Drywall (Part 2)

Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:35 pm. 0 comments

We’ve finally finished mudding and sanding!

We also managed to order and paint all of the face plates for outlets and speaker boxes.

Now it’s time to put some paint on the walls.

Drywall (Part 1)

Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 2:14 pm. 0 comments

Another productive week spent working on the theatre room. This week we finished pulling the speaker and video cabling and managed to get all of the drywall up. Now it looks more like a room!

Electrical Complete

Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 10:21 am. 0 comments

We had a productive weekend in the theatre room. All of the electrical (lights and outlets), PVC pipe for wires, and the last of the framing (around the window) is complete.

All of our wires should be arriving later today so we can glue the PVC and string the wires through later tonight.

We’re hoping to start dry walling mid week if the budget can hold up to it.

Theatre Room Framed

Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:38 am. 0 comments

Here’s our first update on the status of the theatre room. Over the last week or so we’ve managed to complete the following:

• Framing (just need to frame in the window).
• Boxes for the front speakers, power, and side lights.
• Ran PVC pipe to each speaker box and then back through the roof to where the cabinet will house all of the electronics.
• Mounted the projector bracket.

The screen arrived yesterday so tonight we’ll do our first test run with the screen and projector. Sunday we plan to finish the last of the framing and run all of the electrical so we can start dry wall sometime next week.

I also just placed an order for all of the electronics related wiring through monoprice.com:

• $19.01 x2 : 14AWG Enhanced Loud Oxygen-Free Copper Speaker Wire Cable – 100ft
• $13.28 x2 : High Speed HDMI 1.3a Category 2 Certified CL2 Rated (In-Wall Installation) Cable (24AWG) w/ Net Jacket – 15ft (Gold Plated Connectors)
• $4.69  x2 : 15Ft 3-RCA Component Video Cable (RG-59/u)
• $4.76  x1 : 15Ft SVGA Super VGA M/M Monitor CL2 Rated (For In-Wall Installation) Cable w/ ferrites (Gold Plated)
• $1.70  x1 : 12FT S-VIDEO CABLE DVD DSS SVHS CABLE SVIDEO M/M (24K Gold Plated)

Our Foreman after a hard days work:

Starting on our theatre room

Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:35 pm. 0 comments

When we were searching for our house I made sure our “want” checklist contained an unfinished basement so I could eventually build a theatre room. After getting our fence and 3rd bathroom complete we’re moving onto tackle the theatre room as our next project. We started out by doing what a lot of DYI’ers do; staring at walls. We eventually decided that we’d best put all of our ideas down on some sort of sketch, naturally I turned to google’s sketchup application and we eventually came up with these (note, we have no previous sketchup experience so these are pretty basic, click for larger image):

Our room dimensions should be 12.5×17 once we frame everything in.

Our checklist consists of:

• 100 inch screen
• Projector (I haven’t decided on a unit yet but I’ll begin searching for one this week. I’m trying to limit myself to a $1,000 budget for the projector).
• 5.1 surround sound setup (speakers are missing from the sketches but 1 in each corner and sub under screen). Still need to do some research and find a decent setup.
• Running all of the cabling through the walls to keep a clean appearance.
• Couch with ottoman (need to shop around for a couch that we can easily take apart to squeeze into our basement).
• Probably throw in a bean bag or two.
• Cabinets above couch to house all of the electronics (probably building our own or taking something from Ikea and building it in). Add some LED lights to the base of the cabinets for some extra lighting in the back of the room.
• Hardwood floor or carpet, we haven’t decided for sure.
• 4 recessed ceiling lights in sets of two with dimmers on each set.

Before pictures:

Our vinyl fence ordeal

Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 5:31 pm. 0 comments

Shortly after purchasing our first home we decided to fence our yard so we could easily let our dogs out and not worry about keeping an eye on them. We began by checking around for some local fence installation companies and settled on “Quality Vinyl Fence & Gate LLC”. We scheduled a time with the company to have them come and give us a quote on how much the fence would run. Our appointment was set for 8:30 but after half an hour of waiting with no one showing up we decided to give him a call and he said he was on his way and finally showed up at 10:30. He seemed friendly and professinal (apperances can be deceiving) so we decided to have him do the work and setup another appointment for when he would come and install the fence posts.

Installation day came and he was no where to be found. After waiting a few hours we called him and were given an excuse that his equipment broke down (strange, there was a group of guys who came to dig the holes, must have been shovels they used that were broken…) so we rescheduled for the next day and they showed up, dug the posts and said that they have to sit for a 3-4 days before the paneling could be installed. A week went by and we didn’t hear anything from them. My wife attempted to call the person who we assume owns the company (Terry) but after answering her first phone call he sent any of her following calls to voice mail, we know because immediately after she attempted to call him and didn’t get an answer I called using my cell and he picked up right away. This same process was repeated with my phone until we used a new phone from a family member and he answered first try. I’m not sure why you would try and dodge a customer phone call… I guess he already had our money so we weren’t a huge priority.

Two weeks later they finally came to install our pannels, installed the gate, and cleaned up dirt piles they had left behind from the poles (which had killed our lawn by this point).

We thought we were done with this ordeal until we came home one day to find holes dug around two of our fence posts. Upon closer inspection we discovered that the people who mow the lawns for the HOA had noticed heavy water saturation near the fence posts  and dug the holes to expose that the fencers had broken two sprinkler lines. We repaired these breaks but ended up finding two more broken sections at another two post locations. Out of six posts they had broken the sprinkler line in four places.

I don’t understand how someone like this can stay in business and I hope that by sharing our experiences we can save someone else all of the headaches that we’ve had to deal with.

Stay clear from Quality Vinyl Fence & Gate LLC.

Edit: After looking for a place to add my review I noticed that we’re not the only ones who have had a bad experience with this company (first review is mine): Yellow Page Reviews