Possibly finishing the basement (dedicated HT?)

[firestorm]

I already have a thread in here about our current setup, but I didn't want to muddle it up.

We've been thinking of ideas to create a play area for our son, and my wife as pretty receptive to the idea of finishing off portions of the basement to accomplish this, as well as additional living space (i.e HT). Before I spend too much time sketching ideas, I thought I'd see what sort of input I might get.

Here's what we have (the 2x4 studded walls are not existing construction):
Updated


First, some things not shown/reflected in the drawing:
- The furnace is next to the chimney (white box next to water heater) and the main service panels face SE, limiting any space in the SE corner to approx 10' wide
- The electrical service panel, natural gas meter, water main and meter, plus a bladder tank all reside in the NE corner. The well has a submersable pump, which I may put back into service for underground sprinkling, but I may ditch the bladder tank.
- Halfway across the E. wall is a waste pipe from the 2nd floor bath. The main cleanout for clearing the sewer line is here.

Opt #1: In the SE corner, I can easily get a 10'x14' HT, but that seems a bit tight to me. NW corner could be a lobby/play area. NE would be a closet+bath, due to the obstructions there.

Opt #2: On the N. half the basement, I could move the water heater, and get nearly 12'10" x 14', with basically building a closet+bath in the NE corner. SE corner could be a den/play area/bedroom. The bad... 3 doorways, beam across the room, limited positioning for rear speakers, and almost square (LFE problem?).

Opt #3: Put the HT virtually in the middle of the East wall. Provided I can get it close enough to the North wall, I could have side entry. It just doesn't look like I could get it close enough, and the other play/living area diminishes.

Any thoughts?

[Pirate]

My spatial relations aren’t that great, but I wish you luck with this.

Are you doing a projection system or a TV?

[EM3]

Why not turn the NW corner into a playroom. Now this would require 3 doors one at the bottom of the stairs and another to gain entry into the laundry room. Now use the beam as a guide for a wall and just wall off the whole area turning it into a 23 by 10 theater. If you wanted you could put a door from the play area into the theater. Bringing a wall near the water heater could give the kids close to a 12 by 11 play area.

Just a thought.

[firestorm]

I'm hoping to go front projection, but it may depend on things such as cost and seating distances.

I'm almost certain that the NW corner will be some kind of play/lobby area. I'm just uncertain about the size. I'd like to maximize both areas, but I'm having trouble deciding just how big the HT *needs* to be. 10' x 23' would be great, but I think unnecessary. Plus, we may sell this house in as little as 3 years, so spaces more typical may be more appealing to potential buyers.

I'm working on a couple sketches that I hope to post later today.

Thanks for the input.

[esc]

'Unnecessary' is a requirement in home theaters. If I didnt go totally decadent and unnecessary when I was buliding mine, it wouldn't be half to room it is. my room is 13X17 and I would gladly trade in a few feet of width if I could get the depth of the room up to 23'.

if you could get the room to the full size, it would be beyond awesome for a projection system, and you could likely have the screen at over 100" without any problems. With my room at 17' long I am going to have to do a bit of screen replacement some year soon as at 92", the screen is just a bit too big for the room, even if you are seated right in the back.

and don't underestimate the coolness of having $2000 of brand new, squishy, plush carpet installed. A great looking wall to wall (grey) carpet can make the room.

By the sound of it, it looks like you are running into some problems with pipes and household items that are already installed in the room. I had a huge closet in the one corner of my room that had to go. could you build a false wall all along the east side of the room, about 6" - 12" out from the wall with access panels for each area you may want to get to in the future? It would make the room just a bit slimmer, but would cover up everything, and you could eventually hang curtains along the whole east wall anyway to totally cover everything up.

and can you do a bit of an edit to your picture and show exactly where everything is in the room that is going to cause construction problems?

[esc]

something else that you could possibly do is make the stuff that is in your way work for you by building enclosures around the pipes and then turning the 'ugly box' that is covering a pipe sticking out of the wall into an end table for one if the seating positions.

If there is something, say, on the floor in the north east corner, build a box or platform around it (that is removable for future access) and then use the platform to put your front right speaker on. Then in the north west corner you would have to bulid a platform that matches to keep things uniform, both visually and for your ears.

build around the crap that is in your way and make it work to your advantage and make it look like it was supposed to be there. your guests never need to know that the end table they are setting their coffee on is hiding a sewer pipe.

[firestorm]

I didn't mean that I don't want it to be 23' long. There will rarely be more than 2-3 people, so I don't want to take up 66% of the usable space with one giant room if I don't need to. This is in no way meant to be my dream HT either.

The only significant obstructions are: the water heater, bladder tank, gas main, and access to the furnace. I'll drawn in a rough location of things, but the furnace is already accounted for in the ~10' max width.

I'll probably just build a faux column around the waste pipe, with an access door, and mirror that column across the room. More than likely, a closet will cover both the bladder tank and gas meter+line.

[firestorm]

I finally came up with some new drawings. This was much harder than I anticipated. The furnace and ductwork have been a major hurdle to design around. I'm still trying to fit the HT, 2 computers, a small bar, a closet, and room for kids to play, so it's a tight fit. I had to scratch the bathroom for now. As it stands, it looks like I'll have to have closet doors in the HT for access to the furnace (not visible in this drawings); a huge bummer.

Bare in mind, the area around the bottom left has a lot of ductwork that will reduce ceiling height about 8", down to about 6'8". This is why I keep trying to fit the bar over there somewhere.

Option 1:
This is the most like I had originally pictured, but unfortunately doesn't leave a lot of room for Ben to play. The support beam would be very close to hanging over the bar, which I believe would help it blend into the room. The passage to the side of the bar would feel more like a doorway.


Option 2:
This looks the most open, but I don't like how the area around the bottom left become essentially dead space. Nothing could go on any of those walls, due to doorways.


Option 3:
This provided about another foot to the play area, but it just doesn't seem to flow right, as it stands right now.


I'm pretty frustrated with it right now. I've been many lunchtimes hacking at it, and can't find a great solution that fits all of our criteria. Stupid house! See anything that sparks suggestions?

Thanks!

[Iguana Man]

I'd love to help, but these drawings confuse me. What happened to the stairs and the washer/dryer?

[firestorm]

Does that help? I didn't notice that the new images I exported were rotated 180 degrees from the original that I posted, so I changed that. I also added the washer and dry back in on these drawings to help with referencing the original.

I also have at least one other version with a wall enclosing the HT area, but I think that may be to confining with this small of a space.