The RowdyS13 build thread!

[Klipschhead302]

Step by step....

 

[Rowdy S13]

Incoming boring pictures! I decided to tackle the network and HDMI runs in the office last night. I had been putting it off since it was under the desk, and I am not a little guy by any means. My IT guy actually needed his tools yesterday, so I figured I would tackle this so I could give them back today. I still have the two runs by the projector, but I can do those anytime since I don't actually have a use for them. On to the pics!

Marked up

I found the wires!

Two down, three to go! I broke here to get blood back into my legs, and eat some dinner.

All done!

So I was planning (yesterday anyway) to have all of the connections in one plate. So I actually terminated all of the CAT6 with them that short even though I moved 4 of them over to the right. After I got it all terminated I found out that the CAT6 connectors cannot fit that close to each other in the plate. After I realized that wasn't going to work, I remembered seeing it stated somewhere (probably the bag with the connector) that they cant be next to each other in a plate. So I cut in the ring to the right and put numbers 1-4 in there. The left side is HDMI, and #5. The good news is that all of the CAT6 tested perfect, the bad news is that the HDMI does not work. I took it all apart last night and plugged the cable directly into my laptop and still no dice. SO it is either the cable itself, or it is something in the closet side wall connections. I am hesitant to take apart the closet side since its the same plate as the bar which is working perfect. I am sure one day my curiosity will get the better of me, but for now I will probably just leave it alone since I don't really need that connection anyway.

That's all for today's boring update


Sean

 

[Klipschhead302]

You can almost feel the finish line approaching! Good job.

 

[Rowdy S13]

Incoming boring updates!

So since I am a little OCD, I decided to use simplex (single) outlets for the projector and the screen. I also changed out the round simplex for the sump pump for the matching decora style even though it wont be seen. This may not seem all that crazy, but they are 6 times the cost of the regular outlets. I caught some slack from the wife for being so picky about such a small detail

Here is the one for the projector

The new power cord for the projector along with the new outlet. The trim ring for the HDMI cable still needs to be fitted better, but I will do that before its all done. The far plate needed to come down for a small patch to the drywall. So when that is done I will fit it all properly.

On Sunday I was downstairs working on something when I noticed that the networking bracket was a bit lower than I remembered. Sure enough the top two wall anchors were pulling out of the wall! I ran to Menards and got some different styled anchors (the large auger style) and replaced the ones that were installed. I don't think there was any risk of them pulling completely out of the wall since I couldn't even get them out with pliers, but better safe than sorry. While it was all down I mounted the HD Homerun, made up an antenna cable for it, and kind of cleaned up the power wires back there. Again, it will never be seen, but I prefer it to all be neat anyway.

I have also been working on some patching over the weekend. As I mentioned some of the outlets were cut in a bit sloppy, so I needed to fill in around them some. There were also a couple spots that bugged me, so I decided to try and smooth them out as well. The work that was done was not perfect (by my standards), but for what I paid, and the amount of work done I surely cant complain. The few areas I am "fixing" are enough to remind me how much of a pain in the ass that stuff is! Here is a shot of the bar outlets which as you can see all needed some work.

Small patch up by the projector. Also, anyone have any ideas how to get that bit of paint off of the HDMI cable?

I wont bother with the pics of the areas I am just "fixing", but you can see at least one spot in the background later on. Also, I say "fixing" since there really was nothing wrong, I just noticed these two areas so I figured while I was already doing that kind of work I would see if I could smooth them out a bit more. Most people would have been perfectly content to leave them as is, and I would have too (probably) if I didn't have the other areas that actually had to be done.

Moving on to the rack which is something I have pretty much been putting off. I started by cleaning it really well which it needed pretty badly. I then finally mounted the power strips, and properly mounted the TV bracket I made a while back. Here is one of the strips mounted (not wired yet) followed by a shot of the TV mount.

Then I got to work on cleaning everything and putting it in the proper locations. I am not 100% sure if I will leave the computer like that, but it does have a clear side with a light inside so it would be nice to be able to see it. The wire feeding the power strips is 10/3 which is WAY overkill of course, but it fit the compression fittings I had, and it looks good

So last night I started wiring everything on the rack, and I am not sure I like how its going so far. I think I may want to put something over the cables, or put in some kind of channel (at least down the back) for them to run though. I am not sure yet, but I will probably agonize over it for a while. Lets hear what you guys think, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions. That's all for now, thanks for following along!


Sean

 

[Klipschhead302]

Great job! The effort is worth it, I need to get to work on my living room! My right RF-82 has started crackling again which means a pain in the rump tear down.

 

[agarwalro]

Man, this is an awesome build. Very nice progress!

 

[Alex2507]

Water will get paint off your HDMI cable.

 

[Rowdy S13]

(2-18-16)

In a smallish update I was able to get some paint on the walls yesterday. I need to do a very thin skim coat on some areas today, and a second coat of paint in others. Should have that all 100% finished up tomorrow hopefully. I want to get the skim coat on today, then work on getting the power for the networking stuff all cleaned up. I mounted the new power strip yesterday (pics later) so I can finish that part of things now. I will probably also move the rack into the closet to finish the wiring. That way I can hook up some speakers for this...

That's right boys and girls, its racing season!!! Ignore that mess, just look at 106" of bad ass racing It was awesome having that up while I worked yesterday, and I will be doing that again today (more qualifying) but with some better sound.


Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

So the race was really distracting this past weekend Here you can see the wife caught me "working" on Saturday

Actually before that pic was taken, I was busy selling off my other project

Don't worry, there is another one coming soon In the meantime though I am finally able to park my daily driver in the garage which I have never been able to do! Worked out well with us getting some snow tonight.

But we aren't here for cars, we are here for boring ass home theater build pics!!!! I actually got out my real camera for some pics, but they didn't really come out great. So as I already mentioned I was busy/distracted Saturday with selling the car, watching the race, and we also had a surprise party later in the day. Sunday wasn't a whole lot better since I had to go out of town for work. I was able to finish up the walls before I left so they were ready for paint.

Right speaker area (BAD pic)

Stairs

Under bar (HORRIBLE pic)

All of these areas were done and painted, then I went over them again and painted them again, and then this final layer(s). This is why I don't do body work, it would never get done! They still are not perfect, but good enough. There was also a couple other small spots that I did but not worth taking any pics. I ended up getting back early yesterday so I was able to get some running around done and get some paint up.

Right speaker area

Stairs

Under bar

Today I was able to finish up all of the wall plates (all 22 of them)

Projector area

Behind screen

Under bar

That's all for now, nothing exciting I did also order all of the wiring and stuff to finish the rack 100%. Hopefully that will all be in this week so I can wrap that up. Next up is the bar which will be the end of me... Thanks for following along!


Sean

P.S. A wet rag did get the paint off of the HDMI cable! I was skeptical, but I had a damp rag to wipe some dust off of the ceiling after I put the plates up so I figured what the hell Ill give it a shot. Worked like a champ! Thanks for that tip Alex

 

[Klipschhead302]

Looks good, here is my buddies '69 Z, 9 second's of fun for sale. Would fit perfectly in your garage!

 

[Rowdy S13]

I know I have been bad about keeping this up to date, however the work continues! I will just dive right into the pics.

We had the drywall in the laundry room re-done since it was a mess. Here is the before

Apparently I don't have the "after" picture, so I will have to add that later. It looks a LOT better than it ever did though, and just one more little project ticked off the list.

I did a ton of work on the never ending bar project, and I can finally say its done!!!! I am going to write up the epic journey with that nightmare over the weekend though. That project took quite a bit of time since the last post. It was a massively dust making project, so it needed to be done ASAP so we can be rid of all of the dust making!

I also ended up doing a lot more patching, because I am crazy. I can still find more to do, but at some point you need to call it good enough, so I am. Here are some filler pics of, well, filler

After painting all of those, and doing them all over AGAIN (most for the 3rd or 4th time)

Man, looking back... Im nuts Anyway, that is the bulk of it. I am pretty happy with how it has turned out in the areas I reworked. Seeing how much time and effort I had to put into it though I can see why they were left how they were. Not that it was completely unacceptable before, but I am just really picky so I went for it.

Speaking of which, that got me started on yet another project These book cases were built by the previous owner, and as nice as they are they were finished like garbage. So I pulled off the crappy trim, sanded down the drippy flat paint, and smoothed off the edges (and blended the joints).

All ready for paint! I also ran some screws into the studs instead of the drywall, and counter sunk them so they are now hidden and its more secure.

The wife putting on the first coat of white.

After the first coat of paint, and before trim

Here is a shot the wife got of them all done, and loaded up.

Next up on the list is the wood under the bar. I didn't want just bare drywall under there, so I decided some stained birch would look nice and hold up better. Here is the board after we stained it.

After this we put on two coats of semi gloss polyurethane, and then installed it under the bar.

You will also notice the missing floor!

You can see the trim on the bar, ready to be cut and installed. First pieces installed

I had to get a little creative around my return air vent. I have a plan, hopefully it works

Last night the wife went around and filled all the nail holes, while I caulked the edges and the corners. Here is a little before and after with the caulk.

This was how we left it last night.

Today we need to sand a couple areas of the trim, and touch up the paint over the nail holes. Get a second and third coat of black on the doors. Speaking of which, here is the finished side of those.

Carpet is coming tomorrow, and I cant be more excited!!! I will have more pics tomorrow once that is done, and I got some gear moved in. I will get pics with my actual camera tomorrow, assuming I can find my charger. Well that is enough for now, as always thanks for following along!

Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

The weekend has passed, and I have most of a "Home Theater" now!!!! Unfortunately I was not able to find my charger for my camera, so you guys have to deal with some crappy cell phone pics still. Chances are I am going to just order a new charger today, because I really want to get some nice pics of the room. Anyway, you didn't come here to read about my dead camera

Saturday was pretty uneventful as I was mostly just waiting around for the carpet guys. We had finished up filling the nail holes and painting the trim Friday night, and we also got the last coat of black paint on the doors as well. So Saturday morning I cleaned everything up, and got the doors hung with the new hardware.

This is the "before" view so to speak

Eventually the carpet guys showed up (toward the end of their 4 hour window), but they did a great job so I cant complain.

Pad down

The start of the carpet going in with no seams

And all done!

While I was waiting for them to show up I was working a little on wiring up my rack. As soon as they were done I finished that up. It ended up much messier than I wanted, but everything is secure and not being stressed (no pulling down on connections or anything). I pretty much knew that it would end up similar to this which is why I had bought panduit for the sides at one point, but that didn't work too well so I abandoned that plan. Anyway, here it is be gentle

Then I moved my old Canton speakers down there, and hung my EMPTek speakers on the sides and got to calibrating.

I only adjusted the SPL to level match for now. I did run the Yamaha test tone, and then adjusted slightly again with the Spears and Munsil Blu-Ray. Before anyone asks, yes my center channel is sitting on some Infinity bookshelf (Primus 150) speakers. I never thought of ordering a center stand, or shelf for whatever reason and I was not going to wait now!

After I got the levels all set I ran the DTS-HD demo on the Spears and Munsil BR

It was huge smiles all around! Even the wife was impressed with the quick demo. We ended up watching Iron Man Saturday night just for something kind of quick and with some action. I was grinning ear to ear even if I was missing a sub. The wife commented a couple of times of how she felt like this wasn't even our house, and how she forgot that there was even a window behind the screen Such an awesome experience to sit down and watch a movie after all these months of work even if it isn't close to actually done. For starters I really need a sub or subs. The Cantons do a pretty decent job for what they are, but they are no subs for sure! I also need some better seating than the free love seat that we got from my in-laws. It isn't the worst thing ever, but it starts to get uncomfortable toward the end of a movie.

Sunday I spent the day programming the remote and working though some small bugs. A friend ended up coming by and we spent around 4 hours watching movies and some Game of Thrones. I had some hand ups with my HTPC which I think is actually the fault of my receiver, but eventually I got to see this

Pretty sweet to see that all of my sources are giving my receiver the full HD audio mix!

Now I need to finish cleaning up the office and organizing all of the cables and things I didn't use on the build. I need to go though and adjust the projector as well, since it seems a little pumped up. I also need to sort out what is going on with my HDMI signal. Then its just a matter of adding and changing out things in the room as I can. Even with quite a bit of work still ahead of me, I am as happy as can be with it all! I think I can honestly say that it has already exceeded my expectations!

Thanks as always for following along, and look for better pics soon I promise!
Sean

 

[agarwalro]

Awesome DIY HT. The end is within smelling range .

 

[Rowdy S13]

How is everyone doing! So nothing really exciting to update with, but I have been enjoying the hell out of the space! I have been finishing up some smaller projects as well. That and I cleaned everything up for a little memorial day party means its time for an update

Lets just dive into pics shall we? First up was adding some bass!! After a lot of thought, and back and forth I decided on doing 4 Infinity 1262's in ported boxes powered by an iNuke 3000DSP amp. That means getting 4 full 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" MDF back home. Lucky for me I drive a Honda Accord, so this was no problem.

I whipped up one box just to get an idea of how it would sound, and whatnot.

I screwed up some of the cuts, and forgot the braces, but I put it in the basement anyway and ran a quick sweep.

This is with no adjustment to the DSP

I think it looks pretty promising for about $600 all in (amp, subs, MDF, paint, etc.), so now I had to cut up the other sheets. Working with MDF is such a joy...

My garage is a mess, besides the mess I created, I know. I am ashamed but there it is.

And after many many cuts, here we are.

Unfortunately with the holiday and other stuff I haven't gotten much further than that just yet. I should be slowly chipping away at them though so stay tuned for that.

Next up came cleaning everything for the Memorial day party. The dog (Archer) wanted to see what I was doing.

While I was cleaning I was shocked at how many remotes I kept finding since I never use them, so I got a pic. All of these remotes (plus my Insteon lighting)....

Are replaced by this beast!

After cleaning came calibrating for the inevitable demos It is pretty nice to be able to do all of the calibration outside of the room. I can sit at my desk and run everything, punch it into a spread sheet or whatever, and make all of my adjustments. I usually use the USB in the ceiling for the receiver for my Logitech keyboard to run my HTPC, but it worked just fine for the mic input.

After making everyone smile with some demos and some BBQ, I got to make everything nice Sunday and Monday and get some good pics (FINALLY).

As you may have noticed, I added some trim under the bar after the calibration pics. Here are a couple detail shots from right after I put it in. Still need to caulk, fill the nail holes, and paint.

I also trimmed out the return air vent. Again we need to finish it, and paint inside black. I made up the grill at my work out of some magnetic stainless, and its held in place by some neodymium magnets.

I actually also got my rear speakers on Saturday morning, but much to my dismay they changed the mount from a single insert to two per speaker. I bought mounts based on the (out dated) info on their site, so I am not able to install them yet There is still a lot to do, mostly touch up paint and fix some things I messed up. Obviously I need to finish up those subs as well, and really dial everything in.

That's all for now, as always thanks for following along!

Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

Whew, its been a while since I updated this eh! Since the last update we had a water leak that ruined the floor and one wall in the office. That has since all been repaired and remodeled. I also got a new sub, but more on that later. Well I took some quick pics of the room this morning since it was nice and clean in preparation for a Halloween party we are having tonight. Even though it has some decorations up, I figured I may as well post them up for you guys to see.

Clearly the office has been finished since the last update. I also ended up building a giant ported box for a 21" driver I got. You can see that build HERE. That meant that the 4 infinity's went to the back of the room, and for now are in the original boxes. I am in the planning stages of a new box for those, or possible an upgrade? Not really sure yet, but I want to gain some space back there, and I want a better looking box in general. If you guys want to see pics of the office rebuild, or the finished result, just let me know and I will find them and get them posted. In the meantime thanks for checking in on my theater!

Sean