Ok here goes my first heavily edited post. The original has been thoroughly trashed. My wife and I purchased this home about a year and a half ago when we moved from Florida to Georgia. The one thing I wanted was a basement. Growing up in Texas basements aren’t typical and living in Florida basements are known as indoor swimming pools.
I purchased my theater components last February and it’s an entry level system but for $3000 at the time I think it’s pretty awesome. The projector is a PT-AX200U, I have the Onkyo HTIB (HTS908), but I replaced the DVD player with the Pany DMP-BD35K BluRay player. I also purchased a Carada 106” 1.78 to 1 screen in Classic Cinema White. So with all the equipment I trotted down to the unfinished basement and hung everything from the bare studs. I did mount a piece of ¾” plywood to the floor joists and attached the projector mount to the plywood. Well at this point I didn’t have a very high WAF, however, once the football season started the WAF went to high.
During this same time period my second son was born, I also have a three year-old. So having toys scattered all through the house has exceeded annoying and has reached almost dangerous. Not sure why but I seem to be the only one who trips over and steps on toys. How the boys and my wife avoid them amazes me. It was at this point I gave up my office and moved everything down to the basement, and my office became the playroom. My wife lost her section of the office but was willing to give it up to centralize the toy craze. Oh, we blame the grandparents for the mess; of course we helped but can’t take credit.
So now with the back story in place the basement had to have provisions for a theater, playroom, office, bar, game room, and bathroom. Fortunately the interior walls in the basement worked well where they were. Since they are all load bearing it was easier to adjust the floor plan to accommodate the walls than try moving them.
We like entertaining and felt that an open theater area blending into the game room and bar area would be the best solution. To promote a more open feeling we are having a large arch opened in the wall between the theater and the game room. We are also trying to pull elements from the upstairs into the basement as well. For example, we have a two story fireplace that’s covered with stone. So in the basement I’m going to have the screen wall covered in stone with the screen recessed in the wall. We’re also carrying the stone theme into the bar area. The front of the bar will be covered in stone and the back wall behind the bar will have stone as well as a flat panel. I need to see if I can create some mock ups of what I have in mind.
Also I hired a GC since with two little ones and a more than full time job I just don't have a great deal of free time.
Here’s the floor plan that I came up with.
Now for some dimensions:
Theater: 14’ 8” x 20’8” viewing distance from screen is around 13’ Due to traffic flow and windows on the outer wall the room is wider than long.
The Bar will be roughly 11’1” by 7’5”
The Game room is 20’ 8” by 13’ 8”
The office will be 11’ x 12’

I purchased my theater components last February and it’s an entry level system but for $3000 at the time I think it’s pretty awesome. The projector is a PT-AX200U, I have the Onkyo HTIB (HTS908), but I replaced the DVD player with the Pany DMP-BD35K BluRay player. I also purchased a Carada 106” 1.78 to 1 screen in Classic Cinema White. So with all the equipment I trotted down to the unfinished basement and hung everything from the bare studs. I did mount a piece of ¾” plywood to the floor joists and attached the projector mount to the plywood. Well at this point I didn’t have a very high WAF, however, once the football season started the WAF went to high.
During this same time period my second son was born, I also have a three year-old. So having toys scattered all through the house has exceeded annoying and has reached almost dangerous. Not sure why but I seem to be the only one who trips over and steps on toys. How the boys and my wife avoid them amazes me. It was at this point I gave up my office and moved everything down to the basement, and my office became the playroom. My wife lost her section of the office but was willing to give it up to centralize the toy craze. Oh, we blame the grandparents for the mess; of course we helped but can’t take credit.
So now with the back story in place the basement had to have provisions for a theater, playroom, office, bar, game room, and bathroom. Fortunately the interior walls in the basement worked well where they were. Since they are all load bearing it was easier to adjust the floor plan to accommodate the walls than try moving them.
We like entertaining and felt that an open theater area blending into the game room and bar area would be the best solution. To promote a more open feeling we are having a large arch opened in the wall between the theater and the game room. We are also trying to pull elements from the upstairs into the basement as well. For example, we have a two story fireplace that’s covered with stone. So in the basement I’m going to have the screen wall covered in stone with the screen recessed in the wall. We’re also carrying the stone theme into the bar area. The front of the bar will be covered in stone and the back wall behind the bar will have stone as well as a flat panel. I need to see if I can create some mock ups of what I have in mind.
Also I hired a GC since with two little ones and a more than full time job I just don't have a great deal of free time.
Here’s the floor plan that I came up with.

Now for some dimensions:
Theater: 14’ 8” x 20’8” viewing distance from screen is around 13’ Due to traffic flow and windows on the outer wall the room is wider than long.
The Bar will be roughly 11’1” by 7’5”
The Game room is 20’ 8” by 13’ 8”
The office will be 11’ x 12’
