Home Cinema
Page 4 of 8
Decorating
The Red triangle over the plan of the bottom floor
indicates the position and direction of the photo.
| The bar |
|
 |
| The plan is to knock
down the wall to the small downstairs cloakroom (the door went 2 years ago) and
put a bar and 'cinema lobby' outside the cinema room. My Dad and Daughter tour
the work-in-progress. |
| Opened up |
|
 |
| It's amazing how
spacious the area feels without that wall. |
| Lights |
|
 |
| The light socket
previously on the now removed cloakroom wall is relocated to the side wall and
will work some nice new lighting over the bar. |
| Perspective |
|
 |
| The view from inside
the cinema room of the foot of the stairs. The doorway is prepared for the door
frame and the lighting cables are positioned ready for the light switch. |
Back in the home cinema,
Vicki's brother Paul and his friend Pat put up the plasterboard and skim it.
Dad routed the power cables to either end of the room.
| Plastered |
|
| Paul checks out the
plasterboard. Note the waterproofed wood mounted free of the rear wall so as
not to compromise the waterproof sealing material. |
| Skimming |
|
| Paul mixes, Pat skims.
The wall is surprisingly flat and smooth. Once the wall has set, Pat puts down
a plaster skirtingboard. |
| Door frame |
|
 |
| After a break of a
couple of weeks, work continues to finish plastering the room and building the
door frame. |
| Door frame from the
inside |
|
Work also starts
boxing in the unsightly hole in the ceiling near the door.
You know, I
really wish I'd had the sense to phone the electricity board to ask about
removing these electricity cables (in the corner of the room) before we
decorated. I got a quote from them Summer 2001 which at £400 would
definiately been worth it at this point, but once the decorating is done and
the gear installed isn't worth it.. |
A while back a friend of
mine, John Thompson, introduced me to Roland Brooks of Barco. John mentioned to
Roland that though I was largely delighted with my BarcoData 701, I had some
minor problems with light areas causing light streaks to the right. Roland came
up earlier in the year to see if he could fix the problem, but had to take the
projector down to Barco. Upon return, the issue was not fixed and it transpires
that some of the electronics in the input stage would need to be upgraded. This
was scheduled to happen a couple of weeks before I wanted my projector
installed in the cinema room. However, while my 701 was being worked on down at
Barco in Reading, something quite wonderful happened. The MD of Barco UK was
changing his projector and his 2000 hour BarcoData 708 with line doubler and
Iris unit was to be sold off. Roland asked me if I was interested and the
machine was offered at such a bargain price that I couldn't say no. And so it
was that near the end of July, I wrote a cheque for a new projector. Delivery
is scheduled for Saturday 12th August, 2000.
I had always planned to
have bright walls, hidden with dark curtains. We have an abundance of movie
posters, which we intend to frame and mount on the bright walls. At show time,
we would draw the dark curtains which would both darken the room and help
deaden the sound. With regard to the colour scheme of the room, I had initially
considered dark maroon carpets and matching ceiling. However, Vicki's sister
had thrown our her nearly new carpet which we rescued after only a couple of
days outside. It had been rained on. If it transpires that it's no good, then I
won't mind buying a carpet. But for the sake of £100, it's definitely
worth a look. The carpet is blue, however, so I decided on a dark blue/purplish
colour scheme.
| 2nd August 2000, I
gave the ceiling its first coat. |
|
| Matt dark purplish
blue is not that dark when well lit, but looks very dark when dimly lit.
Ideal. |
| 5th August, Dad
powers the room up. |
|
| The power sockets,
light fittings and light switch were all installed and wired up by Dad. The
light switch was £25 from Argos. Touch once for on, touch once for off,
and touch and hold to gently dim or raise the lighting. It's remote controlled
and programmed into my Philips Pronto. |
| Lights! |
|
| This is one of the two
light fittings - £30 each from Argos. They take the small screw-in type
bulbs. A total of 8 x 25 watt bulbs. I might replace a couple with 40 watt
bulbs to bring the overall light level up a tad. I'd put more in but the switch
is limited to 250 watts. |
| The projector's a
commin'! |
|
Roland from Barco is
coming to install my new projector tomorrow (a day early), so I've had to paint
the areas which will become inaccessible when the projector and screen are up.
It's a bit worrying to see some mould growing above the skirtingboards. I
rang Harry (the builder who did the bulk of the work) who told me that it's
wrong to have the skirtingboard come all the way down to the floor. There
should be a 1.5 cm gap at the bottom to allow circulation of air round the back
of the plasterboard. The wheels are in motion to rectify the situation. |
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