Well, I am planning the home theater buildout now.  I am in the early planning stages and seriously don’t expect to break ground for another COUPLE of YEARS.  It’s sad, really, but there are other things that are, of course, more important money-wise, such as getting the infernal electricity fixed near the front of the house (Rach swears she heard electricity crackling when she plugged her laptop into the plug in the dining room…. fail…..).

Anyways, the buildout will be in the medium-sized room upstairs.  I am still not sure why I ended up stuck with that room.  It makes no sense to me because it is directly over the sleeping area, which ruins any use during late-night hours or when one of us is sick.  It would make more sense to put it in the long room upstairs as that is over the kitchen and all the way across the house from the sleeping area. But Rach has reserved that for the guest room.  I’m not gonna argue because she is letting me build the smegging thing at all, which is already generous.

Anyways, I am going to have to blow out the existing closet, which is a pain.  The window will need to blocked off.  I am going to have to remove the existing carpet.  Also on the menu are installing a riser at the back of the room and making some holes into the finished attic space behind the screen area.  The basic plan as as seen here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=897055

The builder of that theater blew $18k.  My plan is about $1k for construction then however much for a projection system (lower end than his to start) and seating.  Probably come out to about $4k total when all is said and done if I can keep the projector/screen down to about $2k, which is becoming more and more possible these days.   I am REALLY doubtful I’ll do all of the soffits and fancy lighting.  At MOST I may add some sconced lighting to the screen wall.  I will probably be 86-ing the ceiling fan and replacing it with a nice pendant.

Anyways, step one is going to be planning and such.  Hopefully I’ll be able to use auto-cad (or google sketchup if I am feeling ghetto) and get some thoughts on paper.  Step 1a is figuring out which tools I’ll need and slowly start acquiring anything I am missing.  New miter saw and table saw are going to be necessary.   Like I said, this is going to have to go slowly.  I am going to have to do everything I can to cut costs, but not cut quality.

TTFN,

-j-