Moderators Youthman Posted September 2, 2008 Moderators Share Posted September 2, 2008 We have been trying to secure a Construction/Perm loan for 2 months and have been unsuccessful. The down payment is what is killing us ($30k - $60k). Two days ago, my wife and I decided to began looking at homes to buy instead of building a custom home. The third home we found has an almost identical floorplan that we were going to build and it is about 45 days from completion. We made an offer on the house tonight and will hear back from the builder by tomorrow. My wife and four children got together in our living room tonight and each took turns praying...well, everyone except for our 2 year old. [] Maybe the Lord knows something that we do not know (ya think?) and is protecting us from a possible disaster of building a home. Who knows. In our custom home plans, the theater room was going to be 15' x 25'. The home that we have made an offer for has a 13' x 19' 4. Do you think I could get two rows of three seating in that size room? My guess is that I will have to reduce the size of the screen since the front row will be 6' closer than what it was going to be. The good thing is that if you look at the attached layout, I will likely use the linen closet as you enter the room to house the media equipment and add an access panel to the back of it through the adjacent bedroom closet. At this point, we are paying on a 1 acre lot of vacant land and are wanting to purchase the house that we made an offer on. We might just keep the land as a long term investment and one day sell it for a nice profit. We have no idea at this point. We just know that doors kept closing so we believe the Lord is not wanting us to build right now. Whatever happens, we know that the Lord is in control and He knows what is best for our family. Will keep you posted. My dream theater room and our first home might be closer than we realize. Avalon - floorplan.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvcdude Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 I think you can get two rows of seating in there without too much effort. You might consider two reclining sofa's rather than the traditional "theater seating". It would provide the seating you need at a greatly reduced price. We special ordered Lazy Boy reclining furniture in a black and charcoal fabric for less than half the cost of theater seating. I built a riser out of 2x6 lumber and mdf. You can place fiberglass insulation between the 2x6 lumber for more sound deadening if you need and then cover with carpet to match the room. In our case the builder left us the excess carpet from the install of the house. This works well for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2008 Thx DVC. At first I was kinda bummed but reality is that size theater will work and it will be much better than what I have now considering I have never had a dedicated theater room. LOL. We are excited and hope to hear good news from the builder today. We made a low offer and asked for a few things, we'll see how desperate he is to sell the house. We can always counter offer if he doesn't agree to the terms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 You should be fine in that room. That is about the size of our HT and we have two rows there. Rather than HT seats,we have a 8' sofa and a 6' love seat in the room, we like the layout better as it allows us to laydown to watch the movie, something you can't do in a commercial theatre for sure! As to building a home, that is a very stressfull undertaking. We currently enjoy a home that caused the divorce of the couple that built it, so this indeed might be a blessing in disguise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2008 As to building a home, that is a very stressfull undertaking. We currently enjoy a home that caused the divorce of the couple that built it, so this indeed might be a blessing in disguise. No custom home is worth losing your marriage over that's for sure. Thx for the advice on the couch/love seat. Do you have a projection? If so, what size screen did you go with? My original plan was to use a 110" screen in the 15' x 25' HT. I know I will have to scale it down a bit since the room is smaller. I went to projectioncentral.com and it has a cool calculator that I will need to use once we begin purchasing the remaining equipment needed to finish the HT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 In our custom home plans, the theater room was going to be 15' x 25'. The home that we have made an offer for has a 13' x 19' 4. Do you think I could get two rows of three seating in that size room? My guess is that I will have to reduce the size of the screen since the front row will be 6' closer than what it was going to be. The good thing is that if you look at the attached layout, I will likely use the linen closet as you enter the room to house the media equipment and add an access panel to the back of it through the adjacent bedroom closet. The answer is yes! You can get two rows of three in there. Our room is 10.5' W x 19' D and we have a row of 3 La-Z-Boy Matinee seats in there 10 feet back from our 78" screen with room to walk on one side. If we did not have the bar right behind them, we could fit in a second row of 3. In your case, you could have 2 rows of 3 with room to walk on both sides or 2 rows of 4 with room to walk on one side. The La-Z-Boy site provides excellent information about their seating and their product PDFs contain room footprint requirements. Their site also has an on-line Room Planner to draw your room and place their furniture within. Our projector is a Sharp and the screen is a Stewart Greyhawk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 As to building a home, that is a very stressfull undertaking. We currently enjoy a home that caused the divorce of the couple that built it, so this indeed might be a blessing in disguise. No custom home is worth losing your marriage over that's for sure. Thx for the advice on the couch/love seat. Do you have a projection? If so, what size screen did you go with? My original plan was to use a 110" screen in the 15' x 25' HT. I know I will have to scale it down a bit since the room is smaller. I went to projectioncentral.com and it has a cool calculator that I will need to use once we begin purchasing the remaining equipment needed to finish the HT. We do indeed have a PJ. We have a DaLite 119" HD format screen. There are so many ways to go with a screen and room setup it will make your head spin. There is constant height, constant width, HD format, wide format, special lenses, the list is endless. To keep it simple for us, we use a constant width setup on our screen, this means that with wide format movies, there is blank screen at the top and bottom of the movie but that is ok for us as we also use the room on ocassion for things like Superbowl parties where the broadcast image fills the screen completley. Things have changed a LOT since these photos were taken but this is the room and the couches though they are now setup different. The outdated decor is all gone and a proper screen not fills the space on the wall. The speakers are more or less in the same place though and you can get some sort of an idea of what the HT will look like in your room. When the pics were taken, I was using a PC as the core of my setup but I have now gone more conventional with a receiver and outboard amps. Pictures Some people prefer to use a constant height setup which means that you adjust the image to max height and use curtains to adjust the borders on a wide screen. This is what happens in a comercial theater. Our setup is with the couch in front with a coffee table to place snacks/drinks on and the love seat in the rear with tables on each side. This was in part due to the fact that we already had the couch and love seat in the room when we turned it into a theater but we have come to really like the setup. Perhaps one day we will change to a more dedicated type room but this way, it still can be used for Christmas with the tree etc and we still can have 14 people in the room with folding chairs for things like a Superbowl party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2008 Thanks for the comments guys. There is a lot yet to decide, (size of screen, projector, seating, and purchase the RC-64 and RB-61's, multichannel amp, new receiver, and BluRay player). I'm totally stoked. Just waiting to hear back from the builder. Realtor emailed me about 10:30am saying they were meeting and should have an answer from the builder by noon today. It's now 12:18pm. I'm on pins and needles! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Brother, let me tell you from experience, building a home(as the GC) is the most stressfull thing I haver ever gone through. Pray for wisdom and patience alot. We started off as the GC's and after it took 7 weeks to frame the house we decided to hire a close friend(builder) to complete the project. You could say he helped put our marriage and house back on track. On another note, great idea for the closet to be the HT hub. If I ever do it again, I would build a false wall and closet behind the screen/TV to house the electronics. I will pray for you to make the right decision. Good luck. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 I don't know your budget, but here is link for seating: http://www.everyrecliner.com/Coaster-7560-CST1039.html Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2008 I don't know your budget, but here is link for seating: Budget? What's that? Last I heard, the house is the budget. LOL. Actually, the HT will be the last thing that gets funded. There are lots of other things that will take priority (bunk beds for the kids, paint, crown molding, new living room furniture, office furniture, dining room). "Honey did I leave anything out?" I'm sure I will be buying stuff piece by piece, looking for good deals as money becomes available. More than likely, once we close, my website/graphic design side job will help fund the HT. Will probably use the existing couch and loveseat in the HT at first but greatly appreciate the link. Beautiful chairs. Do you have those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2008 Oh yeah. Anyone interested in buying a 1 acre of vacant land in sunny Florida? Guess we won't be needing it anymore. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Not yet, waiting for the wife to give the go. Hurricane shudders and a generator might be money better spent the way this season is going. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2008 No doubt. They are rolling in one behind the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 I suggest you read this and other articles on their website: http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection_screen_size.htm And I agree that with the limited depth you have, your best compromise may be either two couches or recliners in front and a couch in back. When you figure in the footprint of a recliner in the reclined position and then a couch behind and then space to walk, that 19' of depth gets eaten up real quick. If it were me, I'd park outside and commandeer that garage for the HT!! LOL........ And as far as building a custom or semi-custom home.....I have to politely disagree. Like all things in life, the bad experiences get more "press" than the good. I've had 4 homes built in my life. The first two were spec homes, the 3rd was a modified spec and the last was a semi-custom. Was there stress involved? Yes. But 90% of the time it was brought on by my an*l retentive & perfectionist nature. Would I build another house? In a heart beat. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 grills off is so sexy!, but we need pasties for the tweeters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 4, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 4, 2008 Thx for the suggested reading Tom. I actually read that article just a few days ago. Very good read and great advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnerTuber Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 Youthman - did you get the house? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambitx Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 i live in Brandon and would be interested in where the land is. My father in law is a custom home builder so Im sure we could take it off your hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted September 5, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted September 5, 2008 We met yesterday afternoon to sign the contract, pick out lighting fixtures and flooring. I faxed the documents needed for the loan and are awaiting for the approval. We were preapproved so hopefully, there will be no problems with it. We are scheduled to close on the house Sept 30. Yesterday was my 33rd birthday. What a present huh? LOL. Since the home is almost finished, they had already picked most of the options but we were able to choose lighting fixtures and get laminate hardwood flooring in the living room, dining room and front office. We found out yesterday that there is a security system, whole house is wired for wireless internet, they will be putting in granite countertops and they are adding stonework to the outside of the home. None of this did we know when we made an offer so those are total bonuses! We are so excited at the possibility of owning our own home. I posted about it on my blog at blog.studentsofshiloh.com if you are interested. It's a pretty awesome story. And to think all of this has taken place in about 48 hours is absolutely amazing! Will keep everyone posted. I do have a question for anyone with electrical knowledge. If I can convince my wife to let me use the closet just outside of the media room for my audio/video rack, I would like to create an access panel behind it so I can easily get to the wires. How difficult is it to run electrical to that closet from an existing outlet? Is that more trouble than what it is worth or should I just keep it in the theater room? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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