Wallace Family Theater / rec room In progress!

Its finally time for me to have my own....

Sorry so long but trying to get it all out for your review and any blunders you might see...

Short History Lesson: We moved into our house over 4 years ago, we had the space and thought it would be nice to have a Home Theater of our own. We want the cool place where our kids and friends can hang out (better to watch them here!) I discovered this forum 4 yrs ago when starting my Home Theater research. I lurked in other forums but was impressed by the tact and patience of AVS Forum members and their willingness to help. My appetite for HT knowledge was great and further fueled by each new bit of knowledge I acquired. "A series of unfortunate events" delayed my dream in 2004. Now its time and I have once again revisted my favorite forums and have been pleasantly surprised to see some of the same great folks still here. The great advice given to others, and the unselfish sharing of information, pictures, and opinions contained in this forum - are driving factors for my HT.

It will not be the grand illusion as initially dreamed 4 years ago but .....
I will do my best to track progress here as a feeble attempt to payback all that I have garnered from this forum....... And of course solicit info and help from the experienced members.

crude drawing of the layout for my basement HT / rec / bar area is at bottom. (I hope) real pictures to be posted soon......

Equipment/Accessory List:
Speakers: Klipsch Quintet SL (just purchased)
Klipsch 12" sub (just purchased) planned DIY sonotube but found a good deal? on SL's w/ "free" sub
Receiver: Harmon Kardon AVR147 (just purchased)
Projector: Mitsubishi HC1500 / Dell MP2400 (front runners)
PJ Mount - DIY in progress.....
DVD player ???
Screen: 100" 16:9 DIY Blackout fabric
Furniture: dark blue Leather couch (front row) and loveseat (backrow) currently in use (buying new for living room once these make transtition to HT)

I plan on rough install as soon as my yet to be ordered projector arrives. I know I will be violating a cardinal rule of HT construction - DO NOT CONNECT PROJECTOR UNTIL HT IS COMPLETE!!! But we need to enjoy it now and it may help convince the wife to spring for more goodies!

Details - right now alot of them are still in my head, trying to sketch them out for WAF and reference. I will be making use of current basement configuration as much as possible to reduce costs:
**Overall- dark blue/gray/burgundy color scheme
- I don't think cooling will be an issue, its pretty cool down there year round, maybe too cool in winter. More blankets!!
- The exterior walls are poured concrete and interior has been finished with 2x4 and drywall
- Drop ceilings already in-place
- No moisture problems
- partially carpeted but that is coming up eventually
- wall outlets and recessed florescent ceiling lights in-place

**Walls/ceiling- linocustic on screen wall and 1/2 of left side wall top/bottom????.
- 3 columns on left side - 1 on right side to hide pole (I like the look of CptnRandy's)
- some kind of stage/proscenium for screen, fronts and center hid behind speaker cloth
- thinking of using large carpet tiles on floor/stage/riser, easier DIY and to replace for stains??... (2 teenagers, pets) will lack of thick pad hurt?
- pondering painting ceiling tiles and metal runners flat black?
- replacing recessed lights with low voltage lights, 2 sconces on left side, different switches.

**Riser - (height TBD) stuffed w/buttkickers (better installed on stage or on furniture?)
- Back of riser will have a high table/bar table for additional seating/pool players. Some great inspirations in this forum (BIGMouthinDC, and others)

Concerns / Issues /questions I have at this point:- Open in back/right side affecting sound quality - ideas to control/correct/mitigate, or not a big factor?
- right now all ceiling lights are on 1 light switch at top of basement stairs. I will be Re-wiring to reconfigure.
- placement of surrounds - ceiling mount or put in columns on side - even though right side of HT is open to bar there is a metal supporting pole I need to box-in, placement is close to good surround location-I think?
- is it generally better to treat top or bottom of half of side walls with sound absorbing material? (linocustic) I'm guessing it depends on several other factors. Most I've seen is on bottom.
- working around water heater location, it should be ok...
- my sub placement may be somewhat limited

I welcome any and all comments/suggestions on my plans so far. Thanks again to forum members for sharing

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" Red Green
Cheers
Jerry

Sorry for the novel in the first post - scope creep already!!!!

I attached a picture of my basement where the theater will be.

burning questions I have right now
- better perfomance from buttkickers (or similar) installed on riser frame or on furniture frames?
- with the HT open in back/right side, how much does it affect sound quality, any ideas to control/correct/mitigate, or not a big factor?
- placement of surrounds - hanging ceiling mount or put in columns on side
- even though right side of HT is open to bar, the metal supporting pole I need to box-in, placement is close to good surround location-I think?
- is it generally better to treat top or bottom of half of side walls with sound absorbing material? (linocustic) I'm guessing it depends on several other factors. Most I've seen is on bottom.

thanks in advance - hoping to order projector tonight....

cheers
jerry

Randy,

Sincere Thanks! I have always admired your theater, I know it was done right with a Mr. Dennis Erskine design. I remember a few years ago I think you had an "HT get together"?? We couldn't make that one - but you're not too far away if the WAF goes sour......

This definitely is an exciting phase - so far the WAF has been high, especially after I took her to a custom install place here in Dayton. Keeping her involved in the design is key I believe (and I will need her sewing talents later for curtains). We checked out about 10 different room setups and equipment, but....They had the coolest thing, called Dbox? ($$$$$$) basically a buttkicking platform on steroids / mini-motion ride like they have at the amusement parks.... 5 nice leather seats on a 4' x 14' motion platform. We watched some of the movie Cars - the kids loved it! (ok, me too)..

thanks again
Cheers
Jerry

No visible progress, but did get projector ordered (Mits HC1500) and finalized stage design. Should start on stage this weekend.

We also picked up some ottomans to go with the front row couch. They are about 14 inches square and the lid flips over for a tray.

Looked at some figured fabrics for drapes, won't be wide drapes - just an accent. Any good pictures of curtains/drapes out there?

Questions for anyone thats cares to answer:
Should I be worried about enclosing the gas water heater (WH) a little?
subwoofer near WH shaking loose sediment....
subwoofer blowing out pilot light? (just kidding)...

Anyone with figured curtains, are they a distraction

cheers
Jerry

No construction progress yet, but I did go to Parts Express and picked up some cables. Great staff - I'm lucky that they are so close. I looked at IR distribution stuff, might go RF/IR once I get a few other things done. I figure the WAF will be higher if she can push one button to watch a movie instead of using 3 remotes and sorting through all the functions......

Projector arrived, stopped at Time-Warner to pickup HD converter box. Its killing me not to do a quick hookup to watch the playoffs in 100" of HD......... but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Plan on building screen and PJ mount today, pictures tonight or tomorrow

Anyone else doing the NFL Playoffs Fantasy League?

cheers
Jerry

Pictures would be great of your setup!

I was stalled for a bit after my wife made a suggestion to configure the basement a different way than I had already planned. I had to check it out since it seemed a viable option. But after some measurements and thinking about it, I was back to plan A.

I really wanted to get a rough in for my sons birthday party, finished the screen 2 hours before showtime.

So right now -

100" Blackout Screen is 75% complete - still need to build outside frame and cover in velvet (have supplies)

Projector hung from ceiling on homemade mount

Picture is awesome! from Mitsibushi HC1500, sound from Harmon Kardon AVR147 and Klipsch Quintet speakers with 12" sub is great! I am really pleased on my equipment choices so far. Still have not sat down to watch a movie, just Guitar Hero III, some PS2 racing games and some soccer and Hockey All Star game.

Now the rush is past and I can start painting, building, and looking for Linocustic in Dayton. I think I have my desing finalized in my head. PLans for stage, riser, and columns will be drawn and posted for suggestions - please!

As soon as I find a place online to post some pictures I will add some links.

Cheers
jerry

I will do my best to get some pictures posted this weekend of my screen build and pj mount. Need to build the frame for screen, the wife bought the velvet 2 weeks ago. Soccer and some other "football" game this weekend may preclude progress.....

A SIGNIFICANT developmnent today was the final decision of a decorating scheme for the HT and bar area - English/Irish/Scottish Pub Style! Mahogony stain, dark blues and grays, I excited to finally nail it down. I surfed alot tonight looking at pub designs and colors. Add a Braveheart or Rob Roy poster and I'm all set!

cheers
Jerry

The screen is blackout cloth stretched and stapled on a 1" x 2" frame. I offset the inside pieces about 1/2 inch to prevent them from pshing against the screen material.
Attachment 100955

Attachment 100956

The projector mount came from different homemade mounts I had seen, and especially one called the "monkey-man mount". Basically it is 2 pipe flanges, 1 5 inch nipple, 3 4mm x 50 mm bolts, 3 springs and 1 heavy duty piece of plexiglass I had laying around.

Attachment 100957

Attachment 100958

I did have to make sure my placing measurements were pretty accurate with the HC1500, but I am very pleased with the picture.

My next quandry is to figure out what step to do next???????????
I'm pushing towards this sequence:

1) painting the ceiling flat black/dark bluse or dark brown
2) building the stage, screenwall, water heater hiding thing,and AV rack (all on front wall)
3) build the riser
4) paint the walls
5) linocustic & fabric
6) columns
7) trim and final touches...

any thoughts suggestions?

My home theater that I started in Feb of 2008 is almost complete. I read in here somewhere a few years ago "Do not hook up the equipment until the theater is complete!" A bonafide true statement.... Once I had my equipment up - I put it on hold to catch up some other things....... 11 months later - still no progress.

Fast forward to January 2009. We decided to reconfigure the basement layout so our backs will not be to the stairs. The right side of the theater is now open to the bar, air hockey, and ping pong tables. I really like this design much better. I know it is probably not the best for good sound - but it works for us. We also tried the front row/back row seating arrangement. For us - we want this to be more social - so side by side they are. Mr Erskine would cringe at the problems I have created in relation to obtaining optimum sound quality. (however I did put sand in my stage under my sub and stuffed the rest with insulation).

In a flurry of activity - I did most of the work in two weeks preceding the Superbowl. I found the ceiling lights and sconces on sale at Lowes. I still have work to do (trim, curtains, door for eq rack, some more painting, etc....) but the main work is done. The final design was based on features I discovered in this forum. Thanks again to all who share their toil.

Here are a few (updated) pics - the last ones I attached did not do justice to my theater..... I am really happy with the results so far but still have a ways to go. The next big item is carpet......

cheers
Jerry

Picked up the air hockey last weekend. Found a good deal nearby. Unfortunately when we (previous owner & I) were carrying it out of his basement - he broke off one end. Lucky? for me I can/did fix it already. Not the top of the line table but it is heavy and seems to work well so far.

Next is finishing some more walls, carpet, building the bar and enclosing the bottom of the stairs.

Were were thinking of just painting the concrete where the ping pong and air hockey will be - but are reconsidering. Has anyone painted their concrete basement floors in a rec area? Happy with it?

note: picture is from guy who sold it to me....

Cheers
Jerry