"The Grove" Entertainment Complex - from start to finish - Page 2

I like this general layout. Bar with bar stools, 8 foot pool table, small round table with two chairs, arcade game top right, cue rack next to it, electronic dartboard bottom right. That`s probably about as much as I can put in there without it feeling too crowded. Would like to make the most of the behind the bar space, but it`s a bit limited due to the adjacent staircase.

I like the way the two rooms go together. Lots of more decisions to make and lots of potential refinements. Going to post this up, let it percolate, and open to comments and suggestions to make it better. Leaving Thursday on vacation for a week with my wife (Paris, woohoo!) and will start to discuss with our builder when we`re back.

All stuff I`ve thought about at some point as well. Need to review ideas with our builder to see what would work, what won`t, etc... Need to talk to cabinet people about bar design - never had one before so need to find out lots more about how to make the most of the space I have alotted.

I should note that there will likely be a big double window along the upper wall of the games room as well overlooking the pool area slightly to the left and woods in behind.

Greg

OK, along the theme of "prove you're making progress" we now have a foundation for the addition. This shows the house from the side, with addition for the garage/entertainment complex/playroom three level structure in the foreground.

Hahahaha. You're right. A la Looney Tunes. It's a neat view from out those doors too.

OK, building is well under way. After what seemed like forever excavating and pouring a foundation we have walls galore and I'm starting to get a good feel for how it will all end up.

I measured final wall dimensions subtracting a bit for drywall and have the expected dimensions in the diagram now:



The only thing I'm not happy about is the size of the windows. But I had no choice. From the outside (I'll post a picture when I can get a good one) we needed all these windows at this size to match the rest of the house. Will have heavy blackout blinds and drapes for daytime movie watching. Will be happy to have the ventilation which is sorely lacking in my current basement thetae room.

So the theater will be 24'8"" in length, 15'1" wide, with ceilings 8'4" minus any further floor thickness loss from underlay and carpet. I'm happy with these dimensions. A little over 2 feet more width than I have now, same length approx, and a foot more ceiling height.

Hmmm, right you are. I`m sure we can keep them straight though... I`ll have to check out your build too!

Very hard to get outside pics now due to scaffolding, dumpster and vehicles. I really want to get one to post before long.

Underneath this area is garage. Above is a bonus room that you access from the bedroom level. Will be a kids play/TV/music room. That's my biggest soundproofing issue. Outside is no problem, no house less than 100+ yards in any direction.

Best pic so far of the outside. HT and bar room are over the garage.

Yes. After much discussion with builder, we decided to go with an extra wide double sliding pocket door. Heavy wood and rubberized rollers to eliminate vibration. He says he'll re-do it free of charge if it vibrates. I think I'll prefer the sliding doors to double swinging doors. Realistically, most of the time the thing will be open and just look like an archway. But will be able to close it off without wasting wall space when I want to...

The opening between rooms as it it now includes the tucked in part so the final opening will be half as wide as you see here.

It's remarkable how those windows, that feel so big from inside, look almost small from the outside. Anyhow, the windows are a concession I had to make to get the premium real estate for my space. I could have gone on the third level but would have been a MUCH smaller space and way less convenient for the uses I intend.

Things are moving along at a fairly rapid pace. Here are some photos of the outside taken today from front and back. Eventually all shingles will be painted a medium blue. Roof and outside walls are all done. Inside, electrical and drywall is all done. Next up is paint, floors.

Drywall is done, two layers on ceiling and the walls that are connected to the house.

Front stage is set up, back riser as well. To be filled with insulation and double plywood top.

Back closet is now properly cut out.

And now my one significant problem, the side surrounds. I knew where the window was going to be, but I thought I could easily put the surrounds over top of them. What I hadn't taken into account was the size of the windows per se (they are very large) and I have simultaneously planned for a soffit around the perimiter to house electrical, pots, wiring, conduit to front, and to put indirect lighting in around the inside. Once that goes up, there's nowhere near enough room to mount my Paradigm ADP surrounds up there. They look like this:



I've been thinking this over all week. To be honest, I've never been completely satisfied with the surround effects in my current theater using 4 of these ADP dipole surrounds. I've realized that I prefer direct radiating speakers on the side (not uncommon I've read - Sound and Vision did a great blind test showing that most of their editorial board preferred a surround setup with direct radiators on the sides and one or two dipole surrounds in the rear). I had actually wanted to replace the side surrounds in my current theater, but my columns were not the right size to accommodate them.

So, I'm probably going to get new side surrounds. Problem is, the direct radiators in my main speaker series won't fit either. I would have to get the Studio 20's, great speakers but not small enough to fit by any stretch. There's just no way to find a spot opposite each other on each side wall that I could put them.

Ug

So I have to decide on a compromise. Either two perfectly matched surround speakers in very awkward spots on the side walls, or getting Paradigm speakers from another series that I can put where I want. I think I'm going to do the latter. If I get these Cinema 200 speakers:



they are small enough (4" x 6" x 12") that I could put them horizontally and tilted downward and put them exactly where the side surrounds should be - high up on the side walls, right where I want them compared to the seats, and perfectly across from each other. My only other alternative would be some larger awkward bracket for studio 20's or my ADP's, which would have to hang down in front of the window somewhat.

On the plus side, there's nothing irreversible about this. The speaker wire is where and I want, and if I'm not satisfied with the range/matching I'm getting from the Cinema 200's I'd be more than happy to move them to the bar room to go with my plasma behind the bar.

Still, I'm curious about comments and ideas - anyone done something similar and been happy or unhappy about it? Anyone have a better idea?

Windows will have special Hunter Douglas blackout blinds in a dark color.

Yep door is set and too late to change now. Starting over I might have had it a foot or so towards the front of the room but it bisects it nicely as is.