Home Theater: August 2005 Archives

Free advice: If you're in any type of a hurry, or have any type of a deadline, avoid Lowes at all costs. I've been waiting on carpet since August 8... they don't call you, they tell you it will be in "tomorrow," and even after it does come in, they don't update you with an installation date/time. Ugh!!!

All Lowes incompetency aside, we did get the chairs moved downstairs and set-up (thanks to Brian, Karl, and Amy). If the carpet ever gets installed, we'll move the chairs out, I'll assemble my riser, and we'll be in business.

Here's a picture of the chairs all lined-up...

Here are some poor photos of the theater in action:

Finding Nemo...

The Incredibles...

Those pictures are 100% untouched, and the projector is not calibrated or dialed-in - it's exactly like it came out of the box, so once I get a chance to properly set-up the projector, the image should improve. And *if* I ever get carpeting, the sound should improve as well.

The screen measures 10'3" x 5'0". I'll put a frame around it after a while.. for now, I'm going to enjoy it "as is."

In other news, my family stopped down to visit last weekend, and we had a great time. We watched a few movies (naturally): X-Men, Pirates of the Carribean, I Robot, and The Incredibles, and we went to Eureka Springs, Fayetteville, and did a few other things. They left on Sunday morning, and Amy, Karl and I went to Joplin for some Pizza by Stout and to buy a new gas trimmer (MO sales tax is half of what it is in Arkansas).

We're almost there... had a big weekend.

Finished: painting, lights, 2 of the 3 doors, cabinet, final wiring, speaker distribution block wiring, sconces, and a few other things.

All that's left: carpet needs to be installed, hang screen, mount projector, do trim work, build riser, install chairs, and our closet door needs to arrive (it's on order)...

I don't think the closet door or trim work will be done by the time my family gets here, but everything else should be all set. With any luck, the carpet will be installed on Tuesday, the projector will arrive on Tuesday, and I'll be all done by Wednesday night.

Photos:

The entry (it's not trimmed yet, and our closet door was the wrong size (I used 5/8" drywall, so it threw off the jambs).

Looking in to the theater; you can see the new sconces, and the side surround speakers.

The left front corner/side, with door to the crawlspace.

The front stage - almost done... the tops are drying (they're the 3rd layer of the "top." (2x 14-ply Baltic Birch + 3/4" MDF)

The amp area and cabinet. The gap is for future growth, plus it serves as an access hole in the event that I need to work on something. I have to build a plate for it, but that'll be sometime in the future.

Looking out toward the back of the theater (just took it a second ago, as I type this from my laptop while sitting on the speakers/stage).

Keep your fingers crossed for carpet...

I think this weekend almost killed us. Both my and Amy's backs are killing us... and our hands... and our arms... and our shoulders... and our knees... pretty much everything but our nose hair hurts.

Friday night we went and picked out paint, got home and primered the walls. Primer on drywall = horrible... the drywall sucks up all of the primer almost instantly, and it takes forever to finish the job...

Saturday morning I threw on another coat of primer, ran to the store to get a few things, then started painting the ceiling. Amy came home in the afternoon and we put on another coat of paint on the ceiling and then called it a night.

Sunday morning, we went to put up our wall color, and we hated it... problem is the paint was non-refundable, so we went back to the store, shelled out another $120, and got a new color... red... and we found out that the red needed a tinted primer, so we primed the walls again (ugh!), went to Pizza Pro for dinner, then threw on a coat of red.

We almost died when we first saw it - it looked purple. But, we soldiered through it... and as the paint was drying we mounted some subwoofers, and I wired them. Of course, then it was time for a test... hehehehe.

Here's a picture of me wiring the subwoofers:

You can see my head poking up from behind the stage...

And here's what it looks like behind the stage:

We fired-em up, and while I wasn't shocked, Amy said it was making her sick to her stomach from the bass (we had it on about "2"), so I guess that's a good thing... Once I get the rest of the cabinet put back together it should be a lot better.

Tomorrow night we'll throw on another coat of paint, and if I have time, I'll finish the stage. Tuesday night will be final wiring (installing the outlets). Wednesday and Thursday = Hang doors. Friday/Saturday = Carpet. Sunday = finish stage/cabinet area.

Chairs should be here tomorrow.