Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Progress on my inane basement project

It's been a long year and a half since I started my basement remodel aka HT v2.0 but things are finally starting to come together. Thought I'd share my progress as I finish it off.

Quick look back at the blank slate:



Looking back at the same general direction today. Just got done laying the backerboard for the tile we're putting in the bathroom and bar area:


Also got done with the laminet floor in my computer room and kids playroom:


Here is a quick look at the actual HT room, where the TV will be going (I've since primed the walls):



I'll post some more pics once I get the trim up and painting going. On so many levels I can't wait for this to be done. I've gone over 2 years now without a real HT.


For anyone bored you can see a lot more pictures of the progress here

- Ben

Looking forwrd to the final pics, should be in another 2 years?

Looking good....

Coming along nicely Ben. Slow and steady...
BTW, isn't it great having those engineered 'braced' style floor joists for running cable in the ceiling? No hole drilling, easy to change routing if needed etc

That's shaping up nicely. The way I paint, I'd have done the walls and trim before the finished floor went down. Hopefully, you're less clumsy than I am.

I do like these joists thou finding spots for my recessed lighting was a challenge since all the HVAC is up in there.

The wife didn't want any quarter round so we decided it would just be easiest to install the floor before the trim. I completely covered/taped the laminemt flooring before we painted the two rooms. I'll definitely have all the painting done before I have the carpet installed.

I had submitted an application to refinance our mortgage to a lower rate, didn't think about the basement project... our credit union wants the basement done before they send out the appraiser. Ugh, while I think I could get this all done in 30days not sure I'd want to rush it.

Ben, looks quite reasonable; not at all inane.

Looking very nice so far Ben.

30 days, huh?

Get busy brother!!!

I wasn't charged for the refinance application so I just told them cancel it and I'll try again once I get this basement put together. I sorta rushed it at the end when I we remodeled the basement at our last house, promised myself I wouldn't this time.

That said I am itching to start utilizing some of the space. We got my computer room all painted, just waiting for my computer desk (really just a custom counter top) to get completed and I need to order our ceiling tiles. I think I'm going to move my current "computer desk" aka a folding table from the spare bedroom upstairs into it. The wife has turned my space into a storage room so I feel the need to flee!

Computer "desk" will go here


Playroom for our girls with a door for rear access to my equipment cabinet (I even prewired it for a TV):

I find the finishing work to be teadous... installing plugs and other outlets is slow and painful on the hands, but it's done in the computer room!



Also picked up all the tile for the bathroom & bar area (~170 sq ft). My knees are so gonna hate me.

Was sick over Christmas so didn't get as much done as I wanted but I did manage to get most of the doors painted and started tiling.

You can come and paint my doors and trim for me please, it all looks good

I REALLY hate painting.

I really hate drywall, but I've got people asking me to do their basements when I'm done with mine.

Been working on tile last couple weekends. My back and knees are killing me!

Keep it up, you're doing great.

I won't do floors without knee pads.

Maybe a dumb question Ben, but what does the masking tape mark out for you that's taped on top of the tiles?

It's looking great, Ben. I've done some tiling, it is VERY hard on the knees for sure.

I just did that to make a note of the first set of tiles I had layed from the day before. That pic is after adding some additional ones. Before you all say "that's all?" I also finished doing the shower with 6x6 tiles and the landing. It always amazes me how long it takes to do things like this. I even had my brother in law around some of the time helping cutting tiles for me.

Also, I have some make shift knee pads that I use made out of bubble wrap. They actually work about as good as a nice pair of real knee pads. I'm just too fat and out of shape to do this stuff efficiently.

Ah - and I was hoping it would be some secret tile laying method I had never heard of before! It is coming along nicely. Should look good when you're done.

My custom computer desk was delivered/installed this morning! Can't wait to move off this card table down to 13 feet of spaciousness.

...the tile work continues, thou I'm getting close to completing it!

Nice desk!

Tiling is done!

(except for sealing and haze removal )

Looks good!

Nice work, my knees ache just looking at the floor.

Very, very nice!

Looks like a job well done.

It looks good. I've bought the tile for one of my rooms a while back, but not looking forward to that project. The floor is probably going to be somewhat uneven. They are 13 inch tiles.

It's a lot of work but we're very happy with the results. Now to press on with rest of the trim work and painting. Can't wait to have the Axioms back up and running in a proper setup.

Nicely done, Ben.

Cat, don't you have enough bad luck without taunting the tile Gods with 13 X 13 squares?

Speaking of bad luck. I had to get a new debit card/number today because of a fraudulent $104 charge from Dublin, Ireland on Sunday.

I'm not going to be using this new card number for on-line charges, but will use PayPal instead (where allowed). For other purchases, I'll have to get a pre-paid credit card sometime in the near future.

I just checked and yes, Axiom does have a PayPal option.

Ummmm Sorry about that, My Da forgot his beoir money, Ya.

I never ever use my debit card for anything except ATM's. I like the fact that I'm protected and not liable for stolen charges on my CC. Plus the fact that it's not directly tied to my bank account (and cash back on all purchases rules too!)

I've heard prepaid card numbers do not work with many online retail sites, anyone able to confirm?

I'll have to use a pre-paid CC for a year or so, before my credit will be good enought for me to get a regular CC.

Trim is all installed, caulked and sanded (gah). Slowly moving forward, more painting next weekend.

I even trimmed off my Harmony box Mark!

Picked up some ceiling tiles tonight. On sale at Menards ($1.99 each). These have a pretty basic look to em. Figured we would use them in the playroom and my computer room. Going to order something a bit fancier ($$$) for the HT. Also ordered the CeilingLink for the entire basement tonight. Wish the expenses would start tapering off but the end of this project they seem to just speed up!

Some progress made on the ceiling this weekend. Installing it takes a lot more time than I thought it would.

$700 worth of CeilingLink

Starting installing it

Closeup

Tedious work indeed.

I'm pretty surprised at how much time it is taking me to get this ceiling installed. All day (afternoon) to get this much done:

Took a break from working on only the ceiling this weekend (I'm really depressed on how much work that is turning out to be) to get the HT room painted. I really hate painting. :P

What's the paint color?

It's called Wheat Bread (BEAR from Home Depot). Of course pictures don't capture how it looks in person... it's a brown with a touch of grey and a very subtle hint of red. We were trying to find a deep color for the room without picking a dark color. I'm pretty happy with it.

I've never hanged a ceiling before but I've watched others do it on a construction site for an office building. It looked tedious. They spent most of the week that I was there doing 1 area. Yours looks like it's going in nice and even, which is great. Guys like me who have to move tiles to run cable sometimes REALLY appreciate that. Love when it comes out -- but more importantly, goes back in -- easily. Less likely to break the tiles, too.

Just wanted to vent some more about how much work putting this ceiling in is...

Also working with 12-2 sucks (plugs). Makes me love 14-2 in comparison!

Well I picked up the special order ceiling tiles for the main HT room tonight... this is what a grand looks like

Large Stack of Boxes

Here is the difference between the cheapo tiles I'm using for my office and playroom compared to the special order ones we are going to put up in the HT room:

So progress being made on the HT ceiling but it's slow. I've gotten to the point of not caring anymore. Guess it will be done when I insert that final tile.

Here is some early progress of putting tiles up...

This is what it looks like as of today:



Also got all 3 exhaust fans installed finally. One for the bathroom, this one for my computer room (to simulate a window) and this one for the HT closet.

Hello,
I have no experience in building .
I look at your pics
You are doing it very well.
For a one house floor it look like you thought about the right shapes for everything.
Bedroom ,ht room ,kitchen/bar , tv computer room....

I have a two floor house.
Only thing i could do later should be extand shape from Garden but it's a no no.
raising roof should be good.
Cause it's a room shape all in lenght it's not easy to create new rooms...

Enough talking of my house :p


INANE, Really nice work up there

Thank you very much

The ceiling is done! The ceiling is done!

I'm going to work on cleaning up the mess from it tomorrow, hope to have some new pictures too.

Pictures are good, cleaning up mess not so good. Ha Ha

That a boy... were those tiles harder to install because of the profile?

I just found installing this ceiling very tedious and time consuming. I used two different types of tiles between the computer room/play room and HT areas. The same principles applied to both. Lot's of measuring and cutting.

I think it turned out ok but it's definitely not perfection. In trying to get the tiles lined up in the true center of the room I ended up with a very slight offset so the cross tee's aren't 100% at 90 degrees. So most of the tiles have about a 1/16 offset. It's not big deal with the lights low (and movie playing) but I can see it. Oh well, no way I can start over. Installing the entire basements ceiling was definitely one of the most time consuming projects I've ever taken on. That said I'm still pretty happy with it (and the ability to get into the ceiling gives me piece of mind).


Here is looking to the front/right of the HT room:




Here is looking towards the back of the room where the bar, fridge and bathroom are:

Looks like a pro job Ben, when are you installing the carpet?You are getting close I can see!

It will probably be a bit over a month before the carpet goes down as we're planing on buying it during the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting (get a decent discount at Nebraska Furniture Mart during that time).

I did just get confirmation that my cabinets will be installed on Wednesday! I think that will really upgrade the look of the room.

I'm mentally and physically beat... been working on this thing almost every night and all day on the weekends for a few weeks now trying to close the deal.

Since I am getting closer to being able to call it done I've been starting to lust for things like this:



Name that movie

It's been over 3 years now since I've been able to fully experience anything like this (outside of going to the theater). I REALLY am going to appreciate my new HT since I've been without one for so long.

Well, if its any consolation, that ceiling looks great.

I still remember my parents completely gutting and rebuilding an old farm house. Completely re-doing a room is a LOT of work.

Well we ordered our carpet last night at NFM and got a great deal because of the Berkshire sale. The price was $2.65 sq ft, dropped down to $1.89 sq ft! So I'm pretty happy about waiting. The HT seats however didn't get cheap enough for me to pull the trigger on them so I'll just be continuing my internet search for those.

Otherwise I'm getting close with all the little things I have left to do down there. I need to seal some of the tile tonight and we'll be installing the toilet/vanity this weekend.

So they just came to measure for our carpet, turns out that if they put the seams where I'd like them (under the seating) there would be a ton of wasted carpet to the tune of $400. I don't think I can justify spending that much money just to move the seams to a preferred location but it's really going to suck having them in a high traffic area.

I wouldn't worry too much about the seams. They arr actually stronger and.more durable than the rest of your carpet.

I agree with Nick, as long as it isn't berber... I have wool berber and there is a seam in my hall way that has drove me nuts from day one.

we've known this for quite a long time.

;-)

They probably didn't use the right seaming tape. If they had used Concord 2000, then the seam should be invisible with no peaking.

With a good quality carpet, and installer, it should go in virtually looking seamless.

Well, the carpet isn't berber but it is a loop style carpet. The guy that did the measuring did say loop carpets can show the seams more than "regular" carpets.

:P

Update

Well I finished the last significant work item in the basement today. I grouted the glass tile back splash for our bar area. Carpet gets installed Wednesday. I think after that's in I'll finally feel good about everything. I've been so tired lately that it's making me not give a crap about the state of the project.

So now I can start moving my HT equipment in, the new TV has been ordered and I think I may finally order myself some new Axioms (M80, VP180 & QS8s) to treat myself a bit!

I hear ya about being tired enough to not give a crap... I was stuck in a rut for a while myself. Now things are just stalled out for the most part for at least one more week. My oldest daughter graduates from high school this coming Sunday and the big party is the say before. So much to do yet for that. Then I am taking a week off from everything... It will be the first real break from the craziness in over a year. And then I will get back to the finishing touches for myself. Hang in there Ben.

Hi Ben,

Seem like you are nearing the final stages of your project, can't wait for the next set of pics. I also will be purchasing the same Axiom toys for my HT room a little later this year, can hardly wait til then.

Before 1pm today

After about 3pm today

Looking great!

Tonight I wired up my old HK 630 and brought my M3's down for a listen. Unfortunately what I heard has me puzzled/concerned. I started off just quickly hooking my phone up to the HK because I just wanted to get a feel for how the room will sound. Well the sound seemed dull and flat. Definitely not as "alive" as I remember my M3's being in my old HT or even where they've lived in our family room upstairs. I've never done any critical listening in the family room thou. Anyway I figured it could be due to the phones output or source (Google Play) so I tried to find some other source to use. All I could find right now was my ancient Pioneer CD changer. So I hooked it up and started playing some CDs but they all had the same dull lifeless sound. I swapped out the RCA cables but that didn't make any difference. So I then started moving the speakers all around, out from the wall, tilted in, etc. Nothing I've done so far has made any difference. I've checked and the HK is set for tone out (no bass or treble) and surround off so it should just be stereo. The only speakers I have hooked up to it are those M3's which I verified are set to large. I even tried switching polarity on one speaker to make sure.

I can't believe this room would affect the speakers this way. The only non reflective surface is the floor which is carpet.

Here's what it looks like.

I'm going to play around with it more tonight but this got me wondering if I've lost some hearing ability. If that's the case what's the point in living. :P

I kid! (sort of )

When I got my speakers hooked up in my new room, they seemed somewhat flat. I didn't think that it was the speakers or electronics, but that my personal taste is for more punch (using a "V" shaped EQ curve in my car, or other systems I listen to). The room being set up properly just meant that I was getting probably a nice flat response from the Axioms, and not a "hot" room impacting it.

You might be experiencing a flatter response from the speakers that you didn't get previously. Sorry, wish I had more ideas.

over the years i have moved many times and every time i did i had to learn to like what i heard (same speakers for 30yrs).The room has more effect on what you hear than the speakers or the electronics.exactly why there are preferred venues for hearing music. Carnegie hall vs the school gym. Room treatment is becoming alot more mainstream thanks to the internet and the people sharing their experience and insights.

Good news! I brought my HTPC and Onkyo AVR downstairs tonight, hooked it up to the M3's and they sang! I then hooked the HTPC to the HK and it sounded a lot better than it did with the analog sources I had used the night before. Granted there was some time between moving the cables around but I swear the Onkyo sounded a bit different than the HK too.

BTW the basement TV was delivered today. So far I'm pretty happy with it. It's rather large considering how close I'm sitting to it.

Finally got around to posting some pics of the "finished" product over in the gallery.