On Thursday the screen was delivered. I had to go into to work in the afternoon so I wasn't home when it was delivered. It was raining but luckily the FedEx Ground guy was awesome. He took the large box around back and put it on blocks (they had been there for drywall) on my porch with a roof. It was good they left it since it is pretty big and wouldn't fit in my car. I haven't opened yet, waiting until I have a clean room in basmeent.
December 2005 Archives
As promised the drywall guys returned today. This time only two guys came back out. They arrived about 8 AM and stayed until 8 PM. They finished hanging all but one small piece that goes over the front of the gas meter column. They didn't really start mudding much it seems other than to patch a bit places they had to make weird cuts. They will returning Monday to hopefully finish. Although I imagine they may have to come back a few hours a day later once everything has totally dried. Progress though.
The drywall guys worked from about 7:30 AM to 7 PM. They were able to finish about 95% of ceiling and about 50% of the walls. They will be returning on Friday and they think they should be done on Monday. I was hoping for Friday and then I could paint over the weekend, but I am just happy it has begun.
I have never seen drywall in a semi done state but the work they are doing seems pretty good. The holes for my many gang boxes and recessed lighting are pretty good. Some are a little messier than I would hope, but I imagine they will be better once finished. The only major problem I found was that they forgot to cut holes for a duct exhaust and a return. Hopefully it won't be too hard to fix.
My projector was delivered on Christmas Eve. I wasn't expecting Fed Ex to deliver on Saturday. I got the projector, mount and the 25' cables I ordered. I hooked up the porjector in the living room just to test. Seems to be working fine. Another week or so and I will hopefully have it mounted. The screen should be here tomorrow as well.
I still need to order the shelves for the rack, but that should be it.
After almost a three week delay the drywall install has begun today. Hopefully I may yet get the basement done before I have to go back to school on the 9th.
On sunday I ordered a new remote for the new theater. I ordered a package that includes the Universal Remote Control MX-850 and a MRF-300. The MX-850 is very similar to the MX-700 I used to have. The important difference is this one operates on RF as well as IR. That way it can communicate with all the components that in my rack which is in the wall.
Today I ordered my my screen and projector today. I ordered a Sanyo PLV-Z4 and a Severtson 106" 16:9 wall mounted screen from Projector Packages. They offer packages with their screens, projectors and some other cables and such I needed.
Oh and I got a call today that drywallers new imaginary date is Thrusday at noon.
I added a bunch of new pictures today. You can see them at this link. I also updated the right hand pane to add links to all the galleries. This time I used a program to create the web page layout and thumbnails for the gallery. Hopefully it looks ok. Who knows in a week or two I might be able to put up some pictures showing progress.
On Friday the materials for drywall were delivered. Hopefully the next step is to actually install it.
This weekend I finished everything I could think of prior to drywall being installed. Mostly it was finishing and testing wiring. I started on Friday by working on the lights inside the riser. The wiring wasn't tough, it was cutting the holes in the 2x10 and 2x6 side walls of the riser. I tried a couple of different techniques that involved drills, keyhole saws, sanders and handheld jigsaws. None of the holes are what I would call pretty, but hopefully will look fine once the covers are on them.
Saturday I decided to test all the stereo wires. I hooked up my stereo in the rack and then tested each wire with one of my speakers. It was challenging at times since some of the wire are 6 ft in the air for speakers that will be on shelves. I had to hook up speaker and hold it up to test. All the wires tested fine which is good, don't have to worry about re-running. I also labeled them all so I could easily hook them up later.
On Sunday I worked on all the Ethernet and Satellite lines. There were 7 Ethernet and 7 Satellite that I needed to terminate and test on both ends. As I went I tested each cable to make sure that is terminated properly and didn't have any breaks in it. Everything worked fine except for one wire. One of the Ethernet wires kept failing the tests, in the end I got two of the four pairs to work, which is plent for phone. That jack will just be phones I guess. I have two other working ethernet at that plate so I should be good.
At this point I have finished everything I can think of prior to drywall. I even spent a while cleaning and straightening up in the basement. Today the drywall supplies were supposed to be delivered but weren't. Hopefully they will be tomorrow and then the drywall will begin getting installed shortly.
This morning after slacking off a few days I finished the last of the insulation. I filled every gap or nook with some type of insulation. Hopefully this will help with both sound isolation and cooling or heating bills. I used CertainTeed insulation all around. I used their R-13 smart roll with vapor barrier for all the external walls. Then I used kraft faced R-19 on the internal 2x6 walls as well in all ceiling joists. I am just happy to be done with fiber glass, I can't wait until the drywall is in to truly be rid of it.
The rest of the day I think I will finish the integrity gaskets. Then if I still have time I will either test the speaker wires or the Ethernet and Satellite wires.
My parents have all my fabric. They have the black for lower portion and front wall as well as the patterened for the upper part of walls. Yesterday I got an estimate for the drywall. It was a little higher than I expected, which was just a guess. I asked a few people and the price seemed right. I put down my 1/3 deposit today. The plan is for the drywall to be done the week of 12/12-16. If that happens then my parents can help me with fabric week before or after xmas. Progress continues it seems.
