Making the "Bacon Race" Theater - Page 56

Thank you! Still loving it!

For the stairs, I believe BIG's initial drawing was what we used in our final build. I hope that gives you what you were asking about. The steps are just the right size (In my opinion) but they need better lighting. I would use LED strips if I did it again.



Side Note: We had another couple over the other night that hadn't been in our home before, and we went to go watch a movie and as soon as the lights came on and he saw the theater he just shook his head and started laughing and said "What? You have got to be shitting me!"

Step Lights - Doubtful. The plate itself limits the light that can come through. It really is a few small slits. I might look at just a flat plate of some kind with a whole translucent panel to let more light through. Fortunately it is still installed inside of a normal gang-box so I could replace it with pretty much anything that fits that way. That at least is a small and simple change.

Thank you for the compliments. Make sure you don't focus only on one build. Look through many. I was totally in love with Sandman's build when I did this, and still am. However I've seen a lot of things, especially in the last year, which I like a lot. People have done some excellent work with trim, soffits, and lighting, which I really like. I'd probably do it a little differently if I did it again. Usually though, most things as far as the style, don't matter so much once the lights go out, which is the vast majority of the time. But the look is the first impression and gets people excited when they see it. Dim lighting like step lights, or even other theme lighting is important if you want to be able to not trip going down steps or see things like food/remotes. It has to be really dim though. The smallest amounts of light tends to wash out the screen. It is amazing how much the picture changes with the soffit lights on the edges on the lowest levels. So it needs to be dim enough to not alter the picture but bright enough to be able to actually see it. This is something used all of the time, so to me is a lot more important.

I'm excited about the landscaping/pool work too. The cost is just well beyond my capacity for budgeting. Buying a house is easy, even when it is super expensive, because it is financed by rolling up into a single mortgage, which is backed by the house itself. A Car works the same way. Things like this get tricky. Because if a project costs $200k total, you can't just write a check for that. (Well some people can I suppose). And because the chunks of the project are dependent on other parts, you can't just say i'll do $20k here and there. The pool needs to be done and paid for in a single bunch of financing. The pool itself requires minimum concrete decking and a fence. But the grading for the area will all need to be done in advance, which means a dug up yard. We are probably going to do a small section first, which will begin with the area under and around our deck. So we will have things like our grill, and a hot tub pad area ready. That's about 1/3 of the concrete work. From there we can wait another year probably to look at the next steps and see where we are financially.

Not even once. haha. Considering the need for heavy construction equipment and the concrete pouring rigs I've seen... well let's just say I haven't and have no plans to look into that. hehe.

Remember, the majority of the cost for me personally is due to the design/layout we have requested. A lot of that stonework and concrete for the patio is completely unnecessary in relation to the pool.

Exactly. I had no plans to attempt this. I'm pretty comfortable with general construction, but this was way outside of my comfort zone. Plus I want it to look perfect.

No problem. Think you missed the first time the pic was posted (Page 3) vs the small one on the wall on page 4.

I believe though we did make the curve itself shorter so it didn't stick out so much. I dont know that we did a final measurement on it. we just did a visual inspection and said good when it came to the curve.

When my patio is done, I would like to have 2 speakers set up at the edge of the covered deck, facing outward, as well as 2 speakers next to the covered pavilion. I would like them all to play the same music. I would like to be able to control it all from some location outdoors, either by remote, or by a control panel at the grill location under the deck. Ideally, I'd like it to have the capability to pay from an ipod and xm radio. How would you set this up ideally outdoors?

I have a Russound whole house audio system as well, but it is the older AH4D, which has all 4 ports used. The expander is discontinued, but due to how they wired it I would have no source control outside. So unless I replaced the system (Or parts of it) I couldn't use it really to accomplish what I want.

I also have 5 acres, but I am not worried about neighbors in this case. There are none behind me.

I saw a product called "Decktunes" at outdooraudio.com, but it is $1300. That is nearing sonos prices there.

Made the down payment for the first stage of the patio yesterday! I went through the yard and put little flags to see where the outline of everything would be. It totally puts the space into perspective! This first part isn't very exiting of course, but it IS a start.

Yes... yes it does!

I will document the progress of course, but it will take a couple of years I think for us to complete it. (The patio/pool, not the stars.. that takes a LOT longer)

By the way I think I figured out what I am going to do about Audio. I will probably grab something like the Pioneer VSX-60 (~$450 online) and use A/B speakers outside for it. Not only can it do all of the network streaming, internet radio, etc, but I can control it over WIFI with my IPad/Iphone etc. This will allow me to not need any additional equipment outdoors than my phone, which I would have out there anyway. I'll just need to run speaker wire outside which is easy enough. I'll have to probably throw out an access point anyway for WIFI access on the patio area. It's cheaper than the other options I've seen at least, and accomplishes my goals. Plus, if I had to, I could use it to put a TV outside eventually if I ever wanted to.

I think I'll try switching to the ones big listed. They will put out more light for sure. The current ones were meant to be dim, they are just too dim. I'll post the results

Update : ORDERED!
Edited by damelon - 2/28/13 at 9:32am

Breaking ground on Patio - Phase 1 tomorrow! This will be mostly the excavation, drain pipes, electrical conduit prep. We may or may not get snow this week which might delay my concrete work, but all of the parts for my outdoor kitchen should arrive I'm guessing Wed. This is just a small portion of the whole project, but hopefully we'll be able to finish most of the things (outside of landscaping) by the end of 2014. We'll see how it goes.