So today was another day of many things going on... We went looking at a few cars for my daughter, spent some time doing more fall yard work (almost done with that), and I didn't get started in the basement today until about 7:30 pm. Well, now it is 1:40 am and I just got out of the shower.

I spent a lot of time doing some measurements and planning, plus some trial and error with the soffits and the can lights that are going in to them. I had Home Depot rip me some OSB for the sides and bottom of the soffits. This was a huge help, and Home Depot does it for free (Lowes does a total of 10 cuts regardless of how many pieces you have or how much you spend).

I started by putting up the sides first. That wasn't too terribly bad, however, each piece needed to have a number of screws started in the OSB so that I could hold it up in place, make sure that it was lined up, and put the screws in. That meant some measuring and marking of the pieces. That wasn't too bad but was time consuming.

Next, I was getting ready to put the bottom pieces on, but before I did, I marked the locations of the backer boxes, and made several measurements to calculate (tomorrow) where the can light holes need to be cut. I picked up a 3" hole saw today, but alas, it is just a bit too small of a hole. The nice size available was 3 1/4" which was too big. Oh well. I took a scrap piece of OSB (5/8"), cut it in half and screwed the halves together. That is when I tried the 3" hole saw and cut through both pieces of OSB. The second piece was to simulate the drywall layer. When the 3" hole didn't work, I tried a few other things... Since it was mainly the wiring box of the can lights that was getting stuck, I tried using a Dremel with no success minus some burning wood, I tried to mark where the corners of the box would go and drilled some holes and then cut another 3" circle. The holes basically turned into notches in the circle. The box fit, but then the light was a bit too tight. So I just got out the reciprocating saw and just cut the hole a little bit bigger. After some messing around with the two built in clamps on the light, it fit nicely into the double thick hole. Now that I knew that the lights would work, I went back to putting the bottom boards up.

So I made those marks for the backer boxes on the side pieces that were already up, and then started putting the bottom OSB pieces on.

These are about twice as wide as the sides are tall, and they were a bit more challenging to get aligned and screwed into position.

A second person would have been a huge help with this.

So now, I just have 2 custom size pieces of OSB to cut out tomorrow and put up. They aren't where any lights go, but I want to get them in place. I will then finish calculating the light locations exactly, mark them, and cut them out.

I would put my acoustical caulk up, but the inspector may want me to take dome some of the OSB, so for now, they will just stay screwed into position, although, I may take down the pieces that are getting one of the 12 can light holes cut. It will be easier to do that on a work surface than over my head.

By the way, I found out that I *CAN* connect 3 sets of the color changing LEDs up to a single power supply and run them all from one remote. A nice person at AVS (yeah, I know "nice" and "AVS" don't always go together) tested this out for me. He took down two of his sets, and connected them together to try it out for me. So that helps. I will just use a remodel box or a single gang adjustable box for the outlet and put it up in the soffit part that will end up behind the false screen wall.

So after this, I still need to wire up electrical outlets along the room for code and subwoofers, plus the outlet mentioned above, one for the projector, and one on a switch for my star ceiling panel. Then, all of a sudden, my list of items to do pre-inspection (and thus pre-drywall) is almost done.

Well, time for bed. I'll see about snapping a couple of photos tomorrow of the soffits.

Farewell - June 4, 2020