The Austin Home Theater - Page 7

Yeah I definitely wouldn't want it located inside the soundproofed shell. Any reason you can't do the fan in the HVAC room and make the other dead vent passive to draw air in?

Good point.

You might also consider doing only one dead vent and letting your existing supply lines draw air in from the rest of the house. It might open up some more options for you.

Well this post got me motivated to work on installing the puck lights during some of my free time today.

Thanks GWCR!

I could only get half of them in since I ran out of wire nuts. Yet another thing to add to my Home Depot list.



I am very happy with how they turned out. As someone who designs lighting for musicals, I'm into this sort of thing. I love the wall wash effect.

To answer your question GWCR, I ran Romex into a junction box at each light location while I was building the soffits.



Then I cut a hole in the drywall of the second layer so that all of the connections are in the box and the light covers the hole.

I cut the plugs off of the lights and hardwired them in even though I don't think you're necessarily supposed to do that because the lights aren't "designed" to be installed that way.

All of the connections are tight and they are working fine for me though. Plus since they'd be getting the same 120 volts if they were plugged in anyways I don't see it being a problem.

Since they were metal junction boxes I grounded to those. I believe that all metal boxes should be grounded for safety.

Another busy weekend here at the Austin household, though admittedly about half of it was devoted to set building so there wasn't a ton of theater progress.

Here is what i did accomplish though....

I started by installing the rest of the puck lights in the soffits. As I said before I love how they turned out and I think that the wall wash look is a very nice design element. With all the pucks on the overhead lights are not even necessary. They will most likely end up being used only for cleaning or other work that needs to get done (getting the remote lost in the chairs comes to mind ).



I also got the screen wash lights in the front of the room installed. They should provide a nice compliment to the screen once it's installed.



Then I moved onto the jamb extensions for the door. Since my wall is a 2x6 staggered stud and I have two layers of drywall on the theater side I had to extend the jamb by 5/8". I ripped down some 3/4" pine then glued and brad nailed it to the existing jamb. It was nice to put the table saw to work since I don't get a chance to use it very often. I've still got some work to do with the wood filler to make everything look nice and smooth.



Then it was on to beefing up the door. I decided to add a layer of 1/2" MDF with Green Glue to my door to make it heavier and provide some dampening to improve sound isolation. I contemplated going with 3/4" MDF but decided that I didn't want to risk overloading the hinges and because the 1/2" would make my final door width 1 7/8" which means that I can use the doorknob that I already planned on that fits doors up to 2" thick.

I set up my workshop in the drveway.



Then I used the last of my Green Glue to cover the door. I savored the moment as it was the last time I'll get to apply the Green Glue (well at least until I get my own house that is and do theater 2.0 ).



Covered in MDF.



Then I filled in all of the screw holes with wood filler and sanded it smooth.



After that I primed it with two coats of KILZ Original oil-based primer to seal the MDF.

Note to self: be careful with oil-based paints and primers!!!

In my stupidity I managed to kick the quart over and send it all spilling onto the driveway. And having never dealt with oil based paints before I completely forgot to pick up some paint thinner to clean it up. So in my panicked state I pulled out the hose thinking that the water pressure might "push" it off. Well stupid head maybe you should close up the paint that you managed to save before spraying the hose so you don't ruin all of that too! So in the end I had to go back to the store to get more primer (and paint thinner). There's still a white blob on the driveway but I'm hoping that when we get it sealed soon it will cover it up.

DIY lesson of the week:

Close your paint can when your done pouring it out so that you don't kick it over and spill it everywhere and always have something on hand to clean up oil based paint.

I also picked up all of my door casing, baseboards, chair rail, and crown molding for the theater. I managed to get all of the casing and baseboards cut so I'm making good progress there.

The next step is to finish cutting the molding then pull out the sprayer to paint it. I'll be going with a gray about two shades lighter then what is on the bottom of the walls and the soffits for the molding. I threw the black idea out because I thought that it would look a little strange to have black crown molding hanging on the bottom of the soffit. I like the lighter gray much better.

I also have to paint the door with the same red as the top portion of the walls then hang it and get the weather stripping installed.

I'm trying to decide what to do for a door threshold. Originally I was going to just run the carpet through the doorway to meet up with the laminate in the hallway but now I'm realizing that that isn't the best option in terms of soundproofing. Now I'm thinking that I'll do some kind of wood or maybe even marble threshold. Does anyone have any advice on what type of wood to use? Also if you've used marble where did you get it from?

I'd also like people's opinions on when to install the baseboards. I've heard put them in before carpet raised 3/8" off of the floor but then I'm worried that they'll get all scuffed up.

I'm also trying to find some nice gray dimmers, outlets and wall plates to install in the room. The choices at Lowes and Home Depot are pretty poor. Has anyone seen an online store that is competitively priced with a good selection?

As always thank you everyone for following along and for your invaluable advice!

Thanks spaceman. I've got to look around and see what I can find.

Killer;
Thanks for your experience with the baseboards. I guess that's what I'm going to do and hope that they don't get too damaged.

Hey I'm a dreamer!

Don't worry I'm still intently focused on this room and extremely happy with how it's coming together, but I've also got quite a few cool ideas once I can get my hands on a bigger space.

Thanks azula! It certainly is coming along nicely.

Yeah the car is one of my proudest achievements right up there with the theater. I think your Z would beat me in a race though! But I get MUCH better gas mileage!

I don't really know where the MJ poster is going yet. Not in the theater though. Haha. It will probably end up in the hallway that the bedroom and bathroom are off of.

Thanks for checking in!

Thanks RT!

I'll have to try and find a countertop place around here. That would be AWESOME if I could get one of their scraps. I'd have to figure out some way to transition from the granite or marble down to the laminate floor in the hallway though. On the theater side I don't think it will be a problem since the carpet and pad will likely be close to the same height as the stone, but in the hallway you'd probably stub your toe. I'm thinking that the ideal thing would be to get a bevel cut on that side of the treshold, but I don't have the tools for that and I don't know how much that would end up costing.

Any other ideas? I'd think that a metal floor transition piece wouldn't look that great.

That's an interesting idea Pete.

I don't have an angle grinder or belt sander, but we have both at my school and I consider that workshop an extension of my own if I need it.

I'd have to be careful to get a nice smooth bevel but I'll keep that idea in mind when the time comes.

Thanks designcouch! I appreciate the compliment.

Somehow throughout this hectic weekend I managed to get most of the trim work complete.

I started by making all of the cuts (I didn't screw up a single miter! ) and then laid everything out in the yard to be painted.



Nothing gets a nosy neighbor going like setting up a spray booth in your front yard.

Once everything was painted I began with the door casing.



I had to rip about 1/2" off of the top piece since the top of the door is so close to the soffit.

Then I moved on to the chair rail and baseboards.





I'm very happy with how they turned out. I think that the lighter gray is perfect for splitting up the two colors of the wall.

Then came the first piece of crown.





I don't like it........

It just seems to be too overpowering in the small room. It makes the soffit look like it is painted two different colors. So my thinking now is that I will paint the crown the same dark gray as the soffit to make it blend in more. After all, its main purpose is to hold the rope lighting.

Any other thoughts/opinions?

Speaking of rope light, I'd like some opinions on what color I should order. Maybe a clear white or amber?

As always, thanks for following along!

Thanks RT.

I guess I just thought that it stuck out TOO much. Good idea with the sample. I'll try that. Also since they are already painted the lighter gray color I think that I'll hang the last two pieces as is and then assess the situation from there. Then if I decide to repaint them I will paint them hung.

Thanks for your input on the rope light. I'm still torn on whether the white or amber would be better. Anyone else have an opinion?

I've got to do some more research on the LED but will look into that too.

Well I've been looking at the color changing LED light kits and I'm really liking that option.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A325274ZEF9XYZ

The ability to change the color would be really cool.

I've got a dilemma though. Since I originally planned to have incandescent rope lights controlled by a standard dimmer switch I installed a four gang electrical box to accommodate the dimmer and had plans for a switched outlet up in the soffit to plug it in. With the LEDs I wouldn't need a switch as it is all controlled by the remote and the transformer also needs to be hidden somewhere. If I had known this before I would have put the transformer in the equipment room and ran some low voltage wiring to the soffit. Live and learn I guess.

I think there is enough room in the crown molding to hide the transformer up there, but there is still the issue of the four gang box. Since I wouldn't need the dimmer switch I'd have an open slot. I suppose I could take the box out and replace it with a three gang, but that means filling in the excess hole in the drywall......oh joy.....

Any other ideas?

Thanks for the ebay tip Steve. I've got to look around some more to find the best deal.

I guess the wall plate with a covered slot would work, but honestly I don't see myself using that extra slot if I go with the LEDs and I think it would be somewhat of an eyesore. After thinking about replacing the box a little more I think that that is what I will do. I used one of the screw on old work boxes since it has to go into the backer box so it will be pretty easy to remove the four gang and replace it with a three gang. I took some measurements and a three gang is about two inches shorter than the four gang. So if I center it in the hole then I'll have to fill in a one inch gap on each side with drywall mud. Considering the fact that some of it will be covered by the switchplate when all is said and done, I think that that is workable.

One more hurdle to get over with this plan; the transformer is too big to hide behind the crown. I stuck one from a laptop that is a similar size up there and it just won't fit. So I've got to find a way to house the transformer away from the soffit. Here's what I'm thinking:

There is a piece of romex that runs from the current four gang switch box to a box behind the crown. I think I will remove this piece from the switch box and take it out of the wall. I can get to it if I take a piece of drywall off of the backside of the staggered stud wall (not a big deal since that drywall is unfinished). This piece of romex will be long enough to reach into the hallway that the equipment closet is off of. I will house the transformer in the equipment closet and run a wire up above the drop ceiling to meet up with this piece of romex. Now here is where I need some help. I'll have to cut the end off of the transformer and splice in a longer piece which will then be spliced again to the romex in the hallway. Then I'll have to splice the end back onto the romex behind the crown on the soffit so that it can plug into the controller. I think the wire coming out of the transformer is coaxial cable? To splice this would I just strip a few inches off and bunch the outer conductor up to form one lead and then the center conductor would be the other lead? Then I could crimp the connections together?

I'd appreciate any advice on if this plan is even feasible.

Thank you!