[ edit 9-5-2010: thread title changed, was "Mike R DIY Home Theatre/Basement Thread (4yr proj done in 2008!)", but took 2 more years....]
I've been so busy lately there has been no time to make an "official" DIY thread for my walkout basement/HT project, however due to me getting a nasty case of carpal tunnel (more on that later) and the doctor injected both wrists with steroids so they heal, I've been "off the basement project" for the past two weeks, can "re-start" work on it this upcoming weekend (2/9).
Therefore, this is the official start of my basement/HT DIY project AVS forum thread!
(I've had some specific posts here and there over the past few months, they will be consolidated here)
Background:
We built our loghome and move in May-2002, here it is, front and back showing walkout view:
The plan was always to "someday" finish the basement, we had rough image of the basement put onto the original BluePrints, along with some of the floor drain plumbing for the bath was roughed in and capped at initial construction phase back in Aug-2001.
We have 3 kids; 6, 4, and 2, and a 85lb Black Lab named "Jedi". So Life has been very busy and very good, we are blessed with good healthy children.
Basement/HT DIY Project top level image:
We'd like to carry the loghome theme into the basement, and also include bright/bold colors in the rooms to harmonize with our 1 acre wildflower front yard, we have 2.12 acres total.
I'll try to have some log home feel inside the Home Theatre, yet realize the color scheme will need to be done based upon lighting dynamics as the main driver.
Here is basement layout, almost 1,300 sq feet includes:
-Full 9' high ceiling
-Craft room for my wife (11' x 12')
-Full 3rd bath
-4th Bedroom (12' x 14', nice for company)
-Huge walk in closet under the stairs
-Big openplay/rec room for kids/family activities (15' x 30'), includes refrig/sink/microwave area for snacks, lots of storage space for kids "stuff"
-Home Cinema room (14'6" x 18'6" ), I hate the usage of Man Cave for it, and Home Cinema is appropriate since I'm going 2.35:1 screen instead of 16:9 screen
-Utility room where the GeoThermal heat pump is and all mechanicals is isolated from the main basement area as shown in the layout.
Walkout layout has French doors for easy access/movement of stuff (that is west wall), while the craft room has 2 windows and the bedroom has 1 window, short wall is north facing.
I can control/manage the lighting pretty well in the home Cinema room, since it has no windows.
HT Layout:
HT pictures (2011)
Screen shot:
Rear shot:
Basement layout:
This has been a 3+ year project for me, I only work on it Dec thru March, and even then just weekends, sometimes just 3-4 hours/weekend due to yound kids and busy schedule/etc.
Overall plan is I do everything except drywall.
The 4 year Timeline:
(this was never planned as a 4 year project, initial thought was two years, but life got busy)
-Dec 2004 thru March 2005: Plan & design, changed the stairs going into the basement from a "L" layout to a "U" layout, frame all the walls, tighten log wall rod spring system
-Dec 2005 thru March 2006; Bath copper plumbing, re-do shower drain (add P-trap)/partial HVAC runs (I ran both hot and cold air supply for each room reciric)
-Dec 2006 thru March 2007; Finish HVAC, foil sealed ALL seams on HVAC runs, built home theatre seat riser section, re-tighten log wall rod spring system, sealed bond areas
-Nov 2007; I installed new H20 softener system (gave up on my EcoSmarte system that had it's own thread in the S&V "Just Chat" section a few months back, EcoSmarte Whole Home H20 issue) and a RO system
-Dec 2007 thru Now (Feb 2008); Plan and did all Electrical (almost 2,000 feet of 14/2, 14/3, and 12/3 romex), ran 500 feet of 14/4 speaker wire for Home Cinema room + Zone 2 and Zone 3 speakers in rec room and Craft room, cables/Cat5 wire for Frt Proj/subwoofer ran, decide to add sink to rec room, cut concete floor and plumb for drain and supply, contracted drywall was started on 12/27/07 and they just finished Friday 1/18/08. We are just painting rooms now, I'm hooking up electrical sw/circuits.
My big picture is done by end of March/early April 2008, lots to do still:
-Paint all rooms
-Install 6 doors + 1 bi-fold door (pre-stain same as main home interior stain)
-Wood trim all doors/windows (pre-stain same as main home interior stain)
-connect all outlets/switches, connect the 10 new circuits (Home Runs!)
-install all elect fixtures/lighting
-Full concrete shower floor
-tile shower and bath floor, install shower glass, install plumbing fixtures
-install all cabinets/sink/toilet
-install drop ceiling over rec room (all other rooms have drywall ceiling, however so many mechanical runs are in rec room ceiling made sense to do drop ceiling there)
-Flooring; Cork in craft room and possible also big rec room, tile in bath, carpet in all other rooms
-Do my IB subwoofer install work (seperate thread I had on that)
-Then, install all my Home Cinema Gear (I'd doing that last as motivator to finish all the other stuff);
Equipment List:
Bought already:
Front Projector: Sony VPL-VW60,
Anamorphic lens: Panamorph Model UH380 Universal Anamorphic Lens (just bought B-stock!)
A/V: Denon AVR-4308CI
Speakers: 7.1 spkrs Paradigm Frt Monitor Series 9, Center CC-390, 4 Rear/back surrounds ADP-390.
(speakers/A/V and PJ bought from local shop in SE Michigan, http://www.avio.tv/aboutus.asp )
Panamax M5300-PM for clean power.
Not bought yet:
Screen: 125"/tbd diag cinemawide screen
I've not bought a DVD of HiDef optical unit just yet, waiting for some more shakeout in the HD vs Blu wars to further drive prices down.
Here is Home Cinema front wall image:
Holy cow, after I typed the above realize still lots of work left, yet I can see the light coming closer to the end of the long-long 3+ year tunnel.
One nice thing, since I've been doing this in yearly phases everything was paid and installed ongoing, so I'm not in debt from the construction phase.
Plus, I've seen the Frt Proj technology change so much, going from 720p to 1080p with fantistic picture image and decent price points, and the HDMI spec has finally settled down, so all my A/V equipment is full 1.3 compliant.
I'll do a quick pictorial re-cap of the project over the next few days, and then I'll have some Q's for the AVS regulars, also hopefully others can gain some experience/insight into their own future projects from that.
Edited by mtbdudex - 12/24/12 at 8:17am































Its the best feeling when you know that you made it yourself + you know its done right


, I was watching/listening to the DD 5.1 demo DVD I got from CES 2006 and the LFE's in there are quite neat, good selection of clips and it was "free".


