I’ve been getting a lot of requests to describe what I put together for my home theater system after I posted pictures from my projector. The home theater isn’t quite complete yet. It’s still missing some pieces and the room that it all has to go in isn’t finished.

I picked up a infocus screenplay 4800 for $499 from woot.com. I’ve got it mounted with a ceiling mount from ebay, $12.

It’s only an 800X600 16:9 native screen but it looks great in the dark.
Any sunlight at all will kill it. It’s key to use a pc for your dvd player because it will work as a resolution-doubler. DVD’s displayed with a projector look impressively better through a pc compared to component outs on the DVD player alone. The 420p out of the Xbox is impressive as well. I don’t have any hd games or hd cable so I haven’t seen it do anything better than dvd quality.

For my home theater PC (HTPC) I have the following:

Athlon 1.4 running Windows Media Center 2005
1 GB Ram
GeForce FX 5900XT 128 mb DDR 8x agp graphics card
DVD Player generic 8x
CD burner lite-on 24x
Hauppauge mce 250 tv/radio tuner card: 140
Chaintech AV-710 Sound card with 7.1 optical out. SpDif passthrough is a must if you use your own reciever. ($25 from newegg)
Yamaha HTR 5750 (component switching, and component to s-video
upconversion are a must – for hdtv, ps2’s, and xbox)
Klipsch KSW-12″ powered sub
bose 301 bookshelf speakers for the front
bose 201’s for the rear
Bose VCS-10 center chanel

What’s left?
PC case that is quieter than a shop-vac
Build a screen, either with screen goo or out of normal projector screen material… i’m leaning toward the goo at the moment.

Finally, well… I’ve got to actually finish the basement.

I called in a great crew on Saturday to build a new deck. I’ve talked about building it since the day I bought the house over two years ago. I was pumped up to get it done. The guys worked fast and furious. We had the framing complete by noon including the steps. It’s amazing how fast a project can go with the right people and the right tools. The crew size was cut in half, down to two, at about 3:30, but we still managed to get all the decking done and the main support spindles in place before we called it a day.

Now that we had a great head start, I could finish the rest of the project myself. I spent most of Sunday avoiding the rain drops, and continually bringing my electric tools in and out of the rain. I got a little bit done, but with so much time wasted running to Menards and the Home Depot and didn’t have much to show for my efforts. My circular saw burt out, I had to get a few more materials, and I had to buy a cordless drill upgrade. My puny 14.4 volt Skill Drill would only last about 20 minutes… then take 4 hours to charge. I couldn’t get anything done. I have a wired drill, but it only has two speeds, balls-to-the-walls or off. I kept stripping the heads on the screws.

Sunday was a pretty good day. After some head scratching I finally decided on how I wanted to do my railing. I’m happy with the result, but fabricating all the spindles added a lot of time – I think it was worth it.

If all goes well I should have it done this week.

Photo gallery here.

I’m fired up. I’m refinancing my house to get rid of some bad debt, and to more easily afford to finish off the house – most importantly, a deck. I’ve been to Menards no less than 3 times designing it. I’m going to go to the Depot and sit down with a deck designer as well just to be sure. I’m thinking it will be 14′ by 18′ with stairs and angled corners.

But, before I can put the deck in, I need to do some landscaping. I’m going to put in rock where the deck will be and then continue it around the house – I may even put in a few plants to kill and some of those ubiquitous solar powered lights that exactly every house in my neighborhood has.

Hopefully I’ll have a bit of dough left over for sheet-rock and stuff for the basement, but to make that happen I’ll have to get rid of the helicopter landing pad and built in swimming pool I was planning for the deck.

Update:
Well it’s complete. I’ve just sold my house to myself for more than I paid for it. Now I just have to wait 72 hours before the loan is final.

These damn Asian Lady Beetles are a nuisance. They were originally introduced to control crop and tree destroying pests, but as with any ecosystem disruption, they’re now wreaking havoc across the country and Canada – they just don’t have enough predators to control them.

I am now their number one predator. The stinky little bastards are swarming the outside of my house, scanning for any point of entry. I could pay 300-500 dollars for an exterminator, but that’s a waste of money – besides, I want to kill the little buggers myself. The beetles die from most any simple detergent. Get the kind that attaches to your hose for external cleaning, and spray the house down. Yelling “It’s On Like Donkey Kong” before unleashing the death spray, and chuckling fiendishly while hosing the building down adds to the enjoyment as well as stares from neighbors. Those suckers will drop dead in no time, and you get to clean your house

The hole in my basement if finally patched up. It looks good as new, well, that would be true if when it was new it looked like a lumpy mess. I wont be becoming a mason anytime soon.

I’ve finished the de-molding and re-insulation process in my future basement office – yes those are technical construction terms.

I’ve also tamped the dirt in the open hole in my basement floor well enough that it’s ready for concrete. I don’t want to mix sacrete in a 5 gallon pail so I’m going to pick up a wheel barrow soon. I’ll need it for when I finally get around to adding some landscape rock and plants to the front of the house.

The projects never end, but I like it that way. I should just refinance and take out a home equity loan to finish it all off, but I’d hoped to finish, then refinance. I need to figure out which is the better way to go.

I had about 150 projects to do this weekend and got a good many of them done. I have one room in the basement that I’ve now wired for cable, network, and phone. I also redid the insulation and plastic vapor barrier for the room. All I have left is to build a TV cabinet into the wall in this room and it’s ready to sheetrock. Almost one room down, three to go.

Professional tip: Don’t go for a run before you put in insulation. Sweat and the pink stuff seem to like each other a lot. Damn that stuff is itchy.

When I said that my “mold crisis was averted”, what I meant to say is: “oh shit I’ve got mold everywhere.”

Between the plastic and the insulation on about 30% of my basement walls there are little spores of mold. I’ll be removing the insulation and plastic and replacing most of it with new. Crap.

Update: After a trip to Home Depot I’ve calculated this to be about a 300 dollar mistake. Live and learn I guess. At least it didn’t happen after I finished the basement.

Last weekend I filled the hole in my basement with dirt and doused it with water to help it settle before I put the concrete in. Little did I know all of said water will apparently evaporate and eventually start condensing in my air conditioner coil. Not a big deal unless there is a leak in your furnace where all this water will be condensing and will consequently leak all over the floor.

Yup, condensation puddles that look like leaky basement stains in two rooms in the basement. Crap. Funny side effect is allergic roomy can’t breath.

Do-it-yourselfer to the rescue. Last night, before I even took my new truck home, I stopped at Menards (big surprise) and picked up a de-humidifier. Side note: I’d like to mention that no trunks were popped, no seats were folded down, and no snickers from the Menards employees as I tried to stuff it in my trunk – I tossed that baby in the back of the truck and was on my way. Back to the mold…

I pulled it out of the box, hooked up the hose, and let it run all night. Problems solved, mold crisis averted – or so I thought. I didn’t tighten the drain hose well enough and it leaked all over the floor causing yet another stain. This one was right in the middle of in the laundry room where I didn’t plan on putting in a floor.

Plans Change. Luckily, no mold in sight.

I finally got around to calling the inspector to take a look at the plumbing, heating, and framing in the basement. He said it all looked good, and gave me the go ahead to start sheet-rocking. Basically all of the inspection is complete until the final inspection. I have to get it all done by january, or pay for another permit, so I’d better get off my ass and get to it.

I have a bit of piddly work to do including low voltage wiring, putting concrete over the hole in my basement floor, and ducting in the bathroom fan (insert stinky poo joke here). Maybe if I get on my horse I can have the main rec-room set for football season. Mmmmmmm big screen.