BG Homeowner and DIY Thread - Out of the Basement Edition

[Botosi]

Agreed, I'd build a box around it with proper ventiliation. Hinge Door for access. Then you can decorate around the box, put racks on it and hang plants or something.

[Drai]

build a box around it, install surface mounted grill, grill is removeable if you need access, but doesn’t prevent airflow.

[Kaslo]

build a box around it, install surface mounted grill, grill is removeable if you need access, but doesn’t prevent airflow.

You could even use a hinged return vent (for reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0116EYJZK...t_details&th=1)

[Souj]

My county just sent me a Real Estate Tax Bill for 3400. Looking it up and this is something my mortgage company should have paid since I have an escrow account, it seems? My mortgage was sold nearly immediately after they gave me the loan, and google says if homeowner gets a tax bill it’s usually because it got sent to original services. So just call my current mortgage holder and tell them to pay it?

What a pain in the ass. They really fucked up this whole thing because last year I had to spend so much time trying to get my insurance info over to the new people because the old one apparently didn’t bother to give them any info on anything and they new people didn’t seem to question it.

[Buffy]

Yes, in general, if your mortgage is set up to do it the bill goes to the bank and the bank pays it from the escrow account. The escrow account should pay taxes and insurance. You CAN opt out if that though, so you might have signed something somewhere….

[Tyche]

I always still get the tax bill, and escrow still pays it. You can still forward it to your mortgage company or wherever your escrow is handled. If you've been paying into escrow and accounted for property taxes, the money is in there one way or another. Don't fret.

[Tyche]

Regarding the box around my rear projector, I think I would rather box it in with drywall than a cabinet, but I've never hung drywall before. Seems cabinet may be easier, not as clean, drywall would be cleaner, not as easy.

There are studs running beside the hole, right where this blue tape is running, so I have mounting points. The ceiling is also textured (not popcorn), so I don't know if that's going to throw a wrench it the looks.





I have all the equipment hooked up, except for one of the four atmos speakers that best buy has yet to send. And the projector is displaying onto a wall right now. It looks and sounds great, and I plan to finish up everything in the next 3 weeks, as I took 3 weeks of vacation. I ordered a 142" 16:9 screen, should be in tomorrow. I wanted a scope screen, but with my ~15' throw distance, biggest I could have had in scope is about 130". I'm going to build out some velvet masks that can be hung to easily create a scope screen over the 16:9 screen for when I watch movies, that way I can still watch sports and TV in the full 16:9. I've kept a build log with some weird challenges I've encountered. Still have a bit left to do though. I need to put all the baseboards and crown molding back. I'm painting the walls, trim, and ceiling tricorn black (gonna do the trim in semigloss to give some contrast). I need to pull all the can lights down and paint them black.

And I need to do new carpet or something down there, but have not decided what to do. It smells...bad. Previous owner had her dad living in the basement. He was elderly and had dementia. I thought the smell would air out, but it seems to be the carpet that smells. I really wanted to put down the carpet from the hotel in The Shining, but one company has the pattern patented and it is egregiously expensive.

[Salodin]

It's down to preference, but I'll just say maintenance is a pain in the ass if you drywall the rear. Even with the front open for the image projection, you're gonna be annoyed as fuck if you drywall the real and need to do work on the machine. A cabinet seems like the best of both worlds

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[Jamison]

My county just sent me a Real Estate Tax Bill for 3400. Looking it up and this is something my mortgage company should have paid since I have an escrow account, it seems? My mortgage was sold nearly immediately after they gave me the loan, and google says if homeowner gets a tax bill it’s usually because it got sent to original services. So just call my current mortgage holder and tell them to pay it?

What a pain in the ass. They really fucked up this whole thing because last year I had to spend so much time trying to get my insurance info over to the new people because the old one apparently didn’t bother to give them any info on anything and they new people didn’t seem to question it.

There's wording in my mortgage that if a bill is sent to me mistakenly, instead of them, I'm responsible for any fees or fines if I don't notify them. So I would make sure they are aware just to cover yourself.

[Jaybar]

You'll still want to take out the bit of crown moulding above the projector to get the cabinet flush. Or don't and have a gap at the top (or notch it in).

Regarding drywall installation, I think the hardest part would be framing it. All you'd do is install a box frame attached to the wall and ceiling and screw in drywall to the frame (looks small enough where you might not need intermediate studs). But to make it look nice you'll need corner bead and putty with some hand sanding to feather it all down to a smooth finish. The rear opening can just be a pop out vent to do work on it.

But if you expect regular maintenance then maybe the cabinet is the easier solution. Could just find some sleek MDF laminated cabinet, or something with a paintable surface.

[Botosi]

Made a tortoise habitat and did a tile backsplash behind my stove this weekend.

Never did tile work before. Wasn't as easy as I'd have liked.

The grout kept falling on the floor rather than sticking to the wall.

The wall isn't 100% flat (it's an old house) so the molding was a pain in the ass to do as well.

[Tyche]

My home theater is about 90% done. Just waiting on the seating and the cabinet for behind the projector.

Here's what I started with. Relatively boring basement room.

Spoiler: show

I knew I was going to need a way to store the receiver, amp, server, video player, etc, and all I had was a small 9u rack, so I bought this 42u monstrosity.

Spoiler: show

It was way too big, I sold it and kept looking. News racks are really expensive, used racks are dirt cheap. I couldn't find a used one I needed, so I bought a new 15u rack. I also needed it 20+ inches deep to hold my 30ish TB server.

Spoiler: show

So, now it was time to get the equipment and prep the room.

Spoiler: show

First thing I needed to do to the room is rip off the crown molding and baseboards. This was the first hangup. I have this thick crown molding that was a massive pain to pull. I quickly noticed the crown was two separate prices stapled together, so all I needed to pull was the top section for fishing wire.

Spoiler: show

As mentioned before, I needed to cut a hole in my wall to mount the projector due to the necessary throw distance needed to fit a moderately sized screen. I used painters tape to map the studs in the wall. Also pulled can lights and mapped the joists for the Atmos speakers. They needed to go between the joists. This is where I ran into my next issue. I bought Martin Logan IC6HT speakers for Atmos. They're angled instead of downfiring to direct the sound toward the seating. Because of that, the 6 inch speakers are in larger bezel needing a 10 inch hole, and there's only about 13 inches of space between the joists. It's a small margin of error. Before cutting large holes in my ceiling, I ended up using a very small drill to drill dead center. First hole, I hit metal. Ventilation. Couldn't put an Atmos there. Because of this, I had to shift the entire theater about 16 inches to the right to accommodate the new Atmos placement. Moving everything over actually worked out really well and ultimately helped speaker placement on the floor.

Spoiler: show

With the boards removed and holes cut, fishing wire was pretty easy. I had plenty of room in my ceiling. I did end up way too close to one of the ceiling joists, but luckily the speaker still slid in.

Spoiler: show

So, with all the wiring fished, I hooked everything up to test. Everything worked great, kids watched sonic that night.

Spoiler: show

Now it was time for putting everything together and painting. I decided to go with Sherman Williams Tricorn Black in flat for the ceiling and screen wall to reduce reflection, then peppercorn gray for the rest of the walls.

Spoiler: show

I painted the trim Tricorn Black in semigloss instead of flat, which provides some contrast. I hooked the speakers back up, and now all that's left is the seating and the cabinet behind the projector. Will do new carpet later. The sound stage is absolutely incredible, probably overpowered for the room, but outside of a Dolby enhanced theater with an ungodly amount of speakers, it's probably the best I've ever heard.

[Jaybar]

What a journey, nice man.

[Drai]

Looks great, and I actually don't hate the color contrast between the walls and the carpet/couch, it all works for me, congrats :D

edit - what were your plans for the surface mounted grille to the left of the projector? gonna paint the existing one or get a custom one made to match the rest of the decor?

[Tyche]

They make them in black, but I have black paint left over from the ceiling speaker grills, so I'm just gonna paint it (and the other ceiling vent).

There's still a few small things to do. Going to make some velvet masking to hang for when watching a 2.35:1 film and cover the subwoofer tips with velvet. I'm just done with it for a bit, I did all this alone over probably 6 or 7 days, 10+ hours a day. I really underestimated how much work it was. I was quoted about $2,000 for the install, I should have done that in retrospect. I'd still have had to paint it all though.

[Roranora]

Really well done Tyche; that's some great work. And props for making it through an underestimated job. No small task this - be over it for a bit.

[Corrderio]

Anyone here use a steam cleaner by any chance? I used a cheapo I bought awhile back to clean my shower/tub and while it's significantly better than commercial bathroom cleaners for getting rid of soap scum it doesn't work well in curves and was wondering if anyone had one with attachments for those kinds of situations they'd recommend.

[Outlaw]

I missed this post. Nice job Tyche!!

I painted the trim Tricorn Black in semigloss instead of flat, which provides some contrast. I hooked the speakers back up, and now all that's left is the seating and the cabinet behind the projector. Will do new carpet later. The sound stage is absolutely incredible, probably overpowered for the room, but outside of a Dolby enhanced theater with an ungodly amount of speakers, it's probably the best I've ever heard.

It probably is lol. My hearing is my strongest sense and I would feel like I was being squashed against the back wall in there. How big is your screen btw? 100"?

[Tyche]

142". This week I bought a UMIK-1 microphone and did the Dirac calibration for the speakers. I also bought a spiderX elite meter to calibrate the projector, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Botosi]

Had a ton of roofing materials because I just got my roof done and had a ton of extra wood from old projects so I built myself a wishing well.

Bought the wood bucket at home depot and built the rest. Even added little gutter system to make it match the house;







Ran out of wood stain though so have to do some touch ups another day.

I also bought those 2 garbage cans you see in the back and cut them up. Using them as metal pots (they were $33 each and galvanized metal that's made to last forever - i got 4 pots out of them).

Plus I screwed the metal garbage can lids onto PVC pipe. My fiance is going to paint the lids into flowers and paint the PVC green like stems. Stick them in the ground as summer decorations.