I love it when a plan comes together!

John Pollman

Member
Messages
1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
I started back to work a couple weeks ago. I got back on that job I was just starting when I got hurt. It feels GREAT to do something productive again! It's a family room remodel for my neighbor directly across the street. It's a 12x20 family room that had paneling on the walls and a brick fireplace with a raised hearth on one end. The fireplace is wall to wall but only about 4-1/2' high. They want me to remove all of the paneling and install some recessed lighting in the ceiling as well as ceiling speakers for his new Dolby 7.1 surround system. Then put drywall back up. He also wants the new TV mounted on the wall above the fireplace and then a book case on either side to hold books or the A/V equipment.

All of the wiring is going to be concealed in the walls and ceiling. I wanted it to be as clean of an installation as possible. I came up with some ideas for how to build and install the book cases and he seemed OK with it but his wife was a little hesitant. It looked like it might turn into a nightmare to get it the way she pictured it. As I explained some of the issues and how they had to be dealt with he was pretty much on board and she seemed to come around a bit but I was still a little concerned that she may not like it as I got things framed.

I finished the framing this morning and got most of the wiring finished. I can't install the drywall yet on the end wall because he had to order a little more material and it will take a few days to come in. The good news is that with them in the other room while I worked today, I decided to go ahead and put some of the drywall up on the soffits I designed and installed and see how it looked. Just as I was finishing up, they came over and pulled back the visqueen and took a look...

They love it!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

I'm so happy that it worked out. I was fairly certain that my design was going to work out and they would like it but sometimes there's a lot of changes here and there that eat up time. I've done work for them before and they've always been happy but I was hoping that this wouldn't turn into a nightmare. The carpeting is scheduled for the 22nd and the furniture on the 26th so there's not much time for changes!

As I was cleaning up and getting ready to call it quits for the day, he came in and said that he's extremely happy with the design and is geeked and can't wait for it to be done.

As the title of this thread says,

I love it when a plan comes together! ;)

John
 
Thanks!

One thing that came to mind is planning for future upgrades. I can set up the install to be nice and clean but if he ever needed to make any changes due to equipment failures or upgrades, I wanted to make it so it would be easy to do without any drywall work or things like that.

I installed a couple of 2" PVC tubes in the framing to act as chases for future cables and such. I just used a 90 degree elbow that faces forward and comes through the drywall. Then a long-turn 90 that goes from near the center out toward the book case. The long turn makes a nice gradual turn so it will be easy to fish wiring through it. The back of the book cases will be set back 5" from the face of the wall. I'll just cut a hole in the side of the book case and it will give easy access to the A/V equipment. Right now it's set up with the A/V gear on the right side. But if he ever decides to move it to the left side, it will be no big deal. Just a few longer speaker cables and he'll be all set. I'll post some pics later. I forgot to bring my camera today.

John
 
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