The Friday after Thanksgiving, Mark and his dad went over to John's house to make our trim.  John is the guy that made all of Mark's parent's kitchen cabinets.  It took them around 6 hours to do all the trim for our basement and some for Phil.

John was able to get us ash for the trim.  The grain in it is beautiful.

We then had to stain and poly all of the trim.  We are doing crown molding, as well as casing (for the doors) and trim.

We started putting up the crown molding in the hallway first.  Then we decided that we should probably do the trim and casing so that we know it will be done before the carpet is installed on the 11th. 

I'm sure that we will get all of it installed before the 11th but we wanted to make sure.  After that we will be done!!

Here is the slideshow for the trim.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We went up to Sharon's house this year to celebrate.  The food was delicious!

After eating, some of us watched the Packers game and the others went downstairs to play ping pong.  After playing ping pong some of them played Scrabble.

We then enjoyed dessert, which was pumpkin pie (of course) made by Sharon and pecan pie and pumpkin praline pie made by Mark.

Today, Mark and Phil made some trim for our basement and for Phil and Sue's house.  Jeff and I went shopping in Rockford.  I got a great start on our Christmas shopping!

Here is the slideshow for all of the pictures.

We finished building the riser last night.  It was actually more difficult than we thought it would be. 

In order to get both rows of the seating to recline we made the riser about 7 feet.  When you enter the room there will be a step up and then a step down to get to the first row of seating. 

Mark did a fantastic job of calculating the amount of supplies.  We only had a small amount of wood leftover. 

We started out by building the frame except for the front board.  We then pushed the whole thing back against the wall.  After that we put on the front board.  The reason we did it this way was so that we could angle the outside boards away from the side walls to refrain from putting scratches in the wall.

Mark then drilled all of the holes in the front and installed the insulation.  The reason we put insulation in the floor of the riser was so that some of the bass would be absorbed.  That is also the reason we put the holes in the front.  The sound will be able to go through the carpet but will then be absorbed in the insulation so that it won't be heard throughout the rest of the house. 

The final step was to put the plywood on.  This actually became quite the task.  We had to notch out where it was around the door as well as in one of the corners.  We used the router to make the edges curved since we weren't able to do a full bullnose (I think that is what Mark called it). 

As of right now there is no creaking and I don't think there will be because we made sure that the boards fit perfectly without being too close.  We figured out that the creaking comes from the boards rubbing against each other and not from them coming loose from the framing.

To see the riser pictures CLICK HERE.

Well, our theatre seating was delivered on Saturday.  It was supposed to be delivered between 3 and 6 so we thought we had plenty of time to go to Menards to get the materials for the riser.

Before going Mark helped his dad fix the faucet in the basement.  Then we went to Menards and while there the delivery guy called and said he would be at our house a little before three.  Luckily I had also driven to Menards so I came home to wait.

Mark called me at 2:45 to say that they were on their way.  As I got off of the phone with Mark I heard the truck outside.  We were really surprised that they were early.

It took them 20 minutes or less to get all six seats down to the basement.  I had them leave the chairs apart so it will be easier for us to get them into the theatre. 

The reason we had them deliver the furniture before the theatre was done is so that we could take exact measurements for the size that we need for the riser.  We decided to make a 7 foot riser so that both rows can recline!!  That will be the next post though. :)

We currently have a room downstairs with two reclining theatre seats, 4 seats, 4 backs, and a sectional.  That is just the seating.  haha We have been so busy with the theatre that we haven't even watched tv while sitting in our new chairs!

Look what comes on Saturday!  Yep, we found our theatre seating.

Originally we were going to go with a chocolate color but this specific set only came in taupe (what you see here and what we are getting) and black.  I think that it will look great to have a lighter color in with all the dark colors.

We bought it from American and because of their "family special" we were able to get 25% off of the original price.  We were able to get six seats for cheaper than a lot of them came for three.

We decided that we were going to have the seats delivered before we built the riser so that way we can measure everything exactly.  Our current room in the basement is about the same size as the new theatre so we are going to set them up exactly how they will go.  This way it will be easier to know the measurements for the riser. 

Once we get the riser built we will have the carpet installed.  We have looked at carpet but haven't found anything we are 100% set on.  I think we are pretty set on berber though.  Probably one with a slight pattern.  It's going to cost more than I originally thought but it will be worth it.  With the riser that we are going to be putting in, it would be too hard to do it ourselves.

Well, we started painting last night.  We finished the whole first coat and will do the second coat this weekend.  We really like the colors that we chose. 

It's always hard to choose paint colors but I think we got the perfect colors.  The ceiling is called sarsaparilla but I like to refer to it as chocolate and the wall color is burgundy wine. 

The photo to the right is the closest to the actual colors.  I know that it's still going to look slightly different to everyone because of different monitors but you get the idea.  Some of the other pictures make the walls look really red, but they are more of a maroon.  Actually burgundy wine is the perfect name; it really tells you what the color is. 

Click this sentence for the slideshow.

We started priming the basement last night.  We thought two gallons of primer would be enough but it wasn't so we have to get more tonight in order to finish.  We will also get paint at the same time.

Since we have chosen dark colors we had them tint the primer as dark as they can.  It was nice having it tinted because we could easily tell where we had painted already. 

Phil and I trimmed and Mark used the roller.  It wasn't the easiest task painting behind the soffitt but we managed.  

It's exciting to see it all come together.  Especially since we have done all of it ourselves, with the help of Phil, of course.   

Here is the slideshow.

 

We have officially finished drywalling the theatre! Tonight we will start priming the wall and hopefully tomorrow night we will begin painting.  After that we have to decide on theatre seating so we can decide if we are going to do a riser. 

I can't believe it's almost done.  Our next project will be the current room in the basement turning into our office.

There are several reason why I will not switch to a Mac, and I thought I would outline them right here for you.  I am not a PC loyalist, but there are endless things that erk me the wrong way.

Corporate companies do not buy Macs

I have been in the corporate world for about 10 years now.  How many Macs have I seen: 3.  How many IT people know anything about Macs: not many.  Where do Mac requests go: they are pawned off onto others.

Macs are shiny turds

Sure Macs have a decent operating system, but there are many things going against them (to be mentioned soon).  You can't take a pile of crap, make it pretty, and expect it to be wonderful.  It's still just a steaming pile of pretty crap with users that advocate their butts off (more on the users to come).

The Mac advocates are their converts' tech support

"Macs are great.  You should buy one.  You aren't cool unless you buy one.  Alright I bought one, now what?   Everyone around me knows PC.  How about I ask the person that converted me."

I think I will just stick with pushing PC.  I have enough problems to want to become someone's tech support.  Everyone uses a PC.  Good luck finding help from the people around you.

Mac users are awful

My brother once said, "It's not Macs that I hate, it's Mac users."  Couldn't be more true.  Mac users are like a cult.  It's like the Mormons knocking on your door and trying to get you to convert.  It's relentless.  It's an elite club.  If you don't have a Mac, you are inferior.  It sounds a lot like a religion, doesn't it?

Mac users are defensive.  PC users have at least one thing that Mac users don't.  It's the ability to keep their mouth shut about how fantastically wonderful their computer is.

How about an arm with a side order of leg?

Macs cost a ton.  Steve Jobs said in a previous speaking engagement that Macs are the same price as PCs.  Couldn't be more false.  How about a Mac Pro for close to $4,000.  That's with 1GB of Ram.  Who gets an 8 core machine with 1 GB of RAM.  It's only $300 more for each GB of RAM.  Ridiculous.

Why no viruses?

Because there aren't any Macs. Their market share is pathetic.  The share is growing, which means one thing; they are going to become targets of viruses, and other creepy crawlies that supposedly plague PC users.  The more market penetration, the more likely that someone will become more malicious against your system. 

Is Mac security better?  Probably not, but why would hackers target a small group when they can have their way with an army of PC users.

Would you like black, white, white or white?

You don't like the Mac's style?  Too bad.  There are endless possibilities with PCs.  You can build your own.  You choose your own hardware.  You don't have to wait months and months for a new shiny turd to come out.

Let's face it.  All hardware is made in China anyways.  Stick a fancy cover around it and it becomes a premium.

Games?  What games?

PCs have tons and tons and tons of games.  Macs don't, and the ones they do have suck.

Ridiculous ads

If Mac ads were true, then all a PC could do is Word process and crunch numbers.  Let's face it; PCs can do more.  There is more software, which is everything.  What good is the shiny turd without instructions?

Macs crash too

I have been running Vista since the beginning.  How many times has it crashed: 1.  I walked into the graphic designers cube.  We tried to open an Illustrator document and it crashed.  It proceeded to crash 3 times before I was forced to leave and come back.

More arms, more legs

Want to go from 10.1 to 10.2.  Cha ching.  Want service pack 2.  Here you are for the cost of a library book.  If you argue that those are major upgrades, I completely disagree.  You may get a few new features that are free downloads for PC.

There, I feel better now. 

In conclusion, while Macs are a viable option, please read the post above and made an actual decision based on the facts, not what Jim Jones says to you. (extra points to those that get the Jim Jones reference.)

Edit:  And one more thing.  iTunes is the next "Real Player".  What an awful music interface.