February 2006 Archives

This room will primarily be used for storage, with lots of shelving for boxes. It will also provide access to the electrical panel.

Another key use of this room will be as the equipment room for the home theater. The equipment will either be on the wall adjacent to the bathroom, or on the wall adjacent to the theater. This is so that adjustments can be made with the screen visible. The equipment will be put in this room so that the noise from fans is not audible in the theater. Equipment will be run via an IR repeater system or RF controller.

Due to the possibility of excess heat from the equipment, I plan to put a vent in this room that vents into the utility room. This will probably have a temperature-controlled fan to ensure that heat is vented from the room. An alternative would be to tie in to the bathroom vent, if permitted by code.

The ceiling will probably be suspended so that access to the joists is available. The walls will probably be finished, for soundproofing and aesthetics, since guests may look in this room to see the equipment.

This will be a bathroom serving both the guest room and home theater users. I'm envisioning just a stand-up shower stall, for space reasons and to allow access to the linen closet.

The bathroom is required by code to have a fan venting to the outside.

I am a little concerned about the difficulty plumbing the shower given that there is limited access from the utility room side due to the location of the water softener and water heater. Need to validate that the plumbing can go in without issues.

This room will determine the position of the wall between the theater and the utility/bathroom/storage rooms. I'd like to minimize the depth so that the theater is as wide as possible. Based on current layout, the shower, toilet stack, and single vanity (plud wall depth) will determine the wall position.

The utility room will house the furnace, water heater, water softener, sump hole, and other mechanicals. One key concern is access to the water softener and main water lines, including the outside faucet cutoffs. While the water meter is now wirelessly checked by the city, the analog meter is behind the water softener, and the wall between it and the bathroom will severely limit access. This is a concern from a code/inspection standpoint, as they may not approve the design with such an access issue.

Given this, and the fact that my water heater has rust issues, I am seriously considering having the water heater replaced and moved all the way into the corner. This isn't a huge change, but would enable full access to the water softener and valves. I also plan to move the humidifier up one panel on the trunk line to improve access.

There are 3 mechanical improvements I'd like to budget for in this room. First of all, possibly an air exchanger so that we get more fresh air in the house (probably in the future). Second, a whole house air cleaner (should be room in the furnace stack. Finally, putting a sump pump in the sump pit makes a lot of sense if the basement is finished.

The wall facing the theater will be finished for soundproofing reasons. The other walls, I'm on the fence as to whether to finish them or leave them unfinished.

The main room will primarily be used as a home theater. There will be a permanent screen on the right hand wall, with a projector hung from the ceiling. The room design will be multipurpose, as the treadmill will be in the back of the room, and I'd like to keep the room conducive to other uses, while still presenting a good movie experience. This essentially means that I don't plan to build a riser into the floor for a back row (may be rethinking this), and I don't plan on building a proscenium stage. The room will be wired for 7.1 surround sound, with the mains bracketing the projector screen with the center channel above. The sub location is yet to be determined.

I am debating the level of soundproofing to invest in. I'd like to minimize the amount of sound escaping from the theater, but with 4 doors in this room, I'm not sure to what extent this will defeat any soundproofing efforts. Assuming it makes sense, I plan to make the bottom and left walls staggered stud, with a 2x6 bottom plate, and double drywall with green glue in between. The ceiling will be drywall as well, probably using RSIC clips to isolate from the floor above, with either sealed can lights or track lighting to preserve the room integrity. On the walls, I will consider using columns to hold wiring, outlets and sconces and preserve the wall integrity, but I'm not a big fan of columns and am doubtful they will mesh well with the bottom wall with 3 doors.

These are some of the issues to consider with respect to the office layout:

The primary use of the room will be as a home office. We'd like to move the main computer down here to reduce clutter upstairs. This means the office needs to have a large desk area for work, ample filing cabinets, etc. I'd also like to get as many books on shelves as possible.

The room will also serve as a guest room. Therefore, it needs to support at least a full-sized bed. We are considering a Murphy Bed as a possibility.

Since the room will be both a bedroom and an office, it will be important to ensure that it is conducive to avoiding clutter.

The bottom portion of the room will have a 5' closet, and a door accessing storage under the stairway.

I envision a suspended ceiling in this room so that the joist area is accessible for future improvements. I expect to use can lighting in this room.

This is the initial design draft. (Click it for a larger view) It includes the following rooms:

- Office/spare bedroom on the left. Approximately 15' x 12', plus a closet and access to storage under the stairs.
- Home theater room. Approximately 25' x 15'. Decor will be multipurpose rather than theater decor.
- Utility room. Approximately 8' by 8'. Houses mechanicals.
- Bathroom. Approximately 6' by 8'. Will have shower stall, toilet, sink, and access to small linen closet at bottom right.
- Storage room. Approximately 17' x 6'. Will also contain home theater equipment.

I'm not thrilled with the landing at the foot of the stairs, but the alternative is an odd shaped theater, or limiting the office to 8' wide. Lisa would like double doors into the theater, but I am wary due to sound proofing issues and the positioning of the rear surround speakers.

View image

Lisa has given me a lot of flexibility with the basement design. We've agreed on the following design objectives:

The final design should have the following rooms:
- An office that can double as a bedroom. This means it needs to be located by the egress window.
- A multipurpose room primarily designed as a home theater.
- A bathroom that includes at least a shower stall.
- A utility room for the mechanicals.
- Storage under the stairs
- A storage room. This will double as an equipment room for the theater.

This is a drawing of the current layout of the basement. (Click it for a large view). It remains in the same state as left by the builders (excluding all of our stuff being stored down there...) The external walls are framed with 2x4s, with fiberglas insulation and vapor barrier already in place.

This layout has some distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
- Open layout allows flexibility with room layout.
- HVAC trunk inside ceiling joists should allow entire basement to be finished with no soffit below ceiling height.
- Lots of space to work with.

Disadvantages:
- Location of stairway opening is very limiting. Either have an "L" with doors at bottom of stairs, stairs open straight into room, or room with egress window is odd shape or long and thin. No great answers for this one.
- Location of shower drain access is problematic. Forces location of bathroom, and causes crowding of utilities. May have to move the water heater.
- Limited natural light. This is actually an advantage in my case since I'm going with front projection and need blackout capability.
- Low ceilings - the bottom of the joist is only 8'2" above the slab, so ceiling height is an issue.

The house was built in 1997, and I'm in much better shape than with most older houses.