Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater ALMOST done - pics

Absolutely beautiful. I can only dream.

Fantastic and spectacular room. Congratulations.

Mine main fear of having an HT room in the basement is flood. I already had one, due to the faulty switch on the sump pump. What a mess! Now I have installed a double switch, just in case. But still, paranoia remains Any thoughts on the subject?

In reply to:

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Any thoughts on the subject?

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Homeowners insurance

But of course. Unfortunately it's only the money they compensate. The time and aggravation are not insured:) It took my one month to get my life back to normal.

But here is an advice. I got a few WaterAlarm devices. http://www.smarthome.com/searchweb.asp?q=water+alarm&action.x=7&action.y=10

I put all of them around at critical locations and they scream at the first sign of moisture. At least they can wake you up if the flood starts in the middle of the night.

Wow, I'm overwhelmed. Thank you all for the nice comments!

Chess - you didn't look very closely In the 3rd picture I posted showing the microwave & cabinet area, the black thing sitting between the cabinets is a 4.4 cu. ft. fridge. It is already stocked with adult beverages to lubricate the enjoyment of the HT experience.

Mary, I did not do it all myself by any means. Last year a friend (also named Ray) was acting as his own general contractor and building his retirement home on Seneca Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) about an hour south of here. I offered and he accepted my help for 4 long days of painting. When I mentioned to him in October that I was going to look for contractors to do the basement for me, he magnanimously said - "Aw, you and I can do it". My jaw dropped.

He has excellent skills and ALL of the tools. All told, we spent only seven 9-11hour days together in the basement since the first weekend in January with him directing/planning and me doing what he said. I spent countless more hours doing other things that didn't require his skills. We probably have a couple of evenings left together and I'll have a couple of other days, then it will be done. He is an absolute treasure.

Gena, the water alarm idea sounds like a winner - thanks! The house was wired to accept a generator (one of the lines is for the sump pump), so I ahave a generator on the planned purchases list.

Actually Ray, i thought you were stowing a large black subwoofer there.
It looked impressive.
Now that i know it is only a beer fridge....

Also love the way it came out, Ray. Jealous as usual.
I like how you placed bigfoot above the tv. No easy task I'm sure. It is a monster center speaker!

Did you get a chance to watch the Master's tournament in hi-def today? Really was quite stunning. Too bad Tiger missed those close eagle putts. It would have been great to see him make a charge...

What color red and trim is the room? I love it, and we're looking to go bold in our hallway.

very nice....i gotta say,that room has f/p written all over it

I DID watch the Masters in High Def today, including the remainder of the 3rd round from 8 - 11:30 (saw a note about it being made available in today's Sports page). If Tiger is even semi-close to his normal putting, thee may have been a different outcome. But that's why they play the tournament I guess.

Pete, the paint is Benjamin Moore Regal. The color is a Martin Secours (sp?) shade called "Palace Arms Red" that was custom mixed. My research indicated that a red paint (pink, burgundy, brick, etc) can be a major pain to work with. Fortunately, the guy at the Benny Moore paint store is also a professional painter. He gave me primer (use 2 coats) that he tinted dark gray for better coverage of the red. Worked great - I only needed 2 coats of the red. Also, get very good rollers and he told not to apply it using the usual "W pattern. Rather, as much as possible, roll it straight up and down and overlap the paint you just put on. Result was great and there are no roller marks to be seen.

Couple of other things. The paint shows marks easily, but is washable. Also, if using this (or any other) red, he explained they used oxides to tint it. He told me to wait three days between coats to give the stuff time to breathe, othewise I might see some pretty impressive paint bubbles form. I followed the directions, but don't know how valid they are.

The trim (also Regal) was custom mixed using their computer and my leather sofa sample. Perfect match. In general, it is kind of a putty color, leaning a tad towards off-white.

As an aside, this was the first time I've actually researched paint. I did it based on a horror story a friend told the week before I was going to buy paint about 8 coats of Behr Burgundy paint in a bedroom and it still doesn't look good. Started researching Behr and picked up on the issues with reds (we had already picked out a color similar to Palace Arms) as I continued.

I found there were 2 types of people out there (ALOT of good input on AVS) - those who are professional painters with alot of experience and those who are not. Of the professional painters, incredibly overwhelming majority preferred, used and recommended Benny Moore paint. More expensive, but it was great to work with and I'm really pleased with the results.