The Fog Valley Cinema - Page 3

Pulled the trigger today on a PJ. Ordered to Epson Pro Cinema 1080UB from AVS. I was going to wait a while longer but the current deal that AVS is running was hard to pass up. Also picked up a mid sized SVS (cylinder) sub. Figure that with the butt kickers I wouldn't need a monster sized sub. As far as equipment goes all I have left to buy are speakers. I am still in search for a decent place around here to audition some.

Did get a good amount of drywall hung tonight in the left theater soffit area. Hopefully will be ready to mud/tape it by Friday.

The theater chairs came today! Right now I have a sea of Berkline 45004's in pieces in one of my garage bays. We are going to keep them apart until the carpet is in (few weeks) and then carry them down. Right now I call it my "Gaggle of Berks". Got the WAF today on the chairs .

Also got a quote on tile install today. This is the same guy that installed the tile in all the other parts of the house when it was built. Quoted me $2.50/Square Foot in labor (plus actual cost of tile). Does this seem reasonable? It does to me but I want to make sure I am not way off.

Got around to doing some mudding of the drywall today. Only two more coats to go and this part will be finished. Then it's time to install the arches, hang the 1/4 inch drywall, tape/mud/sand it then and prep it for painting by the mural lady.



Progress, painfully slow, but progress nonetheless.

I've done some tile work in a barthroom I remodeled in my old house and it was easy to do. We are considering farming out the tile work this time for the sake of speed. I would like a couple inlays done and they would take me forever to get right. I am still going to do the stone work on the walls myself though.

I think the tile guy is giving us a slight break on the labor because he has done work in the house when it was built. Just need to motivate the wife to get around to picking out the tile/inlays. No easy task.

We also recently decided to rip out the existing closet in the basement that is located under the basement stairs. It's not very big. We are going to tear down the drywall and insulate it, vapor barrier, and then modify it for a small wine celler. I found a nice (and small) wall mounted cooling unit from WhisperCool that will vent into the unfinished storage area. I will have to further investigate wine storage rack options. Alas, another thing to do in the basement. At this rate the basement/theater will be completed when the presidental election comes around!

The wine celler will go in this closet here. There is a fair amount of room to the left of the current wall in the closet (behind the drywall) that we will expand into for the cellar.

The SVS sub came today. Excellent......... Now all I need is the rest of the speakers! Otherwise the movies audio might seem a tad "off"

Doing some more sanding and mudding tonight. Wife is going to pick out tile next week.

Bought some additional equipment tonight (speakers, cables). Hopefully this will be the end of the wallet draining for some time to come . To top if off my younger labrador needed emergency surgery (twice!) for a bowel obstruction/subsequent complications. Going to need a second job soon if this pace keeps up.

Finished mudding/sanding the left theater soffit. Even remembered to fish a line through the soffit for the cable run to the direct TV box. Was also able to hang two closet doors today. Not planning on installing the doors where the tile will go until the tile is in. I don't know if anyone has ever installed a pre-hung double closet door by themselves before but it is a huge pain in the arse. It would of helped if I got the height on the framing correct to begin with (not to sure how it got to be only BARELY high enough). This experience has taught me to consider having someone else install the double french door to the sewing room.

The next step is setting up my IR repeater kit and doing some priming. Also going to have to order the pre-formed arches for the theater ceiling. They are from a company called Arch-It. I am planning on using the "eyebrow" version since it will be easier to sheetrock (less bending). Got a quote from a supplier that kind of shocked me how $$ they are. Unfortunently they are perfect for what I need.

Wife is picking out tile next week. Ordered a sample piece of the stone for the fireplace surround/columns/wine cellar. Going to try and make an effort to color coordinate everything so it doesn't look mis-mashed.

Updated Theater Equipment List:
* Samsung BP-UP5000 Combo BluRay/HD DVD player
* Belkin PureAV PF60 Power Station (not sure I believe in power conditioning but the price was right)
* Berklines 45004's for a curved 4 and 3 configuration, motorized and with mini butt kickers installed (currently sitting in pieces in the garage)
* Butt Kicker Amps (2)
* Carada 110" BW Criterion Screen
* Lutron RadioRA lighting control system
* Onkyo TX-SR805
* SVS 20-39 PCi Sub
* Axiom Speakers: M60's, VP150 center, QS8's (going for 7.1)
* Epson Pro Cinema 1080 UB (calibrated by Jason at AVS, thanks man!)
* Philips Pronto TSU-9400
* Cables from Monoprice

Theater Related Things Left to Buy:
?? Nothing (I know I am laughing too, there is always something more to buy). Most of the things remaining are for the other parts of the basement.

Now I just need to finish off the room and then I will be able to unpack all this shiny new stuff .

Came to the conclusion last night while cleaning out the closet I was going to modify for the wine cellar that it won't work. There is no easy way to be able to exhaust the heat from the cooling unit due to how deep the stairs landing is (4 feet). For some reason I had myself convience that I would be able to make it. So for now it will remain a regular closet unless I can find a decent floor standing cooling unit. The search continues.

Framed out the dry-kitchen ceiling last night. Hopefully will get to hang the drywall on it tonight before the game starts. Also got the unfinished storage back into shape. Now I can move around the rest of the basement again.

Going to order the arches for the theater ceiling this week. Also placing the order for the FOG VALLEY CINEMA marquee letters this week too. If my plan pans out the marquee should look really cool. We'll see.

Marquee letters and big box of monoprice AV cables are coming tomorrow. Ordered the arches and will be picking them up on Saturday. Hopefully will get them up this weekend. Finished drywalling the basment "kitchen" area tonight. Just need to sand one more time there.

Once the theater ceiling arches are installed/drywalled things should start picking up the pace. Will be priming like crazy once this is done. Wife is meeting with the tile guy tomorrow to get some ideas.

As far as the color scheme for the theater I was thinking of going with a dark tan and black (vs charcoal) for the screen wall. Haven't a clue what color carpet to put in yet though.

They are made by Husky. I got them as a gift for my BDay but I think I recall seeing them at Lowes. They make a nice portable work stand and fold nearly flat for storage.

Well the marquee letters didn't come today. Not sure where they are. The "Fog Valley Winery" sign and bracket did come today though. This will look cool in the pub area.

Big box of cables came from monoprice today. Accidently ordered two sets of in ceiling speakers from them (for the sewing room). Will need to return one set I guess. Should have all the cables I need now (yeah right).

The UPS guy made this comment to my wife the other day: "What's he doing down there? Building a theater?!". Guess he is getting tired of carrying the boxes to the house. Just wait till the speakers come!

I was just going to write and say that I too saw them at Home Depot today. Sorry if I sent you on a wild goose chase .

The tile girl was here today and the wife picked out some tile that she likes. Also ordered our tile medalion for the entryway from the outside into the basement. Alas another heavy thing to carry down into the basement. The tile folks are coming on Saturday to measure then the tile order can go in. They have some creative ideas and I think it will look great when done.

Off to continue priming some walls in the basement. Updated pics later tonight hopefully.

Got some priming done last PM. We did a rough layout for the tile with some painters tape so the tile people can get an idea of what we are after. The blue arch in the picture is the tile-carpet transition zone, while the blue square is where the inlay will be for the pub table to rest in:


First coat of primer in the kitchen area:


Ghetto theater setting:


Rear of AV cabinet. Here you can see the start of some cable management systems being put into place:


Here is a close-up of the "vertebrae" cable management system:


Going to pick up the arches tomorrow morning for the theater ceiling. Hopefully will get them installed this weekend.

Later!

Arches are here. Going to work on getting them installed this week. Their actual price was much less (45%) than what I was quoted which was a nice surprise.

I was able to get the remaining basement primed yesterday. Took most of the day and the evening but it is done. When I turned on the 500watt work light I then noticed about a half dozen spots on the drywall mud that needed fixed. Will get them fixed today and tomorrow. Guess we have to commit to a paint color for the walls/ceilings soon huh!

Tile guy is coming in 2-3 weeks to start his thing. He gave me some homework to do before that. The concrete in the power room is unlevel where the toilet flange is. I will have to skimcoat the entire power room floor to level it off. I did this once before and it's no big deal, just messy. The tile medalion will hopefully be here within a week or two. It's coming from Lebanon, and not the one that's close to me either .

Running to coax across the basement to the theater tonight. Next task is to determine exactly how to get these arches installed so there is enough room below the curved drywall for the LED rope lighting and crown.

Later

IllNastyImpreza,

Thanks for the compliment. It's nice to hear that this moster I am putting together doesn't look stupid!


Well I got the arches in tonight. Once I figured out the proper angles things went a lot faster . Debated for a long time about how far up to have the arch from the bottom of the soffit. Wanted to leave room for the crown molding and rope lights. Decided on about 2.75 inches up. Funny thing is that the soffits are not totally level with one another (or themselves for that matter). They are not off a tremendous amount but enough to irritate me. What idiot framed this place anyhow ?

I decided to make the bottom of the arches level all the way around. The crown will hug the bottom of the soffits. Hopefully there won't be any great eye sore from the differences there. I actually think it will be ok.

Need to work on the projector platform in the arch next. That shouldn't be to bad. I am not looking forward to drywalling the arch though. Plan on using either plain or fiberglass flex 1/4" drywall. May need to wet it a bit to get it to bend enough.

Got more done tonight than I expected. Want to get some stuff done because the inlaw's are coming in next weekend for the kid's B-day.

Shot of the arches prior to being put up. They are from a company called Arch-It. They were easy to work with although there instructions are vague at best.



Arches up (long view). They are screwed to both side walls and then the ceiling:


Arches (closer view):


Enough work for one night. Later!

The peak of the arch (bottom side) sits about 8' 8" off the concrete slab. The soffits are obviously lower and are about 7' 10". Not really a concern unless you are standing on the riser. I am not tall (5' 8") and I can touch the ceiling without much trouble. You will have to watch where you are headed on the riser once the speakers are mounted.

I think that once the drywall is installed and the archs painted like a daytime sky it will look cool. Putting the crown up should be a treat. Still waiting on the LED rope lights that I ordered from BirdDog. Supposidly they are dimmable. The bad thing is that I added the rope light idea after most of the sheetrock was in. Due to this I had to wire the rope lights off the marquee light which comes off the screen lights. All of these lights are only for "show" and won't be on during movies anyhow so I think I should be ok. Still though I would of did it differently had the sheet rock not been up on the walls.

Think of it this way. If the movie stinks you can always look up and think you are outside. I was seriously considering putting in a fiberoptic star ceiling in the arches but the motivation and budget (thanks to my dog's emergency surgeries, cost of tile install, etc). are the holdbacks.

Speaking of tile. The guy called today and (in half broken English/half Italian) told me that cost of install is $2.25 per square foot plus a $300 design fee for around the medalion/pub table. For a guy who does this good of work I think that's a ripping good deal. He figures around 560 square feet of tile to be installed. So it would be his charge plus the actual cost of tile. He took us to a wholesale tile source (ProSoure) which is not open to the general public. Nice stuff there.

Have to work overnight tonight so I am hoping to get some minor things done today.

Thanks for the comments on the new theater ceiling. I am much more happy with this plan than the previous versions .

Got the PJ platform built for the most part today. Just need to put some corner molding on it to hide the seems where the pieces of wood came together. Once the drywall is up around it then I will fill some holes and paint it. It's plenty strong, can hold my weight of 180 pounds .

The electrical outlet and grommet (for cabling) will emerge from the drywall, just behind the PJ platform. Thought this would be the best route since this will give me the whole platform to use for the PJ if need be. Who knows how those things will be shaped in the future.

The outlet is a surge protected Leviton outlet. The grommet looks like this (the one on the right, "Charcoal"):

It's 4 and 9/16" long by 3.5 " wide. The holes are plenty wide and the fins bend out of the way when cords are passed through. They flip up to block the two slots when no cords are passing through. I plan to bring my HDMI through one side and the DVI --> HDMI cable (for laptop) through the other.

Plans for the next few days calls for skim coating the powder room floor and starting to shape the marquee wallplate. We are having a snow/ice storm at the moment so it probably isn't the best time to put some sheets of 1/4" drywall in back of the truck. The arched ceiling will likely have to wait until early next week for drywall.

They will work fine vertically. When I first saw them mentioned in a magazine the picture they showed was vertical. There it almost no way that they would collapse on each other. I literally had to "tap" them into their perspective places on the column with a rubber mallet. Unless you hang something from them I highly doubt they would move. It is rather affordable too. I think it was something like $15 for a 36" vertebrae column. It was from the same site as the grommet mentioned above.

Projector mount is up. Once drywall is placed around it then I will finish up the corner molding, paint it, etc.



Behold the beacon of light! Here's 65 feet of clear LED rope lighting from BirdDog. This will line the arch ceiling in the theater from behind the crown molding light tray.


Next week is arched ceiling drywall week. Better stock up on beer!

FootballDen, I am up in the Reading area. Good luck convincing the wife to give up the garage. Mine would tell me to take a hike, especially in the winter!