Home Theatre Set-up in Cinema Lounge

A few weeks ago, we tried to add some upgrades to our house, but our BC said that we can't do variations anymore as we are already at construction stage. The biggest disappointment for us was the sound insulation and projector pre-wiring to the cinema lounge as my husband is an avid, avid movie lover. I know how much he would enjoy watching his movies on a big screen and I can just imagine the endless hours he would spend in that room. 

I had a chat with our site supervisor about my disappointment and he confirmed that he can't do anything about these. He suggested that for the sound insulation, we can surround the walls with curtains to help absorb the sound which I think was a very good idea as it will give the room a complete cinema effect. He then told me that I can send someone to install our projector pre-wiring and he will be fine with this.  He said that I need to find someone to do this in 2 to 3 weeks.

Clueless me, I organised for an electrician to do the wiring for me as I thought it's just a matter of having a power outlet to make the projector work. It turned out to be more complicated and the electrician referred us to Big Picture People in Watergardens who sells home theatre stuff.

We ended up getting a home theatre package from Big Picture People. We need to pay 20% of the package price so they can do the wiring which was included in the package and the remaining 80% will be paid when we are ready to have the full installation, to time pressure!   

We paid a deposit for Action Pack 2 which includes the following:

• Viewsonic PRO7827HD Projector
• Big 2.5 metre screen
• Yamaha HTR 5071 Receiver with Music Cast, Dolby Atmos and DTS-X
• Sony Bluray Player
• Yamaha NS-555 5.1 speaker pack
• HD set top box, HDMI cables, and bracket
• Bonus: Atmos Speakers
• Full Installation

The owner, who turned out to be building a house with Porter Davis too, also gave us a $500 discount.

Our theatre room inspiration....

I tried to push our luck farther and messaged our site supervisor to ask if he can get the PD electrician to install our pre-wiring for wall mounted TV and surround sound to the first floor game room instead, but no chance! It was a wasted $920, but we are still happy with the outcome.

Day 45 of 266

Our site supervisor advised last Monday that due to weather and materials, our slab and frame inspection will not push thru today. He couldn't give me a new date yet, so they must still be waiting for materials.

When we went to site today, no one was working, but they have done some work since we last visited on Sunday. They have done the roof frame and some windows and doors had been installed. The house looks bigger now that the roof frame has given it more height. 

Hopefully, it won't be a long wait 'til they finish our frame!

     

The front window

The powder room window, laundry sliding door and galley window 

The living and dining area windows

Day 41 of 266

We are, obviously, over-excited to see our construction that we drove to our place after dinner yesterday. After 5 days of good weather, this is what we saw!

The Main Entrance Hallway

The Cinema Lounge

The Living Area

The Family Room

The Kitchen and Galley...loving those windows and the view! If only we don't have a neighbour on that side...

The Dining Area

Our site supervisor booked our slab and frame inspection for Wednesday as he thinks they will finish on Tuesday. I hope this good weather holds and all goes well for our slab and frame inspection.

No More Variation!

I emailed our BC today to ask if we can still add and upgrade a few things for our house, but I was told that they no longer allow variation once construction has commenced.

These are the items that we tried to include:

• WIR set-up to master bedroom: We were quoted about $4000 for this during colour selection. We thought it would be good to have this all set-up when we moved in. 
• Upgrade LED lights to porch, hallway and powder room to LED light with sensor: Wouldn't it be fancy to have lights that automatically turn-on when you enter a room?
• Exhaust fan to powder room: Just to make sure that the room will always smell clean.
• Projector pre-wiring to theatre lounge: For our movie dates!
• Sound insulation to cinema lounge, powder room, master ensuite, first floor bathroom and WC : To keep the noise down especially in cinema lounge room
• Privacy lock to bedroom 1, 2 and 3 
• Keyed Lock to all openable windows
• Soft door closer to main entry door

These were not included in our priorities during contract stage due to our fear that our loan will be undervalued, but because we ended up overvalued we have spare budget and can afford to add more upgrades. Unfortunately, some of them we need to live without as we can't add them anymore such as sound insulation, projector for cinema lounge and exhaust fan to powder room. Those that we can do after handover will just be done later.

Day 37 of 266

Our frame was scheduled to start last 11 September, but our site supervisor rang to advise that it had been moved towards the end of the week. This was perfectly fine with us as we heard that slab which are water cured for longer period are stronger and more durable. Our site supervisor said that they usually start the frame at least 3 days after slab pour and it was just because of availability of framers that we got moved a bit and just consider it a bonus that we got extra curing time.

We drove by our site last Thursday and it was busy with frame material delivery. When we checked on Sunday, no frame was up yet, but the slab has been marked with room partitions and all our timber are all well wrapped up.   

I was so surprised to see the progress when I visited today and I really couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I was just hoping that they would at least have started and didn't expect the work they have done already in just 1 day.

 

I'm so happy at this stage that our slab has been well rested and cured for 21 days and our timber materials for frame was delivered at the right time and haven't sat in the rain too long. 

Day 23 of 266

I popped in to our construction this morning after a rainy night to see if there are any uneven areas where water would be pooling.

From what I've seen, our slab levelling has been done very well and only the living area has a small amount of water left over from rain. I told our site supervisor about this and he said that it will be inspected and fixed later if there are any issues. Darbecca will also do a proper inspection for us. Hopefully, this would minimise our cost when we do our own flooring after hand-over.

Now, the hole that I mentioned in my previous post is not a damage and is meant for a toilet fixture as confirmed by our base supervisor and site supervisor.

Day 19 of 266

After our base pour, our site has been cleaned and we got a call from our base supervisor to advise that his job is finished. We then received our first invoice from Porter Davis for 20% of the contract price.

We have been hand-over to our site supervisor, Joe, who gave me a call the other day to introduce himself and tell me about our schedule. He said that they will start our frame on 11 September which should give enough time for our concrete to cure. He said normally, they start the frame 4 days after slab pour, but because they're busy at the moment we got 2 weeks of wait after slab pour.

We visited our site today and found the edge of our slab has been wrapped with some yellow protector sheets.

We also found a small hole in the laundry/lounge area and I'm not sure if there should really be a hole there. I messaged our base supervisor, Rob and site supervisor, Joe to check this hole. Hopefully, it's not been vandalised or damaged.

This hole