Pilgrims Pit - Design & Build - Page 7

Electrician is here today. The puck lights are out. We had an issue that the pucks (and releated wiring) being close to fabric won't clear the inspector. We are scrambling, but we may go back to an old design I was playing with - making the lights built into the columns themself:

Something like these, from Carmbruster's theater:

closeup:

JTN - that may be the stuff. They had to go to a smaller supplier, not HD/Lowes since it isn't widely carried. Interesting thought about the DIY screen options. . .

Oman - I'll have to look. They made 1x1 nailers, and I am guessing they nailed from the front, and covered it with trim molding. I'll look tonight.

I am pretty happy with the curved front. Maybe I should have gone with a more pronounced curve, it comes in about 9 inches. Eh, I am happy with it.

Cherokee - message received.

There is HVAC in the side soffits. So between that and trying to minimize penetrations, not in the cards.

I have always liked that design - we switched for a wall wash design, which the pucks weren't delivering as tightly anyways. I'll need to figure out the materials for the interior section, probably not as intricate as Carmbruster's latice work.

In other news, electrical inspection passed (nonwithstanding the last lights), and the rope is up. Pics later tonight.

Okay, these shots are a bit more vibrant than what I see in the room, but its still pretty cool. The LED rope dims fine with the Grafik eye, although the shutter time with my camera is so long w/o flash you can't tell from the pics I took - so I am just posting the least blurry. I'll have to get a tripod one of these days.

The verdict - I am glad I went for it. Might be a disco ball in the future, but I always liked those anyways.

Here is the front wall

And the back:

Here is the front with the lights on (can't remember the dim settings)

Here is a shot of inside the crown:

Here is the outlet for the rope, tucked behind the front soffit, BTW - Oman, I looked, they nailed it in place w/brads, front to back:

My wife picked these up, these are the fixtures to go inside the columns and covered, they are an outdoor light - kind of badass, actually:

Here is the Grafik eye installed. Only two zones are live now, and the push buttons dim them fine. There was a mishap. The trim is too close, so the translucent cover won't close. I will probably just remove the cover - not important to me.

Don't missunderstand. Those sconces will go IN the column, not on them. We will then add frosted glass or something to the sides of the column and have the light eminated from within the column, kind of like a lighthouse. If I was going to use it in the room, I'd have to paint it black or gray go for a submarine theme and add portholes and the like.

The electrician has already moved several boxes, the issue on this one is there isn't a lot of real estate around it, and to move it, it would hit studs. Probably could notch them if I felt strongly about it. I don't. I'll make them fix the crooked bathroom light instead (not even close to level). Always something on the list.

Thanks Jason - The carpenter will probably cut the holes for the opening on Friday or Monday. I am guessing the electrician will pop in sometime shortly thereafter, to hook up the lights themself. My wife recomends a frosted glass, simple look (since there is a lot going on already), I wouldn't mind dressing it up a bit. Maybe start frosted, and reconsider/maybe retrofit later - the finish work will be probably DIY, and be based on how fast I source the material. Here is an excel based drawing I made about a year ago that I dug up - I'll change the trim approach given some elements in the room now:




I am out of town all next week, so lets connect after that. Your right though, the bump in the soffit wound up making for a nice feature with the crown and the light.

Trust me I am past a bit crazy.

Contractors took the day off today, so nothing done in the house today. Plumbers tomorrow if anyone wants to see a generic 3/4 bath (soon with working plumbing!!).

Gotta research cutting glass. Can't be too hard, right? Should I look for industial diamonds? Mother's day is Sunday!

EDIT - oh the tools are cheap on the bay. Looks easy. We'll see.

I am out of town, but the carpenters got one more day of work in before my wife left for a family gathering. They have maybe one more left after this. That last day will include some of the things I have been waiting to see including finishing the EQ rack, cutting the columns for speakers and lighting, sheetrocking the wall in the utility room that ajoins the theater, and sealing/weatherstripping the door. That's a lot, maybe it will take them two days.

Anyways, they did cut the hole for the EQ rack (the opening on the left by the theater entrance):

Here it is from w/i the utility room:

The sure sign that the DIY will be slow is that the PJ was hung - well minus the lenses, I sold one set of lenses to pay for the purchase of a parts machine, but then I realize the parts machine was in pristine condition. Since the lenses add a bit of weight, I left them off when I saw Curt Palme recomended hanging them with lenses off for that reason.

The PJ hangs at a bit of an angle (the carpenter's heaved it up for me, so I haven't seen it in person yet), which I am not sure is right. We'll see, I am sure it can be fixed:

Here is another shot of the angle, this side has a decorative side plate off for some reason:

Here is a caboose shot, if you are into that kind of thing:

That's it for now. No progress till we get home. On a side note, the carpenters reportedly loved the crown + blue LED combo when they saw it for the first time.

You aren't the first one to say that. Maybe its destiny. I'll take one, if some one wants to send me one.

I had a BG 808S that I never could get running and parted out. Minimal investment, few parts left to sell. I also had a 6PG+ that was reasonably priced, then I stumbled into a self financing 6PG+ with a bunch of extras (I needed the VGA/BNC 25' cable that came with it). I bought the PJ, sold the lenses and an included line doubler for basically what the PJ cost me, only to find the tubes are pristine, and decided to run that one. My screen won't be big enough to worry about blending or stacking, nor my skill level high enough. Pristine tubes and a full set of spare parts will be fine by me unless upgraditis kicks in down the line.

Of course really haven't spent much time setting up a CRT (other than a little Mrs Pac Man, misconverged on concrete walls). So that challenge will come soon.


Should be at any plumbing supply store (probably HD/Lowes). I'll pull the brand next week when I am home.

All it says is "Floodmaster, Inc 888-771-4929"

My plumber got it at a supply store for $140 or so. Hope I never need it.

Spent some money today.

I ordered 3 Crown 402D amps (rack-mountable pro stereo amps, from roaddogonline.com) and a yamaha V661 (to run as a pre-pro). The amps have a rebate for a few more days, making them cheap. They have fan noise concerns, but my rack is outside the room, so there didn't seem to be a downside. The V661 has a good (not perfect) feature set for running as a processor.

Now if the carpenters would finish their work on the rack I'd be good to go. Should be by the end of next week.

A rite of passage - sand time.

I hit HD and picked up 20 bags of play stand, when everyone around is building sandboxes for their kids. I got a lot of comments that it would be a big sandbox. I suppose so.

After hauling them down the bulkhead, in the words of Anakin Skywalker "I hate sand".

We went with the plastic to line the cavities. Not essential, but seems better. There is tar paper on the floor. My wonderful wife is prepping the first section:

Uno:

Tres (of cinco):

finito:

Sand in the stage, not just for subwoofers:


We wound up using 19 of the 20 bags I bought - not bad for a top of the head estimate. The last bag may get used in speaker stands. In other good news, we got confirmation that my brother-in-law is en route returning from Afghanistan after a 16 month stint. Happy memorial day all.

It really wasn't that bad. Just honoring the canons by complaining.

My wife was a big help, hauling her share of the 1000 lbs of sand. Must be love.

Yeah, me too.

Not much to report. My carpenter has been MIA (actually had some family thing come up I recently learned), and we are waiting for him to finish up and get out before we can paint the playroom and push things forward. That and life is busy - - I am on jury duty now, and trying to plan a summer trip. Some equipment is pouring in (receiver and amps - a yamaha v661 + 3 crown 402D's - - pretty much down to the remote), that's about it.

Okay a milestone. The pros are gone, all our contractors have finished the skilled portion of the build. From here on in, it will be just me and my wife. Send in the clowns! Well, except for the carpet.

The last few weeks have been the process of getting people in to wrap up. The other day the carpenters made the last few cuts on the columns, hung the rack (my hinges were missing, so I will have some things to clean up), hung blue board in the utility room, and a bunch of miscellaneous things. Today the electricians came in, and attached the lights inside the columns and did their wrap up.

The playroom comes before the theater in the general scheme, and a few family matters have come up to ensure that this next phase will be slow moving, but the dream will still be to finish up by my daughter's 2nd birthday in October. Okay, enough talk, here are the pics.

Here is a column that has been cut for both a speaker and the "sconce". The plan is that we will add frosted glass to the light openings, and wrap the column with expocloth holding the speaker. Need to stuff the some of the columns with insulation, figure out access for changing light bulbs or speakers, and add a separator between the light and the rest of the column to prevent light spill, etc.

Here is the side wall. The column closer to the screen doesn't hold a speaker, so just an opening for the light:

Here is the back wall with a floor lamp in the pic. Sorry about that. In the rear corner is a cabinet that houses the sump pit. It is 36" high, and I am re-thinking that height, may scale it down, its kind of imposing. Maybe one day we'll throw a popcorn maker on there.

Here is a shot of the front wall:

Just outside the room now, here is the rack. No hinges, so the door is held in place by conventional means. The trim was placed to set the door within the trim, but we might change that so that the door closes over. Also the trim is too wide.

Here is the rack in the utility room. Not much to see here right now.

Have a good weekend all,