The Room - double sheetrocked and ready for me to get to work.

Of course, that window is history.  It needed to be there for the exterior to look right but, when I'm finished, you'll never know its there from the inside.

Laying out the stage.  You can see here that I am building my stage in three distinct pieces.

This is a second floor room so I can't put 2,000lbs of sand in a huge stage.  But, it occurred to me that the subs only actually sit on a very small portion of the actual stage.  So, I'm building the sub platforms de-coupled from the rest.

A closer view of one of the sub platforms.

Treated lumber here because it will have sand in it (but only maybe a couple hundred pounds).

Laying out the radius front.

None of this is actually nailed/screwed together yet.  I like to have it all measured and fit before I do anything permanent.

When it is put together it will get the 30lb roofing felt treatment as well.

From the front towards the back.

You can see what will be my mini-bar area on the right (just a mini fridge and maybe microwave).

Looking from the room back into the "Lobby Vestibule".

I'm hoping to build a DVD storage cabinet in that end right there with a faux ticket booth front.

We'll see if I have the energy/guts to under take that after I get finished with all the other construction.

Where the equipment rack will be.

This is the other side of the equipment rack.

The theater was designed to share this wall with an air conditioned storage room.

This room also houses home-runs for all of my phone, data, speaker and video feeds.  It will be the central wiring point for the whole house.

The stage "stuffed".

The center section is packed with blown insulation, but not blown.  I packed it as tight as possible.

The sub platforms are filled with sand.  Actually, this is the second time as the first time it started raining and the sand soaked up all the moisture in the air.  Now the house is sealed up and the heat is on so it should stay much drier.

Two layers of flooring with 30lb felt sandwiched between -- screwed and glued.

Proscenium walls going up.  At this point the plan is to leave these walls acoustically transparent.  This will simplify the construction and the acoustic treatment of the room.  I just need to be sure no light can leak behind these walls as that will immediately reveal them for the illusions they are...

One of the columns partially constructed and in its place.  I pulled out a couple of my light fixtures so I could size and space the columns.

These are quite different than the ones in the last room.  I'm building them detached from the wall so that I can have a completely seamless fabric installation.  Also, I've designed them as 9x13 instead of the 12x12 that my last ones were.  I think I like this lower profile much better.

Here is a shot of a column under construction.  You can see that I'm not really framing them at all, but just using 2x2 as corner pieces for creating a square joint for the column sides.  So far, this seems to work well.

One full column and one speaker column in place (again, not attached at this point, just trying them on for size).

I'm a little concerned about the amount of MDF that may be in the "way" of the surround speakers so I may modify this design to have smaller corner pieces in the upper area where the speaker is.

All columns finished...finally.

I ripped smaller pieces of MDF for the "corners".  They should be just fine now.

Here's one candidate color for the ceiling. 

I've got some of the soffit fabric up there so I can get some sense for how it might look.

That fabric is the Vertical Surface Solids - Charcoal (GOM).

And the other candidate color.

I went with the first one.  I like the darker color.  Going a little bit for the "night sky" effect.

However, this dark color is proving to be a challenge to get it to come out without roller marks showing when you catch it in the light just right.  Most times it looks fine, but if you catch a bright reflection, you can definitely see the "patchwork" of roller strokes in places.

Still working on this...

Update - I finally got an acceptable finish.  Turns out my paint was an "eggshell" which is hard to get smooth.  Plus, I've learned you need a LOT of paint on that roller.

Michael (age 4 1/2) helped with the painting project.

Working on the light tray.

Its a piece of 3/4" MDF with another piece of 1/2" MDF for the "lip" (glued and screwed).

Then this assembly is screwed to the underside of the soffit.

This approach both creates the light tray and the furring needed in order to layer the underside of the soffit with Linacoustic.

A closer view of this light tray construction.

Well, I guess I'll have to build that ticket booth now.

Started on the shelves in the entryway.

Here they are.  Basically complete.

The Faux Ticket booth comes later (when I figure out exactly how to do it).

Building the frame for the screen.

In the last room, I paid an arm and a leg for my Stewart StudioTek screen.  It was great, but Stewart upped their prices to two arms and a leg so I've decided to try a DIY screen this time.

I figure, If its just horrible, I can always buy a "real" screen later.

The frame is 1x3 secured square with some triangles cut from 1/4" plywood.

The screen itself will be a sheet of Plas-Tex waterproof wall paneling.  Can't take credit for this as I found out about it (like a whole lot of this stuff) out on the AVS Forums.

Some innovative soul stumbled on this stuff at a Lowes or Home Depot and thought it would make a good screen.  He tried it out and, well, the rest is history.  Lots of people have "Parkland" screens now.

Then, a layer of 1/8" hardboard on top of that to provide a nice flat surface to which to mount the Parkland material.

That's where it gets tricky...

You see, the Parkland Plas-Tex is a 4' x 8' sheet of relatively flimsy plastic/vinyl like material.

If simply nailed to a frame or otherwise attached at the edges, there would be no way to get it truly flat.  It would have little undulations in it which would simply not do for a screen.

So, adhesive must be used in order to get a truly flat surface.

Okay, here we are with Vinyl floor adhesive spread out on the frame base and drying 'til its "tacky".

I used this instead of the contact cement that others appear to have used due to the instructions on the Parkland sheet. It said to be sure and use a solvent free, latex based adhesive.  The only contact cement I found was not latex based and this stuff was so I went with it.

I have to say I'm pretty nervous at this point because, once this stuff gets "tacky" and you touch it with whatever you're bonding, you better hope you got it in the right spot.

Ever try to precisely place a    4' x 8' sheet of flexible plastic by yourself? 

I don't recommend it.

Whew!  Parkland material in place square and as flat as could have possibly been expected.

It was a bit hairy for a second but I managed to get it down on there properly and then roll it out with a laminate roller.

I think this thing is gonna actually work...at least, it looks pretty good now.

Here's my "test" wall for Acoustical treatments/furring.

This is in the small vestibule as you enter the theater so it will be completely treated with IS/Linacoustic to eliminate any weird echoes.

In this test I discovered that, unlike whatever it was I used last time, the Linacoustic is really 1" thick.

For anyone who has ever worked with any lumber you realize 1" thick presents a problem as 1x? is never actually 1" thick.

So, here I am ripping down 2x6s to make furring strips that are actually 1" thick.

This turns out to be not that hard a process and will actually be cheaper than if I'd purchased the same LF of 1x3 lumber.

I also got to test out my brand new dado wobble blade.

Had to make rabbets in these 2x2s to fit them properly for use on the wall side of the speaker columns.

Okay, so these steps have been bothering me for a long time.  The framers built them with the rest of the flooring system when I wasn't around and they were hollow.  Every time I stepped on one it would "pinggg" like a tight drum.

So, I demo'd them and rebuilt them with packed insulation.  Probably won't really make any difference but it was gonna bother me so I did it.

Oops.  How did this get in here??

Well, since it is...isn't she a sweetie?

New step filled.

I also took the opportunity to make them 1" narrower.

The previous steps had exactly 112" of clearance between them.  Now that I'm considering some new Berklines I made them about 114" apart to be sure, after the carpet, a curved row of 3 will fit (spec'd at 112" wide).

Now, on with the real construction again.

Screen wall under construction

And finished.

I won't show you the previous picture with the nice brace right in the middle of the top section.  You know, the one that would have been right in front of my center channel.

What kind of idiot is building this thing anyway...?

Screen temporarily in place.

Needed to be sure it would fit.  After all, anyone who would frame a wall such that you couldn't get a center channel in the right place needs to be checked and re-checked.

Furring going up.  This is actually normal 1x3, not my custom strips.  I need to use 1x3 under here because my light tray is built with 3/4" MDF.

Almost done with the furring.

Notice, since my custom furring strips are only 1 1/2" wide, I need some extra blocking for support for the crown molding.  Same thing below for baseboard.

If I never see another furring strip as long as I live, it may be too soon.

Let there be light!

Electrician finally got power to my room.  Now, if he could just get the step lights he told me he'd install "tomorrow" over 3 months ago...

And, since we now have light -- bye bye window.

I bought a $9 tablecloth at Target and put it on the other side of this board.  From the outside, if you even look up to notice it, it just looks like a nice, cloth shade is drawn.

Now that the window is gone, I can start with the Linacoustic.

This area behind the Proscenium gets the full treatment - all walls and ceiling.

Linacoustic installed.

I used 1 5/8" sheetrock screws to attach this to the walls.  I inserted them just enough so that they were flush with the material.  It only required 2 or 3 per panel to hold it up there.

Staples just wouldn't hold it because it is a full 1" thick and fairly dense.  The screws worked very well.

And now batting above.

I'm hoping that "patchwork" of batting won't show through the fabric in any sort of way.  I don't think it will, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Also, I'll find out if I need to do what I did last time and put cheap, thin black fabric over the batting.  My last wall fabric was light enough that you could see the transition between IS/Linacoustic and the batting.

The wall fabric this time is a bit darker but I still may need to use something black on the upper portion.

My soffit underside is only furred out 3/4" so I can't put Linacoustic all around up there like some do (I didn't last time either and it seemed to do fine).

However, I do want to be sure there are no reflections from the center channel which will be right over the screen.  So, I've put a piece of Linacoustic up there in front of where it will be.

It may be a challenge to get the thicker material to blend under the fabric without showing any bumps or ridges but I'll figure something out.

This is the cubby where my built-in cabinet for fridge/microwave will be.  I was a bit concerned about that small, three walled space right behind one of my surrounds.  I asked Dennis about it and he suggested IS/Linacoustic on that left wall to kill any potential reflection problems.  So, there it is.

No, you are not seeing things -- that is FABRIC going up.

Oh yeah.

You can see the framing behind the fabric in this picture because of the flash.  You can't see it under normal conditions.

That top portion will house my center channel so the fabric on it will be stapled at the top and then just pulled around and thumb-tacked behind the screen so I can lift it up for speaker access.

Viola!

Screen wall.

Got that nice "floating in air" effect for the screen.

Cookin' with gas now.

Okay, here we go with the real fabric install.

The soffit is probably the hardest part so I'm starting with that (like to get it out of the way).

Here I'm doing the hardest part of the soffit as well.  The front piece won't have crown as it joins with the screen wall (don't want to draw attention to this wall at all).

So, I'm using an upholstery trick of tacking the fabric up backwards and then screwing in my furring strip along that edge.

Here's a close-up of that soffit fabric right after I've installed the furring strip.

Now you just pull the fabric back around the furring strip and...

...you have a nice, even seam without any staples showing.

This trick will be used on all inside corners in the room.

Putting up another piece of the soffit fabric.

these pieces I started at the lip of the light tray and then wrapped the fabric back around to the wall under the soffit.

Well, remember I talked about how last time you could see the difference between the batting and the IS...same deal.

In addition, you can see the furring strips through the fabric too.

So, I bought a bunch of cheap, thin black fabric and put it over the batting -- also painted all the furring flat black.

The black fabric is actually Lingerie fabric.  The lady at Hancock Fabrics was looking at me kinda strange as she measured out 7 yards of this stuff.  When she was done, I said "I've got a lot of girlfriends."  She said, "well, I was thinking, that must be quite a large girl there..."

One whole side done!

Notice, I've abandoned the idea of access to the speakers by removing the whole column.  I thought that was just going to be too cumbersome so I plan to make front removable panels like I had last time.

Here's a closer shot of the junction between column and wall panel.

I really like how this is turning out without needing any trim pieces to hide staples.

Here's the rack installed and fabric'ed in.

Also, one of the inside corners done in the same manner as the first soffit piece - tack it up backwards, staple, put up furring and then bring the fabric around to the proper wall - Ta Da inside corner with no need for trim.

Sconces up, wired in and working.

You might also notice that those electrical outlets seem to have disappeared...

Shhhh...don't tell the inspector.

Here's a shot of the only seam I have "out in the open" (you'll have to click on the pic above and get the big version to actually see it).

This is back in the "bar" area.  The distance here was just over 66" (width of the fabric) so I went ahead and put the seam at the front of where the cabinet will be.  Same "inside corner" trick to get the seam without trim.

Baseboard!

Stained to look like cherry.  Well, kinda...

I'm racing to get this in as the carpet is to be installed a week from today and I'm leaving town for 5 days tomorrow.

It doesn't look like I'll have all the baseboard in before the carpet but most of it will be.

More baseboard.

You can also see the beadboard treatment I plan on using on the column bases.  That definitely won't be done before carpet.

The projector mount.

Two pieces of "SuperStrut" bolted into three ceiling joists each.  Then some long bolts to drop the projector down far enough so its not over tilted (the keystone compensation can only do so much and this is a 10' ceiling).

Here's a close-up of the mount.

This setup allows me to nudge the projector forward and back to optimize the position after its in place.

Its Here!  It's Here!

Electrohome Marquee 8500 with brand new tubes and in mint condition.

I got it from Tim Martin.  I highly recommend him.

Well, shoot.  I coulda sworn I took a picture of the contraption I rigged to get this thing up there but, it turns out, I didn't.

I used another trick I picked up at the AVS Forum and got a 2' x 4' piece of 3/4" plywood and 4 8' long 3/8" threaded rods.  Put the rods in the superstrut and then through the plywood.  Then set the projector on the plywood platform.

Took me and three very nice friends to get it into place.  Then we proceeded the process of spinning wingnuts to "jack" it up to the ceiling.

After about 10 minutes (and 6 inches) of this, we said "forget this" and three of us got under the thing and lifted it up while the fourth guided the brackets together at the top.

Didn't get any pictures of this, either, unfortunately, as I was under the projector at the time.

Just barely did a quick setup but I had to post a couple of screenshots now that the projector is in.

Mr. Waternoose here.

And, of course, Mike.

And the dynamic duo.

Okay, back to work on the tedious stuff.

Here's a shot of my door casing.  Cherry stain and a "Mission" style.

And the entry door trim.

I guess I should paint that thing another color, huh...

Finished the "bar" area.

Built in a small fridge and a microwave.  No actual popcorn maker for me.  I don't want to have to clean it and, since I don't have a real lobby to put it in, I'd be worried about the oil on the fabric

Here's how the front is coming out.

The equipment is in and functional (which, by the way, is a bad idea if you ever want to finish this project).

You can see here that the fabric on the proscenium just "peels" back to give access to the speakers.

Here's a little better view of one side with the fabric peeled back.

I can get to these speakers and, If I really need to, I can squeeze behind the screen as well.

If I really need access back there, though, I can take the screen out.

Here it is with the fabric back in place.

I don't have all the trim done yet (did I mention I shouldn't have hooked up all the equipment?) but there will be baseboard and crown that will screw into place in below/above the proscenium.  Then, if I need access back there, I just unscrew the trim and peel back the fabric.

Again, a closer look with the proscenium fabric in place.

In addition to the trim, I plan to cover a 1x3 with fabric and stick it in that gap between the proscenium and screen wall.

Still have a bunch of trimming to do on the columns as well but here is one base almost complete.

All cleaned out and ready for the chairs to arrive.

I've finished a lot of the trim now but still plenty to do.

Here's one wall that's almost completely done.

I've always planned to paint that step light cover but hadn't gotten to it yet so I just went ahead and stuck it on there.  May never do it now...

Crown and speaker column face pretty much finished on this wall

Berklines going in!

Did I mention this is an upstairs room?

You know Fedex dropped them at the entrance to my driveway (18-wheeler couldn't get on my drive).

The driver was kind enough to let me use his hand truck to cart them down my drive to my garage.

It was raining.

Another shot of the chairs partially in.

I did mention the room is upstairs.  Did I mention I got electric recline on all of these?  Did you know that each one weighs about 115lbs?

I carted them upstairs by myself.

Thank God for my hand truck but still...ugh, is my back ever sore today.

The first one to try it out.

Allison says "two thumbs up"

They are technically cloth but they are a microfiber (also known as ultra-suede) and are very nice -- especially for the money.

And here they all are.

Six - Three in front in a curve and three in back in a "couch" formation.

Very comfy and the electric recline is very nice.

Man, are they big, though.

Another shot.  Sorry for the pic quality.  For the final website, I'll get out my tripod and take some proper pictures.

Front view in almost finished form.

And here is the nerve center -- pretty much completely filled out.  From the top:

Furman conditioner/light module (only using the lights)

AudioControl Two Channel EQ

AudioControl Bijoux Five Channel EQ

Pioneer Elite DV-F07 300 DVD changer

Lexicon DC-2 DTS Surround processor

Faroudja NR series Video Processor (720p)

AudioTron (hooked up to whole house audio, not the theater)

Old Sony Amp/Tuner (used as a radio tuner for whole house)

Russound CAV6.6 whole house AV distribution controller

QSC Two Channel x 120W Amp (used as outboard amp in whole house)

Lexicon Two Channel x 120W amp (rear surrounds)

Lexicon Five Channel x 120W Amp

And here is the Ticket Booth.

Not a great picture.  Its impossible to get a shot of the true look of it because its in such a small area that I can't get back far enough with the camera.

The curtain is complements of my lovely wife and her sewing machine (it's made from the same GOM fabric as the surrounding area).

Open it up and - viola - DVD case storage as well as snacks and other items.

The bottom opens also for more hidden storage.

Well, this construction Saga is basically complete.  There are still a few odds and ends to do in the Theater, but, mostly, its finished.

In the next little while, I'll get a "normal" site up with pictures of the theater in its finished state.

Thanks to all who have followed my little project but, especially, the fellow AVSers who have contributed great ideas, inspiration and support.