Friday, May 29, 2009

Home Theater

The more I look into it the more I realize that the theater is going to have to be the point on which the rest of house revolves. It's not that I'm that into movies or music, but to do it right will take planning most of the house around it. And with a home theater my thoughts are do it right or it won't be worth the money you spend. "Do it right or go home," I like to say.

I'm also looking for a theme at the moment. I originally wanted to give it a star trek theme, specifically from "The Next Generation" show's bridge. I saw one done that way yesterday and it really turned me off. It was a beautiful replica, and it was well done, but it seems that the fact someone had already done it was enough for me to decide to pass on it. I would, however like to give it a sci-fi theme, more specifically something from space, but I don't know what yet.

The other thing that turned me off of the star trek bridge idea was that it was a round room. Terrible acoustics aside, the construction would be a bear. So do it right or go home.

I'll post some ideas soon, as I'd like to get this figured out.

-Steven Kipp

Friday, May 1, 2009

Where I'm at in the process

I thought I might post where this blog and this project meet.

Land and Building: Right now I have 10 acres, roughly square, of flat and undeveloped sage brush. I have a rough idea of the design of my house. It's going to be a ranch with a full basement and over sized two car garage attached. In the future (meaning after the house is built) I plan to put up a much larger unattached garage/shop. we have road access on the east and north side of the property.

Utilities: We're going to have city power, but that's it for city or public utilities. Our gas systems will be off of a propane tank, we need to drill a well and put in a septic system. I would like to put in a back-up generator, as the power out here can be spotty at times and with a well no power equals no water also.

Amenities: For heat I want two sources, Radiant heating and a wood-burning stove. We(my wife and I) would like a large master suite. We're going to need a library, a large kitchen and I want to put a movie theater in the basement. Were also going to need to put kid's rooms as we plan on having kids in the near future. I also want to put in some really good insulation to save on heating bills. There are other requirements, but I fear any more and I'm danger of rambling.

I've decided to wait on landscaping until the house is complete, and I may put off most of the basement also. This is to save on the loan amount, and because it won't be absolutely necessary to move in with those things complete.

One major restriction is that construction can be as shsrt as 3 months in the summer due to our climate here. The other restriction is that being 100 miles from darn near anything, almost everything will take extra time, shipping or cash.

That's where I'm at. All progress from here on out will be logged here at a hopefully regular rate.

-Steven Kipp