Building a new HT / media room (1 Viewer)

[Ron-P]

Today I started clearing out the side of my house. The wall straight back is the garage, the tool shed is on the left and the living room is too the right. My goal over the next year or so is to build a room addition in this big waste of space.
The room size will be roughly 9x21x10. Where the current living room window is will become the doorway. My tool shed will be demoed in the next several months with all the tools moving to the garage. Once the room is complete the current dedicated HT room in the garage will be demoed giving me back my 2-car garage.

I plan to use all my gear, speakers and the two dedicated 20-amp lines that power the current HT room for the new room. The new room will also serve as the media center for computers and the TV. I will install a pull down screen so I can use my FP for movies. This will free up our TV / living room / dining room that we have now for just a dining room and lounge area.

This will add roughly 200sf to my house and it will be a 100% DIY project.

 

[TonyD]

Ah, now I see. Good luck and have fun.It's a big project.

 

[Edwin-S]

What do you figure your estimated cost of construction is going to be?

 

[Ron-P]

A big project for sure, but I'm in no hurry so it will be fun. As for my budget I've estimated $3,000 but figure I can get closer to $2,000 as I have a lot of materials I can use from my tool shed and existing HT room. Lots of wood, drywall and electrical wire.

 

[Edwin-S]

Not bad if you can build it for that little. I was figuring something like that would be more in the 15 - 20 thousand range. I'd like to convert an 8 x 10 x 16 (off the top of my head) basement rec room into a theatre, but I'm still trying to figure how to do it relatively cheaply. It's all wood paneling, old acoustic tile and linoleum flooring. I think I would basically have to gut it and that could add up fast. Home reno projects always seem to start with reasonable costs and then it just balloons when a person gets into it.

 

[Alf S]

Looks like quite the project, but I'm sure it will look/work great when it's all complete. Looking forward to any in progress pix you may post and of course the final pix.

 

[Ron-P]

Not bad if you can build it for that little. I was figuring something like that would be more in the 15 - 20 thousand range.

I can. Remember, I already have the slab in place and two walls built. A roof and two more walls is all I need. My rough budget is as follows..

$500 for lumber
$250 for roofing materials
$500 for drywall and finishing
$600 for insualtion, door, and electrical
$200 for carpet
$300 for paint and misc. expenses

The biggest savings is me doing it all myself and being in no hurry to do it. If it takes 2 years, so be it. First project is to demo the tool shed and salvage as much from that as I can, secong will be to demo the current HT room and do the same. The more I salvage from those two structures the more I save on the new one.

Biggest wrench in the project, getting married in October.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Nice Ron, I look forward to seeing the progress. Could you post some pics in our gallery of your garage theater? I bet that's something a lot of people would like to see

 

[Edwin-S]

I can. Remember, I already have the slab in place and two walls built. A roof and two more walls is all I need. My rough budget is as follows..

$500 for lumber
$250 for roofing materials
$500 for drywall and finishing
$600 for insualtion, door, and electrical
$200 for carpet
$300 for paint and misc. expenses

The biggest savings is me doing it all myself and being in no hurry to do it. If it takes 2 years, so be it. First project is to demo the tool shed and salvage as much from that as I can, secong will be to demo the current HT room and do the same. The more I salvage from those two structures the more I save on the new one.

Biggest wrench in the project, getting married in October.

Uh oh.....WAF incoming.....batten down the hatches! Just kidding. Congrats on your marriage.

One piece of advice, though. Create an actual timetable for completion. Without a definite date of completion, it becomes too easy to let other priorities in life get in the way of working on a reno like that. Two years doing a bathroom reno taught me that much and it wasn't that much of a reno.....LOL. Even if you don't meet the date, I think you will find that a lot more will be accomplished than if there is no date at all.

 

[Ron-P]

Nice Ron, I look forward to seeing the progress. Could you post some pics in our gallery of your garage theater? I bet that's something a lot of people would like to see

I can sure try, it's tough because the room is completely blacked out, from the walls to the celing there's nothing but black so it's difficult to take pics. I will give it a shot though.

 

[Ron-P]

Uh oh.....WAF incoming.....batten down the hatches! Just kidding. Congrats on your marriage.

One piece of advice, though. Create an actual timetable for completion. Without a definite date of completion, it becomes too easy to let other priorities in life get in the way of working on a reno like that. Two years doing a bathroom reno taught me that much and it wasn't that much of a reno.....LOL. Even if you don't meet the date, I think you will find that a lot more will be accomplished than if there is no date at all.

Hahahaha, too funny. She's all good, doesn't care much about what I do which is really cool. I go to Angels baseball games because she loves the team. She does HT and goes to Disneyland because I love it. It's really great.

As for a scheduel. I agree it's a good thing but right now I'm doing it in phases. I wannt get the tool shed down and get the roof up for the addition. My goal is to have that done by the beginning of summer. After that it's all about the wedding. Once we've made it though the wedding it's game on to the existing theater demoed then to build the addition. No set dates just yet though, those will come in time once I get the tool shed down.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Off topic: Disneyland! Do you guys have annual passes or just go ala cart?

 

[TonyD]

For us at Disney World we do annual passes for there and Universal

 

[Adam Gregorich]

We have annual passes for DL and WDW, but have never been to WDW in Florida. Maybe this year....

 

[DaveF]

Biggest wrench in the project, getting married in October.

Hey! Congrats! That's exciting news!Did you do a tiki outdoor space a while back? Or am I confusing someone else's project with you?