Misc.

I haven't updated for a while. I've been hard at work getting the projector setup properly. It's way more involved than I ever imagined, but I really enjoy the learning experience.

I put up some dvd shelves I bought online. They look great and store all my dvd's, games and hddvd's high enough that the kids can't mess with them. I'll post some pictures soon.

Carpet done!

Yesterday the carpet was finished. I vacuumed it clean of fuzzies and then finished mounting the screen wall panels. It looks awesome! Now I just need to line up the picture a little better and calibrate the projector and sound. That's the fun stuff!

Carpet and screen wall panels

The carpet guys are here from Dalton Carpet. It'll be so nice to have this done. I'm hoping it'll help the acoustics of the room.

Last night I finished the screen wall panels. The fabric was from acoustimac.com and is perfect. One side has a shine to it, the other side has a stronger pattern but is deeper black. I tested some of the smaller panels and it really sucks up the light! excellent.

Screen wall

Yesterday I built and painted the panels for the screen wall. They look great! I was able to fabric two of them last night and test fit them. Tomorrow the carpet guys arrive. Once that is done I can mount the panels.

Almost done!

I taped the rec room to get ready for painting this afternoon. Here's some pictures of the basement at this stage.

Inspections

Yesterday I had four different inspections. The city and the bank wanted to reassess our property. The building and electrical inspectors were here too. I passed building but the electrical guy had a laundry list of things to fix. Those are all done so I'll have him back monday to close the permit.

Things to finish yet:
1) Paint the rec room side.
2) Fix the screen. The fabric is badly wrinkled.
3) Install the light trim on the rec room side.
4) Clean up the floor (carpet?).
5) Build the frames for the false wall, paint them and add black fabric.

That's all I can think of right now. My xbox 360 is finally dead. I got a great deal on an arcade bundle from Dell so that should arrive next week.

The best resolution so far on Port 3 of the Barco is 1366x768. It looks incredible with HD source content!

HVAC and Doors

Yesterday my friend Brian stopped by and we hung both doors and installed and connected the heat vent and air return. Thanks Brian! It went really well. I'm glad we bought prehung doors!

I also called Behr paint a few days ago and talked to them about the burnishing issues I'm having with their flat black paint. I sent them a copy of my receipt and they're reimbursing me for the paint. I'll need another gallon to go over some spots and to paint the framing for the screen wall, so this helps me out. I'm glad they're willing to stand behind their product.

Electrical done, Lights done and Projector mounted

Friday David and Brad helped me lift the projector in place. Wow, my back twitched for a few days. The only comfort was spending 3 hours converging it. Also finished the electric work this weekend and painted and installed the wall sconces last night. They look great!

Unistrut Mount 2.0

Here's the second attempt at getting the unistrut mount correct. This is corrected for the 16x9 screen:

Unistrut

Monday I cut and mounted the unistrut for the crt projector to the ceiling. It's taken me a few days to get the right hardware together but I finally have everything up and ready for the projector. I took some pictures, then was told by a fellow AVSforum member that the installation manual assumes 4x3, so I was able to move the lower mount 9" closer to the ceiling to account for the 16x9 format. Anyways, here's the pictures before the change;

painting is done

just finished painting the screen side of the basement. I did two coats of flat black Behr paint on the ceiling and two coats of satin black Behr on the walls. It looks great! I put up the 3" lights and connected the Lutron Grafik eye, which is looking good. I need to pick up the wall sconces and get those wired up right away.

I need to get the final electrical inspection done soon, so I should probably get the wiring done too.

Texture Done!

Monday morning Chad from Appleton Acoustic Systems came by and did a knockdown texture on the walls and ceilings. He was in and out in about 3 hours and it looks amazing! Chad was great to work with. I highly recommend Appleton Acoustic Systems, they did work for us in our old house, rejuvenating the ceiling that was full of holes and had suspended ceiling before we tore it down.

Here's some pictures of the finished work, before it was fully dry;

Mudding and Priming done

I finished this stage last saturday with the help of my friend Keith. Here's some pictures of the end of this stage. I've been doing some final touchup work and taping/stapling up plastic. Monday morning the texture guy from Appleton Acoustics will be here. The cost for texturing is $250. I just can't justify doing it myself for this low cost. I could probably make it look ok, but this will give it an excellent professional finish, and help cover up any mistakes I've made.