The Medley's Neck Theater - Page 3

Good news!!!


I called Lutron tech support. I verified my wiring with them, noting that I hooked the hot feed up to the hot terminal that is engraved on the back plastic case, not the hot terminal next to the neutral terminal.

He said the unit is a dual feed, for situations that aren't allowed to have larger than 15A circuits (New York City). In this case the HOT 1 and HOT 2 terminals on both sides need to be connected to hot feeds (or jumpered to the same feed). I hooked my hot feed up to both hot terminals, and it looks like it works now.

You learn something new every day. Hats off to Lutron tech support coming through, on a Sunday afternoon no less.

Multiple hot terminals:

It's been a few weeks since my last update, so here goes:

One of the weeks was spent visiting Mickey Mouse and my parents in Florida, so no progress there. This past weekend I got some decent time to work on the basement. I spent the better part of one of the days cutting up the cement backer board to use in recessed light backer boxes. I got it all cut and 18 backer boxes assembled:


On the material front, I ordered some additional IB-1 clips and an automatic door bottom from the Soundproofing Company. I bought and installed the Lutron Maestro dimmers that I am using in the general living areas of the basement. I also bought a 32" solid core door. I'm a bit disappointed by the door that I got- it is less dense than I would have hoped for. I may end up adding some MDF/GG to it to beef it up.


I had a buddy help me out one day and was able to knock out some more of the pre-drywall wiring tasks that still remain. The modifications to existing wiring/ducts/plumbing seem like a never ending list of chores. I installed an 8" flex run to the theater for an HVAC return. I've also got about 90% of my clips and channel installed throughout the basement:

Current theater progress- ceiling is 100% insulated, all clips/channel done on the ceiling, and I got a few sheets of OSB up on the ceiling.
Screen wall:


Back wall:


I finished up a bunch of wiring and HVAC tasks throughout the basement. The biggest thing is that I wired and temporarily hooked up recessed lights throughout the basement:



One odd area is the hallway between the theater and the stairs. I was just going to put a few recessed lights down the center of the hall, but there is a joist running smack down the center. My initial thought was to use a few of the gimbaled trim lights installed off center and set to wash one or both of the walls (maybe with photos or movie posters). The wife seems to be against this idea.



Does anyone have any lighting ideas or examples of similar areas from other builds?

Diagram of current lighting layout:

Weekend update:
I hung the first layer of OSB/drywall on the theater ceiling:
Screen wall


Rear wall


I also continued to do more of the seemingly endless list of duct, wire, and pipe modifications in the larger basement area to prepare to start hanging drywall in earnest. (I've only had huge stacks of drywall for 3 months or so now, lol).

I started putting a small dent in my huge stacks of drywall today.

Haven't updated in a while- mostly 'cause my progress is embarrassingly slow:

Some additional drywall and lights installed in the general living area of the basement. I have to take a break from the ceiling work because my drywall piles are in the way.


I moved to the theater room to start making a dent in the drywall piles. One thing I did this weekend was move my door to the theater to the back end of the room. This gets it away from the corridor that heads to the stairs. I also decided to build my own door jambs out of 1x poplar, since I wasn't too happy with the cheesy split jambs that came on the prehung door that I bought. I've got a good portion of the first layer of walls up throughout the theater. I'm doing a mix of OSB and drywall for this layer. I didn't do OSB everywhere because (a) it is more than double the price of drywall, (b) it is a pain to fasten compared to drywall, (c) I don't really plan on needing a surface to attach columns and soffits everywhere.

Screen wall:


Back wall:

I've got the first layer of OSB/Drywall up in the entire theater (except for the bottom face of my beam soffit). I also spent some time today routing spots for hinges in my beefed up door and my DIY jambs. I used 1x8 poplar for the jamb and added a sheet of 3/4 MDF w/ GG to my solid core door. That door is a heavy bitch now. I also put my automatic door bottom on it too. I still need to address stops at some point in the future.

I hope to get some progress made on my second layer of drywall this week.

Door:


Rear wall:


Screen wall:

Commencing 2nd layer of drywall:

I almost made my goal of finishing the second layer in the theater this week. The second layer is up on the ceiling. I have about 3 sheets to hang on the walls, and then need to fill in some skinny strips here and there + close in the bottom of my beam soffit.

Screen wall:


Back wall:


Progress on one of my once 4' tall stacks of drywall:

Somewhat off-topic: I have a dehumidifier that keeps freezing up on me. The fan works well, and I've cleaned the coils and filter out with air (They were very dusty from basement construction).




Does anyone who knows more about refrigeration than me have troubleshooting/repair ideas?

It's probably about 2 yrs old. It is a Frigidaire.

I've found a semi-solution. It has a digital humidistat setting. If I set it at about 50 or higher, it seems to work without freezing- below that, it ices up.

The basic double drywall shell is done in the theater (no soffits yet). The theater will be on hiatus now for a while while I try to finish drywalling the rest of the basement. The biggest milestone is that I got one of my two drywall stacks out of the way.

Remaining drywall:


Rest of basement: