[R B]

Sunday was filled with cleaning up the basement some more and to begin wiring up the light switches in the theater room along with the rest of the basement. Had to remember some of what I did from last year with 3/4way circuits which is always fun.

Installed in the theater room 6 Lutron Casetta Wirelless Switches and plan to install the smart hub later to control everything from our phones/tablets/etc. I prewired and tested the circuit to make sure everything worked before I installed the gang extenders and finished the installation.

Semi final pic below. I decided to pic white just so they would stand out in the dark for the kids and its in the back of the room behind the seats. The wall plate would not fit so I will go back later and bend the wire to adjust the switches before finishing. I used the two extra gangs to install some Legrand night lights that are activated by touch. I need to call customer support though because they turn off on there own which I figured would happen. The Caseta Wireless switches group the neutral wires together to monitor the state of the lights and the night lights need to use the neutral wire connected directly to the light. I am assuming that the Casetta switches are telling the lights to randomly turn off. The 6 switches control the lights as follows:

1. Back Wall Lights
2. Both Side Wall Lights
3. Screen Wash and Behind the AT Screen Lights
4. Ceiling Flushmount LED's
5. Tray Ceiling Outlets (Plan to install either LED Rop Lights, Black Lights, or LED Star Ceiling). The wife and kids think it would be cool to paint the ceiling but I kind of like the LED Star ceiling.
6. Riser lights and step light

 

[R B]

Started then to build the riser. I used 2*12's for the exterior and 2*10's for the interior joists. Also doubled up the felt paper underneath. I have a 3'*3' step on the left-hand side and the wiring for the step lights, outlets for the seats, and the wiring for future butt kickers all waiting to be installed. You'll see that I used mid bracing to help support the interior joists.

In this view you will notice that some of the lights are blue. The kids wanted to be able to change the color of the lights. It is a pretty cool feature but these were cheap lights I got off of Amazon and the remote needs to be a couple of feet away from each light to change the colors. I will uninstall these later and replace them.

 

[R B]

Looking for some input here. I was originally planning on mounting some isolators like the one below in between the 2x4 framed walls and the Plywood of the media cabinet to create a separation. The walls outside of the theater room are double-walled with an air cavity in between but as you can see I poked a large hole right through it. I will be building and installing a murphy cabinet outside of the theater to access the media cabinets rear. I think though that this will create an air gap that is only covered by trim unless I fill the cavity with insulation.

I am thinking though that I will just use the leftover rubber mat and cut strips and secure them to each 2x4 then mount the cabinet directly to the rubber and 2x4. Not sure I want to spend the money on the isolators and I am not confident that it would make it any better.

If anyone has a better idea I am open to it.

By the way this is the outside of the media cabinet which is located outside of the theater room. I am building cabinet inserts with shelves for these two spots. And where these shelves are there is not a double wall since I cut into it for the shelve space.

 

[R B]

Got in about 4.5 hrs tonight. I built the back wall where I will have a stand up only area behind the back row. The finished height will be 4' and wide enough for drinks and such. I did break the rules though, as I anchored the bar to the concrete floor (The rest of the structure is still floating). Saved some lumber on this as I ripped my own 2*4's with the leftover 2*12/10's/ etc.

Also finished roughing in all of the wiring for the riser which includes lights, outlets, speaker wire.

I installed these grey PVC hubs to run the speaker wire through and that way I can coil it up later and protect it. One is going out the front of the riser while the second is coming up under the future seats on the riser. I set it with approximately 3" hanging up to make it flush by the time I put in 3 layers of 3/4" OSB and the carpet pad and carpet.

Final View for the evening.

 

[R B]

Worked some more tonight. Went to Lowes and got 1,500 lbs of Quickrete Play Sand. Another 1,500-2,000 to go.

Running the de-humidifier for a while though because there is some moisture in the bags.

Put the first layer of 3/4 Tounge and Groove OSB on the Riser and steps. Plan to finish these tomorrow but I may wait until the bullnose router comes in next week to put the final layer on top.

 

[MinHeadroom]

Nice progress!

 

[R B]

Nice progress!

Thanks. I still feel like there is a long way to go and greasing the skids with the better half to buy all the electronics is the next step.

 

[R B]

Some updates. The tile came on Friday that will be used right outside of the theater for future kitchen bar top area.

 

[R B]

Saturday was filled with installing more sand. This time when I went to Lowes the guys brought me different sand on the forklift. Told them I needed it dried and they found the white sand. The day before I was told all they had was the brown sand. Oh well, you can see updates that the dehumidifier is working. I will put the remaining bags of white sand on top of the brown once dried.

I also made an audible and decided to extend the riser another three inches to accommodate a few more options for seating as the wife and I were looking at different ones. The step to the right of the riser is still 39.5" wide. Also, put the second layer of OSB on but the Green Glue is back-ordered at the local Menards so will just buy some more online and finish later.

 

[R B]

Final Post this morning as I am about to go into the basement. I decided to use the remaining rubber mat for the stage and cut small squares (multi-tool was helpful to do this) to isolate the built-in shelves on the outside of the media cabinet since this broke the double wall that I built. Then stuffed the remaining area with pink fluffy and left about a 3/4" air gap in between the built-in shelf and the interior wall. I plan to do this also on the media cabinet.

 

[R B]

Updates from yesterday. More woodworking on the rest of the built-in shelves and media cabinet. Also finally framed in the structural post with a column. My table saw quit working the other night so had to be really careful with my circular saw.

It was quite the process to build and put in the media cabinet as a one-piece insert (probably should have just built this before I put drywall on, but it only took a few minutes). Had the wife help to move this into place and feed all wiring through.

 

[R B]

Only got a little done today after work before heading to baseball.

Stuffed cavities with insulation in between the two walls. Should be no open air gap from the window. Then I stalled jamb extensions and bottom sill, and stuffed with more insulation.

 

[OJ Bartley]

Hey R B, this is a really nice looking build, and you're doing an amazing job handling the random issues that pop up. Reading through your thread I saw a lot of things that remind me of my ongoing (no thread yet) build. I'm just about to place my order for the Caseta dimmers and switches to control my Amazon RGB pot lights among other things. I decided to stick with black for the Casetas, although there's quite a price premium for those in Canada. Let us know how you like yours, I'm pretty optimistic about them.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

 

[R B]

Hey R B, this is a really nice looking build, and you're doing an amazing job handling the random issues that pop up. Reading through your thread I saw a lot of things that remind me of my ongoing (no thread yet) build. I'm just about to place my order for the Caseta dimmers and switches to control my Amazon RGB pot lights among other things. I decided to stick with black for the Casetas, although there's quite a price premium for those in Canada. Let us know how you like yours, I'm pretty optimistic about them.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

Thanks OJ. There are a lot of things I would like to change like dimensions, window (future plug), placement in my basement etc. I built this house four years ago and got the itch to build a theater later. Right now I like the Caseta switches for what they do. I am even more sure I will like them more once I get the smart hub in place. I wanted to maintain the Legrand Adorne switches in the theater because I used them in my entire house but they want a premium for their wireless dimmers.

 

[R B]

Accomplished a lot last weekend but not the past few days. Most of the work is in the rest of the basement though.

In the theater room, I am still drying the sand, and finished most of the riser (will be going back to putty screw holes), stuffed insulation in any exposed cavities, and began to clean up the media cabinet.

I will be filling the grey box with foam and cut a hole with 4" rubber grommets to run the cables through. Also got rid of most of the excess cabling.

 

[pkinneb]

Looks great! Curious why are you going to fill the screw holes?

 

[R B]

Kooks great! Curious why are you going to fill the screw holes?

I guess I meant to say the plywood that covers the bar frame but I am carpeting the OSB floor.

I planned to fill the holes and seams then sand it smooth so that I could go back and paint it. The other option I have been debating was to just get some small 1x pine and trim out the edges and screw holes every 16".

 

[pkinneb]

I guess I meant to say the plywood that covers the bar frame but I am carpeting the OSB floor.

I planned to fill the holes and seams then sand it smooth so that I could go back and paint it. The other option I have been debating was to just get some small 1x pine and trim out the edges and screw holes every 16".

Ahh that makes sense I thought you were talking about the floor, my mistake

 

[R B]

Got a lot done so far this weekend. I drywalled under the stairs to have a small little cubby (only about 3' tall so it has been fun crawling under there to hang and mud.

Spent a lot of the rest of the time filling holes and seams with bondo and lots of sanding.

Late last night finally got a lot of the paint and trim hung in different areas of the basement. Still Drying but looks smooth now.

Filled the junction box with polyfill and cut the hole with the rubber grommet for a pass through.

 

[R B]

I'll give a few different updates. I anticipated that the first round of sand would be dried by the time I was ready to close the riser up since I have been working on the rest of the basement also. Still was not fully dried out so Operation Dehydration was commenced. Only took a couple of hours to pull out and put back in but the sand dried in a couple of days.