my old basement / new HT remodel

[rungriot]

Hey Everybody -

I hate to simply repeat what so many other new members have said previously, but i would be remiss not to begin by thanking all those who have posted their pics, comments and reviews on this site. It never ceases to amaze me the breadth and depth of knowledge that is out there regarding A/V equipment and all related matters, and to find it all in one place is truly awesome!

I am currently remodeling the basement of our new house (moved-in in April) and would like to share some b/f and after pics with everyone as i am really excited with the progress and equipment that I am putting in. The budget WAS set @ $20k but that went out the window pretty quickly thanks to my expensive taste. Luckily, my wife is REALLY good to me AND enjoys electronics - not as much as me, but enough to understand and appreciate what it means to build a nice HT

The equipment chosen for my 7.1 system is:
Receiver - Integra DTR 8.8
Fronts – Focal Chorus 826 V
Center – Focal CC 800 V
Sides – Def Tech UIW BPZ/A
Rears - Def Tech UIW BPZ/A
Subwoofer – Velodyne SPL 1200R
Blu-Ray – Pioneer Elite BDP-95
Projector – JVC HD-1
Screen – 92” Stewart Firehawk G-3

I debated about getting the new Def Tech Mythos ST SuperTowers but after listening to the Focal’s, I knew that I had to have them instead. Plus, they were $1,000 cheaper!

So here goes with the BEFORE pics:
This is the view from the bottom of the steps when we bought -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2109592114/

This is the view directly behind the pic above -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2108815575/

Here's the other side of the room -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2108815679/

Another view -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2109592216/

Obviously, there is quite a bit that needs to be done to make our dream come true. We gutted the whole interior, studs and all.

Here’s the floor plan that we decided would work the best:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2110279636/

The primary issue that we had with the layout is that we have an I-beam and heating vent shaft that cuts through the center of the room, plus there is a lolly column that made for difficult seating. After much discussion, we determined that by reinforcing the I-beam we could remove the pole, which made me very happy . The idiot home inspector that we hired was useless. The original ceiling was a drop-ceiling and he was too lazy to pop up any of the tiles during his inspection because if he had, he would most likely have noticed that someone had removed the support from a load bearing wall!!!

So down comes the ceiling and here’s what we found:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2109593866/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21821326@N03/2109593952/

I am going to pause here for the night. Also - sorry for the links to pics; i tried to uploads the pics from flickr directly (and from AOL pictures as well) but cannot get an image to actually post, so links will have to work for now.

More to follow.....

 

[Rowdy S13]

WOW well that sucks about the home inspection but Im sure youll get it all worked out. The layout looks nice, definatly as good as I would think you could get with what you have. I look forward too watching this progress.

Sean

 

[rungriot]

I know, it is not the greatest basement in the world but it is all mine The other layout option I was toying with as to place the screen along the west wall (to the left of the wall with windows) which would give me a 10 x 20 tunnell like room. The problem was that I didn't want to put up a wall to close in the room, and with no wall, the room would look and sound weird IMHO. So, what you see is what we get.

All of the electrical wiring will be completed this weekend and the speaker/HDMI cables have already been run. I am meeting with my contractor tonight to review the project. My best guess at this point is that i should have a fully redone basement by the end of next week. I will take more pics this weekend.

 

[rungriot]

Unfortunatly, not much got done this weekend but i did take a few pics of my basement's curent state of affairs.

Here are some "before" and "currently" pics of the project:

 

[rungriot]

and some more:

 

[rungriot]

As for the actual construction, the walls all the way around the room will be covered with R14 insulation then have 1/2" soundboard and 1/2" sheetrock on top and the ceilings will have R25 insulation stuffed and shoved in every crevice we can find and then will use the same 1/2" soundboard & sheetrock as walls. I can't use the soundboard around the furnace and hot water-tank room so I will have to use two layers of sheetrock instead. In the pics, you can see that the prior owners had sliding doors for accessing the furnace area at the bottonm of the steps. We took off these doors and are closing this off with a wall and instead have an access door placed from a different area in a different room to help minimize the sound that eminates from there. I know and accept that my room will not be perfect acoustically (i.e. there will not be a wall or door at the bottom of the steps to completely enclose the room) but am hopeful that the measures I am taking will be sufficient enough to create enough sound deadening/proofing that I will still get 85% acoustic value from my equiptment. And with additional 'treatments' post-construction I hope to gain a little more

 

[rungriot]

wanted to add a few more pics as the project is moving along. the soundboard is going up on the ceiling and here's how it's looking:

 

[rungriot]

and we built the frame for the projector to mount to hang from:


and I am going to build an A/V rack to go here:



and this will later be a bookcase for DVD's and whatnot:



There used to be a vent off of the main heating duct right where the projector mount is, but we sealed that up and add a new floor vent that will be at the bottom of the bookcase. This way, the projector will not be subject to excessive heat and no one will have heat blasting them on the head while trying to watch a movie

 

[rungriot]

quick post w/ a few updates:

the A/V bookcase will go here
and another view

I have been scouring teh posts for info as to how others have built their own racks/closets for their equiptment and have found several that look awesome and I am going to attempt to build it myself - scared but excited at the same time!

here is the new stoarge closet we are building at the bottom of the steps:



and more ceiling shots:





I hope to have all of the sheetrocking done this weekend. That will leave left to do:
1) skim coat & spackle
2) sand and paint
3) lay the carpet
4) build platform for 2nd row of seats
3) install new equiptment

YEAH!! I cannot wait - everytime i go downstairs my heart skips a beat and then starts racing. The anticipation is killing me - in a good way of course

 

[fungke]

whoa..you have quite the set up there.
can't wait to see the end result.

 

[rungriot]

fungke - thanks for looking and for commenting. I am extremely pleased with how the project is shaping up and hope to have all of the sheetrock up and all skim-coated by tonight. I will post more pics soon. I decided to have the contractor stop after the walls are painted & the carpet is down and I will build the bookcases and A/V rack myself (with a little help from my brother-in-law ) because after seeing some of what other's here have done, I am feeling quite lame for not doing any of the work thus far on my own but thr truth is - if I wouldn't have paid someone to do the rough-out work (framing/sheetrock etc) I would probably still be talking about this project rather than almost being done (as if there is such a thing )

 

[rungriot]

Just a few pics to bring the build up to date:

New windows are in:

Location of DVD / Media rack to be built:

We shifted the stairs down and back in order to create more headroom at the bottom of the steps.

Here's the before with the landing that forced you to tilt your head:

And the after with no landing or tilting:

The above pic also shows the hallway that leads to the new Laundry Room (major WAF points won for this!!!)

Another view of the bottom of the steps and a new storage closet to the far right in this pic:

The AV closet will be going in this corner:

 

[rungriot]

The 92" screen will be located on this wall and I will be covering the windows with some velvet or some other fabric to block the light. The windows are actually located under the Deck so not a lot of lights comes through to begin with, but they will be covered anyway:

Another view from behind the soffet:

Here are some pics of some of the seating that I will be using. We were storing this section in the laundry room prior to now as it is one pice and we could not move it to the other side of the basement but b/c we had to move the washer & dryer it had to come out of there. Couldn't resist taking the tarp off and 'pretending' that i was watching a movie

I am hoping that the carpet will be installed by tonight - but my contractor has been wrong about every other timetable he's stated to me, so I have no reason to believe him now. Don't care 'cause it is not costing me any more $ due to his time over-runs

 

[Guap Oh]

Sweet. Nice layout.

 

[rungriot]

and for the next installment........

some prgress has occured (yea!) and here's a few pics of how the room is shaping up:

stairs now have carpet:

and the laundry room has a door and some sheetrock:

my neighbor is remodeling his house and when i went out thursday nite to take out the trash, noticed this lovely little find:

it is made out of 1" MDF and is exactky what i had in mind for one of my risers. it is practically perfect as is - just need to stuff it with insulation and port it & i am good to go!!

 

[rungriot]

here's what it looks like with the rear love seat:

and yes, the finished product will be covered with the same carpet as the floor.

some other pics:

this aisle way is on the left when facing the screen. i like that it is big enough to add a chiar to when i have a party of 6 or more:

i also want to built & attach a bar top to the back of the riser like others i have seen. i think i will be able to gain another three seats that way.

enjoy!

 

[darien87]

I HATE you guys with your dedicated HT rooms!!! Lucky jerks!!!

 

[rungriot]

LOL! let me tell you, i HATE those guys too! but i am blessed and am able to do something like a dedicated theater - at least my own version of one and know that i am so lucky to have a wife that supports my obsession i hope one day you get the theater of your dreams!