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Well, not entirely true.. as I’m still waiting on the powerbridge, but, I got enthusiastic and spent the better part of Friday evening and a few hours on Saturday hard at work. Unfortunately I’m horrible at taking pictures as I go.. so there isn’t much in the way of in-progress.

A few snags along the way:

The metal studs turn out to be furring strips and approximately 1.5″ wide.. which was sad, but since my brother was originally planning for dry-wall only installation, I figured any kind of extra support would be bonus.

The holes for the toggle bolts I bought had to be 6/8″! The part of the wall mount that attaches to the wall wouldn’t take that size, so I had to enlarge some of the holes and dremel bits away to make the bolts fit in.

The green tape on the wall (and there was a LOT of it on the wall) shows where the studs in the wall are.. I also had tape showing the top/bottom/left/right edges of the tv, as well as the top/bottom edges of the mount and tape showing the center position on the wall.

After the initial fear of screwing it up.. cutting holes in the drywall was quite fun.

Holes for everything!

Mm.. dream of wall-plate AV connectors.. achieved.

The speakers were actually more of a pain to put in than the tv. I guess I thought it was cake after putting the plasma up.. so I didn’t measure 5 times.. and had some problems aligning them.

It’ll be a lot cleaner once I get a proper powerbar, a smaller sub, and commission a media console. I’ve been sketching a few ideas out. It’ll be pretty much the same height as the one in the photo, but wide enough to cover up the A/V wallplates. Right now there are two power cables coming out on each side, but it’ll be cut down to just one power cable eventually.

I’ve also decided the rear surrounds add so much to the movie experience.. and so will be investigating options. Currently there’s.. buy flat speaker cable and run it around the wall and paint over it.. or run it on the ground under the rug. Decisions.. decisions..

Well, as of last night, my temporary home theatre has been dismantled and the components have now been carefully stored. Tonight begins the first stage of the home theatre install which is going to coincide with the final painting of the rest of the condo. After painting two swatches of paint.. we’re still not happy with the colours.. so will check out Benjamin Moore tomorrow and try to find that in between grey colour. Currently, one patch is a bit too green and saturated, the other is too neutral and grey. Looking for something grey and warm.

Anyway, back to the theatre. The powerbridge that I ordered hasn’t arrived yet, but I’ve decided to go ahead and install the actual TV onto the wall and then deal with putting the cables in the wall after that. Here is what I’ve planned and how it’ll break down, barring any other things which come up.

Equipment I have lined up:

Components
Samsung PN42A450 42″ Plasma Television
Onkyo HT-R550 A/V Reciever
3 x Paradigm Cinema 220 Monitor Series L/C/R
Onkyo random subwoofer.
Microsoft Xbox 360
Harmony 550 Remote
Apple Airport Express

Hardware
CL2 rated HDMI, Component and 16ga speaker cable (50ft) all suitable for in-wall installation.
A bunch of 3-6ft HDMI, Component and Optical cables for connecting AVR to the wall/components etc.
7 pairs of banana plugs for speaker cable so it’ll be easy to plug/unplug.
Component, HDMI and speaker wallplates.
For each wallplate, a single gang, existing installation, Carlon wall bracket for low-voltage communication/media
24-pack of Toggler brand 3/8″-16 hollow wall anchor toggle bolts, UL rated at 576lb per.
Power bridge recessed outlet pair, w/existing installation J-boxes.

As it stands, this is where I’m at:

– the wall studs have been identified and marked using a stud sensor, they appear to be 2 1/2″ wide, 16″ apart on center.
– the horizontal and vertical markings have been made for the mount and tv location, however, it will most likely shift about 2″ horizontally to accommodate hitting two studs, as well as shifting up an inch or two.

Tonight I plan to:

– finalize the measurements of where the tv goes, in an attempt to hit 2 studs but if not, at least one.
– drill pilot holes to locate the exact center of the stud(s).
– drill lots of holes and install 6 togglers to hold the wall mount mounting plate to the wall.
– mark out the location of the wallplate locations for the HDMI, RCA, Speaker and Power along the baseboard.
– mark out the location of the upper conduit hole for the media connections to the TV.
– mark out two locations for the upper and lower power outlets.
– cut out all the A/V wallplate locations, install the Carlons, and pull the media cable through.
– mount the TV! power cable will most likely just dangle for now since I don’t have the powerbridge.

If I have time:

– measure out the speaker placement horizontally away from TV (vertical measurement will be centered on the tv)
– cut holes and fish the speaker wire for the speakers. this might include routing a pathway in the surface of the drywall to move the speaker wire horizontally across a stud or two. This will also mean patching up the drywall afterwards, sanding and painting.

I don’t plan to install the speakers today.. as I still need more information about the actual speaker mounts from Paradigm. The screws don’t seem to fit.. I promise to add photos 🙂

It’s been 5 months since I’ve taken possession of this condo. It still has no couch, has curtains taped up in the bedroom, tools and paint piled up in the corners, 2 chairs and no trash cans. But.. I guess you just can’t rush these things.. especially.. with no money =p

However.. things continue to move forward at a decent clip. All photos are taken with a 50mm to preserve perspective and not make it appear as if we own a 2500 sq ft apartment.

Last night after much frustration, I put up the first “test” window coverings. I will place an order for the living room coverings within the week.. they’ll be the same but a very light yellow (these are a very light grey).

A lamp Sam and I bought at Structube. It’s not too great on the quality side, but it looks good when not touched and angled specifically.. haha

Bought earlier tonight, a dining table! Again from IKEA.. the docksta.. the poor man’s Saarinen Tulip table! Now to find some chairs.. and a pendant lamp to hang above the table. Currently filling in for centerpiece duty is Maximus the fern. You can see he’s grown since we got him (a few posts down)

For an idea of how the kitchen/living room is laid out.. still needs paint and window coverings and to wall mount the TV.

And finally also bought tonight.. the first trash can.. a simple yet overpriced bag holder which goes on the inside of the cabinet door.. woo Simple Human!

Well, I keep meaning to take photos to accompany my posts because text-only posts are boring.. but time doesn’t permit. So I will post and add a photo or two later. This weekend was a long.. long weekend. Saturday was a wedding, went pretty well.. we were maybe a little creatively strained.. but.. with all the work at work, and decisions for home decor.. I feel creatived out just about now.

Anyhow.. the most current project has been the second bedroom, also known as the studio, or office, or den. My goal has been to use IKEA sparingly.. and so far we seem to be failing miserably. But the core base furniture like white bookshelves I think it is a little more allowable. A haul to IKEA has been 4 Billy bookcases (each 98 lbs), 6 BYOM doors for the bookcases, some random necessities and Maximus. A photo of Maximus to follow.

So I’m going to try posting once again.. hopefully TPX, the blog.. will survive!

My main topic of posting of course, will be condo life. Seeing as a lot of my day is spent either fixing/decorating or researching about condos, it feels like all this information that I’ve gathered is going to waste. It reminds me of watching anime or tv shows.. you download it and watch it.. and then you feel bad about deleting it because you spent so much time downloading it and watching it, so you just burn it to a DVD and never watch it again.

The same with the condo, I spend endless hours researching one thing or another, and then after it’s been implemented.. all that information on installing, etc. etc. feels like it’s just gone. If I record it in the blog.. at least it’s somewhere.. although probably never read again.

I’ve actually had possession of the condo for near 3 months now, and for the first two months, nothing really happened (a bit of paint is about all. With the appliances arrived (not until mid july was it all sorted out!) and finally installed, things are picking up and getting done at a much faster rate!

So, I will backpost a little bit just to record what has already been done.

Estimated move-in date is this upcoming long weekend of August 2nd. The mattress arrives Aug 1st, this friday.. and even though I’ll have moved in.. many many things still need to be done.

So here we go!