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To the moon and back theater (1 Viewer)

Megdagooch

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Meg Craig
I have posted much of this on another theater forum site but I believe I get overlooked because mine is a budget theater and not high end. I've been coming here since 2013 and think maybe it's time I introduce myself. I'm hoping to get some more feedback and advise here and maybe my post will be able to help someone else!
So!!!! Here is some of what we have done: my basement theater. It was originally a spare room and it had flooded so there was a lot of repairs and work to be done. The whole basement has evolved from a "movie room" to a "concession area", theater, workout room, and game room (we also have what we call the control room. And storage!)
 

Sam Posten

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Welcome to HTF, Meghan! We have every level here, from dorm room to our bud Jeremy Kipnis and his $6m monstrosity =) Mine is definitely somwhere in the middle of that.


Looking forward to hearing more about yours and your lessons learned!
 

Megdagooch

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well...here is where i wanted to upload tons of photos but apparently my cell takes 1.8 meg pics and the site only allows 1k uploads?!?!
 

Megdagooch

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I'd like to start by saying how this all happened.
My then 5 year old asked for an outdoor movie party for her 6th birthday. We were concerned about it getting rained out and started making plans to have an area inside as a back up. Well the more we learned the more ideas we had. I asked the 5 year old if we can have her party at chuck E Cheeses (thinking there are only so many years where that can be done before she is too old) and let us work on a movie party for NEXT year. Well you all know how it goes once you start a project like this! The plan all along was to be able to use the theater WHILE working on it. And because of that we could take our time and find out exactly what works for us and be able to shop deals rather than just going out to buy stuff. You will see our vision changed many times and still is!
 

Megdagooch

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ImageUploadedByHTF1422539005.923192.jpg

Heeeeeeyyyy! Sorry for all the bitching but man that was frustrating!
So this picture was taking shortly after we cleaned out the basement room. At this point we thought we would have a few theater seats and a couch and a $600 projector. This was the day we got the theater seats ordered from EBay. They are just sitting there and the kids were having a blast trying them out. I think we had a 20" flat screen up at the time lol!!!
 

Megdagooch

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ImageUploadedByHTF1422539964.372148.jpg

So that plan quickly changed and we took the sofa out.
These are the lazy boy recliners we got from craigslist. I'm fairly certain we got the great price because the previous owners were not sure how to clean microfiber. The husband was in a Kiss tribute band. The seats were GREASY and smelled HORRIBLY of stale beer and cigarettes and sweat. It took a bunch of work and steam cleaning but they are like new now and lazy boy warranties their mechanics so these chairs are good for awhile!
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At this point we were considering a bar in the back row
 

Megdagooch

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While all this is happening in the theater room we had a "kitchen" that was just cabinets and overflow for my daycare food and a freezer in a small room before you entered the theater room
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We tore the old cabinets out and put up a wall and the guy added all the necessary electrics for the theater kitchen and game room. There was no lighting installed in the kitchen area at all.
A few years before in the fall we bought a snowblower on clearance just because the price was amazing. We planned on keeping it for a backup knowing we can always sell it. Well I got tired of it being in the garage and put it for sale. A friend who knew I collect Coke stuff JOKINGLY offered a coke fridge in trade. I was like oh yes! We hired a refrigeration guy to do some work and it is like new now
 

Megdagooch

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Brave in 3D. The kids were promised a movie night at school as a reward for hard work and the teacher failed to deliver. Brave was the movie so we just one upped her failed promise and did it in 3D...in the theater...with an open consession stand ;D don't mess with my kids! Lol!!!
 

Megdagooch

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ImageUploadedByHTF1422556038.791020.jpg

Speaking of the concession stand.
We got the old cabinets out and managed to get a whole kitchens worth of new (used) ones. The people had a flood and only one was ruined from where the water dripped down from above. I locked them in a room with a dehumidifier and washed them off with mold cleaner/repellant. They have been great and look wonderful! One of the old base cabinets happened to fit a marble table top (with no legs) we bought at an auction for $10. So that became the candy counter
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Megdagooch

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We dug a ditch to divert all the water behind our house (that pretty much is an entire mountains worth of runoff that comes through our yard!!) We have one patch on a concrete wall that we have to re do every 15 years.
The permanent repair would be a $30,000 dig out and repair. Since the ditch has been dug we survived a flood that wiped out a neighboring town (and took a friends house down river) so I think we are doing pretty ok!
You will see that a lot of what I do is with water emergencies in mind. We actually had 3 floods! Each time we learned what to do better for next time. The floor is going to be a tile peel and stick type in the game room. Carpet tiles in the theater. I am painting the concrete walls with dry lock paint. The only Sheetrock walls are the ones that make up the theater. In the driest part of the basement. You will see the "wall panels" we have decided to build instead of frame walls. I think in the end it will be a nice feel while addressing any future water concerns.
In the spring thaw we just monitor the basement very well and have been doing ok for about 8 years now
 

Megdagooch

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ImageUploadedByHTF1422624169.246620.jpg

Here is a wall panel we built for the pool table rack. This was the first one we made. Originally we built them out of reclaimed pallet wood. It was a lot of work hunting them down and beating all the Pinterest crafters to the places that gave them away for free. Then to pull them apart getting all the nails/staples out. A friend recommended going to the Amish and buying rough cut wood. It was extremely affordable and looks great with much less work.
Pretty much we attach a 2x4 frame from the above floor joists. We turn them opposite of how you would in normal wall construction so it lays closer to the wall. And we just nail the boards up. They don't go all the way to the floor so they don't get wet in case of a "small" flood and so we can check for water.
 

Bobofbone

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Megdagooch said:
We dug a ditch to divert all the water behind our house (that pretty much is an entire mountains worth of runoff that comes through our yard!!) We have one patch on a concrete wall that we have to re do every 15 years.
The permanent repair would be a $30,000 dig out and repair. Since the ditch has been dug we survived a flood that wiped out a neighboring town (and took a friends house down river) so I think we are doing pretty ok!
You will see that a lot of what I do is with water emergencies in mind. We actually had 3 floods! Each time we learned what to do better for next time. The floor is going to be a tile peel and stick type in the game room. Carpet tiles in the theater. I am painting the concrete walls with dry lock paint. The only Sheetrock walls are the ones that make up the theater. In the driest part of the basement. You will see the "wall panels" we have decided to build instead of frame walls. I think in the end it will be a nice feel while addressing any future water concerns.
In the spring thaw we just monitor the basement very well and have been doing ok for about 8 years now

Good plan. I went to a house show before buying property to build on. One of the exhibitors was a company that salvaged and repaired damaged property. They were quite talkative about things to avoid. They mentioned the problems that occur with flooding if you build below the crest of a slope. It sounds like you have taken care of that pretty well. One of the other things they mentioned was roof drainage-they suggested making sure it came out below, instead of above you. Your planning for the worst case also seems wise.


I guess one could build in the dessert to avoid the potential for water damage, but that seems kind of extreme!
 

Megdagooch

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Buying a house in a valley on the side of a mountain has its challenges. But we love where we are so we roll with it
 

Megdagooch

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ImageUploadedByHTF1422649772.972700.jpg

So our game room. Again it evolves. Probably more than any room. It was just a big nasty toy storage space. Started with a few games and grew from there.
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Megdagooch

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I
ImageUploadedByHTF1422659998.491723.jpg

One last pic of the game room. These were my girls Christmas gifts last year. This is their reaction after the initial screaming and freaking out.

And our first official movie party for my daycare kids was Monster Inc. We had goodie bags to send home lol!
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I sent away for the movie giveaway popcorn bucket and cups ;)
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