Tommy's HT In-Progress

[Tommy]

Sonnie wrote:

As far as projectors... start a thread in the Display Devices forum requesting info on a projector. Make sure you let us know how much you are willing to spend.

Ok I started the thread

[NorwegianDawg]

I'd dim the rope light as well...in a completely dark room...depending on how/where they're installed...can be quite bright!

E

[Tommy]

NorwegianDawg wrote:

I'd dim the rope light as well...in a completely dark room...depending on how/where they're installed...can be quite bright!

E

Should it be a seperate switch altogether or tied in with either the recessed lights or wall sconces?

Do they even sell 3 switch dimmers?

[Sonnie]

I have three dimmer switches in my wall plate. Each switch is rated to handle so many watts... I believe mine are like 600 or 800 watts. Add up the wattage you want on each switch and buy the appropriate size switch.

Here's a really bad blown up pic of my switches... I don't have a close up so I tried to blow it up as much as possible... these are the rocker style with the smaller sider rockers next to the big rocker.



Looks like this and is remote controllable:



Except there's three:

[Tommy]

Thats cool. I know an electrician that I will probably use, he's a friend of the family so I'm not worried about him ripping me off or anything like that. Only problem is hes on vacation now, and then he's also a reservist and are weekends conflict so it may be 3-4 weeks before I can even get him to come out to my house. I wouldnt be able to talk to him for another week just to make arrangements.

[Tommy]

Oh well last nights update:

Besides visiting with an installer to see what he would charge for the HT installation I hung the last door in the basement and also removed a stud in the HT room and put in framed the recessed dvd shelves/cabinet I made.

Overall it looks nice as far as its the appearance I wanted for it. Unfortunatly there were a few mistakes and I think I'm gonna tear it out and start it over. Not terribly bad but it sticks out past the studs by 1.25" instead of the 1/2" I was planning for the sheet rock. I measured the spacing in a different spot then where it winded up going and there was that difference in space with the foundation wall behind the studs. Also the bottom shelf split when attaching it to the frame.

Again it looks ok and I probably could fix it and no one else would know but at this point it would probably be better to spend the extra couple hours and do it right, it's my own house right...

Dont know if I'll be able to run to home depot tonight and get more wood to start it tonight or not though.

[Tommy]

Update:

Ok the dvd shelves sticking out a half inch further then they should and the wood splitting on the one spot annoyed me already and I did I ripped the whole thing out and did it over.

Other then that no new milestones were met, I finished the shelves, hinged the door on the rear of the equipment rack and cut a few inches from the bottom of it for room for cords and air.

Also I put in the steps for the risers. I left 2" on the lip on the steps & riser for carpet and then the rope lights, it looks like the lips to big though. For anyone else who has also done the rope lights what size lip did you use?

I had 4 installers come in this in the last 3 days and didnt actually get an estimate from any of them yet but waiting to see what they have to say. But basically I got a few ideas which I was hoping for and unless one comes back with an unbelievable low installation price will probably finish the job myself.

Sheet rock guy called with his price, he wanted 3k to rock the basement and the garage and said that was just labor and didnt include material. So I guess I'm rocking myself too. Not looking forward to trying to do that myself...

As far as framing is concerned, the HT room is done!

I still got soffits and columns/poles and in the rest of the basement to do though. Not sure how long that will take.

Still looking for an electrician and someone to do the duct work. God only knows how long thats gonna take or how much theyll over-charge for that. But I have reserves this weekend & my kid's bday next weekend so Im hoping this all doesnt get pushed to far back.

So next steps are
- finish soffits/columns in rest of the basement
- get hire electrician & hvac guy
- start ordering equipment

Any last comments / suggestions as far as framming for HT room goes?

[Sonnie]

I didn't mind hanging the sheetrock... it was the mudding I was dreading, so I hired that part out. Cost me about 200 bucks.


Sounds like you got the framing figured out pretty well. Keep us posted on your progress.

[JCD]

Maybe it's in another thread, but I thought I'd drop a line and see if there has been any progress lately?

JCD

[Tommy]

10 days since my last update hmmm... Sorry all, I havent dropped off the earth and my lack of an progress update was just because there hasnt been any new milestones to report.

The work I've put in lately has been with framing the rest of the basement so havent much new to say about the HT room. Still got another week or two on the rest of the basement because I havent got a full day to put towards it yet, just an hour or two per night.

Out of the 4 installers that came out a week and a half ago, I havent received any written quotes from any of them yet. I did get a couple calls though asking if I'd consider sending everything I purchased so far back. I think there mainly interested in the money they make for the sales of products and not so much the installation part.

However we did make an appointment and went to the one guys showroom yesterday. The wife was really impressed with the demo the guy put on and loved the projection system and sound. The room he had was actually a couple feet shorter then what we got, so we got a pretty good overall picture.

The projector he used was a Mitsubishi DLP projector, I dont know what model but he said it was around 4k. The picture looked great but I really dont have other projectors to use as a comparison. I looked real hard for that rainbow effect but couldnt see it. He said I wouldnt with this high of a model. I could see the screen door effect if I walked up close though. Again I dont know what to say because I dont know if it is better or worse to lower priced models. Has anyone have any opinions on the mitsubishi projectors?

He suggested I do either one large sub woofer or two smaller ones for my room. What do you's think one large one or two smaller ones? Also suggested I fill my risers with a fine gravel or sand (I think the insulation will be enough though). His demo room was on a second floor so it was great with the floor boards vibrating with the demo.

One of the things we discussed though and I'm debating on now is that **** soffit in the HT room. The one side of the screen will go under the soffit. He suggested I put a filler soffit straight across the room so that the whole screen would be under it.

I'm not sure if the sceen view is going to be disturbed or not if left as it. Also if I bring the soffit out 4' like he suggests I lose that section of wall that I was atleast planning on putting up a poster or something.

The pics are up on this room, what do you's think, should I run a soffit across the front of it?

Of course he also went thru the whole reflection about why that would be wrong for us to put up posters at all but that was the look we were going for, two columns on each wall with a movie poster between each.