembled during the week. Up next I need to work on the curve and the steps. I am still finalizing the design for the steps.
Edited by NGiovas - 9/1/12 at 12:01pm

That's hillarious that you noticed it. I had put it in the theater since I hadn't been working in there and left it in the picture intending to comment that it was the homebrew part of the build. I totally forgot to say something when I wrote it up. It is actually a 90 minute IPA. Octoberfest is already bottled and will be ready just in time.

It is a Dogfish clone. I love their beer. It was a bit of work - I brew about half of my beers from fresh grains (including this one) all the way through to the final beer. The other half I cheat and use a kit .

I finished the other half of the base for the riser tonight and pushed it into place. Now it is time to start thinking about steps and curves.

The riser doesn't look very wide in this picture, but this section is 8' x 20'.

Hi Mike. You are right - the past couple of years have flown by. I finally feel like I am making some progress, and with summer winding down, hopefully I will have even more time to work on the theater.

I went ahead and updated the first post with links to the key events. I will go back later and organize it a bit more. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm not sure about the 30th, but the 1st may be tempting. I will let you know in the next 24-48 hours, but if I do come I will make sure to have some homebrew with me. It has been way too long since we have gotten together. I wonder if we can convince someone to have a HEMI meet! If we can squeeze one more in, I may be close enough with my build to have the next one after that.

I was busy around the house and with work this weekend, but I did find some time to work on the stage. I mocked up both the left and right corners of the stage. I like how they turned out, so now I just need to attach them.



I also took some measurements to begin the steps for the riser. I can't really do much there until I finalize the curve. While my plan to have the neighbor boys move the materials for the stage and riser was working well, it stalled. I still have some sheets of plywood that need to be brought down (including the plywood for the curves). Each of the boys has had some time to help, but not both at the same time. They texted my wife Friday morning saying they would like to finish, but neither of us was home and I wasn't comfortable having them carry heavy stuff into the basement without anyone around. I think I may just tell them that if one of them is available, I will carry the wood with them.

I was hoping to take next Friday off so I can have a 4 day weekend. This would allow me time to finish up the curve on the stage and start putting in sand. I could also finish the curve on the riser and get the steps done.

I probably could start putting sand in the stage, but I really didn't want to until the curves were done just to be sure everything is correct before starting.