I would like your advice on the NEW PLACE

Reading through sooo many threads, looking at sooo many great setups, and I'm getting stumped on a few odds and ends for the new place. We get the keys next week to a foreclosure condo/villa and I have a bit of time to tear into it. 1st thing is the kitchen moving to the other end of the unit, to appease my wife. That includes removing the existing kitchen, moving electrical around, capping plumbing, removing ceramic tile, etc. New false columns, shelves, and beams to hide cables, etc. are going in as well as nice carpet will be laid in this area under the south loft. The south loft will be my home office and I will have the media "closet" up there and will drop cables to suit. Looking at the plans and sections you'll see I have included a drop down DIY screen. If I'm lucky floor joists are running east/west, but I think I'll be adding a good sized header and having to build up the joists to carry the floor around the new hole, or flip down, or roll down is the final solution. Projector placement is another problem I foresee. I'll shop for this as I get other things done. Then there's acoustic treatments to the room to keep the neighbors happy, but not too critical as there are poured concrete demising walls to the roof peak.

I would like advice on speaker locations for the 5.1 and possible 7.1 system for the main floor. WAF is important here. She is happy with the 5- DefTech ProCenters we have and hates those "big ugly boxes"... 2- Paridigm Phantom V.1, Pinnacle sub, 2- Blose Interaudio 100, 2- 15" homemade subs, Wharfdale Center, a couple more DefTech ProCinema 800's, and another 8-10 more... So some if these will be in my loft, some in the garage. I'll have a 5.2 up there with the majority being music. You get the picture? It has taken 8 years to convince her those "cubes that you pay 50x more than they're worth and sound like $h1t" are not going in the new place. Amps at the moment are adequate, but will be upgraded in the future.

The ultimate goal is to get this odd shaped space to sound right. I'm thinking of linking the two main systems (LR & office) to work in unison, but the office is a reverse layout to the living room, and 9' higher. Don't really want to be flipping speakers around all the time.

We watch TV 50% & movies 50%... I have tunes on during the day while I'm working, and usually loud.

Critique, Ideas, Feedback, have at it, it'll all be welcome.
TIA

Main Floor Plan


Lofts Plan


View South Section


View West Section


View North Section


"The Before"

Thanks ellmolic, we think this place is it for a while. We started the process March 3 with the first bid, had to up the bid, we were outbid again, but it didn't feel like we lost it. I told the listing agent to keep our name handy and April 14 he said the high bidder backed out, so we put the offer in again and it was accepted the next day. June 14 was supposed to be closing day, but getting banks to loan on condo property down here is like the square peg in the round hole trick. Two months of every piece of information on us with the first bank and they dropped us closing day because they didn't like the association. I found another bank only 2 1/2 weeks ago that had just mortgaged a property in there and today we're going to get to pop the cork on the bottle that's been sitting in the fridge for too long. We've been packed and ready to go for almost a month.
It's 15 years old, freshly painted and carpeted and the only owner upgrades it's seen are a make-shift closet in the master bedroom that needs to be drywalled and painted and here's the best one: they closed off the south loft with OSB sheathing on a not quite right knee wall, and the bank went and painted it all.

That wall comes out tomorrow to make it a proper loft again. Wifey gets to paint the courtyard to get rid of the green bean green.


Back to topic; I'm still not sure of speaker placement with the rear surrounds and possible side surrounds if I go 7.2. The "big ugly" subs I'm thinking of placing right above the couch in the office loft on each side of my desk. They'll be great for 2.2 listening when I'm "at work" with the Paradigms next to them powered by a well seasoned Dyna-Lab Quadraphonic receiver. I intend to acoustic panel up there as they'll be aimed at a demising wall. I have a recent 12" Sony sub that'll be Y'd off of the living room AVR to do local duty and will need to find a WAF location as well as a good sounding. Once again... Suggestions?

and some eye candy:

Demo/Repair/Redo started:

OSB Wall removed and I've put the desk on the short wall for now.


Yes, Vanmeter, ceiling fans were on the list. Had to trim the ceiling escution with a dremel tool to suit the slope.


Tile and thin-set destroyer


Getting there...


Electrician, new kitchen, appliances, carpet, all scheduled for this week.

Some progress...



The 61" Panni looks a bit lost in there, speaker stands and wall mounts are on the agenda for this week. Still haven't found the "right" fan/light fixtures for these areas yet either.

Generalpride, the common walls are not framed deep enough for in-walls, (hard to fish wires through 1" rigid insul too) and I prefer being able to change speakers on a whim

We did a 180 in the original design thinking and this is the result:









Moved the big 'ol Panny into the master bedroom, put the bedroom 50" LG plasma on the Ikea wall for now, and now have a nice tidy cabinet for the AV gear, HTPC, and snacks along the south wall. Liquid refreshments and glasses are in the lower cabinet, and the wife's pretty things have a new place to sit.
I have an order in for more LED lights to install behind the glass, hurry-up-and-wait...

Not in the cabinets, but the Framsta glass panels needed a bit of tweaking to keep them from rattling. They are designed to sit in the aluminum frame without any isolation, and it rattled, so I used a couple of drops of silicone caulk in the bottom track as setting blocks and a couple in the top track to snug it in tight and they don't vibrate. Tip: let the silicone dry before assembly and all it takes are small drops. All the Def Techs sit on felt pads so they are relatively isolated too. The sub is next to the chaise in the corner and acoustic panels and a short trap are in the works, but so far not too boomy.

Thanks for the compliments, the WAF was met, and we spend a lot of time in this room. My dentist just cleaned out the Sharp TV funds and now the new 80" LED is on the want list for future upgrades.

Hi Jas, I had a couple of panels loosen on me and instead of trying to get some caulk in there, I had one of those hmmmm moments and pushed the "snot" that credit cards use to hold them in the letter. AARP is a steady supply and other envelopes and flyers use it too.

Oh yea, pictures or it didn't happen...