Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol! A reason to get out of your home theatre?

So the other night we decided to get out for an evening and catch the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise. It's like James Bond crossed with Nathan Drake (for anyone who has played the Uncharted games!)



So we saw it in Hoyts Melb Central, but it wasn't until after that I learned that a few sequences were shot in IMAX format. Did anyone else see The Dark Knight in Imax, where it took up the whole huge screen (it was awesome...). Anyway there's a neat skyscraper sequence in Ghost Protocol that would look similarly great in IMAX, and usually Imax isn't that much more than a regular movie to see, so I'd recommend that if you're interested in a decent action movie!

The highs: Lots of gadgets, actions, explosions. Tom Cruise doing his usual "running very fast away from people with guns/explosions" (as per Minority Report, Knight & Day, all the other M:I movies etc)

The lows: Bizarrely improbable/barely intelligible plot. But then again, this is an action movie people, plot would simply detract from the computer integrated into a contact lens gadget. No big deal, just sit back and enjoy!

Funnily enough the very first M:I movie was on TV last week, and in the opening scene is the team leader, watching a cassette on an aeroplane, then smoking. It came out all the way back in 1996!

Anyway, overall review for MI Ghost Protocol - a good solid 8/10. It's the fourth in the series, so you know what to expect by now!Oh yeah - and Simon Pegg is (as usual) brilliant as the comic relief in this film. If you haven't seen his other work, go watch Shaun of the Dead and Star Trek (reboot) right now!

Anyway how does this relate to everything else? Since we moved into our house, we've only gone out to  see a movie twice (the other one was Contagion which was pretty good too - a two hour movie about taking  sickie from work, but very well directed). I remember seeing that movie, wonder why the seats were small, made of dirty fabric with someone else's food on the food, and they didn't recline? I think I liked it better in my own home theatre! Yeah it's definitely an indulgence, but we both work long hard hours in difficult jobs, and there's nothing better than sitting down to watching 4 episodes of battlestar galatica back-to-back on your own 3m screen! (except if you go to watch a movie in IMAX which I'll grudgingly accept is totally much better!)

T&T

Couple of pics from our old place, and another milestone reached!

No real reason to post anything today, except I noticed that almost simultaneously the blog has hit 150,000 hits and 100 followers! Thanks everyone, for taking an interest in our house building project, and keeping us on our toes with many relevant comments and questions. We hope that you've enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) our blog, and that you might have picked up any hints and tips along the way, to avoid finding out things the hard way!

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of cleaning out of my junk in the last few weeks, selling things on ebay and various specialist forums. It stems from a video article I saw on NHK TV - dansharii.

"断捨離 (danshari) means to throw away unnecessary stuff. It's one of the keywords of the recent years in Japan.

"断" (dan) - to cut out unnecessary stuff. ex) receipts, shopping bags, coupons, etc...
"捨" (sha) - to throw away junk. ex) clothes, books, toys, etc...
"離" (ri) - to step away from your obsessions. ex) souvenirs, anniversary gifts, etc..."

The last thing I got rid of was my projector screen from the old house. Ahhh, memories - this is the first house we lived in, bought in 2005 in leafy Mitcham. Kinda wished we'd kept it instead of sold it, but we wouldn't be able to afford our current dream house if we did. Made many beginner's mistakes when buying this first house, including the following:

• Didn't check the windows opened - the last bloke painted them shut.
  
• Had two aircon split systems - one didn't work.
• Didn't confirm there was a double carport - more like 1.6 carport!
• Somehow managed to ignore or downplay the fact it was on a busy road, next to a petrol station, with a bus stop right out the front and a school 100m away. Let's just say it wasn't exactly the quiet life!

However, still have very fond memories of the place, made good resale and now it's an osteopath practice.

Back to the screen - here's a pic of it in our old house. The layout of the house was OK for living but terrible for home theatre, which is why I have a floorstanding speaker placed conveniently in front of a sliding door. The screen is mounted about 2ft from the wall, so when it drops down, it drops in front of the TV - that way, you don't have to move any of the speakers. This was a Brightvision 120" (305cm) screen, white glass bead with matt frame and with in-line and IR remotes. I got an electrician friend to wire up a ceiling powerpoint so the power cable could be hidden. Not a bad screen for the price (around $200 in 2005), but not suitable for our current house - too small, and 4:3 format instead of 16:9 or Cinemascope which is my ultimate desire. Plus now I've got a full wall neutral grey projection screen (just google it for more information), I don't think I could go back to a full glass-bead white screen!


What I loved about the house is that despite being small, it had very clever storage. On the left of the pic you can see built-in bookshelves, perfect size for books, dvds, cds, toys etc. I imagine you could retrofit these builtins to most houses with plaster stud wall construction - cut out plaster, remove and relocate noggins, install builtins, perhaps repaint walls. Maybe a project to undertake in many years if/when we run out of storage in our new place!

Final picture, screen down at night. BTW, anyone considering a game console, don't buy an xbox360, they're still rubbish, noisy, overheating pieces of cr@p that'll break down 1 minute after the "Warranty" expires. Google red ring of death, then go buy a Sony PS3.


So if you buy an xbox360, more likely than not it'll be part of your next dansharii very soon!

T&T

Concreting day two

So at the end of Wednesday, we had the driveway all formed up, plus the concreting behind the garage plumbed in for two additional drains and formwork.


This morning, starting nice and early as usual, the rear concreting was done in about 90 minutes. It's a colour-through charcoal grey. Along the side near the fence is about a foot of land, will eventually get around to putting in some weed matting and probably white stones there.

Standing in the garage looking out of the house, this is the driveway. It will be an exposed aggregate, 80:20 mix of black and white stones. Because of the slight slope from the street to the garage, there's a stainless steel grate plumed into stormwater drainage. There's also a great big footprint you can see on the left side near the portico, but our concreter says not to worry - they'll be back tomorrow to wash off the top layer of concrete to expose the aggregate and that footprint will come off as well - sure hope so! Anyway, I also got a year older today, certainly doesn't have the excitement it used to when you were 18 to 21, but gots lots of concrete as a birthday present - quite happy with that!


Finally, a big chunk of footpath has been removed as well as the old original crossover. If the weather is kind tomorrow, we'll have the crossover formwork inspected by council and poured as well!


Also got a call from Bay Leather Republic saying our theatre recliner will be delivered on Saturday.... at 6:45am! Can always go back to bed after that.

T&T

Home Theatre room: Fixed!

Spent the weekend repainting the HT room walls. First off, got a couple of sample pots from 3D Inspirations in Nunawading. Here's another great tip - if you want advice on paint, go to a paint shop (NOT Bunnings!!!) The paint shop knew exactly what I was on about with neutral greys, and had the whole Dulux Specifier colour chart there and gave great tips on colours to choose.

Anyway, on the left is Dulux Milton Moon (PG1F2) and on the right is Timeless Grey (PG1F4). A little too light, and a little too dark.

And the one I chose? Endless Dusk (PG1F3), exactly in-between the two colours above. The next pic shows the huge difference between Endless Dusk and Musing. However, decided to keep the ceiling Musing as it actually looks much better with the grey next to it on the walls. Also bought that step-ladder with folding paint shelf on it, very handy to have!

And the final result - much better! So the colours here are Musing on the ceiling, Endless Dusk on all walls, White-on-White trim, and Granite carpet. Just the look I was after - mid Grey with white contrast - classy but still modern.

Now if only I can get in touch with our SS to get the antenna sorted out - 2 weeks in and still no antenna connection = no TV reception!!!

T&T

How I stuffed up my home theatre room, and how to avoid my mistakes

No posts for a week - unbelievable, hey? The problem is, getting the keys to your new house is the end of one stage and the beginning of a whole lot more construction - couldn't sleep this morning so I've got a few minutes to blog. Been incredibly busy moving, cleaning, contacting trades etc.

Anyway, the problem all started last week when our carpet installation was delayed. Thought it might be a good idea to quickly pick a colour to paint my home theatre room - the problem word here is quickly. Don't do anything quickly as you'll regret it - unfortunately this tends to be my main problem, impatience and stubborness. Much love to Tina for putting up with me over the last few days while I've been moaning about "my" room.

Anyway here's a quick guide on how I ruined my home theatre. Starting with last weekend, laying down painter's tape and drop sheets to protect the trims and windows. So far so good. Also removed the batten light covers and taped up the heating duct vents. Sugar soap all walls and ceilings. Allow 2-3 hours for prep work and 24 hours drying.


Next, couldn't help myself - quickly plugged in the projector and did a preview of Top Gear testing a very practical family car - the Audi R8. I'm wondering/hoping this car will depreciate enough to make it a good company car in 3-4 years time - yep, definitely hoping! I had calculated that at a throw distance of 5m the image should project onto this wall with 40cm to spare on either side but my calculations were off a little - this image is definitely too small :) Good excuse for a new HD widescreen DLP projector with scope lens, as this old Benq is 5 years old and definitely not up to current specs. For anyone who wants to become a home theatre tragic (that's all you guys out there) I recommend avsforum.com for too much information.

Sample pot. This is Dulux Musing, meant to be a very subtle light grey. Doesn't look bad in this photo but lighing affects everything. And here comes mistake number one... only bought one sample pot and decided too quickly. Buy maybe 3 sample pots, paint them all on the same wall, and decide over about 3 days in different lighting before buying a big pot of paint.

My intention was to paint the entire HT a neutral grey, and use the wall as a projection screen. In our last house I had a 4:3 Brightview motorised screen, but have always believed a good painted wall in the right colour, in the right environment (properly prepared dedicated HT room) is more than sufficient for the average HT - for more nerd detail on neutral grey specs, click on this link.


Anyway, stupid me bought a 10L pot of paint and went blindly ahead to cut in all the corners. Oh BTW painting is not as easy as you think - it's hard on the muscles (especially ceilings) and getting a good finish is difficult. Pay a pro to do it and avoid killing yourself is a good alternative to DIY.

And then ended up with this.


A nice lavender home theatre. Great for your elderly great-aunt in the country in her "good" room, not so good for Tim's modern home theatre.

Plans for today? Go buy some sample pots, paint over a wall, and start all over again. I'll keep the ceiling as Musing as it looks OK, and painting ceilings is a real b!tch to do. I was thinking of leaving this colour on for a few months and then redoing it, but I'm definitely not happy with with the colour and it's easier to repaint now with no furniture in, than later on.

And of course, we had carpets put in yesterday in this room so now I have to buy heaps of drop sheets to protect our lovely new carpet. More pics later, if I'm not busy overpainting my lilac walls.

Finally, I think sometime during the week the blog ticked over 100,000 hits - never thought it'd get so much attention! Thanks to all the readers who have followed our blog, and still continue to suffer plenty of self-obsessed ranting and raving about stupid details. Though of course - if you've subscribed to this blog, you're probably building a house too, and are probably as detail-obsessed as we are!

T&T

Day 192: Peering in through dirty windows

Tina got a few pics of the house in daylight today, but only from peering in through very dirty windows. Note to self: bring some windex to clean the windows next time!

Think the front & rear doors have had another coat of stain, as they're looking a bit darker. Nice!


Also some of the internal doors have been re-hung. Peering in through the dining room window, we can see the rear biparts again to the right, and next to them some double doors leading into the home theatre room.


Now here's something to think about if you're doing floors yourself - you might want to check with your builder how much gap is left under the doors when they're hung. Looks like maybe an inch between the internal doors and the slab, which means if we're doing a timber floor, the underlay + floor thickness should ideally fit under this space. If it's too thick, we'll need to have the doors adjusted to allow for the flooring thickness. Didn't think about this before we started, and a little late to do anything about it now!

And last pic for today, looks like the kitchen is almost finished. The plastering around the moved window splashback looks to have been sanded and painted, as well as the infills over the overhead cupboards. Wish we could get inside to see how the ceiling and wall colours look up close, it's hard to tell from these photos.


Benchtops were scheduled to go in today, but maybe we'll see them next week. See that horrible brick wall visible just outside the kitchen window? We're definitely going to have to block that view; don't want to be staring at that through our windows! I think we'll put up some kind of bamboo screening in a dark colour (maybe the charcoal stain colour of our front/rear doors), with some nice fruit/herb trees in pots. Would be nice to have lemons and limes handily available for my Coronas!

This evening I also got an update from John on my voicemail - apparently painting is pretty much all complete now. Termite protection was put in the laundry where the waste pipe has been moved, and hopefully the concrete repair will be done on Monday and the laundry cabinet replaced on the wall. And next Tuesday - tiling starts!

T&T

Day 140: Plastering, Day 2! Plus a bonus... walkthrough video!

After receiving the report from Alex last night, decided to give Monique a call in the morning. She hadn't received the report, so I emailed it to her and Julie, our construction CSC, as well as a request for the bracing diagram - which to Metricon's credit, we received a few hours later.

Anyway, we're pretty happy at how Monique says she'll handle the issues raised; some of the plaster has been left off where changes need to be done, and where the toilet plumbing cuts through a truss, the carpenters will cut out plaster and repair, get a few photos taken then replaster. Sounds good to us!

So here's a few photos from Day 2 of plastering - pretty much all complete (except cornices), and the joins in the plaster and screwholes have mostly been plastered over.

Many people have reported their houses feel bigger after plastering; we're not in agreement with that! The open plan area (kitchen, living and dining) definitely feels bigger after plastering - it brings out the 2.7m ceilings well, and we're looknig forward to spending many lazy evenings here! But the minor bedrooms do feel a little smaller after plaster, but then again it was getting late in the afternoon with not much light, so we'll see how it feels in broad daylight.

Home theatre room, south facing window looking out the the backyard on the left, then another window facing west, but shaded by the outdoor room on the right. These are double glazed awning windows (which are standard in the rumpus room only), so hopefully with the home theatre cranked up, there won't be too much sound leakage to annoy the neighbours! There's also sound insulation (acoustitherm) to all walls in the home theatre room. We were thinking of doing double glazed to all windows, but think we'll put them few extra thousands towards the mortgage first.

Upstairs. On the left is Bed 4, then a linen cupboard. Then an open doorway in the centre, with the toilet just to the right of it. Then another open doorway to Bed 3, and Bed 2 around the right corner.

Apparently, our beautiful (and expensive!) upgraded stairs might be in as soon as next week - and the kitchen is soon on the way! Hopefully the issues raised at inspection will be corrected prior to much other work is done too. So far Monique's been great at scheduling tradies, and we're hoping she's good at getting them back in to correct things too!

Now the countdown is really on towards finishing... took us months to get to a site start with all issues with easements and powerlines, but it's almost like the end is in sight!

And finally - because we've managed to hit the magic mark of 50 followers (if you want updates on our blogs and you're not a "follower", click on the follow button on the right column to get updates!)... I recorded a little video on Tina's ipod nano of a walkthrough, until the nano ran out of space. Enjoy!




T&T

Day 52: Some flooring to first floor installed

I don't think the chippies were able to do much work today due to intermittent but constant rain, but they were able to get most of the flooring installed over what trusses were put up yesterday

I think this is looking up at the wall separating the study from the family room. You can see the floor trusses, with yellowtongue particleboard flooring on top. There wasn't a ladder or any access to the first floor, otherwise I would have crawled up for a look.

The trusses over the entry hallway and sitting room still haven't been installed - I think they're waiting for a delivery of more trusses because there are none left onsite. Plus a beam needs to be installed over the sitting room horizontal feature window that we added along one wall, and door heights need to be increased over internal access and home theatre room.

View from home theatre room - you can see flooring installed over the family room.

Tomorrow I'll be at the Liberty open for inspection, and will probably stop by a few other houses in the Balwyn area to have a stickybeak at what $3m gets you in the Boorondara area. And also 農曆新年 for Sunday - Chinese new year!

wushukid: yep, ceiling heights 2.4m is standard, 2.55m is higher, and 2.7m is higher still but only available to ground floor.

JT: so you're at lockup now? how long did it take you to get to that stage? I've heard of a few double storey Metricon houses taking over a year to build, but I hope yours won't be one of them!

anonymous: you're welcome, glad to help!

Finally, while browsing Domain I found a Henley home for sale in Surrey Hills, a steal at just $3m! Won't go to this open for inspection as it's the same time as the Liberty in Mont Albert, but this one looks like it has every option! We think it's a Henley Empire house, and doing the rough sums: land value approx $1.2m, house base price $300k, options, upgrades, landscaping etc another $400-500k = under $2m development cost. Asking $3m, so maybe $1m net gain. Anyone else feeling like they want to get into property development?

T&T

Day 48: Base stage paid, and frame started!

Paid the base stage invoice today - can you believe CBA wanted $28 to do an electronic transfer to ANZ? Anyway, ended up doing it through netbanking for free - stuff you, banks and your fees!

Got a call from Tina on the way home from work, and she sounded excited - for good reason too, as she was already walking around our ground floor frame, which was halfway done!


Not bad work by our tradies, suffering in 34 degree mad heat - I'll bring them a carton of beer tomorrow I think! Also spoke to our fantastic neighbours, who said the chippies started about 7, and worked through to about 3, solid effort that!

The next picture shows our sitting room.




Now that the frame is starting to go up, it's so much easier to get an idea of the size of rooms. My perceptions so far is that the sitting room and laundry seem a little smaller than I thought they would be, and the study is bigger than I thought (good!). Powder room seems about right - because we made some modifications to the floorplans, our laundry/powder room is different to standard Nolan.


In the previous picture, from bottom to top: Powder room (with one pipe for sink waste), then laundry (two pipes), then the two little areas are for walk-in-linen and walk-in-pantry. Then the kitchen (with 2 pipes for sink) and dining room, then outdoor room!

This next picture shows my room in the house - the home theatre/man cave. Tina can have pretty much every other room, but I've got big plans for this room! Though one thing we need to check with our SS tomorrow is the door heights - we have 2340mm doors everywhere, and I think the door frame to the HT is too low. It's basically the same height as the bipart doors to the rear (right) of the HT, which is only about 2000mm high. Should be an easy fix at frame stage to rectify.


The next pic is a view of family room from kitchen area. HT room is to the right, and to the left is entry hallway. We'll put our plasma TV on the left, so you can see it from the kitchen and meals area.


Finally, welcome to all the new readers to the blog - seems to be quite a few fellow metricon builders out there, some ahead of us and some just starting out. Please feel free to ask questions, and to comment about things that we should be checking (in particular, we'll have to get around to organising an inspection at preplaster in a few weeks/months?)

Ben&Dana: Hi, welcome to our blog. Jealous that you're at lockup already! We looked at a Stanton display home, somewhere in the northern suburbs I think - we like how the informal area of the house (kitchen, meals, family) takes up the entire back half of the ground floor! We did get our building permit mid October, but due to delays in demolition, we really didn't started until mid January, though the site scrape was Dec 22nd.

R&T: I think you said you had a bit of a fall on your block? Sure, a big slab will cost more $$$, but it'll stop your house sliding off onto someone else's land :) Should get nice views too! I think I've found another Nolan being built in Mitcham, will blog about it if I'm right!

wushukid: Hi! What design are you building, and what area? It's interesting to find readers of this blog are building all over Victoria, and NSW as well :)

Today's frame start has been sooo exciting - I just wish I could stand the heat to stay a bit longer - had to go home after a few minutes to change!

T&T