Calvin's Games & HT construction thread - Page 29

Stick4 legs,

John gives a good deal here locally
I still look south for the vast majority of items though and with the strength of our dollar I really wished I had waited a year or two would have saved me many of thousands (hindsight is always 20/20)

Good luck with your ordering if you want some info on the places I ordered from send me a PM.

A minor update on my build.

I have installed all the acoustic panels but 1 on the ceiling I'll update with some new photos of the almost finished basement room in a day or two

Cheers
Calvin

Evan,

Thanks for the post and the kind words. I'm very impressed by the flying mole cascade the only minor con I have is that it gets warmer then I expected in the rack. This may be in part due to the other 2 amps running under it but I was expecting it to be cooler then it is from the reviews I've read. As far as its power handling it has no issues handling my seven 8" speakers and the only clipping I get on the higher ends is from my Crown and Behringer on the thor subs the rest of the system runs great.
Cheers
Calvin

Some new pics. (Click to enlarge)

I've put up the 5 of the 6 remaining acoustic panels. I have one left which I've put in the corner for now (seen in pic #1 between the corner and wall mounted panels on the right side). The last panel will join the 2 on the ceiling on my next days off then I'm finally ready for the acoustic engineer from Connect to come and "treat" the room











Here is a photo of my newest addition. I picked up another Elite for aesthetics mainly, replacing the white premium I had there earlier. I wanted the HDMI port and I prefer the black.



I'm hoping to have Connect over soon to finish up the room and the main level so I can get back to the touch screen and controls I've put on the back burner till I get this finished up.

Cheers
Calvin

Update to show why my HT is so going so slowly lately

Just showing some of the landscaping done recently. We are lucky enough that the snow hasn't fell yet so I've been able to bring the yard to final grade (or 99% there anyways) and my plan is to let it settle over the winter and then top it off and get my final grade cert next spring. Once I have the certification I'm off on the rest of the adventure which will be the landscaping of the 10,000+ Sq ft yard we have.

(As always click to enlarge photos)







So far our basic plans are lots of trees on the outside perimeter, a shed that can hold the ride-around lawnmower, snow blower and some bikes plus a multi-tiered deck with a 6-8 man hot tub.

Cheers
Calvin

Thanks guys,

It would have been a 6 to 8 women hot tub but you may have forgotten that I got married in June so my "tom cat" days are over and I think I'll be far more likely to have 3 or 4 couples where we have an even mix of male and female then I'll be having all females over (for my own safety... after all I have to sleep sometime and when I do... she'll be waiting Never under estimate your wife many foolish men have done that and I don't plan on joining that group).

I should have some more updates on the HT soon as my landscaping duties are now over till next spring

Cheers
Calvin

Just wanted to repost this PM here. ScottJ0007 was awesome enough to send this along to me and these are the best photos I've seen to show what it is I'm going to do with the basement HT so here they are.


Thanks again ScottJ007, I'm hoping I'll be showing my version of this door threshold seal soon. I'm still waiting for all the estimates but hopefully soon.

Cheers
Calvin

Brendin,

LOL, yep I guess I'll take the blame this time. We have had snow up here by Fort Mac where I'm working for some time (and lots in the last couple of days). Guess it was just a matter of time before the house got some.
I'm very happy I got the final grade in before we got the big dump of snow that is here / coming.
My wife is happy because we have snow now and she likes the snow for x-mas.
I can do with out the -25 up here at work though

Cheers
Calvin

Thanks Javry

Yep I have come a long way from the my first plans and prints where I had 2 computer desks and a network printer in the back of the room.
The back yard I'm sure is going to be something special, I'm equally sure it is going to be expensive. I'm budgeting between 70 to 100k (it was 5k just for the dirt work done so far) so we'll see how it shakes out it might be more depending on how crazy the wife gets. I'm leaving the planning up to her I'm just there to advise a little but it is going to be all hers (including the grass cutting duties, I wanted a walk out and small yard but she wanted the huge pie-lot so that was our deal going in )

I should have some new info and photos in the coming weeks still have lots of HT related issues and plans to get working on and now that it is the winter months that means I'm trapped inside to do them

Cheers
Calvin

Audixium,

Those are all good points and I've secretly been convinced that I'll be hiring someone to do the yard work for sometime. However the "official" story I tell everyone (especially if the wife is with in earshot) is that lawn duty is all hers

The down side is I'm sure she will buy the most expensive lawn tractor she can find in the city and it will be picked on how it looks and how she will look riding around on it rather then on what its technical merits

The one big plus I have is that my wife loves to be outdoors and she is a very active woman (she is a triathlete and Ironman or Ironwoman if you will )I'll let you know how it works out but I've been prepared for plan "B" since the start despite still holding on to hope that plan "A" will work for at least a summer or two.

Cheers
Calvin

Hello all. It was my b-day this weekend so I haven't had much time to post but I did get a few things done this weekend and some news which I'll hopefully get around to posting in the next day or two.
Cheers
Calvin

Thanks for the b-day wishes everyone

Yellowblanket,
I hope you get a good budget as well. I saved for 2 years before I started my buying spree it was tough not spending knowing I had a good chunk of change in the bank but I'm glad I waited and I ended up getting better prices by buying a lot of items at the same time.

jmorris,

Good to see you again thanks for stopping by. I'm 35 now. It seems like I was 25 just yesterday, man how time flys. I'm still looking into touch screens there are so many on the market place right now I haven't decided which one I'm going to settle on yet but it will likely be one that works with CQC or control4 type systems. Right now I'm using the Harmony 1000 but it is just a placeholder for the real system down the road.

Becks.
Thanks nice to see you again and thanks for the b-day wishes.

djshtnut,

My wife gets some very nice "toys". Mainly jewelry,watches and clothes but I have bought her a few big ticket items like a Grand Prix GT a couple years ago. She is spoiled but as the love of my life it is the way it is supposed to be I can't take it with me when I'm gone


Anyways back on topic. It has been an exciting couple of days.
I had a flood in the basement and I ended up getting a fresh water (thankfully) flood coming out of the basement toilet. I still don't know the how and why and I haven't figured it out as to what happened but I did manage to stop the water and everything appears to be working now. The one down side is that water went into the basement floor plug and now it keeps kicking the breaker on the front row of chairs. I'm going to dry it out the plug area throughly and then I'll call an electrician if it is still acting up.

We also had a power outage for a large portion of the city Sunday night. Made for a candle light everything

On a HT note I've been having the drywaller back to fix some issues with the one wall I wasn't happy with.

Day one pics




Day 2 pictures - 2nd coating and sanding done.



Just one more day with the drywallers on the 14th and then they will send in the painters and hopefully get the "waves" out that were there since possession.

More when I can
Cheers
Calvin

Some pics of the damaged plug in the basement from my "little flood" over the weekend. I replaced the power outlet but it is still kicking the breaker so it looks like I'll be getting an electrician in to fix it after all





Water and power don't play nice hopefully I get this basement issue worked out soon I'm talking to the city and the builder this week to see what my options are and how to prevent any future "flooding"

Cheers
Calvin

Update.

It appears the reason for the flooding on the weekend is due to my fancy new low flush toilet I installed in the basement it just doesn't push enough water so I'll be replacing it with the older and more expensive to operate models which will be cheaper in the long run as I won't have to re-carpet the basement at some point . I have the brother in law lined up for the swap out before X-mas and hopefully that will solve any future flooding issues.

Another small task I have is to add another row to my HT storage area it appears I'm running out of room already I'll be adding another row to the bottom when I get back home for the X-mas holidays.



One of these days I'll get around to playing all these games I've been buying...

Cheers
Calvin

I've had a few questions about the lights via PM since the install so I thought I'd repost this again along with one of the PM's to help some people out that may have questions.


The lights are the 3rd ones on the list. I purcashed mine at Bulbdirect.com but there are several online retailers that have them just make sure you confirm they are in stock before paying as I had to cancel my 1st order due to no stock



Some shots of them in action (click to enlarge)





Cheers
Calvin

Tom,

That is the right light same model just in blue. Phone them at the 1-800 number and ask if they can bring it in or find out if they have any stock if it is no longer listed on the website. They had a few left when I picked up my 2 and been LED they will last a very long time before you need replacements so that makes the $25 /ea price tag easier to swallow.

If bulbdirect doesn't have them anymore try out bulbamerica.com they carry them as well but were out of stock when I purchased mine originally.

Good luck
Calvin

Tom,

I purchased a swivel housing from Home Depot that accepted MR11 and MR 16 LED and regular halogen bulbs. The exact model can be found in some pics and posts back a few pages when I was building the riser.

These new "Dragon" lights do have a larger "shell" though so I ended up having to remove the swivel from the rest of the housing and I have them just lying propped up in the light cans. It is not elegant by any means but it looks fine in the low light and I'm sure no one would ever notice if I didn't point it out. I may get adventurous one day and try to make something that allows me to swivel the larger lights but for now it’s not on my priority list.

On a side note you may be able to get a suggestion for them from the manufacturer or the online vendor on which "housing" is best suited for the bulbs. I had already bought and installed mine so I was married to using the Home depot housing I have unless I want to go through a lot of trouble with the riser again (which I don't)

Good luck
Calvin

I'm home again for awhile I decided to renew my contract again rather then take 3 to 6 months off which I was originally going to do but they offered me to much $ to turn down so I'm back at it the 1st week in Jan 08. Still it will be nice to get some RR time and finish up some loose ends around the house.

1st thing on the agenda when I got home was to replace the bulb in the 333 it had finally burned out after 1547 faithful hours of service






If the replacement lasts as long it should likely be the last bulb I'll need as I'm sure I'll be moving to a 1080p PJ before I get to a third bulb in 2 years time (hopefully another 3 chip DLP of some sort I'll need the brightness now that I'm used to it)

I was also busy making the living room look like Santa had visited





9 feet and 1500 lights of holiday cheer in the living room HT at the moment

I should have some updated photos over the coming weeks still have a panel to hang and who knows what other "trouble" I can get into with a few weeks off and some expendable income this x-mas.

I just finished Mass Effect on the xbox 360 as well - great game I'm going to start again with a new character again and be a bad guy this time - no more paragon for me

Cheers
Calvin