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It looks like you are fapping! lol
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So we finally have been forced to clean out the spare upstairs bedroom. It's been sitting unused so it's where all the stuff we didn't get around to dealing with had been shoved out of sight out of mind. Here's how it looks now. Sorry if this looks wierd as hell, experimenting with taking panoramic photos.
http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1391566576 Also went over to a buddies new house and loved his basement setup. So I'm working on trying to plan out the basement theatre setup. Here's a couple pictures of the basement today. Again sorry if they look weird, experimenting with panoramic pics. 360* pic, kinda gotta wrap your brain around this pic because the beginning is on the left and mates the to the end on the right http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1391567229 Small panorama view, easier to understand: http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1391567384 and here's what it looks like in the unfinished theatre room http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1391568083 Basically what our thought right now is, that whole wall/door that separates the living area from the theater room is coming down. We originally thought it'd be nice to have that room totally secluded, but we're not the secluded type. We like open and spacious. So that wall will become a half wall with a bar/counter top on top of it, with bar stools along it. No more door, just an opening to walk past the half wall to enter that area. A projector will project on the long wide flat wall so you can see it from anywhere in the basement. The current furniture will move from the area it is now, to the other side of the half wall, that area will become the main TV area. We will still leave the flat screen TV in the corner by the fire place, but that area is going to become just a big open common recreational area, likely filled with kid toys. In the future, probably throw some game tables (Pool, Foosball, Pinball) over there. Also where you see the small little wine cabinet, we will be building a wet bar that goes against that wall. Pretty much it. If anyone on here is hardcore audio/video gurus, I'd love to hear suggestions on setting up our theater area. Looking for quality on a budget. No interested in spending $1500 on a projector, nor do I want a cheap Pico projector. Just good bang for the buck. We have a 12" JBL powered sub, and probably will use her Samsung receiver/speaker setup along with her Samsung Bluray player in there. But completely open to hear if anyone has suggestions. Would like to reuse what we already have as much as possible like the receiver and bluray player. My buddies place I went to, he had a project similar to this and it looked pretty good, even when he had the blinds open: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wxga-dig...4#tab=overview Here's a shitty little sketch I made trying to depict what I'm saying. Now: http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1391570211 After: http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1391571126 |
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Nice, you should come check out my place when you get some time.
It might give you some ideas on basement layouts. I have to finish installing a new garage door seal on the bottom of the door today and then I'm going to install a garbage disposal from scratch. |
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I have been doing a lot of research on theater setups lately and have mine pretty much nailed down. We have the same counter/bar stool setup going in behind the main viewing area. That works great!
Check out the BenQ 1070W projector, one of the best entry level projectors with a good amount of light which you will need since it is more open. Fixed projector screen? I have mine about 75% wired up right now. I just got done figuring out the 7.1 side surround speakers. |
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Yeah Brown, definitely need to swing by one of these days.
Jet, I'm going to do a fixed screen. Either an actual screen or just paint a rectangle on the wall as the screen. Still have a lot of figuring out to do there. Mostly I'm trying to figure out what components to get, what wires to run, because I can start doing that now. I figure I'll install some PVC piping from the equipment rack area to the projector, run a couple HDMI cables and a USB cables in there for now as well as a fish line for pulling more later. Then speaker wires from the equipment rack to speaker locations (probably just do a 5.1 setup). |
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There are a lot of audiophiles on MNAudi and I've found this to be a good thread on exactly what you're describing: http://www.mnaudi.com/forums/index.php?topic=67649.0
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Fixed screen is the cheapest. I would imagine you are going between 100 - 120"? Check out avsforum.com, by far the leading resource on this stuff. Projectorcentral.com has some great reviews too. Monoprice has some nice in-wall speakers for a good price AVS has a nice DIY section for screens too. Fixed are easy to make and cheap. I am doing a tab tensioned retractable screen.
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Ill be doing a pull down screen this year with basic HD projector (TBD). If I were you id just put a retractable screen in the main downstairs family room above the fire place, and just make that your theater room and keep the other room as storage/work shop.
For wiring, youll need to run whatever your system will support. At min id run Cat 6 cables, good speaker wire to all locations, HDMI cables, and rca cables if you need them run to a cabinet thats going to house your stuff. Theres a free 50" rear projection TV on mnaudi if you want a good deal!! :D |
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Yep, and make room for a HTPC if you decide to go that route later. If you have a server with your movies on a really nice little box to handle that is the Dune TV102. Works slick and streams full bluray.
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I need to get into this stuff more.
Anywho, no pics here just some advice. DO NOT replace your bottom garage door seal in teh winter, worse job ever. I bet it's a 20-30 min job in the spring/summer, but with the cold it was miserable. Also buy a quality seal, the one I got from lowes is basically frozen solid in the cold so there are still some minor gaps on occasion when the door is closed. I'm going to pick up a garage door threshold kit and see if I can improve my sealing quality. Today I will be tackling a garbage disposal install. |
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I ended up using the rubber cement type shit on all the connections. My cuts weren't square enough and the compression fittings kept leaking and if i moved the pipes to fix one it would leak somewhere else. So I said Eff it and used the permanent stuff that I will have to cut out one day if I need to change it. Take your time, measure you stuff like 10 times and try to make sure your pipes are perfectly square so those fittings work and seal. good luck! |
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I replaced both my entire garage doors in the cold over the past 3 weeks :) Just gotta dress for it.
Brown, if the door doesnt go all the way down to seal well, maybe your spring tension is too high. Been doing lots of updates to the house since the hail storm in August. Roof was done in November, Siding on the front is done as of last week, did shakes up on top and some white trim molding, gutters too. Garage doors are done, got ones with windows, love the natural light inside the garage now. Some siding left on the back of the house to replace. Quick pic: http://oi57.tinypic.com/21j62h4.jpg Replaced quite a few peices of broken siding on the detached rear garage by myself, that was last Saturday. Took around 6 hours. Painting a few walls in the next week inside, thats always fun. Glad spring is coming soon, then I can dig back into the garden! |
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Looks good peter, I like the garage door windows.
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I've ordered but not yet installed a brush weatherseal kit (I ordered two of the Genuine Hotrod Hardware kits from Summit Racing: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/se...FfFDMgodt00A1g) which I'll screw into the inside top and bottom of the garage door; I'll keep the normal seal at the bottom too so the brush is meant to seal any little gaps that are left. For the sides of the door, I've nailed the garage bottom seals used for the "home depot lip" mod on the inside and will be replacing the seals on the outside in Spring. It's hard to explain but, basically, I'll end up with seals on all sides of the door both inside and outside. In related news, I more than doubled the horsepower of... my garage door opener. I upgraded from a 0.5 HP chain drive to a 1.25 HP Chamberlain belt drive with all the bells and whistles-- battery backup, smartphone app, etc. I was going to replace the door rollers with ceramic ball bearing ones but the opener has made opening and closing dead silent so I've ditched that idea for now. I can join in on the cold weather moaning too since I did the uninstall and install the week it was 20 below multiple days on end. |
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There shouldnt be any gap on top of the garage door if you install a threshold kit, it would probably move the door maybe .5 inches off the current spot. If the top section of the door has a little too much arc in it, or gap from the outside, there is an adjustment for that on the inside of the door at the very top of each side. But if you have a good seal at the bottom of your door, you dont need a threshold kit, unless water is coming inside from a sloped driveway or something. If your door leaves a gap at the bottom, your door spring tension is too high which makes the door too light.
Adjustment plate looks like this: http://www.repairmygarage.com/images...%20bracket.JPG |
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I'm gonna take a closer look at adjusting the door some before I buy anything else.
Thanks for the tips guys. |
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Next up on the list is a projector for the basement. I'm getting one from our realtor, it's a couple years old but can't complain about free. Just have to find a screen now. |
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Make sure to check CRI of any bulbs you put in, that's what makes or breaks lighting and the reason I really like the Cree bulbs.
I just checked and my electric bill this month was $40-75 less than the previous five Aprils. Definitely working! |
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These GE are 80 CRI, from what I saw online the Cree were the same.
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These LED bulbs really save that much money?
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In my kitchen alone I'm saving nearly 400W when they're on. Living room and bedroom will be 120W savings each. For me it works out to about $5/month based on some estimated usage.
CFL's are still way cheaper (especially at WalMart they are dirt cheap), they use a little more energy than LED but still much less than a standard incandescent. They can pay for themselves in a couple months, these LEDs will take a year to pay for themselves. I just can't stand the warm up process for CFL, apparently they have instant brightness CFL now but they last shorter, the other LED benefit is 20 year life. Edit: almost forgot about this, funny story from today. Went to Menards looking for a lawn mower, we moved to our first standalone house over winter and haven't had a yard before this, so we have zero lawn care tools. I have always liked electric motors over gasoline, so I was intrigued by this electric mower which was marked down from $200 to $100 on clearance. I bought it on impulse, only to come home and find out it's plugin with extension cord vs a battery like I thought. I had no idea they even made extension cord lawn mowers after the 80's, battery tech is so much better now (our yard is pretty small and will probably take 20 minutes to mow) Then I read up on electric mowers and found out you have to replace the battery every few years which costs a decent amount, and the corded ones have virtually zero maintenance. I'm getting used to the idea of a cord and start to plan out how I would mow always moving away from the house so the cord would never get in the way, and then Emily vetoes the idea because she would have to mow when I'm on a trip. She equated it to vacuuming and running over the cord, which I said was totally different since you are always moving forward, not back and forth like a vacuum. Anyway, guess I'm getting a gas mower after all. Boo. |
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I added another nest product to my house. I needed a new fire alarm upstairs near the bedrooms and I didn't have a CO detector at all, so this was a no brainer. Pretty cool little guy, bummer they just had to disable the wave feature but it will be back in a few months.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...psy9q22hur.jpg Also has a built in "night light" feature that is cool. When you walk under it lights up the hall a bit. |
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Andrew, def get a gas mower.. You will be mowing a lot more often if you get an electric, since they cant handle higher grass and you cant pick up and bag either. When leaves start to fall this is a major time saver for me than raking. I dont think you have many trees though.
LED or CFL is the way to go for sure, I converted to CFL when we moved in and found some instant on bulbs that work great. Even our outside lights are CFL 100 watts and they work great through all of winter too, even though they arent rated below 30 degrees or whatever. Just takes a little longer to become 100% bright. |
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It has a mulch feature and a bagger too, but yea prob going gas. I now have a super old one in the garage, just need to clean the carb, and fresh oil and gas. It's been sitting at her family's farm for 10 years lol.
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Ahh okay, that will work for now!
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Did you get the battery-powered or direct-wire nest protect?
Also wow, they stopped selling it outright? That's pretty nutzo. |
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Yea, the CEO sent an email out and they don't want to sell it until they feel 100% that its safe with all the features. I think it shows they care a lot about their customers to stop selling something as that is a lot of lost revenue. It's pretty cool now though that I have the thermostat and the smoke/co alarm in the app on my iphone, pretty nifty. I plan to put one nest protect on each level. I don't want to replace all my smoke alarms with them though, they are too damn pricey, but I think one on each level makes sense. |
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I have to get a mower this year too, not looking to spending that much.
I have CFLs all thru the house for the most part. I'm most likely going to take a break from modding cars this year as long as they run and try to get the house running smoothly how I want it. (lower monthly expenses, fix stuff, etc.) |
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Aaron, weak! Man up and go fast, prove you are drag king! |
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Yea mowers are pretty cheap in the scheme of things.. lol Good self propelled mower is a couple hundred bucks. And they usually run forever.
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Me too, its a good leg workout! haha
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^Good point.
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Spring time, so doing some more stuff in the yard to try and attract more wildlife. Mallard duck house was put out by the pond this weekend. A Wood Duck couple already scoping it out.
http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398183165 |
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Inside the house, I've been working on finishing up our wine cellar / storage room. It was one small area we left unfinished when we built the house, and basically just keep the deep freezer and beer fridge in there for now, but eventually will put up some wine shelves and other just misc shelves for overflow grocery storage.
Here's basically what it looked like. I threw up some 2x2 furring strips on the cement wall sides. http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310155 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 Entry into the area, small dim wall sconce to give it a dungeon feel lol :) http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 Went to Menards and got this Pine tongue/groove planking for half off. Thought this was a neater look for a room like this rather than just sheetrock. Also installed/wired up a handful of outlets since it only had 1 to begin with. http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 Here is how it sits today. All that is left is to put some clear sealer on it (not staining). And I bought cork flooring that should arrive early May. http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1398310194 The theatre room project is on hold. We found a little bit of water in there and we want to get that figured out before finishing the room. Don't want a mold issue. |
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Wow that looks great! Def more of a 'cellar' look to it with that pine
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Yeah, great choice using the pine. Looks good!
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Looks great!
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Love the pine, looking sharp sir.
After not having blinds in my house in my guest bedroom for 4 years I finally bought some cheap ones from Blinds.com. The driving force is the fact that the window is eastward facing so the sun shines in bright and early. So anyone who ever used my guest bed woke up at dawn lol. So now the gf stays over with her 5 year old quite a bit so in an effort to let the human alarm clock sleep more I did this. Added benefit is allowing drunk friends more sleep. It isn't pretty but it works and was cheap. http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ps9q6gvjf0.jpg The gap in the middle is a bit more than what I would like but I don't care to try and fix it as there isn't a whole lot I can do with these blinds as the hardware just has space in them. I could probably gain a half inch and cut it down but this works and keeps the sun out of your face. |
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