Construction Begins - November Sky Theater

Finally, finally..... work has begun on my dedicated home theater.

My wife thought of the name, and it has some meaning.... I met my wife on an airplane, in the month of November. I proposed to her, on an airplane, in the month of November. Our daughter we were told we couldn't have, was conceived in November.... so it's a special month. Plus my birthday is in November so that's cool too.

I'm still tweaking the design (thanks to BigmouthinDC for the help). Here's the plan...



I'm going to put the equipment rack outside of the room now, to help with sound and the look of things. The columns will be built into the room too, not how the drawing shows.

Here's the room, before construction (the back wall is the rear of the HT.



About 2/3 of the walls are done and that's where I am right now.




The framing is just tacked in place right now so I can remove the pieces. I did this so I the HVAC sub-contractor can move the main trunk line.

As far as plans for the rest of the room, the screen will be 92-100", 8 chairs, full stage and riser of course, 7.1 sound, wall sconces, 6 zone Grafik Eye controls, double drywall with GOM (black on bottom and a design on top....

I'm also finishing the rest of my basement at the same time, but will try and get the theater done first to start enjoying it.

Wish me luck.... You can check out a bunch of additional pics on my website.

Here's the GOM combination I'm thinking of using. Black on the bottom and the design on the top.

EDIT - Lost the picture and can't show you.... didn't use it anyways :-)

Thanks.

Something else I didn't post was the room size. It's going to be around 14 x 20 with ceilings just over 8 feet.

Yeah, on an airplane. It's a long story.... to make it even better, my ex-girlfriend was sitting between us.



Bud, my wife was a fan of the other swatch, so I didn't push the issue. I'm sure everyone can relate to that. For equipment, I already have a Harmon Kardon AVR7200. I'm planning on 7.1 sound and am considering B&W, Paradigm and the Mythos speakers from Def Tech. I was originally going to recess the speakers, but now I'm going to build columns in the room for the speakers. Project is up in the air, but it will be a DLP or LCD.



Under the radar.... I've been away at a wedding all weekend, but actually wanted to start a new thread about the fire blocking. I have a few ideas on how to do it, but haven't decided. I thought about using drywall in the space and having it butt up against the 2 walls. That is probably sufficient, but I'm still looking.

I do plan on hiring a licensed 3rd party inspector a couple times during the build to check things out and make sure I'm on the right track. My house is getting close to 1 year old, so I'm going to have a guy do an inspection for my warranty submission to the builder.

I think I'm going to go down and work now....

Did a little more framing last night.... finished the entrance wall where the door will be. For now, the walls are just tacked into place.



Another view....

I have about 1/4" gap between the top plate of this wall and the existing beam for the 1st floor. I want to keep this de-coupled, but I'm not sure the best way to attach it. I though about using rubber spacers in between and just screwing it together. Here's a closeup of what I mean. Any ideas?

No new progress over the weekend. The wife had about 25 plants and shrubs that she wanted planted..... Such fun that is.

Had another HVAC subcontractor looking at things today. I liked the guy, but they don't do work without a permit. I'm now thinking I might get one instead of just having it inspected along the way by a 3rd party.

Anyways, any comments on my previous post about decoupling the top plate/walls from the beam supporting the first floor?

No... she wasn't. I fly a lot and find that whole mile high club thing to be pretty impossible. Only on a long flight to Europe or something like that.

No more progress on the HT. I was in Sweden last week and am finishing up drawings to get my permit. ... since I've decided to get one now. The unfortunate thing is that the month of June is pretty much a waste for me since I've got a bunch of travel for work, 2 weddings, vacation, etc.... Wondering if I'll ever get finished.

Jerrod

Nah, not all in the same flight. That would be too much!

Thanks on the colors. I really like it too. what I'd really like is some time to keep working!!! I was in Sweden last week, DC this week, vacation next week, etc.... After a quick start things have came to a screaching halt.

I'm sure that's never happened to anyone else....

I have looked at them and even talked with Marc a couple times about them. I guess it just scares me about not being able to hear them. When someone posts a question "What speakers should I buy?" the common answer (and the right one) is to go listen and see what you like. I agree, they look great and the reviews I've read sound as if they are phenomenal speakers.

Unfortunately, I still have a long ways to go before I'm worried about what speakers to buy....

Way too long since I've posted.... I travel for work, throw in a couple weeks of vacation (on the road too) and I just haven't had any time. I've pretty much finalized my drawings and plan to get my permit. Already have the HVAC guy scheduled to relocate some existin stuff and install my new dedicated system for the basement.

Here's links to a couple of the layout drawings I've done.... Any comments are more than welcome!

Yeah it's a lot of can lights, but I'm putting all the time and money into my entire basement, I'm going to do it right. Plus, the only times I'll have all those lights on are for parties and stuff.... Still, I dread the electric bill!

I'm not 100% sure I understand your question, but I'll take a stab at it. Above the wood beam, I've got 10-12" of room. The joists for the 1st floor are sitting on top of the beam, and that gives me plenty of room to feed wires. I won't feed anything above the door.

The steel posts have 7 1/4" plates that attach to the floor and the beam. So, in between my entrance hall and the HT I used 2x8's for the top and bottom of the wall instead of 2x6's.

Spent some time this weekend framing other parts of my basement. More pictures posted to my website in the "Framing" area.

I also mocked my screen in position... just used 2x4's. Finalized placement of my stage and side columns. Still debating on the final location of the rear columns to hold be rear surround speakers.

I can't do much more until my HVAC work is done. Hopefully that will be done in a couple weeks.... just waiting on the contractor.

Well, I'm making a bit more headway. It doesn't look like I've done much, but I have some of the nasty work out of the way....

Here's a pic of some fireblocking. Since in this area (left HT wall) I have about 5 inches of space, I used 2 - 2x4"s to take up some space and then draped insulation over it. This will help hold the insulation in place and keep my walls decoupled from the rest of the house. In the next pic, you'll see the wall in place.



Here's the outer wall of my equipment rack. Not a ton to see right now....


Here's the last shot of my main HVAC trunkline feeding the 1st floor. The HVAC crew is showing up tomorrow to move it to the other side of my stairs. This will give me a lot of extra ceiling room in the HT and game room. The HT is in the back and the pool table is gonna go in the area between my sawhorses and wall on the left.

Now some electrical.....

Check out this piece of sh*t job my builders electrical sub did. The big gray cable is my main feed going to my 200A panel in the garage. They ran all of my network and coax cables right over it. There are a few other locations where they ran line voltage 110V wires alongside network and cable lines. Needless to say, I'll be tearing all that out and re-doing it all.




Now this is a hi-tech, audiophile system! Sharp rules! They don't make 'em like this anymore....


These are the boxes for the future sconces on the left side HT wall.


For my rear sconces, I had a major brain fart! I measured things out and marked the center of my 2 rear columns. So, instead of then marking where the 3 sconces would go in between, I just put the boxes right in the middle of where the columns are gonna go. Dumb dumb dumb!!!! So after pulling the wire into them, I finally woke up and beat my head against the wall for a while. See the before and after pics below.... you'll be able to see where I had the sconces before.



Here's the power feed to the equipment rack. I'm using 1 - 20A feed here. The theater lights and outlets will be on their own separate feed.



I have a bunch more pictures up on my website. I've done quite a bit of framing and wiring for the rest of my basement. I'll post more in the next couple of days once my HVAC is re-done.

Actually I am.... the sconce deal wasn't fun, but that kind of stuff is going to happen. I have yet to hit the wall of just being sick of walking down the basement stairs. Looking at pics of everyone elses HT's is a good motivating factor!

Now, I'm waiting on my HVAC guys to get here. My 1st floor A/C will be off most of the day and it's supposed to be 95+ degrees....