RKA
06-21-2007, 12:00 PM
Just got back from Cincinnati...visiting my uncle and family, and made a quick detour for Indy to see the F1 race. Anyway, my uncle bought a new house. Now before I get into the new house, let me preface this by saying this is a man that has lived modestly his entire life. The last house was a 4 bedroom colonial, with a 32" tube television that has served him well for 10 years or more.
Moving along...he decides to retire and buy a new house. He stumbles across a community being developed by half a dozen custom builders, and specifically stumbles across a house that's already been spec'd out and built, but the deal fell through with the original buyers. In his case this turns out to be a good thing...because someone else made the decisions about what upgrades to put in the house, and looking around, it was VERY tastefully and thoughtfully done!
So taking the grand tour I'm extremely impressed. The builder wired the family room, master bedroom, and one of the bedrooms in the basement for flat panels. This left my uncle with little choice but to go out and buy a bevy of flat panels. Family room is prewired for surround sound with in wall speakers all around (flat panel goes over the fireplace). Builder helped him choose some appropriately modest equipment to fulfill those needs, but that's not where the movie viewing happens.
Taking a walk down to the basement (completely finished) reveals about 1500 sq ft of living area, including a full bar (with plumbing and refrigerator, stone base with granite top and counter), 2 bedrooms, 1 full bath, a full kitchen, and a pair of doors that open into the home theater!
This is something he would NEVER have done, but it came with the house, and he *loves* it! Builder laid down movie theater type carpeting, two levels of theater seating, each row accomodating 4 people with full leather recliners. A modest NEC projector lights up a 110" screen w/black felt border, wall sconces, and lighting in the tray ceiling is all remote controlled. In wall speakers all around. Equipment rack is built into the wall on the side of the room (wish they would have put it on another wall with rear access from an adjacent room, but oh well, his equipment is modest). The walls were tastfully painted taupe brown with white molding throughout. And a logitech 890 was furnished to control everything. The equipment list was very modest...a Pioneer receiver, some generic DVD player, cable box, Monster power center and a sub in the corner (didn't catch the brand) along with the aforementioned NEC projector hanging from the ceiling.
The sound was merely okay, but it would have cost another $10K in equipment to really bring up the level of the HT experience. I just spent a few minutes tweaking the brightness to make it a little more pleasing. I told my uncle the builder did well...choosing to spend money on the ambience in the room, but not spending excessively on the equipment which would be wasted on 9 out of 10 people anyway (including my uncle).
Every year my uncle goes to a friend's house for the superbowl party, so I asked him...where's the party next year. He had a *huge* grin on his face and said "RIGHT HERE!!". It was nice to see him so happy with his new purchase!
Moving along...he decides to retire and buy a new house. He stumbles across a community being developed by half a dozen custom builders, and specifically stumbles across a house that's already been spec'd out and built, but the deal fell through with the original buyers. In his case this turns out to be a good thing...because someone else made the decisions about what upgrades to put in the house, and looking around, it was VERY tastefully and thoughtfully done!
So taking the grand tour I'm extremely impressed. The builder wired the family room, master bedroom, and one of the bedrooms in the basement for flat panels. This left my uncle with little choice but to go out and buy a bevy of flat panels. Family room is prewired for surround sound with in wall speakers all around (flat panel goes over the fireplace). Builder helped him choose some appropriately modest equipment to fulfill those needs, but that's not where the movie viewing happens.
Taking a walk down to the basement (completely finished) reveals about 1500 sq ft of living area, including a full bar (with plumbing and refrigerator, stone base with granite top and counter), 2 bedrooms, 1 full bath, a full kitchen, and a pair of doors that open into the home theater!
This is something he would NEVER have done, but it came with the house, and he *loves* it! Builder laid down movie theater type carpeting, two levels of theater seating, each row accomodating 4 people with full leather recliners. A modest NEC projector lights up a 110" screen w/black felt border, wall sconces, and lighting in the tray ceiling is all remote controlled. In wall speakers all around. Equipment rack is built into the wall on the side of the room (wish they would have put it on another wall with rear access from an adjacent room, but oh well, his equipment is modest). The walls were tastfully painted taupe brown with white molding throughout. And a logitech 890 was furnished to control everything. The equipment list was very modest...a Pioneer receiver, some generic DVD player, cable box, Monster power center and a sub in the corner (didn't catch the brand) along with the aforementioned NEC projector hanging from the ceiling.
The sound was merely okay, but it would have cost another $10K in equipment to really bring up the level of the HT experience. I just spent a few minutes tweaking the brightness to make it a little more pleasing. I told my uncle the builder did well...choosing to spend money on the ambience in the room, but not spending excessively on the equipment which would be wasted on 9 out of 10 people anyway (including my uncle).
Every year my uncle goes to a friend's house for the superbowl party, so I asked him...where's the party next year. He had a *huge* grin on his face and said "RIGHT HERE!!". It was nice to see him so happy with his new purchase!