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  1. #1
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    My "Home" with "Theater"

    EDIT TIME!!!! CAN ONLY DO 10 IMAGES PER POST


    Still very much in progress, but I saw my last meaningful post was my attempt (successful) to make a DIY BOC Screen, and start a theater project.......

    I bought a house in which to put the Dedicated theater into, and that's where things got interesting!!!!!!!! PREPARE FOR TIME-LAPSE BUILDING!!!!!

    VIRTUAL STALKERS REJOICE...........



    Recently purchased a new home ( 100 year old home actually) and my wife and I were looking at different things when house shopping, and my big sticking point was "I Need a HT room!"

    I'm sure I'll have mistakes, and discoveries along the way......



    Background: what I have, where I'm going, etc......

    I am currently watching Blu-Rays with my PS3 on my "main theater" which happens to be a living room..... anyways, because my son is crawling etc.. I usually ruin my sound-stage with foot-rests blocking the center channel and components, and subwoofer!!!!

    My current t.v. is a 37" 720p Sharp Aquos.... nothing too special, but it was free!

    I recently sold some B&W 703's to a friend, so my current equipment/speakers are

    B&W 705 (will be fronts)
    B&W HTM7 Center
    B&W DS7 surrounds
    B&W 686 Rears
    Def Tech 14" reference sub
    Marantz 7001 AVR
    Sony SACD player
    Remote/power conditioner etc.

    I found out that a large Big-Box store was practically giving away projectors, in particular, the Mitsubishi HC-1500, so I picked one up.

    I have my new 25 foot HDMI cable at home now, and I have a ceiling mount being delivered in a few days. (UPDATE, DELIVERED) I also have 6 yards of Blackout Cloth sitting there waiting be cut in half (minimum order of 5 yards, so I ordered enough to be able to get two 100" screens) I plan on framing it up and using it "as-is" and getting the velvet "tape" to add a border, so I'll make the screen about 106" or so..... (UPDATE... SCREEN IS COMPLETE!!! Pictures Coming soon!!! SEE DETAILS BELOW)

    ANYWAYS. My dedicated theater is an attic space, that's completely finished (only room in the house with carpet, it has a full bath, separate storage room, recessed lighting etc)

    I'm having an electrical outlet installed in the ceiling. (UPDATE GOING TO FEED THE WIRES THROUGH A HOLE IN THE WALL, AND INTO THE SPARE ROOM)

    Either way, that's about it.... thanks to this site, I'm on my way to a much bigger picture (the 37" aquos is the biggest display I've ever owned... previously had a 36" Vega)

    I wanted to convert my finished basement in my current house for the longest time, but it was an accoustical nightmare, and I never tackled the project.....

    Also, I took the projector out of the box to "test it" and shot it at a wall, and even with lights on, it was stunning..... can't wait to get this bad-boy running!!!


    On a side note, my current bed-room setup (which will become the new living room setup in the new house) consists of 5 B&W M-1's, and a marantz SR 5001 and another PS3.... no sub.
    O.K. Let me consolidate some more posts, to give a little more info about what I've decided I need to do to the current room etc......


    Quote:
    I have complete light control, and a 14 ft. throw distance, so I created a 110" screen, that I'm going to cut down a bit by putting the black-velvet-tape border on it...... The screen is completed (came out great.... I actually can't believe I did it!) but not hung yet.... of course the equipment etc. isn't in the new house yet, so it'll be a couple months still probably.

    I went with the BOC screen, with finished-pine 1x4's and braces, in addition to extra corner/cross supports..... it's very sturdy.... The Frame is 54" from top-to-bottom and I was still able to stretch the BOC over, and staple to the back-side of the frame (wasn't an easy task doing it alone!) There isn't a wrinkle etc... and it is ONE TAUGHT screen!!! (EDIT I did the brighter-white side out....)

    Next steps are to remove a ceiling fan that's in the way..... Paint the room a Dark/Flat color, and install my window treatments. (basically sealing the entire room off)

    Then, the house has 2 Central Air Units, and 2 Forced Air furnaces (there was a 1,000 ft. addition added, and it has it's own systems) The only problem is, the Attic, although completely finished, with a full bath, separate room, etc... doesn't have vents running to it, and it just has an electric in-wall heater.... so I will be getting a small window-unit A/C for the summers when I want to watch movies etc.... Not the "best" way to address the problem, but it's probably the easiest, and since it's on the third floor, you won't be able to see the window unit from the street etc if I put it on the side of the house.......
    O.K. that's it.... Attached are a couple photos of the house, and the room.... Kinda sad that amongst the 3,500-4,000 Sq Ft, all I get is the hot-attic !!!!

    Work will be slow, since moving in will take awhile, as we have multiple contractors (ext. painting, raising/replacing porch, windows, plumbing etc) doing work on the house.... it's all in the early stages. We purchased the home as a foreclosure, and it was maintained for 97 years of original owners/family and then in the past 3 years someone purchased it and rented out rooms, and let the place fall apart basically..... and now thanks to a market flooded with foreclosures, it's ours......

    The wall the Screen will be mounted on is to the LEFT of the wall with the Heater that is pictured.....

    Attachment 3156

    The wife and my son.....

    Attachment 3157

    Me and my son in the Gazebo behind the house (there are handicap ramps on the side of the house, and back of the Gazebo due to the previous owners)


    Attachment 3158



    I'll update with more room, and screen pictures soon. As I said.... just looking at the blank screen, in all it's glory.... I can't believe I'm going from my little 37" t.v. to this monster, but it should be fun!!!! I'll look forward to tips etc.. when I get more pictures of where the components will go, the room I'm running the cables to.... where I'm mounting the projector, etc.


    EDIT:::::

    also,

    I only have 14' for throw distance, and the room is probably 18' x 18' and 8' ceiling..... and I lose a lot of distance for throw because I'm mounting the projector on the ceiling where a flat wall is (with rooms behind it) and projecting to a slanted wall.... so the screen will be hung from a point that will leave 3' behind it or so..... making the throw distance 14' or so from lense to screen.

    I will get a picture of the wall where the seating area will be ect... and the bathroom/bonus room/component area etc.

    I'm going to try to get over there in a couple of days to get more pictures.... I have things going on today after work, so I can't work on the house today

    EDIT::::::

    Had to pick up mail that was sent to the house, so I got a couple of pictures.....

    SCREEN: It's just leaning against the wall.... I'm going to mount it to the angled section, and leave a couple feet underneath it to place my center channel.......



    This is the area where the components will be..... it's an added space behind the staircase kind of....



    This is the wall, above which the Projector will be mounted on the ceiling... keep in mind the ceiling fan will be taken out...... To the left, you'll see the "storage room" door for all of my media..... more on that room with the next picture.


  2. #2
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    O.K. This is what is behind the wall where the seating will be, and behind where the projector will be.... What I'm planning on doing, is cutting out a rectangle at the top by the ceiling, trimming it out, and putting the projector BACK into the hole about 2-3 inches... not much I know, but it'll knock out some of the fan noise, still allow the unit to breath, and I'll be able to run all the wires down the wall, and cut another hole that will lead right to the "Component area" shown earlier..... all-in-all a very clean approach I think. You can see by my hand, and halfway up my wrist, that it's about 15" from the wall I'll cut out, to the chimney (gas fireplace 2 floors down, no issues there) There is never a tape measure when you need one




    MORE UPDATES TO COME
    !


    Updates of what the cast/crew of "Grunts" were able to accomplish during the last couple of days....






    My completed walls/coved ceiling/ceilings






    I'm obviously terrible at taking pictures.... if I contributed to the "screen shot" thread, I'd convince people to run out and buy VHS


    here's the front, and side-view.... and I'll give the "how-to" (or at least the "How I did" explanation)






    O.K. as stated earlier, my theater is far-from ideal, as it's a converted attic space..... well, with sloped walls it makes hanging a DIY screen kinda difficult, but here is what I did..... I found the studs, measured and drilled into the studs, and attached metal "eyes" into the wall..... then I connected blocks to the back of the screen (four screws in each since I couldn't drill very far into the screen frame because I didn't want to come through the other side) and into these blocks, I screwed in large metal hooks.....

    So yes.... My screen is "floating" on the wall with a Hook and Eye configuration..... THe picture (second one) makes it look like I hung it crooked etc.... but that's just my poor photography skills!!! it looks great. Now I need to pull the screen down, paint the wall black, and the hooks/eyes black, paint the ceiling etc.... remove a ceiling fan, install other goodies and equipment, and mount the projector..... It's coming along, but I have so much going on with the house I haven't been able to spend any time on this room.

    I still want a black velvet border for the screen, but I'm going to determine how wide of a border to get after I fire up the projector.


    Also, I left plenty of room under the screen to put my center channel.... A big concern was the HTM7's top mounted tweeter, and stand I have (I don't have enough room in my current setup to use the stand, and it set me back $400 or so, so I'd like to use it)

  3. #3
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    Since I have a "fixed screen" more or less (although I can remove it VERY easily.... but I don't want to get fingerprints etc. on it) I will be using my LCD in the "Family Room" for standard def t.v. etc (and occasional blu-ray, as I'll be moving my other PS3 and B&W M-1's to the main living room) I'll use the projector for standard def. DVD though..... I've seen standard DVD on large screens, and it still looks great.

    porch is still coming along.... all is back together except the railing and pillars (pillars are still waiting to be delivered) the work crew will come back when they have the pillars (hopefully next week sometime) and they'll put the railings back on (keeping the original ones) and then it'll be ready for painting.


    I have an 8 foot or 8 and 1/2 foot long section of black-out-cloth I'll be cutting up and sealing off all of the windows with (I might make framed-up boxes with them, and paint a black/brown pattern on them with the same paint I'm using for the walls/ceiling)

    Carpet.... ahhh yes.... Carpet. More than likely it'll remain nasty light-blue for some time to come (may put an area rug from the seats to the screen to try to hide most of it) Since the carpet goes down the stairs, the cost of replacing it (and my inexperience in laying carpet myself) it's just not likely to be in the budget right now...... It's hard to justify doing ANYTHING in this room to my wife.... it's the sixth bedroom basically, and since we only have one kid, she thinks putting any money into this room is a waste.... So I pick my battles carefully


    I convinced her that the wood trim around a window in one of the bathrooms would look good in black (since it was painted the same color as the walls, which like everything else in the house, needs to have the color changed :angry: ) so I have an excuse to buy a couple of gallons of black, so I can start painting the theater room walls and ceiling The bathroom has a white tile around the tub, and the tiles on the wall have black/white and the floor is small hexagon b&w so black for a window frame should look nice (I hope!)


    Anyways.... Work is coming to a halt as we're going on vacation for a week..... the plaster people will be picking up a key from me, and starting monday, so hopefully when we come back into town, the two main rooms, staircase, foyer, and upstairs hallway will all be plastered, and yes...... READY FOR PAINT anic:

    Updates will come..... S-L-O-W-L-Y but surely


    EDIT: o.k. for all of you people hung up on the porch it's missing the railing, and pillars.... but here it is, in all its "Primer" glory







    since these were taken, lattice etc. were installed. The 4x4's are still holding up the porch though





    The door on the second floor leading to the theater.... you can see a MESS down the stairs on the landing from the plastering that is going on, and this door needs to be removed, painted, etc..... but this is the entrance right now




    what you see when you open the door..... black/brown... sorry for my camera work..



  4. #4
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    TURNING THE CORNER AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS...... there she is!!! EDIT: That bright light on the right isn't the projector, it's a light... projector is not that close.




    Looking back Down at the stairs..... my vintage 1940's EXIT sign letting people know that the fun has to come to an end!!!!






    Projector wall.... you can see where the cables run into the room behind the wall, and out the side wall.... all of the components will go into that area...





    Close up of the projector mounted inside the wall, between the two rooms... need to trim it out still.....





    You can see I painted the leading edge of that wall, the trim, etc.... black, the rest is brown..




    Nothing is connected to the projector, so I just have the menu screen


  5. #5
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    some more pictures of my black/brown scheme.....








    I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the front with the screen off.... the ceiling and front wall is black, the side walls are brown..... it looks SHARP...


    Anyways.... more updates to come (with completed porch pictures!!!!)




    Here is some of the fine work from the paster guys......




    This is the disaster that is our dining room (lots of stuff stored here right now! )




    The outside, with the obligitory "porch picture"


  6. #6
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    Another porch picture..... columns are just primered right now....




    The house is like me..... PLASTERED




    Our bedroom....






    Our son's bedroom.....



    Another Bedroom...



    Yet Another Bedroom.... This one has a porch off of it (back of house)



    Off the back porch is the gazebo, and the garage way in the back.... mostly covered by a tree that we need to remove b/c it was hit by lightning.


  7. #7
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    The OLD porch




    Temporary black-out-cloth to block windows in stairway of Theater...





    Light on...




    Theater storage room...




    Theater bathroom.... (no energy to paint this room right now.... just not a priority...)




    Dude working hard so I don't have to!!!!!




    Part of the addition hallway where the set it up for a computer.... lots of outlets, phone line, etc...



    Addition bathroom...



    Addition "in-law-suite" that we'll be using for out t.v./family room


  8. #8
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    Addition Hallway looking from the new "T.V./Family" room.










    black velvet tape is great




    I already had the 25' HDMI cable at the new place, and although I don't have any source for sound, my curiosity got the better of me, so I yanked out a couple of cords from home, grab "Galapagos" and went to the new place......


    My camera and my picture taking skills are very sub-par..... and the sun was shining (for the first time in awhile... go figure) and I don't have my window treatments yet..... but I did the best I could..... needless to say, I was VERY pleased









  9. #9
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    I promise they look better in person!



    First, in the "theater" world.....

    Need to build a riser (that will eventually house new theater seats) but here are the stadium seats I'll be using temporarily..... the astroturf from the field will also be integrated into a foot-rest.



    You can see the way it was bolted to a timber since they don't bolt to the ground, but to the "wall" behind them..... (I'm not even considering bolting them to the wall with a back-support since they are TEMPORARY)




    View from the seats.






    House.... PAINTED!!! YEAH!!!!! The blue is more "Blue" and the pink is more red.... thank god..... got rid of the pink!!! The cream/white color is so bright and clean looking now, but all in-all, I'd say the brightness of the blue (rather than dirty grayish color it was) is the biggest improvement....

    All the detail work these guys did with the dental work with the color inside/outside of the blocks etc, is just great..... can't say enough for our painters.






  10. #10
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    I primer and painted the front rooms/hallway/stairway etc.... that was recently plastered..... just a couple pictures since I took them I guess.







    These will be installed sooner than later......

    http://www.seatsandchairs.com/home-t...=&idproduct=51



    That's my first "Little" post for my Home--------------------Theater in progress

  11. #11
    Forum Regular pixelthis's Avatar
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    Cool

    EXELENT!!
    This is what you call a "true" HT. Congrats.
    LG 42", integra 6.9, B&W 602s2, CC6 center, dm305rears, b&w
    sub asw2500
    Panny DVDA player
    sharp Aquos BLU player
    pronto remote, technics antique direct drive TT
    Samsung SACD/DVDA player
    emotiva upa-2 two channel amp

  12. #12
    I put the Gee in Gear.... thekid's Avatar
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    Great post and thanks for sharing pics of your dream home and HT. Can't wait to see more as it progresses!

  13. #13
    Sgt. At Arms Worf101's Avatar
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    Hooooleeeee Chit!!!

    Man, it's sooooo good to see someone doing it "right". Beautiful home, inside and out. I love to see old homes (Victorian?) beautifully restored and done right and the HT.... WOW diddly wow. Cute kid. Love the "EXIT" sign. I am soooo impressed... and green wit ENVY. You're doin' it up great. Keep at it and I was two tix to the "grand opening".

    Da Worfster

  14. #14
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    Eveything Worf said x10 johnny p. What a beautiful house you've got. Tell us again where you live. That house reminds me of the Victorian homes I've seen in Jersey.

  15. #15
    Forum Regular audio amateur's Avatar
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    Sweet stuff! When it's all up and running share some more pics

  16. #16
    Da Dragonball Kid L.J.'s Avatar
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    Very nice!!!

  17. #17
    Forum Regular Wits's Avatar
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    That makes three of us that are green with envy! Beautiful house, and I love the colors you picked. As for the Home Theater, well, that's magnificent too! Truly something to be proud of for years to come.

  18. #18
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    Picture-less upgrades....

    I'll have to get some pictures, but today I built the riser (need to carpet it etc) and placed the front few speakers, and connected everything (minus a few audio-only components)

    I also got Owens Corning "FOAMULAR" insulation boards (like "Blue-Board" but it's pink) and I sealed off all of the windows, and painted the boards on the outside so when you look up, it just looks like curtains are up, and not pink insulation board!!!!!.....

    Anyways, after getting that stuff set up, I wanted to play with the position of the projector, and get a listen to the speakers in that room....... well, "No Country For Old Men" is a long movie, and I watched the whole thing....... I guess that's why they say you shouldn't hook up the projector until everything else is done!!!! (this is my first screen over 37" so I was like a kid on Christmas)


    For those asking, here are a few details.....


    it's a 100 year old (the work was completed in 1908) Victorian house. I'm in a western suburb of Cleveland Ohio. It was a foreclosure, so we didn't get "too" many details about it, since there wasn't a traditional listing for sale etc.....

    We have no idea how big it is... (sq footage wise) but we know that it's 6 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, Living Room and Family room... biggest kitchen I've ever had by a LONG shot... formal dining room, and the basement is un-finished, but it's nice enough for a pool-table etc (not that I have one, I'll throw a foos table down there !!! )


    Most of the "Major" stuff (Porch, and Exterior painting being the biggest, followed by plumbing and plastering) have been completed, and I painted the entire inside myself, and repaired much of the plaster, buffed/oiled the floors etc....


    My wife has about 1,000 things she wants me to do before the "attic" which is my movie room..... so I have to usually knock off one big task in order to turn a small screw up there!!!!!


    We got the house in early August......... we put up some curtains (and my theater stuff of course) but other than that, there isn't a single piece of furniture (or appliance for that matter) in the house yet. We're trying to move in by Christmas..... that's the goal right now. I pretty much spend all night every-night over there doing something-or-another.


    I'll post more pictures when I get them!!!!!!

    Thanks for all of the compliments.

  19. #19
    Sgt. At Arms Worf101's Avatar
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    Sheeya!!!!

    And I thought I had a "honey dew list". Your's is 50 miles long. I'm so happy and proud to see someone take a reppoed house and "recycle" it, then improve it. You've much respect from me. Troy, New York is rife with beautiful old Victorians. I almost bought one but it had no off-street parking. And that's one thing I swore my first house was gonna have. Good on ya M8 and keep up the progress reports.

    Da Worfster

  20. #20
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    Here is the riser I made.... waiting to be trimmed-out (although I did a little already) and carpeted..... going to bolt two "Texas Rocker" theater chairs to the top of it...



    HOLY SPEAKER WIRE BATMAN!




    Obligatory "grill off" picture..... not sure why people like to see speakers without their grills....but here it is




    I have a couple shelves of movies in my closet, and a few boxes too..... Here are the contents of one of the shelves, there might, or might-not be some blu-rays in there, I think it's mostly DVDs from that shelf.... not sure. I grabbed some blu-rays to set up the screen and adjust the projector settings though. (WOW that's a bad picture... sorry)




    Behind the black-out cloth (and eventually velvet curtains) I have foam-insulation boards blocking out the windows...... you can see the writing etc... but each side actually has a coat of white paint on them, so when you look from the street, they look like white blinds are drawn.....



    What they look like from the ground-level





    LIGHTS OUT.... (another crappy picture though)





    When my speaker wire gets here, and I find out how/where I will mount my surrounds, I'll try to get more pictures.


    MORE TO COME.......

  21. #21
    Forum Regular audio amateur's Avatar
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    Yeah I want some pics of those 686's

  22. #22
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by audio amateur
    Yeah I want some pics of those 686's

    They're sitting on the floor right now

    I saw (a long time ago) pictures of your 686s, and your stands... (very nice!!) if you don't mind me asking, how much were the stands???? (I'm affraid to ask !!!!)

  23. #23
    Forum Regular audio amateur's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnny p
    They're sitting on the floor right now

    I saw (a long time ago) pictures of your 686s, and your stands... (very nice!!) if you don't mind me asking, how much were the stands???? (I'm affraid to ask !!!!)
    Thanks, the stands I got here in the UK were Partington 'Ansa 60' stands (24"), which sell for approx £95 tax included. Try and google them on google.com, and see if you get any entries on a US website. With current exchange rate that's about 150$.
    Although they are nice stands, I believe that you have many stand options in the US available to you, possibly for much cheaper.
    How were you using them in your previous setup?

  24. #24
    Village Idiot johnny p's Avatar
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    the 686s were rear surrounds before, and I actually had plant stands made (wife wouldn't allow a full surround in a living room area otherwise) that they fit into, and a plant could go on-top of the stand..... I should have a picture......




    It worked well because the speaker couldn't be knocked out etc..... and was fairly well protected (obviously not the best for sound though, but they were designed to put the speaker at ear level)


    now, with a whole room that I can do whatever I want to..... the plant stands can go, and actual speaker stands can be used!!!!!

  25. #25
    Audio/HT Nut version 1.3a
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    Wow, I'm simply overwhelmed by both your new house and theater. Marvelous!

    I live in the Pacific Northwest. Your home reminds me of the magnificent Victorian homes in Port Townsend, Washington and Astoria, Oregon.

    I showed my wife the photos and she was so impressed. More photos as you progress please.

    RR6

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