The RTROSE (take my sweet time) HT Construction Thread - Page 8

OUCH!!!!! That really cut deep!!

Well...hmmm. I think I could do that myself, but contracting it out would probably get it done faster!

Regards,

RTROSE

Here is a Google Sketchup of my floor plan. I tried to make it bigger but I had issues so the small image is all you are going to get Drew unless you can tell me how to make it bigger for export to Photobucket.

Sorry it is so poor, however I did do it myself and did not contract it out.

Theater is approximately 13.5 x 20

Kitchenette is approximately 8.5 x 25

Kids Media/Game room is approximately 13.5 x 13




The one change I did make to the original plan was to eliminate the workout area from the basement area and relocate it to the spare room where the kids media/game room is now. There just is not enough room for all of the workout equipment and the area is better served with a pub/game table to go along with the kitchenette. Other than this change I have stuck "with the plan" pretty much from the start.

Drew my first post has been duly updated to include the floor plan for those intrepid individuals who just now have started to read this wonderful thread.

Regards,

RTROSE

Hey what goes around comes around. I enjoy heckling in others threads and look for it here. It makes things fun and interesting when people keep you on your toes. Don't mind it one bit. At least someone is reading and posting in my thread!

If you visited Docprego's thread you saw me give him a lot of grief for being so slow to get some things together. I think I rattled his cage a couple of times anyway. Which reminds me hmmmm......

I have had the fortune to have yesterday and today off which for me makes a four day weekend so I spent the majority of the day yesterday in the basement, and hopefully today too so I am making some progress. I'll update later on with the details.

Regards,

RTROSE

I hear you about the weather. I too a "break" yesterday from the basement to mow the lawn just to get out into the sunshine.

On to the updates.

Yesterday and today I got several things accomplished.

• Cleaned up, rearranged, removed miscellaneous unneeded building supplies, and hauled out junk, trash and other items. I realized in this process my circular saw is MIA. Now I have tool separation anxiety. I have no idea where it went, who I lent it too, or if someone "helped" them self to it. I have put out an APB, and fliers all over the neighborhood. If anyone is interested there is a reward for finding my saw. (One free movie night in the completed theater of course!)
  
• Finalized the location of my side surrounds and ran speaker wire to the locations.
  
• Ran speaker wire to the back of the kitchenette where the pub table will be located.
  
• Had the "Cabinet Guy" come by for a final measurement just to double check everything.
  
• Replaced three 2 x 4's that had twisted severely in the past months.
  
• Double checked (ok quintuple checked) all my electrical runs (again) and still found two wires needing wire staples.
  
• Finished the rough framing for the three basement doors reinforcing the framing around each of the door locations.

For the remainder of the weekend to do list.

Finalize the location of the future projector and noodle out a mount.

Run power and video to the projector location.

Reinforce the location in the kids area where the plasma will be.

Finalize the measurements so I can order my Delta flooring.

Measure for subwoofer cable.

Move the kitchenette HVAC return from horizontal to the vertical.

In the next several weeks to do list.

Run coax for OTA HD and Dish to the appropriate locations.

Run one additional phone line to the kids area.

Run IR repeater cable from the front of the theater to the equipment cabinet.

Insulate.

Install Delta flooring.

Purchase OTA antenna from my buddy and install.

Tape all of the joints of existing HVAC ducts.

I'm sure that the list will grow exponentially as time goes by.

Here is hoping the next two days is as productive as the last two.

Regards,

RTROSE

Ok, Ok, Ok,

I'll post some update pics and do a search around the house for some graph paper. Got to be some around here someplace and get you an accurate diagram with dimensions and descriptions.

I spent most of today doing honey-do's not related to the HT build, but I did get some additional things moved out of the basement one of which was my elliptical trainer weighing in at 270 pounds! Had to enlist the help of a co-worker for that one. I also scored a box of telephone line from another friend of mine which saves me the cost of purchasing it from a big box store.

My circular saw is still MIA. I have called all my usual "suspects" so now the investigation widens. Hmmmm.

Regards,

RTROSE

I was able to spend about three hours in the basement between yesterday and today. I got the rest of the duct work seams/joints taped.

Before



After



The fact that the joints/seams were not taped was brought to my attention when I had the other duct work done. I was surprised just how much air was leaking out from all of the seams/joints. This was pretty easy to do, just time consuming but thought I would take care of it while it was still accessible and easy to do.

I was also able to get some reinforcements put in for the wall in the kids area.

Before



After



I thought this might be a good idea to put some reinforcement on the wall since my plans have changed from a DLP projection TV to a plasma TV.

This was my wife's suggestion, she likes the look of a flat mount on the wall and stated she would really like that look in the kids area. I'm pleased with that because I was going to DLP projection for cost effectiveness so the plasma should be a step up in image quality.

I have also deep sixed the shelving for the kids area as we have decided to go flat mount I'm just going to get a ready made A/V shelf for all the gear and find other storage solutions.

Still plugging away checking off one item on the to-do list and adding two more.

Regards,

RTROSE

Here is a better "traditional" floor plan of my basement. Thanks to Drew for the introduction of a pencil and ruler.



This was the best I could do with my limited drafting skills. Drew I did my best to get a good pic of the drawing but this is the best one of a dozen or so that I took.

Just for you Drew I'm now working on a floor plan of just the theater so you'll have that to reference from now on.

I have also decided to go with the Platon subfloor it is the cheapest of the three products and has the same performance of the Delta flooring and it is available locally even cheaper than the online sources.

I have also ordered subwoofer cable from Blue Jeans Cable's other site Raw Cable.com. I have decided to run cable to five separate locations so that I have several options of where I can place my subwoofer(s) to "fit" the acoustics of my room.

I have been lucky to be able to work for a few hours each of these past few days, but that will come to a screeching halt for the next several days do to other commitments.

Regards,

RTROSE

1. There are two doors in the equipment area due to the support pole being right near the center of the room between the door on the right and the one right in front of the furnace. You can see the pole in the picture of the duct work in post # . I wanted to make sure there was unobstructed path to the furnace should there or when there is a need to service, clean, etc.

2. Well the six foot opening is going to remain open between the two areas. I had initially thought about options to close off the two areas, French Doors, Sliders, Pockets, but I think what I'm going to do is use a heavy curtain and have the curtain hang on the long side of the area where the pub table is and then when I want to close off the area slide the curtain over the area. There is only one window in the area where the pub table is and none in the theater area so I could see the curtain only being used during the daylight hours.

Good tip on the copies. Now I have another thing added to the to do list. Mapping all the electrical, cable, lighting runs. Great suggestion and will help me six months down the road when I trying to find something.

Regards,

RTROSE

Yup I'll agree, but as the weather warms I'm speeding up just a little (just like molasses)!

My wife has given me the deadline of Christmas of having the basement done and usable (or at least the kids area) and the rest of the basement drywalled and painted but not necessarily furnished. So even though I'm working slowly I've picked up the pace quite considerably considering the progress the previous few months. Now I'm feeling rushed! HA!

Don't fear my friend, its coming along and yes at better than a snails pace!

Regards,

RTROSE

Hello all,

Just a quick update. I spent the entire day hauling out the rest of the junk and stuff that I did not get moved out of the basement a couple of weekends ago. With the help of my wife we rearranged the storage area (thanks honey) and moved some of the stuff to that area. I was able to run an additional phone line to the kids area so now I have a total of three phone lines/jacks for the basement.

My cable from Raw Cable (Blue Jeans Cable Co.) came in so I have been drilling more holes and running more cable to the subwoofer locations. I was able to get two done today so I've got three more to go. I also picked up some "standard" RG6 for the OTA antenna and the satellite feeds.

I have decided to go with the spray foam insulation. I'm hoping this will happen within the next three weeks (depending on the spray foam company's schedule) This is a thermal/comfort choice rather than an acoustic/sound isolation choice. I have to make sure the basement is COMFORTABLE and suitable for habitation for a very cold natured family. I know from reading that the foam is not the best for sound, but I'm hoping that there will be some sound deading as a result of the foam. I will be placing some of the "pink stuff" other places such as adjoining walls, equipment closet, and the stair well.

I have also "selected" a dry waller and he is willing to work around my schedule and says he should be able to go to work pretty quickly after the spay foam is done. So I'm looking at the first of June for the spray foam and about two weeks after that I should be in the drywall getting business.

Still lots to do and I'm feeling the time crunch.

Regards,

RTROSE

Yeah, unfortunately I know this all too well. I will be nice to be "half way" though since I never thought I would get this "far" anyway. I think it will be at this point my wife will get truly excited about the theater because all she sees now is bare wood and lots of wires and while that excites me she is a different matter. After drywall I can see all of the work that still needs to be done but to her it will be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. (If she only knew)

Regards,

RTROSE

Updates,

I have spent the last couple of days being productive in the basement. I have gotten all of the subwoofer cables to the five different locations. Run RG6 to the kids area, to the main theater, to the family room TV and outside to the satellite and future OTA antenna location.

I thought when I ran the RG6 to the outside I would have to drill through the actual concrete basement wall, however I was able to go through the sill plate which made it much easier. I ran three RG6 runs to the outside and terminated those in the equipment closet and I ran two separate runs to the kids area one for the satellite and one for the OTA.

I ran six runs from the family room to the basement, one for the OTA feed and five for the future TV in the pub area from the satellite receiver in the family room.

Here are some photos of some of my progress in the last couple of days.












My shortsightedness led me to use F-connectors for the connections vs. RCA for the rest of the video feeds. Will work just fine just not as easy to work with as RCA but I had to get it done prior to Thursday and did not have time to wait for a RCA wall plate to come in from say some where like Monoprice.


Continued.....

My runs to the great outdoors.









I decided to place the three runs in a trash bag, don't know if it will help keep the RG6 clean but can't hurt anything. My foam job looks like complete crap but that is what I get for trying to smooth it out too soon and having to refoam the hole to fill in the gaps I created by messing with the cables. The white PVC pipe is from the sump that runs out to the storm sewer.

I still have quite the laundry list to get done before Thursday.

* Run power and video to the PJ location.
* Wire staple all of the new cable runs.
* Remove all existing insulation
* Mount lighting boxes for the pendant lights over the kitchenette snack bar.
* Move the rest of the construction tools out of the basement so the foam guys have a clear area in which to work.

The saga continues with my circular saw being MIA I had no choice but to purchase a replacement.

My "new baby"



Details here.

Regards,

RTROSE

Sheesh TOUCHY are we? Thanks the link should be fixed. It worked last night but I redid it so it should work now.

It is a corded saw. I still have not made the jump to the cordless power tools yet. I had a few cordless drills when they hit the market some 12 to 15 years ago and was not impressed then with the cordless thing. Yeah I know they are much improved but you know what they say about first impressions. I can't keep track of the stuff I got let alone adding extra batteries and chargers to the mix so I keep it simple.

Regards,

RTROSE

Right on!!! Right on!!! Right on!!!! However your forgetting one important thing....We are never truly DONE with the theater. It just morphs into HT v. 2.0


I always like getting new toys, however I had a perfectly good saw that I just can't for the life of me track down at the moment. So I'm happy with the new toy, but would have liked to spent the money on some "new toy" I did not have already.


Thanks for your time and I always welcome new readers to the thread, the more the merrier. Heckling is appreciated and encouraged here just remember heckling goes two ways. The "foam guys" are scheduled to be here Thursday and Friday so you won't have long to wait for that anyway. Stay tuned!

Regards,

RTROSE

Update,

Spent yesterday and today feverishly trying to get things done in preparation for insulation.

Found a wall stud that had twisted, warped, cracked, and was loose so I replaced that as a precautionary measure.

Rran the HDMI and component cables to the future projector location.

Pulled up the old carpet on the stairs (the guys who laid the carpet did a fantastic job there were at least 10,000 staples holding the carpet to the stairs), thanks guys!

Removed all of the existing insulation around the foundation perimeter.

Found a use for a left over circuit from the original electrical run to the basement.

Tracking down and wire stapling all of the new wire runs.

The kids media and hangout room is done and ready for the insulation, the other areas are close and should be ready after just a few more hours of work. I have to run some supports for the projector mount, run power to the projector location, mount the appropriate low voltage/electrical boxes and finish the wire stapling.

On top of all of this our washer decides to go belly up so we have a new front loading washer and matching dryer on order from Lowe's and just for good measure I was looking for a pneumatic stapler so I picked up this little gem.



Seems to work great and is fantastic for bike tires, but a bit on the noisy side for such a little compressor. Well see how well the stapler works but it seems to be of pretty good quality.

Regards,

RTROSE

AAAAAHHHHHH CHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Not a bad bug to "come down with" if ya ask me.

Regards,

RTROSE