Home Theater comes to the Boydski Home

Winter is always cold, dark and wet here in the Northwest, and I found myself alone in the house the day before Christmas.  Janet was off to work, and I suddenly had a wild hair, and decided I was going to remodel the Family Room into a new Home Theater.  Out came the sledge hammer, and down came the sagging Plaster ceiling.  It was a lot of work, especially to haul it up the hill and off to the dump ( 1800 lbs of plaster and chicken wire).

Needless to say, Janet was just a wee bit surprised when she came home and discovered the room no longer had a ceiling ( or any paneling on the front wall)!  However, she took it in stride.  I spent the winter months, rewiring the entire room, putting in 14 new outlets ( with built-in surge suppression) on the front wall, along with 7 runs of RG-6 coaxial cable, Cat 5, etc. to support all of the new audio and video gear.  I then installed a Designer Drywall ceiling to give it that "old theater look".  I like the looks of the ceiling, but it turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated.

We hung new sheetrock on the front wall, painted and put up new molding, then carpeted the room and moved in the big-screen TV.   We also hung some SpeakerCraft AIM speakers in the new ceiling for the Rear Surrounds, and did extensive in-wall wiring for the 12 speakers that are hooked up to the Audio/Video system.  Small can lights were installed around the perimeter of the room using a pair of "smart dimmers" with memory that automatically ( and gradually ) dim the lights.

The finished room turned out great!  I finally talked my better half into some comfy, over-stuffed leather couches and chairs.  They are perfect for watching the big screen, and  I'm definitely getting hooked on HDTV, and do not watch much "standard" TV any more.  We're getting 8 channels in HDTV so far, and most of the new Primetime shows added by the Networks are now in High Definition!