New Home Cinema Room Conversion starts next week....

[jmbrailsford]

Hi,
well at last after months of waiting and planning permission delays, the garage conversion finally starts next week, hopefully tuesday.

The building and electrical work is being carried out by a local guy and someone from my work who is giving him a hand.

I will add more photos as the work progresses.

The first 4 pics are just of the house and garage as is.........

The garage door will be bricked up and a window added matching the style of the one in the dining room and we will be knocking through from the Living Room which the garage backs onto making one 'L' shaped room with the home cinema going into the former garage area.

This one shows the Living Room as it is just now, the wall will be removed from just short of the corner ( wooden lintel will need something to sit on ) up to about where the edge of the right hand chair is approx opening width will be 2.4m.

Inside the garage obviously, it's a lot tidier now than it was 2 months ago when I manage to fill a large skip with all the junk that was in it. Most if not all of what's in it just now will be going in the new shed that's been ordered.

Boiler is to be moved back in to the house in the old hot water cylinder cupboard, mains electric remains here but will be seated within the wall with a small hatch for access.

The floor of the garage/cinema room with be stepped down from the Living Room as it is approx 45cm higher, this will allow the 2 seater settee that we have bought to be placed on the lower floor level allowing the 2 electric recliners to be placed on the upper level. These will be able to swivel round so you can 'sit' in the living room and then for movies spin them round to view the screen.

You can just make out the new 2 seater sette still wrapped and to the left of the pram.

The screen will be fitted within the ceiling just above where the new window is going.

Ok folks that's it for just now, more pics posted next week as work begins.

Thanks for looking, Mike.

[xavier71]

good look jm

[Johnny Thunder]

Keep us updated Mike.

Johnny.

[shahedz]

i really like thew way you have extended the current living room into the Garage, a lot of people have tune just the garage to the home cinema room, but i prefer the way you have done it, you get maximum use out of the room when your not watchign a movie! best of luck!

[john59]

Nice idea there JM.......
But are you sure about doing away with the garage as it was, one of the best selling points with houses is a garage, would it not be better to convert the garage keeping the garage door insitu and building a breeze block wall behind it, then stud wall the inside of the garage running all your cables first before plasterboarding and have a door from the house into the garage. That way if you ever move you can simply convert it back into a garage.
Regards.
John

[jmbrailsford]

Hi,
we have never used the garage for the cars that we have owned over the 9 years we have lived here, why?

'Cos they didn't build em big enough to fit a family car in, ok you could park the car inside, but then couldn't get out of it.

I believe the same firm were sued by owners of similar properties in England and they all received compensation as the garage was not suitable for a car and therefore they were mis-sold the properties.

So rather than just use it as a shed for junk, it has been decided to make more use of it and do the home cinema. When I get time I will add a pic of our street to show just how many other people put their car in the garage.

I know I would rather have a 5 bedroom house with lounge and dining room/cinema room than a 4 bedroom house with dining room and garage that's too small for a car, so hopefully we are adding value to the property this way, we also have a drive that's just about big enough to take 2 cars anyway.

Thanks for all the replies, I will keep this thread updated as often as I can, which will be probably every day.

[john59]

Fair comment JM, don't forget to take plenty pictures during the build

[jmbrailsford]

Garage just about emptied in preparation for tomorrow's arrival of the builders, having only just stopped work on it at about 22:45 I decided to knock off for the night.

The wall at the the back with the pipes running up it backs onto Living Room and is being removed, heating pipes being re-routed into the toilet which is situated behind the left hand wall in the far corner.

Boiler being shifted into kitchen on saturday.

The garage door is being replaced with a new window, the Electric Projector screen ( 92" - 234cm viewable ) is being fitted into the new ceiling just above the blocks that you can see above the existing door.

[jmbrailsford]

Work has now begun, foundation under garage door had been removed and new one being laid for the new brickwork and window.

It took them a lot longer than anticipated as it wasn't filled with soil under the concrete lintel, it was filled with sand and cement mixture, and it took then some digging/drilling to remove it all.

Then the concrete floor of the garage was treated with Treetol 2000 to help with damp proofing.

No more work now until Friday to allow the Treetol to dry, then on Friday a 'Fused Spur' will be put into the cupboard upstairs for the repositioning of the Boiler, which will be moved to it's new position on Saturday.

I have been busy spending some cash on a few AV items last couple of days as I will need to make sure that I have all the necessary cables here for putting in place before the plaster board is put up, boy it's great spending money isn't it !!

List of buys so far :

Panasonic AE700 Projector
OPPO OPDV971H DVD Player
Ellie Advantage 92" Electric Screen and 12v relay
Lindy 10m DVI Cable
S-VHS cable 10m
Chord Carnival Silver Plus Speaker cable 25m

Ok that's it for todays update, nothing more until Saturday now, I will be playing with my new toys next couple of days to make sure everything working ok before installation.

[john59]

Is that you in the picture on yer knees JM? if so, get some knee pads mate LOL
How wide is the garage? it looks very narrow. Keep the pics coming.

[moggsy]

It'll be great to see everything taking shape Mike

I agree with you totally on the integral garage thing....no one uses them in our street as actual garages - just junk rooms!

Ours was already converted into an office-type room by the previous owner and it was in fact one of the things we liked about the house when looking to buy - as you say, it adds another room to the house, you can easily buy a shed for the junk etc that usually goes in them!

How much has all that kit cost you so far?? Looks like yours will be the place to be to watch next years' HDTV broadcast World Cup with a coupla trays of tinnies

[jmbrailsford]

Originally Posted by john59

Is that you in the picture on yer knees JM? if so, get some knee pads mate LOL
How wide is the garage? it looks very narrow. Keep the pics coming.

Hi John,
yip it is narrower than I would have liked but beggars can't be choosers, once finished it will be 2.2m wide and about 4.75m long ( now you know the reason behind not getting the car in !! )

The first of the seating will be about 3.5m from the screen so should be about right, the second area of seating will be approx 30cm above the first ones so you will be able to see over seats in front and about another 1.3m further back if that makes sense.

No that's not me on my knees, that's my mate ( who has plenty of his own padding ) from work who works part time with the builder, I'm only self employed and by that I mean keeping an 'eye' on them and boiling the kettle etc etc .........

My wife has agreed that we need a new flat screen TV to allow the projector screen to drop in front of it as we currently have a 32" CRT which is too deep. So more money to be spent yet on AV stuff.

The speaker cable arrived this morning, I went for 25m of Chord Carnival Silver plus at £4.90 per metre. Projector screen arrived safely as well from Screens UK, very fast and safe delivery by TNT as it only came into stock yersterday, looks very nice case although it will be hidden in a recess in the ceiling so looks not important, but it does look like a nice piece of kit. The screen will take up the whole of the width of the room ( case is 2.2m so be snug fit ).



PS: will add pics of the Screen case etc later if I get a chance.

[jmbrailsford]

Originally Posted by moggsy

It'll be great to see everything taking shape Mike

I agree with you totally on the integral garage thing....no one uses them in our street as actual garages - just junk rooms!

Ours was already converted into an office-type room by the previous owner and it was in fact one of the things we liked about the house when looking to buy - as you say, it adds another room to the house, you can easily buy a shed for the junk etc that usually goes in them!

How much has all that kit cost you so far?? Looks like yours will be the place to be to watch next years' HDTV broadcast World Cup with a coupla trays of tinnies

If I remember right the showhouse had the garage made into a Sales Office for the site when we first came to buy.

Total cost of kit so far is :

PANASONIC AE700 £665
ELLIE SCREEN £516
CHORD CABLE £122
DVI CABLE £ 40
OPPO DVD PLAYER £171

Other kit to be used but bought over the last few years will be Marantz SR5200 DD/DTS receiver, SKY+ 160gb ( did hard drive upgrade myself ), Panasonic E55 DVD Recorder, Marantz CD52SE cd Player.

New 5.1 Speakers and Subwoofer to be decided yet, but have been eyeing up the B & W MT30 set up with the PV1 Sub.

Plus the cost of the building work of course, but I'll keep that to myself until finished.

[moggsy]

Originally Posted by jmbrailsford

If I remember right the showhouse had the garage made into a Sales Office for the site when we first came to buy.

Total cost of kit so far is :

PANASONIC AE700 £665
ELLIE SCREEN £516
CHORD CABLE £122
DVI CABLE £ 40
OPPO DVD PLAYER £171

Other kit to be used but bought over the last few years will be Marantz SR5200 DD/DTS receiver, SKY+ 160gb ( did hard drive upgrade myself ), Panasonic E55 DVD Recorder, Marantz CD52SE cd Player.

New 5.1 Speakers and Subwoofer to be decided yet, but have been eyeing up the B & W MT30 set up with the PV1 Sub.

Plus the cost of the building work of course, but I'll keep that to myself until finished.

Wouldn't mind be a quid behind you in the bank ....before all your spending that is

[john59]

Morning JM
PANASONIC AE700 £665 , WOW thats a bargain !
You said you used Treetol 2000 can you elaborate please ie-where from and how much and why.

Regarding a component cable you will not go wrong here,

Component cable - Broadcast Reference Series – Belden 7710A

I bought one from Mark and when it came I thought he had sent me a hosepipe LOL.
Keep us updated Mike.