The top cutout will be the home of a custom middle atlantic rack system.  A cabinet door will cover the bottom were PC and networking gear will be stored.

The insulation for this basement renovation is R19 in the ceiling and R13 in the walls.  I spent a lot of time making sure it was stuffed into every crack, nook, an cranny.  I did not think about insulation when wiring the lights, however.  I wish I did and used more romex by making the runs up and down between the joists nice and tight up against each joist.  I had romex running every which way including diagnal.  This made for a very itchy night of insulating, have to rip and cut and stuff many small peices.

The one thing I don’t do myself anymore is drywall.  I’m outta that biz.  I’m too slow, get too frustrated, and the end result is bad.  I always hire a friend who does home improvements for a living to do it.  It was very important to let them know about the in ceiling speaker cables.  Four Speakercraft AIM wides will populate the back area.  The side AIMs wile fire the dual tweeters front to back while the rear AIMs will fire left to right.  More on the Speakercrafts to come.

The recessed section was made about 2″ wider than the screen all around for venting.  The Panasonic th-58 plasma has it’s fans running along the top back, facing upwards.  I made the top part of the recessed tv area sloped upward from back to front to help with venting as well.  The indide will be painting flat black, like the av rack cutout, and have the same dark stained poplar frame.