Cinematic

And so it begins... after testing out the concept for a couple of weeks last year, I've started the official conversion of the garage room into a "proper" home cinema.

The room was initially a garage, and the the previous owners converted it into an office, complete with desktops, masses of power sockets, nasty fluorescent lighting, carpet tiles glued to the concrete floor and a weedy electric heater. It wasn't a very "cosy" room to say the least.

The plan was/is as follows: New insulated floor, raised up off the concrete underneath; installation of a decent radiator, fed off the existing pipework in the adjacent utility room; strip lights removed and replaced with adjustable downlighters; speaker cables chased into the walls terminated at a binding plate; relocation of power sockets; laminate floor, painting, new skirting and architrave.

So here's a few photos.

Firstly, the subfloor, complete with nice warm Xtratherm insulation:

And the boarding over the top of it:

And the ceiling spotlights...

Speaker cables fed through wall cavity down to below skirting level:

And the binding plate on the main wall:

And finally the radiator!

At the moment, I'm enduring the tedium of painting everything, and then I'll be wallpapering the main end wall which will be behind the TV and AV equipment. Then it'll be on to laying the flooring before tidying it all up with skirting and architrave. Once all that's done I can reward myself with a brand new 40-inch TV! I'll post again when I'm a bit nearer to completion.

Little and often

When I was writing the 2011 review of the year the other day, it didn't take me very long to read through all my blog posts - there were very few! I can blame that on all sorts of things (mainly moving house I think).

So, for 2012 I've decided to go with a "little and often" approach. There will still be the larger "how to" posts when a subject demands it, but I figure I quite liked having my blog as a more regular snapshot of what I was up to on a day-to-day basis.

So, depending on your point of view, this will either be a good thing or the worst idea in history. Your choice.

Anyway, today is notable for two reasons - firstly, I've just taken delivery of some new cycling clothing, as it is my intention to actually ride that very expensive and lovely road bike that's in the garage. Secondly, I'm sat typing this in a new coffee shop called Victus. I decided to be radical and spurn Starbucks in favour of a new experience. How very 2012.