home theater frustration

I have not watched a movie in almost six months. One TV sits in my garage, facing the wall. The next TV is being held by the store because I have no place to put it. Speaker systems are in boxes, silent. The architects have wasted my time, and the economy (and my own laziness) have eaten into my project budget like termites into soft, delicious wood. I am about to do some damage.

I have no home theater.

I lived in Baltimore, in a small cozy rowhouse with a small basement room that made the perfect home theater. I soundproofed it with eggshell mattress foam and blacked it out with pleated cotton batting. My 40" Toshiba widescreen RPTV (circa 1998) and small Polk speakers (I worked at Polk at the time) were just perfect.

Then I got married. Moved. To Charlotte, NC, where the economy is better and the housing values higher; I got a lot of house for my money, thank you very much, and my wife... well, this was a move that made her very happy. But one thing my new house does not have is a basement. (No basements in Charlotte; hard red clay makes it too expensive to dig basements. Houses sit on slabs and blocks, with "crawlspaces" beneath.) And another thing my new house does not have is... a room I can dedicate to a Theater.

S'got a big attic, tho. A huge cathedral of an attic, almost a third floor! Why didn't they use this space better when they built this house back in the 90s? So I stood up there, at the top of the hallway pull-down stairs, next to the Volkswagen-Beetle-sized second-zone HVAC unit, and thought: let's build a room up here!

Now here I sit, almost four months later. I am no closer, really, to having a theater. DVDs are packed for our months-ago move. Film posters, ditto. The TV I decided on buying has been discontinued (thanks, Sony!) meaning that I have pay to have the store hold one for me. An architect (worse, a friend of my wife's family) has taken three-plus months to "design" the attic room, and his designs are such that one contractor looked at the plans and asked: "Did anyone see this space before they made these plans?"

And I am coming to the realization that (a) the attic is just not gonna fly (too invasive, too many design questions, too much money), (b) I have wasted time and a lot of money with these architects (and I can't call them on it without disrupting family friendships and stuff) and (c) I have been burning thru my allotted theater-building budget like mad just living life.

I am despondent. I feel like chunking my movie-watching habit. Selling my DVD collection. Talk of "the Oscars" or even casual conversation about "did you see this or that movie" makes me physically sick to my stomach. My Netflix account has been "on hold" for months. I'm going to have to start over, figure out how to maybe make an addition to my house maybe off the garage. I am angry that we bought we this great house now, because while it made my wife happy (very important), and is a fine house truly, it has made me utterly miserable with what it's lacking. My books, movies and LIFE ENJOYMENTS all have no place here. I want to burn this house down.

My misery posts this story here because it loves company. Anyone else frustrated by their house's lack of accomodation, or have a story about how they forced their unaccomodating house to make room for their film habit? Anybody have some encouraging words for someone about to embark on building an addition? Advise? Anger? Misery?

MC

Re: home theater frustration

There has to be basement homes in Charlotte even with the clay. I live in north Georgia and thats all there is here and basement homes are common, we built a basement in our new house three years ago.
I can feel your pain, though in a different way. Our first house did not have a space for a theater but did have an unfinished basement. I did not want to finish the basement because all we could talk about was moving and building a custom house someday. We finally sold in 2004 and broke ground on what was to be our dream home, a place where we would live forever.
We went through countless houses getting design ideas and spent a small fortune on house plan books. My wife was willing to let me design the theater room in the terrace level (basement) because she knew how much it meant to me and she was an avid movie buff as well. We got in with one of the best builders in town and began the design process. We selected a cul de sac lot for privacy due to the installation of an in-ground pool and finally decided on a workable plan that was in our budget. We went with a ranch because we have no children and felt that upstairs bedrooms would be a waste and changed the office downstairs to a guest bedroom in the event we ever got pregnant (we never did!) and finished a third bedroom down for resell value and I had a billiards room and an open theater the dimensions of which should have been 15x18 but due to not looking at the plan close enough a doorway to the third bedroom cut three feet off the room, making for a 15x15 room that opens into the billiards room.
I took advice of our architect on the basement design and toured his home which was about the same. I wish I had of found this forum before I designed the theater, I had some ideas of what the space would be but I would have done things differently had I read and seen examples of other members theaters.
They say there is no way to ever build the perfect house but sometimes I question some of the things we did. We changed the upstairs enough so that the basement level and theater are open to the upstairs, making it impossible to isolate sound when watching movies loud so I have to turn things down when she goes to bed. I have a billiards room with no pool table because I can no longer afford one due to paying for the house, cars, etc. and a theater that I cannot help but think that I got hosed on, its too small, the front of the room has a wall about 12 ft. flat with an angle on both sides due to another design issue so I cannot sit a large sub unless I go with on-walls, forget an SVS, if I could even afford one now. I bought a Sony 60" RP LCD with a Salamader stand and all new video portion when we moved in but really want to upgrade the speakers and sub, because the little Velodyne aint cutting it down there on a concrete slab. I did move it behind me so it helps some. I enjoy this room but I always have doubts about it even when watching movies. The capper to all this is another builder built the house next to me on an angle to my property and flipped the plan so that two upstairs bedrooms and their breakfast room now overlook my pool. I am still furious even after three years.
I shouldn't complain as we have a beautiful house that would do Southern Living proud but the reality is that all I can do sometimes is focus on what we did wrong and then there is that damn house overlooking my "private" pool, It just kills me if I think about it too much. We are stuck here until the housing mess is over unless we want to take a beating on the price and have it sit on the market for a year or more.
The moral to the story is, if you're still reading, there is no perfect situation, compromises are to be expected unless one has unlimited funds. Hopefully you can find a compromise that you can live with.

Re: home theater frustration

Micah,

I'm an architect. How involved have you been in the design process? Have you had regular meetings with the architect or did he say he'd show you when the design was complete? Did he actually visit the space and take measurements? What exactly is it about the design that made the contractor ask if the architect had seen the space?

There's no way I would ever go through a design without first visiting the site/space and then sitting down with the owner to create a list of goals for the space. Then it's up to the architect to come up with a couple options based on the criteria and budget for presentation to the client. Once the client has reviewed and selected an option the architect will take it and develop it to the point where it can be priced and built, typically with a couple of progress meetings along the way. Has this been your process?

Also, I hate to say it but not all architects are created equal. There are a lot of idiots out there. It's hard to say whether you have one or not without knowing more about the process.

Re: home theater frustration

I feel your pain. Two years ago I left behind in Michigan a house with a dedicated home theater and game room in the basement as well as a small, cozy library for my books. Now I live in the Seattle area with no basement, a wide open floor plan, and scads of natural light poring in through multiple skylights and floor to ceiling windows.

My InFocus projector and massive screen sit in the garage attic all but forgotten, my movie posters are in storage, and I sold off most of my books -- the few remaining tomes must coexist in the dining room. I was despondent for months and forced to abandon the concept of a true home theater. Instead I bought a small plasma, hooked up my surround system, and make do the best I can. The picture is great, especially with Blu-Ray, but I would still take my old, gigantic 480p setup any day.

On the other hand the economy here is much better, the natural surroundings are fantastic, and my family is happier. So far I would call it a pretty fair trade off.

Just try to keep everything in perspective, make do with what you have, and daydream about what the future might hold. Good luck.

Re: home theater frustration

I understand, and have experienced, housing angst. Finding yourself in a space that suddenly seems to be all wrong. Mylan, I laugh ruefully at your pool room sans pool table. I've got a 13-course basement with a perfect space for a pool table and plumbing rough-ins. But now that I've got the house, I can't afford to finish the basement, build the HT, buy the pool table, etc. And then there's the beautiful 400 sq-ft deck I've got designed...

But, all the same, I can't but think of these wise words

Re: home theater frustration

I feel for you man, and I don't want to make you feel worse, but why on earth did you buy a house that couldn't support your theater? I only ask out of curiosity as it sounds like it's as important to you as it is to me. And is there really no existing room you can use? A home theater is far more important and useful than a guest bedroom or a dinning room.

Re: home theater frustration

How much of a structural change are you making? Do you need an architect? I designed my whole house and took my layout to a local lumberyard and they drew up the blueprints. It was free as long as I bought the building materials from them. The blueprints did not have every last detail on them, but the contractors had no troubles building the house.

This time frame does sound long. I finished my basement with a theater in 3-4 months. Then is got flooded and I gutted and refinished it again including work on the first floor. Took 6 months. Last year we designed and built a 3,000sqft house in just less than one year. The hold up there was my time after work.

Call a framer and tell him what you want and get a quote. Call an electrician and drywall installer and do the same. If the contractors are competent I am sure you will have a good end result.

great replies!

Hey, thanks for the kind words and stories.

Yep, the architect and the structural engineer came to the prop, stood around, measured stuff, took notes, looked professional. They listened when I told them as best as I could what I wanted ("A room. With sound insulation. And electric circuits. And ventilation. Just... a... room...") But apparently [sarcasm] this was the first "room" these guys had ever designed [/sarcasm]. Three months later, we're finding that what they should have said, "Maybe this house isn't right for this type of build out." Three months later we're finding maybe they should have looked more closely at the crawl space and the house foundation.

Wow am I angry. And I can't be my usual angry self with these guys, either, because the architect's MIL signed our darned marriage license. "If I go off on this guy," I told my loving and patient wife, "Be prepared not to be friends with that family anymore." She basically had to hold me back. Now I'm contemplating paying these guys in small payments over the same time it took them to design this room. And maybe I'll even make my payment contingent on their making the drawings for my new direction, the addition off the garage. I could strangle these guys till their eyes fall out.

Why'd I buy a house with no theater space? Frankly, because I'm a g*****n f*****g i*****c s**t-f*r-b****s moron. Why'd I buy a house with no basement? We did see basements in some of the houses we looked at, but for whatever reasons those houses were not "right." Basements are rare. We looked at 40 houses. Came down to two. One, far out, had a room. This one, closer in, nicer hood, didn't. This one was a better deal for many reasons, and I figured, DER DER DER I'll just build it! HAPPY HAPPY, where do I sign?

Now I look at this nicer, better-deal house and I effing hate it. I hate everything about it. I want to burn it down. ...I repeat myself.

This week I am bringing some of the contractors back to look at the garage and think about the room addition instead of the attic room.

MC

Re: home theater frustration

Not sure if it is any help, but I'll share my own experience and how I prevailed;

After hurricane Charley my home had to be completely gutted. The house I stayed in had a boxy 32" TV in an odd shaped living room.
It was my wife who first suggested making a 'temporary' theater... God bless her! We took a cotton sheet and attached it to the top of the entertainment center. When we anted to watch a show we dropped it down over the 32" box and placed the projector on the kithen counter behind us. The sheet worked MARVELOUSLY well for a screen. I even set up my surround system with a 32' coax cable to listen with.

When we restored our home we made the living room 'convertible'. When we want to watch a show now we have a dalite screen that drops from a shelf custom made over our custom entertainment center. We have blackout shades which drop over the windows and storm shutters that black our the sliding glass doors.
The sofa we bought is a semi-circle with a rolling circular ottoman and it has recliners on the ends.
It is all movie watching bliss! Maybe you could work out something similar?

Re: home theater frustration

I've grown up and lived in the same area all my life. Generally the only time a house will have a basement is if it's built on a large, steep slope-- leaving you with a sort of half basement. I've noticed that newer houses often finish these off now and sell it as a kind of bonus room.

Re: great replies!

Are you saying that the existing structure isn't up to the additional loads created by a new occupied level? If so, that should have been the very first thing they looked at and shouldn't have taken 3 months. It's either structurally sound for the new room or not.

By way of comparison, I'm just finishing up a renovation design to convert my existing garage into a 13'x22' home theater room. It requires new framing for a floor, electrial, HVAC, etc. I did this at night, maybe 3-4 hours a night and 3-4 days a week. I finished the entire set of documents in about 5 weeks but it really shouldn't have taken that long. If your 'architect' spent 3 months on your space and he's doing this full-time....well, I'd say you didn't get the best service you could have.

I'm sorry to hear about your story. At this point what I'd do is come up with what you want and put it to paper. Then take it to a local lumber yard and have them create drawings for you. Then take the plans to a contractor for a bid. Either that or find a contractor that will create plans for you. You don't need an architect for what you are doing. I wouldn't expect the lumberyard design staff to be up on home theater design so keep that in mind.

Good luck.

structural concerns

These guys were not crawling all over my property for three straight months. Basically, I didn't say, "I'll be looking for this to be done next Thursday," the way I usually would when dealing with a contractor. I figured (what nightmare story doesn't start with those two words?) that these "professional architectural" guys would be able to visit the prop a couple of days, listen to me, take measurements, examine the place, and bingo-bango draw up... A ROOM PLAN. I did not at all imagine that it would take three months -- and me calling finally and saying, "Hey, how's that room design going?" -- to get to this non-starting point.

It was the contractors (good local guys I know) I made sure got the bids who brought the plans over and stood around looking at the structure and saying, "Did the structural engineer think about this or that?", "did the structural engineer look under the house at the pillars supporting this load-baring wall, or were they just guessing?" etc. I have serious doubts (after talking to two trusted construction guys with these plans) that my house would be able to structurally support an attic build-up.

Really, it made me look completely stupid; standing in front of trusted professional builders. Hey man, here are some professional plans! What do you think? ...Oh...

I thought about building a room within my garage, taking over half of it and boxing it in. But my wife says that's no good. That would DETRACT from the sf of the house and ultimately have to be dismantled when we'd move in order not to affect the value of the great big two-car garage with loads of storage.

So, out the side wall into the back yard we go! The new addition odyssey begins this week. Confronting the stupid architects, asking for more of their crappy service just to feel like I'll get a set of plans I can use before I pay them off...

And golldarn if them movie awards ain't on the tee-vee t'night. SCREW MOVIES! I HATE YOU ALL! ...

MOVIES! BAH!

MC

Re: home theater frustration

Well, I'd say your first, and only, mistake was not establishing a deadline for progress. You have to hold an architects feet to the fire much like you would a contractor. We may be professionals but we still have a lot to pull together and without a deadline that tends to happen slowly. It's not 'bingo-bango' as you described when you add in all the MEP but 3 months for a room is absurd.

Converting an attic to a living space, with its additional load requirements, shouldn't have been considered without first checking to see if the existing structure could carry it. In many cases it can but any architect worth his salt should have checked that first thing so he wasn't wasting his time, or yours. Your contractor was right on the money with that comment.

Re: structural concerns

I don't mean to kick you while you're down. But...

Why in the world would you use the architect for this new build?!?!?

He's proven himself uncaring and/or incompetent for your house. Pay him for the current work, if necessary. Then ditch him and get someone local, someone good, someone recommended by your trustworthy contractors.

But do not use your good-for-nothing architect any more.

I'm just sayin'

Re: home theater frustration

Wow, that first post says a lot about the joy of marriage.

the joys of marriage!

Speaking of marriage, my wife says screw them. I'll walk in to their office on Wednesday morning, pay them off, tell them we've decided not to use their plans, thank you very much, and that'll be the end of this fiasco.

Later this week I'll be meeting with a couple of our contractors to talk more about the new plans. Meanwhile my Netflix account is forgotten and my new TV is languishing in the storeroom of the retailer.

So, thanks for letting me get this off my chest for now. If anyone has any good stories like this, also, I'd still love to hear them!

MC