We're in!

As I'm sure you all know, moving is no easy task! Our move was especially complicated as our timber floors weren't ready for shoes (trying to explain to removalists that they can’t walk beyond the protective matting was impossible! I hope the scuff marks come out…), and we have no storage other than the vanities and kitchen. Our solution…move everything in to the garage! We are far from settled, however despite the chaos, we do have some pretty photos to show:

Our kitchen! - We hope to purchase some bar stools this weekend

The kitchen - waiting on blinds to be installed

Kitchen - We will eventually buy a nice, big stainless steel fridge (that's an expense for after the wedding!)

The media room - still needs blinds and a rug (and the projector!). This is also a sneak peak of our carpet. I will post more photos of it later.

Our dining room table and chairs (recently purchased from Ikea) - still waiting on feature cabinetry in-between the pylons, as well as blinds and a bar, which we will be (eventually) having installed in the niche behind the table. The table is extendable, though we only have six chairs at the moment.

When we have a bit more time (and hopefully some proper internet) I will post more photos.

The house still has some issues, but Fairmont are working through fixing them and overall we’re loving the house and location.

Still to go:

-       Our blinds have been ordered and will go up in a few weeks.

-       Mick’s father will be installing our laundry cabinetry (if it arrives in time) next week and helping Mick get started on the hard landscaping

-       We had the house measured for security screens and fly screens today and are awaiting the quote

-       Mick’s friend is finishing off the data-cabling and is bringing another friend (they are all data electricians) to install our TV antenna and hook up our projector this Sunday

- Unpacking, unpacking and more unpacking! (oh, and have I mentioned the washing that comes with unpacking..? *sigh*) 

Shiny Things for the Media Room

Just to make up for the month without an update, we've decided to post three in two days (it must be some kind of record or something!). But it's tough to churn things out on your own. So back by popular demand (see his other post here), is my other half with a much-anticipated Media Room Update! Take it away Mick...

So we drove past Harvey Norman last night and they had a 3 HOURS OF POWER!!! sale going on. I've had a shopping list of bits and pieces I wanted in the Media Room for quite a while now, and I wanted to double check the speakers they had on sale. Well, everything was on sale even if it wasn't supposed to be!

The sale was only for stocked items but I think we made it worth their while to give us a good price on almost everything we wanted - in stock or to be ordered in. We made a spur of the moment decision to go up to a bigger amp and to go down to a smaller projector, but we're pretty sure that we've ended up with good quality items which will make the Media Room work really well.

On To The Stuff!!!!

We initially wanted the Epson EH-TW9100W projector, which was more expensive than the 8100, has THX certification and wireless HDMI. Since we like a lower price, don't care about THX certification (all other specs are the same) and have HDMI cables ready to go we were happy to drop down to the 8100.

Epson EH-TW8100

Our room is 3.5m wide and this screen will take 2.7m of it. We don't know much more about it, but it seemed pretty good for the demo and it is motorised, which can only be a good thing.

Tauris Screen 120" Motorised

We really wanted the Yamaha RX-V773 amplifier but it was a run-out model and we missed out on their last one. It has been replaced by the RX-V775, which only has a small difference anyway. The Harvey Norman demo system uses the RX-V2073 to drive the speakers we also bought, and has a LOT more inputs and settings than the 773/775. They gave us around 40% off RRP so we figured more power was always better :-)

Yamaha RX-V2073

Not sure what we're going to plug into this many inputs, but they sure look impressive! (Edit by Ash: I call it the "Boss Amp!")

The amp can drive a full 9.2 system but with our room design we really only need 5.1. If we want to go crazy later, the wall cabling is waiting for 7.1 but we're not sure that'll be necessary. In any case, we're sure we can drown out the neighbour's drumming (Edit by Ash: Oh yes, you read correctly) with this system so it should be fine.

Klipsch F-30 Home Theater System

Data Cabling

My beloved has finally had time to write a post on our data-cabling. Yippee! I won't pretend to understand it all, thus my only contributions are the pretty pictures and this intro. If anyone reading this is tech-savvy and/or has built a media room/planned cabling for their house (or can poke someone who is to read this), please let us know your thoughts. I know Mick has posed some questions at the end.

So without further ado, here it is:

"We have run a lot of data cables through the house in the hope that we’ll never need to add any more, as with a 2 storey home it is almost impossible to fix cables or add new ones. All cabling will terminate under the stairs except for the HDMI extenders and the speaker cables – these originate in the media room.

We are installing a combination of Cat6 data cabling, RG6 for Foxtel and Free To Air (FTA), speaker cables and HDMI extenders. The HDMI extenders use a wall plate at each end and are joined by 2 x Cat6 cables to provide 4K HDMI and also provide infrared pass-through, so remotes work through the points. They are also powered, so I’m hoping they keep the signal alive as advertised…

Many thanks to my friend Karl who has done the bulk of the work and turned my ideas into actual cables running through the walls.

What Goes Where?

Under The Stairs

Almost everything starts here…

We have a 9RU rack to mount on the wall, and our measurements place it so the bottom of the rack is the height of the top of the door to get under there. Now that the stairs are in I’m scared that it won’t fit, so that should be a fun thing to check…

The NBN pre-cabling goes here so we have a spare power point, and a conduit with a pull cable for when NBN rolls around

The first phone point in the house is in here

All the data points terminate in the rack, and at some point I hope to win an auction for a 24 or 48 port rack mount 1Gb switch

All the FTA and Foxtel cabling terminates here, and we’ve run 3 x RG6 into the ceiling cavity which can reach wherever the antenna / satellite dish goes

Garage

FTA, which should be fine for OneHD (motorsport)

2 x Cat6 data ports

HDMI extender to mirror what’s on in the media room

 Living Room

Foxtel (2 x RG6, 1 x Cat6 patched to phone line)

FTA

2 x Cat6 data ports

Kitchen

2 x Cat6 data ports

HDMI extender to mirror what’s on in the media room

 Study/Bed5

FTA

2 x Cat6 data ports

Phone point

Media Room

Foxtel (2 x RG6, 1 x Cat6 patched to phone line)

FTA

4 x Cat6 data ports

Speaker points to suit 7.1 system

HDMI extender to projector point in ceiling

4 Port Active HDMI Splitter

Alfresco

2 x speaker points

Bed1

Foxtel (2 x RG6, 1 x Cat6 patched to phone line)

FTA

4 x Cat6 data ports

Bed 2

FTA

2 x Cat6 data ports

Bed 3

FTA

2 x Cat6 data ports

Bed 4

FTA

2 x Cat6 data ports

 TV Room

Foxtel (2 x RG6, 1 x Cat6 patched to phone line)

FTA

4 x Cat6 data ports

The Wish List

Once we are in and settled I’d like to get some more bits for various rooms, starting with a TV for the wall facing the kitchen. Later on, adding a surround sound system, speakers and projector to the media room, outside speakers to the alfresco area and then TVs for the living room, TV room and garage. This may be a looooong term plan J

Links

HDMI and IR over Cat5/Cat6 Cable Extender Wall Plates

4 Port active HDMI splitter full 3D and 4Kx2K 340MHz

Yamaha RX-V773 Receiver

Epson EH-TW9100W Projector*

* This is a very costly unit so we may have to settle for a lesser one

I have no idea on speakers, projector screen or a definite projector yet so any ideas will be appreciated."


Thanks Mick!