Ambrosio's Unaplex II: Room within a Room Build

**tjambro** · **01-20-09, 10:29 PM**

A couple things I learned during this blitz:

You can't go to Lowes without spending at least $100
The guy who built my house was drunk
The biggest regular corded drill will be beat by a new Hitachi Hammer Drill for installing tapcons through ceramic tile and concrete
You can't go to Lowes without spending at least $100 - see Hammer Drill
Fiberglass insulation is itchy
Fiberglass insulation cannot be bought at Lowes for less than $100
As you are installing custom cut pieces of R13 and R30 in the joists built by a drunk home builder, you learn to hate the Pink Panther
You cannot go to Lowes without spending at least $100 - see Hammer Drill and Insulation
If you knock over your shop lights while they are on, 50% of them will quit within 10 seconds of falling
You can't go to Lowes without spening $100 even if your home builder was drunk

Here's a picture of my custom cut R13 and R30 insulation between the new joists we installed and the original joists installed by the drunk home builder in 1965:

The reason I say the builder was drunk is because none of the ceiling joists were square with the block walls. When dad and I added the new 2x8 joists between the original joists we had to make them square so that each piece of sheetrock would not have to be cut on all sides. It would have been nice to just space the new joists an inch or so from the old joists but if we did that, each piece of sheetrock would have ended up being a trapezoid. The downside of installing the new joists square should be obvious in this picture...the insulation had to be custom cut.

Also, since the basement floor and original ceiling joists were not level, the walls we built had various different clearances between the top of the new walls and the original house joists. The main home floor does actually pitch in a few places along the center of the house. I'm not sure if this was due to settling or maybe the builder really was drunk. Although I wasn't thrilled, we ended up notching each 2x8 joist so that the new theater ceiling would be fairly level. The theater width will only be 12' so I think the notched 2x8 joists will support the 3 layers of drywall. I'm glad they will be supporting a dead load, not a live load.

Here's the first piece of sheetrock being installed by my dad...only 149 to go!

Here you can see a few pieces of ceiling rock, R13 in between the 24"OC walls we made as well as the R-13 and R-30 in the ceiling with the new joists:

Here's what the room looks like right now:

This shows the first layer of drywall complete. I have yet to mud and caulk, but at least one layer is up. The room is still a mess, I haven't touched it since we finished Saturday. I am taking a break and will get back to it maybe this weekend. Now that dad has left and I have to go back to my real job so that I can support my insulation purchases, the work will unfortunately slow to a trickle. Note that the IB chamber wall and theater/soundlock wall have not been built yet. I plan to build these walls after the 3 layers of rock are installed.

Two last pics for the Building Blitz '09. This one is a shot of one of my custom door slabs (standing on its side). The pic shows 2 of the 5 mitered hinge locations. I was pleased how this came out. I didn't think I would be able to route this that well freehand:

The last pic is this door slab hung:

This is the door that enters to the soundlock room. You will have to pass through the soundlock area to get to the theater. There will be communicating doors at the theater entrance. Note that the door is very rough. I don't even have the header installed. I just hung it because dad was here and it is hard to maneuver into place by myself and I wanted to see how the 5 spring loaded hinges worked. I am pleased to report that I believe they will have enough tension to close the door against the weather striping that will be installed later. We put a temporary stop up to keep the door swinging too far when closing. I won't put the pull handle/push plate on until the heavy construction is done.

Thanks for looking!

**Space** · **01-21-09, 10:43 PM**

Tom, thanks for the work, the pictures and the heads up about Lowes. I was curious what the dollar amount cut off was, now I know

Pretty quiet in there, eh?

**bpape** · **01-22-09, 12:10 AM**

One other thing to add to the list - you can't build a theater without making at least 100 trips to Lowes!

Bryan

**roffe** · **01-22-09, 04:35 AM**

Quote:

bpape wrote:

One other thing to add to the list - you can't build a theater without making at least 100 trips to Lowes!

Bryan

Yikes! This means you'll spend at least $10000 at Lowes before you are done.

Luckily, there is no Lowes in my country.

**tjambro** · **01-22-09, 11:12 PM**

Quote:

Space wrote:

Pretty quiet in there, eh?

It's getting quieter in there but it's not super quiet yet because the room is still open. You can't see from the picture I posted, but where the sound lock room (about 8' wide) opens up to the main theater room (about 12' wide) there is a little wall. I don't have this little wall rocked yet. I am using it to pass rock from the lobby to the theater. I mudded and caulked the first layer ceiling tonite and will start the second ceiling layer this weekend. I will start from the IB chamber (furthest away in the photo) and work back toward the sound lock room. When I get close to this wall with the 2nd ceiling, I will confirm that I can get rock in through my sound lock door (shouldn't be a problem) and then wall off this short wall. Then maybe it will start getting even quieter...of course the door is not really doing much yet either...

Having said all that, even with the room basically open, I have noticed the furnace is much quieter. While in the basement, I used to be able to hear the furnace strike the igniters, here the gas make that slight "woosh" noise when it ignites and then hear the blower kick on. All I can hear now is the blower and it is much quieter. I must be doing something right, no?

**tjambro** · **01-22-09, 11:16 PM**

Quote:

bpape wrote:

One other thing to add to the list - you can't build a theater without making at least 100 trips to Lowes!

Ain't that the truth! Of the 10 days dad and I worked on the room (Building Blitz '09), we went to Lowes every day except 2. That's no joke. Sometimes we went twice! Fortunately (unfortunately?), Lowes/HD are only 5 to 10 minutes from the house.

**tjambro** · **01-22-09, 11:20 PM**

Quote:

roffe wrote:

Yikes! This means you'll spend at least $10000 at Lowes before you are done.

I purposely am not tracking total costs at this time. I am putting all my theater related receipts in a file folder but will not add up all the costs until it is complete. I know it will be a nice piece of change...a figure I probably won't volunteer to my wife unless she specifically asks...[on knees praying she won't ask]

**emo777** · **01-25-09, 12:50 AM**

Hi Tom,

Love your work and documentation of your home theatre project.

I will be doing the same thing in a few months and had the same idea as you with regards a room within a room. Just wondering why did you use the RSIC-DCO4 clips and how we're they installed???

Can't you just place the 2x8 beams in between the 2 old joist ontop of the new framed walls??

How about the interior walls, how did you space them from the old wall?? ( i didnt see this step unless i mssed it?? sorry if i did.)

I will be definitely keep a close eye on your project. I hope you dont mind if i ask you a few questions once in a while.

thanks

Emilio

**tjambro** · **01-25-09, 01:28 AM**

Quote:

emo777 wrote:

I will be doing the same thing in a few months and had the same idea as you with regards a room within a room. Just wondering why did you use the RSIC-DCO4 clips and how we're they installed???

First off, welcome to the Shack! I originally didn't plan on adding the DCO4 clips, but bpape suggested them. I did put the 2x8's directly on the new framed walls but it was recommended to attach the DCO4 clips on top of the new framed wall and attach the top of the clip to the old joists. Even though it seems a bit counter intuitive to me, I figured I might as well listen to the people who have been doing this stuff for years. I was told with all the bass (I plan on a large sealed IB chamber), drywall would crack if I didn't secure things better with the clips.

Quote:

How about the interior walls, how did you space them from the old wall?? ( i didnt see this step unless i mssed it?? sorry if i did.)

Three sides of the theater project (IB sub chamber, main theater and sound lock) are surrounded by block walls. I just built new walls 1" away from the material on the block walls and secured the new walls with tapcons (through basement concrete) and screws (not thru concrete, just thru the dricore which the walls are sitting on. The side of the theater that has no block will have an interior and exterior wall built by me. For part of it, I already have a wall that was there before I started. I spaced that section 1" away from the current wall. The section of the actual theater that opens into the lobby/arcade will have a thicker wall (more spacing between framed walls). The idea is to try to minimize the sound transmission into the lobby as it is open to the rest of the house...my basement doesn't have a door at the top of the stairs. I'll probably make that wall about 6" away from the interior wall.

Quote:

I will be definitely keep a close eye on your project. I hope you dont mind if i ask you a few questions once in a while.

Don't mind at all...that's why we're all here, to ask questions and learn from others. Let me know when you start your build thread. I would like to see how you do yours...

**emo777** · **01-25-09, 12:31 PM**

Hi Tom,

Just curious cause i will have this problem down the road. I want to run a conduit pipe from the front of my screen to the back of the room where all my equipment and projector will be. I want to have a plasma and drop down screen option.

with the joist running the wrong way can i notch the joist for a 2.5-3" conduit to fit through or would that be a structural issue??

**bpape** · **01-25-09, 12:36 PM**

If I may - that's why soffits around the room perimeter are very useful. You can run the conduit in there and keep all of the structural integrity of the joists.

Bryan

**emo777** · **01-25-09, 12:42 PM**

Ahh.... blonde moment there for me... correct totally forgot about that. thanks

**tjambro** · **01-25-09, 03:52 PM**

Quote:

emo777 wrote:

with the joist running the wrong way can i notch the joist for a 2.5-3" conduit to fit through or would that be a structural issue??

I would have to agreed with Bryan. Use the soffits instead. If you aren't going to have soffits, I personally would not notch my joists for a conduit. I only did it as a way to get the joists to fit atop my newly constructed walls. My house was built by a drunk and the new ceiling would not have been anywhere near level if I didn't do this. Without notching the joists, I would have had to take down all the walls we constructed and make each one a different height trying to compensate for the unlevel floor and pitch of the current joists. Note: my house does have a slight pitch from the outside wall to the center where the main beam is. It is slightly noticeable with our wood floors. With carpet, I doubt you would notice it at all. But the basement (theater) ceiling would have been off too much for me to ignore.

**Space** · **01-25-09, 04:16 PM**

If it comes down to a space requirement, wood floor trusses would allow for overhead conduit with no boring of the framing member.

The cost goes up, sure, but the open access would be significant. A different material, Wood I-Joists ,come with pre-stamped knock-outs for conduit.

Just some things to consider.

**emo777** · **01-25-09, 11:07 PM**

thanks for the advice i think the soffit on both sides will work i totally forgot about it

On another topic, how much differences is there if you we're to do stager the 2x4's for the interior walls as opposed to creating another wall?? I was thinking of just adding 2x3 base and top and butt it against my 2x6 framing that i have now and just add 2x4 staggered and then add 2 sheets of drywall or accoustic sound barrier and drywall and then do the ceiling as how Tom is doing it?? what do you guys suggest??

thanks guys!!!

Emo

**Space** · **01-25-09, 11:46 PM**

The difference in doing one wall with both sides layered and two decoupled walls with opposing sides layered is huge!

Using STC as a reference it can be anywhere from 32 points for the one wall to 60 points for the decoupled frames. If dollars and cents are part of the equation, the two decoupled wall frames will reach the desired goal sooner then the other.

Also, in order to do an overhead of any weight you will need substantial framing support. You will not get this support from 2 X 3 members.

**bpape** · **01-26-09, 07:19 AM**

Agreed on the double walls - if you have the space to spare.

If you are tight on space and still want some extra decoupling, you can do 2x6 top and bottom plates and staggered studs one side to the other so no studs share drywall on both sides. It's not as good as 2 separate walls but takes up less space, costs less, and is certainly better than 1 standard wall.

Bryan

**tjambro** · **01-26-09, 05:26 PM**

Emo,

What they said.

**emo777** · **02-02-09, 11:08 PM**

Hi Tom
Any new update on your HT project
Emo

**tjambro** · **02-04-09, 09:51 PM**

Quote:

emo777 wrote:

Any new update on your HT project

Not as much as I would like. I did get 9 full pieces plus a couple of small pieces of drywall installed on the ceiling with green glue. This is the second layer. I have a wall that I have not finished that I am passing sheet rock through and I took the 2nd layer of ceiling close to that as possible. I cut rock for the 2nd layer for the walls (to this same pass through) that I hope to get glued and screwed this weekend.

Unfortunately, I haven't done as much as I would like mostly due to work and last week's ice storm. We had over 1" of ice followed by 6" of snow. We lost power Tuesday nite and didn't get it back until Friday afternoon. By Thursday morning it was 43F in my house and we had had it by then so I bought a generator and got the gas furnace running by 8:30PM Thursday. This weekend, I would like to work on the room but I may be cutting up all the limbs that fell in my back yard. One limb took out a section of fence also. It might rain though on Saturday. If it does, I can work on the room instead of the limbs.

My plan is to get the 3 layers of rock done up to the pass through wall, finish that wall and then finish the rest of the rock. Once all 3 layers are done, I will build the dividing walls for the soundlock/theater and the theater/sub chamber.

There's no point me posting pictures of the drywall because 2 layers looks just like one, etc.

**bpape** · **02-04-09, 09:57 PM**

Come on rain!

Bryan

**tjambro** · **02-10-09, 11:13 PM**

Quote:

bpape wrote:

Come on rain!

You're a very bad man, Mr. Pape!

Unfortunately, it didn't rain so I worked on the trees Saturday. It took nearly all day and I still have a lot of branches to contend with. It would have went quicker if I didn't get the chain saw stuck in a 8" limb that straddled my fence and the neighbor's yard. I ended up standing on my rickety ladder, which was standing on ice, using a hand saw to free the chain saw. That was an hour of my life I'll never get back!

The theater wasn't a total loss this weekend, I did stay up late on Friday nite and hung my second layer of rock on the walls...up to the pass through wall. I used an entire pail of GG. I'm still working on trees this week and my inlaws are coming to visit this weekend so progress is gonna be slow...

**tjambro** · **02-16-09, 12:03 AM**

I still haven't got much done on the room. I have been fighting the tree limbs that broke off during the ice storm. The city will pick up tree debris less than 6" in diameter and less than 4 feet long. They are supposed to come pick it up tomorrow. I decided to comply with the requirements so that the workers will have no excuse for skipping my house.

Here's a bunch of twigs broken up in neat piles and compressed to please the city sanitation dept:

...and for you Redneck Ranger fans:

Here's the limbs that were big enough for firewood. Since I have no fireplace they will be going to a buddy of mine at work:

My inlaws were down this weekend so I didn't get to work on the room. But my father-in-law helped me get the last of the twigs up and the both of us got the stupid idea of freeing one branch that had a "Y" in it that got caught up on a branch high above and was draping down to just over head level. I about gave up on it myself but my father-in-law wanted to give it a try. Being stupid, I agreed. The main branch was about 4" in diameter and these things weigh more than you think. After trying to rock it back and forth we decided to use some of the 2x4's that I just happened to have around. Good thing I'm building a theater or the next stupid idea would not have been possible!

We thought 3 overlapped 2x4's would be enough to reach the top of the branch where the "Y" was so that we could push it up and over the branch it was stuck on. Nope, 3 didn't do it. So we tried 4. In case you are thinking about doing this...don't! Four overlapped 2x4's are easy enough to move with 2 guys...when they are on the ground. But when you try to lift this thing up, it doesn't work to well. I'm not a physics scholar, but something about leverage and fulcrums comes to mind. It took every effort to get the contraption up against the tree and before you know it we had the 16" cheapo extension ladder that I own against the tree. He wanted to go up a little and try to work it up the tree and over to the branch but could not. Since the ladder was already in place I figured I would try. I started about 4 rungs from the top and before you know it I was two rungs from the top of the ladder. I'm usually not afraid of heights, but something just didn't feel right about it. Maybe because I usually have the ladder propped up against a nice flat surface (house) and not a tree, or maybe it was because if the four 8' 2x4's would have fell they could have possibly knocked me off the ladder. Either way, when I took that step up, I held the tree best I could and said to myself that I would not stay there more than a few seconds and would not try again if it didn't work. Well, it did and we were able to slide the contraption up the tree and over toward the stuck branch but it wasn't enough to free it because...physics again...when we wedged the 2x4's up against the stuck branch, it moved up, but guess what?....the branch it was stuck on moved up also! Doh! Anyway, now that we had the contraption stuck and had time invested we got some cable and used a flimsy 20' telescoping aluminum pole that I had (for hanging Christmas lights in an outside tree) to try and get the cable over the end of the branch to get it free. The pole wasn't long enough, so we attached it to a 2x2 I just happened to have. It didn't work, we weren't strong enough. One last thing to try before giving up...go to Lowes (my favorite place!) and buy a pole saw. We knew a pole saw wouldn't reach the limb that was between 26' and 28' (4 8' 2x4's is 32' less overlap) off the ground but surely we could cannibalize the blade and come up with something. All pole saws were sold out and the guy said they were only 14' anyway. They had replacement blades for $12 so we bought that and four 1x1's. This was the first time in a long time that I left Lowes having spent less than $100!

After all the 1x1's were screwed together and the blade attached we were able to lift the contraption up very easily. Unfortunately, the lowermost 1x1 snapped before the blade even made contact with the limb. No problem, we added a 2x2. Now we're cooking with gas! The blade made contact and both of us figured it would take 30-60 minutes to cut through the branch. Nope, about 10-15 minutes later the limb fell down. Of course, the little end that the "Y" was attached to stayed up in the tree. The aluminum pole had no trouble pushing that over. It was not the best way to get the limb out and it sure wasn't the safest adventure, but it's over and I enjoyed cutting that tree limb up.

On another non-theater note, I mentioned that during the storm we had lost power for 3 days and I broke down and bought a portable generator when the house got down to 43F inside. At that time, I just temporarily rigged the generator up to the gas furnace and ran a couple of extension cords for some lights. The fridge wasn't needed since I just put our food in the backyard since it was much colder than the fridge. Anyway, after that was over, I told myself I would come up with a more permanent and code approved way of hooking up the generator to the house wiring. After some research I learned about back feeding generator power via transfer switches which if you are not familiar with are like (but not exactly the same) sub panels that come with usually 6 or 10 breakers that you supply from 6 or 10 of your main panel circuits. The romex from the transfer switch then goes to each circuit's load. The transfer switch is basically a switch that lets you choose either utility power or generator power for those 6 or 10 circuits that you hook up to it. This seemed like a fairly reasonable solution but the transfer switches ran about $300. This doesn't include the outdoor weather proof box or the 30A 220V cord to hook the generator to. I almost bought one but then I discovered a very simple solution from Square D. It is called a "Generator Interlock Kit" and it cost me $56 which is actually expensive considering what the device is, but still better than $300 and much easier to install. Basically this kit is a glorified metal plate that sits between the main 200A breaker and a breaker that you must install in the top right position (position 2 and 4 on my Square D Homeline panel). I wanted a 220V setup so that I could run....yep....220V stuff and also a 220V breaker would give me access to all the 110V circuits on each phase of the panel. If I had used a 110V breaker, I would have only had access to the "right phase" side of my breaker panel. I already had a 30A double pole (220V) breaker in position 2-4 and instead of moving all the breakers down, I installed my new breaker at the bottom of the right side and extended the water heater wires (with the same 10-2 wire) down to the newly installed breaker freeing this breaker up for my generator back feed breaker. Having never worked inside an electrical panel before (I've ran wiring from circuits my dad installed but never did the panel side stuff myself) I took my time, took off my watch and wedding ring...I should have shut the power off, I know, but I did not. I knew what not to touch and was very careful and didn't get shocked, so that was good.

I would have been happy to just get the outdoor box installed since I didn't even start working on it until 2:30...my hammer drill I bought for the theater sole plates really worked well...but I actually got the whole project done at about 5:45. Now it was getting dark but I HAD to test it out. I rolled out the generator and announced to the wife that a Power Failure Simulation (PFS) was about to take place. I threw the main 200A breaker, slid the handy dandy Square D metal plate up so that I could turn on the 30A generator back feed breaker and went outside to start the generator. I plugged in my 20' 30A 4 prong 220V cord and started the generator. I let it warm up for a few seconds and turned on the 220V breaker on the generator. I could see the basement lights on, that's good! As I went inside through the garage I heard the generator go off...that's not supposed to happen! First thing I thought was I tripped the generator breaker as I left all the breakers on my main panel on, even though I only had a light or two on. Not the case, the breaker was fine. I tried several times to restart the generator, no dice. Had plenty of gas, now I'm getting concerned and I fiddle with the choke a bit. Then it dawned on me, when I shut the generator off the last time, I shut the gas petcock off. Doh! There was just enough gas in the line to run the generator for a couple of minutes. Once I turned the petcock on, two pulls later and the generator was screaming once again. Went inside and started testing the lights and such. The 6 floods in the kitchen worked ok, I could see the microwave and stove clocks running and the den lights worked fine. The purpose of this test was not to see how many watts it would take to trip the generator but just to make sure I had access to all the electric in the house. I did have to try my 1000W halogen flood light (2 500W bulbs) in the theater and that was no problem. While in the kitchen, I hit the "toast" button on the toaster oven and I could hear the generator adjust to the load but it did work. Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about myself but then I got down to the master bedroom, master bath and bath off the hallway and they were dark. What went wrong? Maybe I only had access to the "right phase" of the panel even though I totally believed that the 220V breaker would give me access to both sides of the panel. After a little investigation I saw several breakers off on the left side on the main panel. I threw them back on and all was right with the world. I don't think the breakers tripped. I think when I reinstalled the panel cover, I must have threw a couple of the breakers. Whew, that was close.

One thing I should mention, the portable generator (Menards, 7500W peak, 6000W continous $650) manual says not to run delicate electronics with generator power. You can see the lights dim from time to time, even when not activating other circuits. Now that could be the fridge, freezer etc. coming on but I noticed the lights dim during the storm when I only had the furnace and a couple of lights on. In addition to that, the APC UPS that I have hooked up to my computer was having a cow. It would beep and go on battery power only to go back to the generator a second later. You could hear it clicking back and forth between generator and battery power. Not sure I would want to run the computer off the generator but I guess I could. I can't imagine that would be great for the UPS but I could always just shut it off.

Ok, that's probably more than you wanted to know about generators and such so I will post a picture of green glue:

You will notice the 5 gallon pail of green glue and the Speedload is on top of the pail...that's for Ted!

I currently have two layers on the ceiling and walls up to the pass through wall. I hope to get the ceiling and walls mudded and caulked so that I can get the 3rd layer up this weekend...but I also have a section of fence to repair that the trees crushed, so we'll see...

**tjambro** · **02-22-09, 04:44 PM**

Well, now that I got all the ice storm debris removed and the portable generator hard wired to the house, I got back to rock this weekend.

I'm down to 10 pieces of rock in the future lobby:

Don't get too excited for me because I cheated...I moved 50 or so into the theater:

This shot was taken from just outside the pass thru that I have been using to bring the sheet rock in. I can pass the rock through my soundlock entrance at the bottom of the stairs but it's not as easy. Furthest away in the photo is where the IB will go, I will add the partition wall after the 3 layers of sheet rock is complete. You can see the IB ceiling and walls have 3 layers (that's why I brought the rock into the room). You can also see parts of the room that have 1 and 2 layers of rock.

This one was taken from the IB area looking toward the back of the theater room and into the sound lock area. Once again, I will add the back theater wall/soundlock wall once the 3 layer shell is complete:

The pass thru will be closed off next weekend and I will start working on the rest of the room until all 3 layers of rock are complete. Then I will put up the IB wall and the rear theater wall/soundlock room. I look forward to that day!

**tjambro** · **03-01-09, 06:32 PM**

This weekend I got the 2nd layer of rock and GG complete for the entire room, which was pretty good considering the circumstances...see below for another non-theater related tirade. I have now used 5 pails of GG (25 gallons) and have one more left. I realized I will need at least 1 more pail for the room interior and I'm guessing at least 1 more for the yet to be built theater/lobby wall. I ordered 2 more pails and if they are here by next weekend, I will try to finish the 3rd layer of rock.

Here's a pic from the IB chamber looking back to the soundlock area:

The pass through wall has been blocked off and the only entrance/exit is from the door at the right hand rear corner of the soundlock in this photo. You can't really see the door, but if you look closely, you can see the 5 hinges on my 2" thick door. The door is a standard 1 3/8" solid core door and I added a 3/4" sheet of mdf to give it more mass.

Here's a pic looking the opposite way...from the soundlock, looking toward the ib chamber:

After the 3rd layer is done, I will put up the theater/soundlock dividing wall which will be a double wall with communicating doors. Each side will get 3 layers of rock just like the rest of the room. The IB chamber will obviously need a boundary also and it will get a wall of it's own. I'm not sure if a double wall, staggered wall, or a plain wall is suffice for this. Any suggestions?

Once all that is done, I can give Bryan (bpape) my finished room dimensions so he can perform my sound analysis and guide me on treatments. I will then start on the soffits and deadvent for fresh air exchange. If anyone has any experience with dead vents, please feel free to post your comments. I'm not sure if I should go with 6" or 8" flex in the soffits. I'm leaning toward 8" flex with two Fantec in-line fans for pulling/pushing the air in and out. I will install rheostats on each to control air flow. Most likely, I will need to buy a dehumidifier also. I want to build this in such a way that if the air exchange isn't enough, I can pull the inline fans and have a second small HVAC unit installed in my mechanical room. Should I install 2 seperate 4" or 6" inline fans for the equipment and soundlock area (same room) or can I tap into the theater flex?

After that, I guess I can move onto electrical which will be all in soffits or conduit to be placed under fabric frames as I want no more wall penetrations then necessary. So far the only wall/ceiling penetrations that I plan are the romex coming into the equipment closet and the supply flex and return flex for the dead vent.

Once the electrical is done, I'm not sure if I should tackle the riser/stage, columns, fabric frames, or the DIY 7.1 surround setup...at least there will be plenty to do.

[Non-theater tirade]....As for the tirade I mentioned above, I could have gotten more work on the room done this weekend because I took off work on Friday but I didn't start working in the theater until 8PM. Why you ask? Well, Thursday nite, I logged into my VISA account to check our transactions, like I do once or twice a week. My password was invalid. Since I use a cryptic password, I figured I just typed it wrong...nope, still no joy. Did the "forgot password" deal and I got in. I immediately noticed a temp charge of $870 for a computer purchased the day before...I didn't order it! I checked my profile and my address had been changed. Yes Virginia, I am now officially an identity theft victim.

I was not happy to say the least. Not knowing how deep the ID theft was and not wanting to take any chances, I decided to close my VISA and checking account. I first called the CC fraud dept and got that going but I figured I should change all my online passwords. Before doing that, I figured I better do a complete scan of the 3 internet enabled computers in the house just in case a key logger trojan was in place. I am pretty good at keeping up with virus scans but I have gotten a little lax with spyware and sure enough, there was a trojan with a level 10 threat on my system and my wife's laptop.

I put a fraud alert on all 3 credit bureaus, changed all my user id/passwords, canceled my checking and have left a message with the financial crimes investigator in the area. If he doesn't get back with me in the next day or two, I will make another attempt to go to the local city police office. The first attempt was a bust as the address in the phone book is not where they are now.

Anyway, if you haven't checked for spyware lately, you may wish to do so. [/Non-theater tirade]

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