Ever since my college days, where I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer at Texas A&M, I have been a golden ear audiophile with a very sophisticated array of electronics, speakers and turntables with hand-made cartridges. I currently live in Panama City and this self-proclaimed audiophile has turned into a videophone, too. I conduct my own research to find the greatest possible sound and image for a sensible amount of investment. I have read a lot of technical publications and industry dedicated magazines, attended CEDIA and CES shows, thus feeding my knowledge on home theater design and installation.

Shortly after my last child went off to college my wife made an unexpected comment: “You can have your home theater in the guest room as long as you move all that stereo junk out of the family room”. My dream had finally come true! I had been planning for a dedicated home theater room since I purchased my first stereo VCR back in 1983.

I've been a subscriber to Home Theater since 1996, as well as, Stereophile Guide to HT, long before it became UltimateAV (which is now exclusively on the web). All these years of reading these specialty magazines has finally paid off with the design and construction of my dream home theater and home automation system.

When constructing a home theater, the first thing I recommend is cooperation from your spouse. She had (and still does) complete veto power over every single decision that went into the development of this theater. I first had to convince her to turn a spare bedroom in our brand new townhouse into a dedicated home theater. However, what probably took more persuasion was convincing her of the importance to paint the room an unusually dark color such as charcoal grey with black trim. Or painting the connecting hallway Hollywood red, or the third bathroom metallic gold. Of course, the idea of having "exit" signs all about and life size busts of pretty ugly Hollywood characters took some hard selling, too.

When we broke ground on our new home in upstate New York my wife Kristie and I each had our goals for this space. I desired a place where I could listen to music, and where the family could come together for a great movie experience. Kristie's priority was for the space to feel like an extension of our home.

My wife and I own a Queen Ann Victorian home built in 1886 in the Silk Stocking district of Mankato, Minnesota. It’s a large home with each room decorated in period furnishings which isn’t conducive to a large screen TV and visible speakers. This made it hard to watch movies and Monday Night Football, so Doug convinced Candy to build a media room in the basement.

Back in 2004 when we purchased our current house, we couldn’t have predicted what we were in for. Being previous renters, we had no real experience as to the ins and outs of home ownership. In New England, most houses are old. In our case, the particular house we bought was built in 1901. Granted, the house was well maintained and was, thankfully, structurally sound.