Drywall - Entertainment Center

The weekend was pretty wet and dreary but the lake level is starting to come up nicely.  Another major rain and likely the lake will fill to it's full height.  As it is now I can sit in the window and see water in the cove my channel leads to. 

The water cometh!

But...., I digress.
Rainy days tends to limit what I can sometimes do. I have an as of yet unresolved (but soon! (and another post)) drainage issue out front so under heavy rain, the carport tends to flood which precludes using any power equipment out there.  I don't want to do any major dust creating activity indoors so I'm having to remain flexible as to what I work on when it's raining.

A week or so ago I started drywalling the 3rd bedroom.  I still have one interior wall to complete and the closet but the one wall needed some modifications that required power equipment so I opted instead, to shift work to the Great Room where it was the lightest and brightest on a gloomy day and had some expansive wall space to make good progress on.

Specifically I worked on the space to the left of the fireplace in living/kitchen area.  Originally it was comprised of two enclosed closets, one on the living room side and one on the bedroom side.  Someone removed the closet wall in the far corner of the living room adding additional floor space.  The last residents utilized the space as their defacto entertainment area.

Then

It made sense to continue with that concept but to expand upon it.  Earlier in the project I eliminated the bedroom closet (it had two) and framed in the old doorway.  Removing the framework allowed the alcove space to expand to it's full 11' potential, a nice addition to the Great Room.

Now

Entertainment Center
Previously I mentioned adding blocking between the wall studs in the alcove sufficient to support a good size wall mounted flat panel TV.  The plan is to install low rise cabinetry below that on the left side to house audio/visual equipment and additional storage with right side open and serving as desk space.  For consistency, the cabinetry will match the kitchen.  Speaking of the which, there is a matching alcove or inset on that side of the room.  More on that in a future post.

Friday...
I started with the outside curved wall.  It was pretty easy as it comprised of four near full length sheets of drywall.

I don't know if I've said it before but even so, I'll just say it again...  One of the major plus's in installing the dry wall myself is that it enables me to make modifications along the way or to finish things that I intentionally left for later.....or forgot about.....

Saturday....
When I started paneling over the back wall of the now expanded entertainment area, as I got to looking at it, I realized I probably did not allow enough outlets to support the potential numbers of items that all require plug space.  I did some figuring and got busy dropping a couple of lines to allow for two additional quad outlets.  I don't expect them to be used in full, but better too many outlets than not enough.

Sound/Surround sound
Since most better flat panel TV's now accommodate stereo and/or Surround Sound connections which then create and huge mess of wiring, I picked up an In-Wall Home Theater connection kit.  The recessed kit eliminates the usual glut of unsightly wiring by putting most of it inside the wall cavity.

Integral to that is wiring for sound.  I plan to install two in-wall speakers in the soffit above the space as well as on the opposite wall above the kitchen counter so I ran wiring for that.  I'm a bit annoyed with myself now because I 'thought' 100' of speaker wire would be sufficient.  I came up shy by a couple of feet.  I should have picked up the 200'+ roll of wire as I also want install (and forgot to account for) two outdoor speakers over the Great Room windows.

Desk Area...
I don't know about you, but I find the spaghetti bowl of wiring that usually accompanies most laptops, desktop PCs, extra monitors, printers, and sound systems, etc., to be a major annoyance, not to mention a visual eyesore.   Even though some desks have holes where cords can be dropped keeping the desk top clear, it only serves to drop them down where your feet are.  I, for one, hate getting my feet tangled up in wires, sometimes inadvertently yanking cords from their given connection.  It's also is a PIA when it comes to cleaning, and did I mention a visual eyesore?!

Hide them....
I have purposely left installing the last lower right side drywall panel in the desk area for later.  I'm going to design an accessible wire chase panel of some type so the wires can be hidden away in such a manner as not to loose leg space, yet still allowing me easy and convenient access the wall cavity when necessary, but when closed is completely invisible.

The heavy duty, multi-angle flat panel TV bracket will mount to the right of of the in-wall connector box.  When the TV is mounted it will cover box.

The Boss inspecting my work....

Ahhhhh.....I get the green lights of approval!

Approved!!

Job well done!

Now, where's lunch??