The .406 Club

We purchased a new home last Spring. It was a new construction though not a home that we had built for us. We were looking for a home with a large unfinished basement and this house was more than we could have hoped for. Originally I wanted to finish the basement as a game room and place to hang out and watch games with friends. Then I found this forum and all my plans changed. Over the past several months I have planned out the basement and completed the bar. I am now ready to move onto the rest of the projects and need advice and help.

I am a high school teacher and basketball coach so the winter is a very busy time, but as the season winds down I will be working a lot more on the basement. I am working on a budget, using only money I earn from working camps or other "extra" money opportunities, so as I get more money I do the next project- that is why I completed the bar first. With it finished I can hang out there and enjoy with friends until I get more cash flow. I am building the home theatre part on a budget and want to get good quality at a reasonable price.

We love to watch movies and sports and I hope that it is an area where my daughter and her friends can hang out as she gets older. We have a bar even though neither my wife or I drink, just a great place to hang out.

Equipment I plan on purchasing
Projector- Epson 8350- interested in the Visual Apex package with the VAPEXZ screen (any opinions on this are welcome)
Reciever- Onkyo TX 608
Blue Ray- will purchase new with wifi
Center Speaker- already own a DCM
Front speakers- looking for advice
Rear speakers and bar area speakers- have 2 sets of Monoprice in ceiling speakers

I have some pictures of the space and the part that is finished. I will post them as soon as I figure out exactly how to do that. I still need to finish soffiting and building the rear walls that will seperate a storage room and the workshop from the theatre and bar areas.

I have learned a lot from this forum and look forward to your advice and opinions on what I am trying to do. I am doing all the work myself so most of the progress will not happen until summer when I have more time.

The underground basketball court would be a great idea, but probably a little to expensive for my budget. I was a manager for Coach Smith at North Carolina and was torn about which way to go with the theme for the room. I had thought about using a Carolina theme and painting the Smith center court on the floor, but think that would probably would hurt if we ever have to sell. That and my office upstairs and most of our house contains my Carolina memorbelia.

The .406 is indeed a reference to Ted Williams. I grew in New England and am I huge Sox fan. Get the MLB Season Ticket every year and only miss about 5 games per season- a bit of an addict I will admit. I considered several Sox related ideas and this one seems to stick at least at this point. Who knows could change again, but is a bit of a subtle sox name as opposed to something outlandish.

With the additions of Gonzalez and Crawford and good health for Youk and Pedroia it should be a fun year. Pitchers and catchers report today so that already makes today a good day. I miss Fenway. I try to take my family there every couple of years for a game. No better place to experience a baseball game. I was at Carolina from 1990-'94. It was a great experience we made 2 Final Four's and won the title in '93. A great group of guys and no better person in the world than Coach Smith. I am very blessed to have the experience and be part of the Carolina family. Looks like Coach Williams is getting things going again, they are young but really getting better. I think they have a chance to make a late season run.

Now if I can just figure out how to post pictures here. I saw somewhere how to do it, but for some reason can not find it now. Anyone have help I can use some.

Here is my attempt to post some photos of my recently completed bar area.
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What will be the screen area.
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And the seating area.
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To be honest those are many of the questions that I look forward to getting people's input on. As far as my plan is concerned for right now- I want to have 2 rows of seating, with the second row raised. Will be some combination of theatre seats and a couch for now to try to save a little money now. At the back of the second row I am going to build a bar area to sit at. Behind that there will be a gaming area of some sort. It is much deeper behind the couch than it looks like. I will get some measurements and post them to help a bit more.

The screen area is one place that I really am not sure what to do. I plan on a 16:9 screen probably around 120 inches. I have thought about a DIY screen just not sure if I can build one that I will be pleased with or know how much money it will save me to do that. As far as setup for the area I am still working on a concept. I will have to build a soffit at the top and plan on it housing my center speaker, but not sure what to do with the other front speakers.

Currently I am working on soffiting and then building the back walls. I am hoping that will give me enough time to figure out what to do with the next steps. I have very little time to work, so that should buy me a month or so.

Sorry I did not include a location. I am in central North Carolina, a transplanted New Englander originally from Vermont. Being in the South some of the insulating will be different from a lot of you in the North of Midwest- It is a walkout basement.

I will work on getting some measurements to share- I have tentative plans drawn out on graph paper but it is 4 sheets taped together so it is too large to scan. There are some pipes that hang down at the back of what will be the seating area, I plan on putting a bar height counter there, with some space behind for a poker table or a gaming table. I hope to finish up the framing in the next month or so and be finished with electrical and drywall by the summer. That gives me time to plan out equipment and other things that I may need. THanks for opinions and advice so far I look forward to more to come.

Here is a quick drawing of the space- I took it from a larger version and will work on something better for you when I get some more time.
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Some of this is flexible, I can move the bar seating area around in the back of the theatre to create the best viewing distances. Can I comfortably get 2 rows of seating in the 20 feet that I have? I want the back row on a riser, the front row will be theatre seats, the back row will be a couch for now, hopefully theater seats later. I want to get the largest screen size possible and was thinking of 120".

The media cabinet is located between the bar and the seating area. I am building a closet around it in the workshop area. The pipes that I have to deal with are all around the perimeter except for some that run right over where the bar seating area is in the theater. I know that this could impact location of rear speakers, thought about putting them in the soffit.

Well I spent part of my day Saturday working on soffitting, that was between basketball practice and watching the Carolina game. The more we talk about baseball makes me realize that I need to get to work before baseball season gets here and all I want to do is watch the Sox. I am ready to start listening to Remy and Orsillo. I figure I have one more weekend of soffitting before I will frame out the back walls. I am waiting on that until I can figure out location and exactly what size doors I want to put in going to the workshop and to the storage room.

As far as projector and screen are concerned. I was planning on buying a package to try to save money, but now I am concerned about getting the right sized screen to fit my room, maximizing size but making sure it is comfortable for those watching. Any thoughts?

The bar dimensions are based on the wall that the top sits on. I built it to be 8'x4'x4'- made the construction of the facing easy but it made the top and the cabinets behind to be a bit more challenging. Bought some unfinished oak cabinets for the back but had to build 4 shelving units to fill in the spaces. I am happy with how they came out, fit together and match nicely. The top was another challenge. Being in the south we have a great deal of humidity in the summer. I originally wanted to go with hardwood flooring for the top, but was concerned that the changes in humidity could cause some problems, so instead went with oak plywood for the top. That would be easy if not for the fact that the 45 degree angles meant that each run was longer than 8'. To overcome that I used some solid oak pieces to help the dimensions work. Took some time and thought but I am pleased with how it turned out. I chose not to do the bar rail for now, though I made it so that I can put it on later. The main reason was money, I needed a 10' run and locally it would have cost me $400 just for the bar rail. Decided that I could make better use of that money in other places for now. I used some 1x2 oak trim for the edge and think that it came out better than I expected.

Took advantage of a nice sale at HH Gregg and bought an Epson projector and the Onkyo TX-SR608. Tested them out for this weekends ACC Tournament and I am very excited. They really brought the feel that I was hoping for. Still have a lot of work to do, so will be boxing them up soon as I am getting close to drywall. Still have a little soffitting to finish and to finish up electrical and wiring. I know for most people things come to a stall when they get the projector out, but for me I think it added motivation to get things done so I can enjoy the space. Will post some pictures when I get the soffitting finished.

I enjoyed 2 days at the ACC Tournament this past weekend- was not able to go to the finals and probably glad based on the result. It was great to be able to be there while they honored Coach Guthridge. He is sometimes a forgotten man in the success of Carolina. He was such an important part of the program when he served as Coach Smith's assistant and then the 3 years as head coach. I do visit insidecarolina and have the same user name there, though I do not ever post. My user name comes from the '93 National Championship game- the final score was 77-71, was my junior year and a great memory with a great group of guys committed to win one for Coach Smith.

I agree that baseball is a mess and that a salary cap would help- I am saying that as a Sox fan, knowing how much the Sox spend. I am a lifelong Sox fan and lived through the tough years when the Sox struggled.

Placed an order at Monoprice for in wall speaker wire, a mount for my new projector, and a HDMI cable. They are supposed to arrive on Thursday. Just in time for me to hook some stuff up for the Tar Heel game on Friday. Hope to get somemore soffitting done this weekend and finish insulating and framing the back wall. Will post some pictures this weekend if not sooner.

Well it has been a while since I have updated, and I know that I need to add some pictures. I have framed the bar top for behind the seating area and the wall that seperate the storage area and the workshop. Just have rear wall to frame and should do that this weekend. Put drywall up on the screen wall- waiting for electrical inspection before more drywall goes up. Also installed the rear speakers into soffit over the bar top. Things are about to really take shape as just about ready to put drywall everywhere. At that point it will really make a difference.

Have used the projector quite a bit for movies and some games. Really love it- what a difference it makes to watch things at 130". Will try to update with some pictures this weekend.

Finally some pictures to add. I have finished the wiring in the main theater area, except for a couple of pot lights and a SVGA cable from the seating bar to the projector. Finished the drywall in the theater area except for behind the bar and the ceiling (have done everything below the soffits). Here is a look:

This is from the screen wall looking back- you will notice that the built in bookshelves have been moved from the side wall to the back wall. Thought this would create more usable seating space.


This is from the back wall looking forward- including the seating bar area


This is from the finished bar area looking acrossed to the seating bar area


Have been cutting all the drywall outside and then bringing it in. Will be finishing the wiring this week and hope to do some mudding and taping. Need to put everything away for a while.