Blazing Ridge Cinema construction has begun! - Page 3

Well, after lugging 18 or so pieces of drywall down to the basement this morning at 8:00 AM (to avoid the heat), I ran to HD to get some 14/2 wire to run on extra outlet. About 11:30 I started drywalling. Got a decent amount done. My dad stopped by again and helped for about two hours. I think I'll be able to finished up the walls in the gameroom and at the bottom of the stairs tomorrow. I finished up the ceiling in the bathroom and have about 1/2 the walls done in there. I need to get cement board or Hardy stuff for the surround (for tile, not speakers!)for the shower, then I can complete that. I think I fried my transformer on the furnace though. After I put up some board and made a hole to push the thermostat wire through, I think I fried the chip. I'll play around with it tomorrow. I forgot to shut the furnace off before I did it. Oh well. Chirpie, you should feel better. I didn't really get to clean up this time! Here are a few pictures from today:




I watched The Aviator tonight (the last hour of it). Boy, Howard Hughes is a wacko!

Bud

Tim,

Depends on the projector. If I end up going Panny AE700 (leaning this way), then I'll mount in the back in a hushbox. If I end of going with something else, like the IFSP7205 or IFSP5700, I may move it more forward. I still need to make that decision. I hope we're talking about the right soffit though. The pictures in the previous post are the gameroom, not the HT room. Your reference to "middle" throws me off. I'm doing the whole basement at once. The hold up for me is the indecision in the projector. I expect I'll have the walls in the gameroom/bar tomorrow. I'll do the walls in the HT room next (and concession area), then do the ceilings and soffits after that.

I have 2 1/2 conduit installed already. I'm running all the cables outside of the conduit. The conduit its for future cables/expansion only. I figure its better to run what I can now (maybe spend a few extra bucks) and if I need to run something new, I have the room for it. You might not have seen the conduit if you're looking for it in the gameroom.

This is an old diagram, but it serves its purpose. The red arrows are the walls I worked on today and what shows in the pictures in the previous post. The rest of the walls in the gameroom, bar and bottom of the steps should be done tomorrow. I'll run my HDMI and a few speaker wires for the bar as well. Next week, I'll do the walls in the HT room.


Sorry for the confusion. I'll post a closeup tomorrow of the soffit where the projector will be installed.

Bud

Tim,

Thanks! I'll take a look.

Here's what I finished today. I was hoping to get farther, but got a late start today. I don't want to bore people with gameroom photos, so I won't post any more until it's near completion. I will post the HT pictures as I start drywalling. The first is the gameroom, the second is the bar area.




Bud

Tim,

Good observation. Actually, many of the soffits have heating ducts. These pictures don't show them. The other thing I wanted to do was keep things symmetrical. They put in these laminate beams (instead of poles). Some of the duct work runs along these beams. If I were to put in put a soffit on one side to hide the duct, when finished, would give the impression that the beam was off centered. I tried to figure out how to resolve this and the only way to do this was to do the other side of the beam. Also, there are is a waste pipe on one end of the room that had to get covered as well. After creating soffits where required, I ended up with several soffits running in parallel to one another, and a few perpendicular. It just didn't look right to me, so I ended up putting in the extras to make it symmetrical. I was also trying to minimize the size of these things, so I was considering double treying the ceilings or potentially doing a coffered ceiling. Now I'm thinking I'll be running crown everywhere, so that should minimize the "substantial" look and soften it up. The ceiling is 9 feet, the soffits are 91" underneath.

The damn laminate beams are 17". Also, I ended up having to cut 5" off length wise on second pieces of the drywall to get the right height. I had some flexibility in the HT room though and made the soffits just shy of 12 inches so I could put two sheets of drywall up without having to worry about cutting them length wise.

Oh, and having to run wires with a million soffits, sure does help.

EDIT: Tim, as far as priorities are concerned... if I made a decision on the projector, it would definately be the other way around. For those big decisions, I like to let things lie until my impatience takes over. I tried to give things time to make an informed decision, get lucky, or a light bulb goes off, sometimes the technology changes things....like the new Mirage screen (do I want to cover my windows now in the HT room)? Or a rumor... Panasonic AE800? For the most part, I plan, plan, plan, then implement. I'm a certified project manager. On this project, for those things I can't plan, I just put them on the back burner until they come to a boil and deal with it then. In the meantime, I keep my mind off of it by getting covered in fine, white dust.

Bud

Dave,

Thanks. Worth every penny! Looking forward to doing the ceilings now, if thats possible.

Bud

Atmosfear,

Thanks for the response and welcome to the forum. I understand the home office thing since I work out of the house (both the wife and I). At least on those cold winter nights in NH, you'll be able to have somewhere to escape to. I grew up in CT and I don't miss those winters. Good luck with your theater.

Help yourself to the cove/trey design. I think it'll come out great. Looking forward to the final result myself!

Bud

Jerrod,

Thanks. Ceiling in the HT room is nine feet in the center and 8 feet under the soffits. I'll probably go with an eight inch riser, so it'll be more like 7'"4" in that area.

You're the first to inquire about the lift. We can touch base later. I expect in about a month I'll be done with it. I thought about the community lift idea, I think there several people that would want it at the same time. As long as I recoup some money for it, I'm cool with that though!

Bud

Here's the latest. Ran two HDMI cables and SVGA cables, one of each to the projector, the other to the bar (plasma/LCD expansion later) back to the equipment closet. I also ran an IR expansion wire to the projector area, in case I need it as well. The only wires left is a pair of speaker wires to the bar area and another pair for the shakers (I have one pair already, figured I'd add one more just in case, will do that today. THAT'S IT, no more wires! The SVGA tcables were another "just in case" and were reasonable, so what the heck. The next step is to connect the Buffalo IR receiver in the bar area and connect everything in the equipment closet to make sure it works. Should be done this week. Here are my plans for IR.



I plan on connecting my step lights in the HT room for the riser and drywall the HT walls this weekend. I drywalled the ceiling at the bottom of the basement stairs and a few of the walls outside the HT room as well. I'll finish that up shortly and puts me back on schedule.

Bud

Tim,

Ha. Actually, I have thought through it. I've started a high level plan, but decided against it for two reasons, primarily time and money. If I had calculated out a firm budget and timeframe, I would have definitely. Since I don't have these constraints (at least time, money is a factor obviously, but I adjust that as it makes sense), I'm sort of open ended.

I do have milestones in my head that I'm targeting and working towards, but if something comes up financially or requires my attention (wife's birthday and daughters birthday coming up, for example) or I need to figure something out technically, I just adjust according. I did however, plan and work through my dependencies (plumbing rough-in for the bathroom and bar, getting my father-in-law here to help with the electrical), so I could keep moving forward. I always have the next two or three tasks in my head I need to do next.

I have thought about going back and working a MSP plan after the fact to log all the planning steps, dependencies, predecessors, successors tasks, milestones, etc for a future theater if I ever decided to move and redo this endeavor or if someone wanted a skeleton plan to work from. I may, however, be busy watching movies. and sitting at the bar . But I'll think atbout it at least!

Bud

Atmosfear,

On the AE700 noise, probably not, more for aesthetics and a clean look. I'm sure others can chime in here. The fan in the equip closet is the main source to remove heat, but I don't plan on putting a glass door on the front, plenty of ventilation through rack panel vents and a louvered door. The fan is pretty quiet, I won't need to really seal it up to contain noise. I need to re-read this document (from post 11), thanks for the reminder:

Middle Atlantic thermal management info

Also, if a do a hush box, I have 4" duct with a in-line fan already run to pull heat from it.

And I take the geek remark as a compliment. Believe me, there are worse names I've been called.

Tim,

Yes, I should do document everything now as I go. I am with at least the pictures (not posting all I took).

Bud

Frank,

Thanks, I plan to keep the ball rolling. On the introduction, what Tim said. Its a very detailed and long thread. Reaper did a great job with that one!

Bud

Frank, check Tim's response for the introduction. It was done by Reaper here on AVS. Here is the thread he started on the subject:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=538807

You'll have to read through the first page or two to understand what he requires to do the intro slide and animation. Warning. Its a very long thread.....

The yellow wire is 12/2 and the white wire is 14/2. Don't go based on what you see here in my pictures, it really depends on the circuit you're installing, the breaker, the load, the number of outlets and cans, etc. If you're not up on these things, consult an electrician. My father-in-law knows this stuff. I know my limitations. I'm good for running wire (based on what he tells me), drilling holes for wire and an occasional few outlets/switches here and there. I personally don't like to mess with it and if he wasn't my father-in-law and a good guy, I would have paid to have it done. No question.

And good luck with the new house. Exciting times!

Bud