It all starts here

Tomorrow is a big day. A pivotal next step toward achieving a dream I have had most of my adult life. Though I hate to oversell it or get too ahead of myself right now.

You see, tomorrow, our basement continues a transformation that has been underway since this time last year, but the goal feels far more real this time.

My wife and I are building a home theater in our basement.

Now, here's the part where I don't want to oversell it. We're basically having a wall and doors installed, separating the future theater room from what will be a gym, bathroom and wet bar.

The theater is going to be a long process that challenges our technical and creative sides. Mixing the art of design with the science of light and sound, the hope is to create a space that is both a personal oasis and destination to share with those we hold dear in our lives.

In 2019, we took a big swing, building a new home in Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood -- a place USA Today recently named #1 arts district in America. The location and layout of the house checked a lot of boxes and we invested in this up-and-coming "Circle North" area just ahead of the curve. Unlike our previous house, which came with a partially-finished basement, we chose not to finish the basement during the initial build process to control the price of things and prioritize the main living space. We opted only to rough in the pluming for a future basement bathroom.

We moved in just as the calendar turned over to 2020... and then the world came to a halt. So we decided to spend our recreational/travel budget on starting the basement project with a bathroom and adjacent countertop and sink. I hate to call it a "wet bar" because it conjures a far different mental image than the reality of what we wanted for the space.

Excuse the mess... we had only just moved in, but this gives an idea of the original open space we had to work with.

So we found a contractor through one of my wife's coworkers for this de facto Phase One. After all, what good is a theater without a bathroom nearby? It also made the most sense to build out from the back of the room forward, toward the stairs to the main floor. We needed someone who has the skills, attention to detail and can see our vision and bring it to life. Don't get me wrong, I do have some technical knowhow and a few DIY skills, but for something as important as the bones, fit and finish for this very bespoke open canvas project, I'm leaving nothing to chance. We both have a lot of energy and time invested in planning and designing this space. We were very pleased with the results.

Phase One was a great success!

So with Phase One in the books, attention turns to Phase Two. This entails adding a wall to divide the south side of the basement from the north side. The south side will be home to the finished bathroom and counter area, as well as our basement pantry, storage and, perhaps most importantly, our home gym space. We already have most of the equipment from building it up over the years. It's just a matter of putting it into a proper finished space and not just tucked away wherever it fits or haphazardly throwing equipment into a random open floor plan space.

One last walkthrough of the current space before a pivotal next phase gets underway. Lots of dust covers!

Once the wall goes up and electrical is done for that side, we will put down some flooring and I will handle the A/V part of the equation. We'll talk about that in another post.

To be completely honest, I am not sure what shape this account of things will take. A blog chronicling the building of a home theater? A how-to guide of sorts? Tech and other product reviews of the fun goodies that will be put through their paces? Maybe all the above? Only time will tell.

Stay tuned as things get underway.