Mr. Opinionated

The theater has seen many hours of use these past few months and its been great. We did get a replacement chair that matches the first one, and we picked up some mushroom seats for the nieces and nephews that like the front row. I’ve also included pictures of some of our movie posters. I’ve got a few more to get framed and couple more lightboxes to build or purchase and install, but for now it looks fantastic.

After some long nights and weekends, I have finally completed the Lipszyc Home Theater. A big thanks to the AVSForum, without whom I would’ve never gotten into this crazy hobby! Also a big thanks to those who lent me tools or helped me lift over a ton of sand (Meesh). Now I can finally enjoy the fruits of my labor.

First movie? Not sure yet. I’m torn between Star Wars Episode IV and Fifth Element…the wife wants to watch Jurassic Park. Either way, I’ve already logged about 10 hours on the PJ watching the fabulous demo disc from Clarence. (click here for the torrent!)

Of course, nothing is ever really completed. I still want to program some additional scenes into my X10 light switches, and I need to revamp my Pronto remote to better control my new components. Plus, I have some space in my rack for another changer, or perhaps an HTPC. And it looks like I’ll need some more shelving soon. For now, I’m happy where its at, but I’ll continue to tweak as I go!

After a couple week hiatus from the theater due to a trip to St. Louis and fighting with the builder, I’m back on track to be completed no later than June 25th. (My wife is throwing her first get together at the new house and wants everything done.)

Over the weekend I managed to construct the second set of shelving and install it in the wall. After a couple coats of paint, it will be ready to stock with our movies and memorabilia. With that out of the way, I moved onto installing the speakers in the side columns and securing them to the walls.

The trim that I cut a few weeks ago, also got a coat of paint and I was able to get a small section of base trim installed last night. While installing the trim, I found out the hard way that I didn’t cut some of the pieces correctly. After rereading that chapter on using a mitre saw (lol), I recut the pieces and painted them to match. For the steps I needed to hand cut the curves to fit the bullnose of the carpet, and some used some patch as well. A few modifications to some of the pieces, a couple brads and the trim will be done.

I planned the screen delivery perfectly, as it arrived just as I finished filling, sanding and painting. I made a few last minute adjustments to the center speaker, covered the bottom section with black fabric and installed the screen brackets. Stretching the screen material over the frame was quite a task and took me longer than expected. Once snapped together, I promptly mounted it on the brackets and sat back to enjoy the view.

To my surprise I received a call this morning that my chairs had arrived and were to be delivered this afternoon. Unfortunately, after dragging them down to the basement, I opened one up to find it was the wrong color. A quick call to Paul at Leather Direct had a replacement ordered. Another 5 weeks, but I can enjoy the existing chair until then. Oh well.

Had the weekend to myself and boy did I need it. On Friday I was up until 2am trying to reroute some cables through the conduit from the pj to the equipment room. If you look at my construction pics you can see I had to put a couple bends into the conduit so that made things especially tough. I managed to get them all through, thankfully. The next morning, with the new 6″ pipe, I was able to get the pj mounted in its final position and connected. Of course I spent some time (couple hours) making sure all the inputs and cables worked fine. Since I was borrowing a co-workers mitre saw for the weekend, I needed to get back to task. I hoisted the side columns into place so I could measure and set about cutting my base trim and chair rail. With that out of the way, I went back to working on the fabric and finished the majority of the sections remaining. On Sunday, my wife helped me with the final sections of fabric and finished installing the rest of the sconces. All that is left now is to repair a stud in the proscenium, install the speakers into the columns and secure the columns to the wall, order and mount the screen, finish the screen wall fabric, and paint and install the trim and chair rail. One positive note – the chairs have been ordered and are on their way!

Huge update for today! The biggest accomplishment has been finalizing the columns. After building and installing the speaker supports and shelves, I wrapped each rear column in fabric, stuffed the non-speaker section with insulation and hoisted them into place. On the columns, I wanted a rounded effect so I also installed some quarter-round on the edges. I originally held off on the side columns due to the differences in height between the colors, but after doing one, it actually was easier than I thought. I’ll need to devise a better way to secure the columns to the wall, but for now they’re ok.

No new pictures from the weekend, but quite a bit more done. Unfortunately, I was reminded the hard way to check that all the proper parts are in place before taking things apart. After pulling out all the wiring and old switches, I realized I needed a couple parts to be able to install the X10 dimmers.

That wasn’t going to stop me, however, and with the main lighting off and only a small lamp, I managed to get the mulberry fabric completed on a few sections. The mulberry goes much quicker than the midnight since I don’t have to mess with back-stapling the top furring strips. Only a couple sections left. Later that evening I did stop off at Home Depot for the parts I needed and finished the dimmer install. (Pictures in other posts)

Although they haven’t been ordered yet, we’ve made our final choices on model, fabric and leather of the chairs. Close up pics of the fabric and leather selections will come in a later post. Once we do place an order, we hope to have them in 6-8 weeks.

On Wednesday, in between interviewing landscapers and supervising painters, I managed to get most of the blue fabric sections installed. Things are really starting to come together now. I also installed my first sconce after I had finished that section of fabric. Things look great.