"Finishing" The System

I know, I know, there's really no such thing as finishing the system for somebody like me (and most likely you as well). But this is probably as close as I'm going to get to that particular mythical goal as I'm ever going to be. So, I'm here to talk about the process this fine Sunday morning.

As any of you who read on a fairly regular basis are aware, I've been plugging along slowly toward my eventual stereophonic Nirvana of getting all the parts of my originally planned system working. When I say "originally planned", I mean that they were parts of our plans for the house back when it was built. Enough so that I pulled wiring from where the system sits to the ceiling where the rear speakers are supposed to be located AND to the back porch where the outside speakers are supposed to be, 6 years ago, when the house was built!

As part of that plan I also accumulated several important items:

• A pair of "in-ceiling" speakers (plus a later third one) to serve the rear 3 channels of my surround system- HiFi Works HFW6R, 6.5" 2-Way speakers.
• Several Paradigm VC150, that would allow local control of volume for any zones I added in the future.

Of course, this being the "Frugal Propellerhead", I'd be remiss if I didn't explain what I did in purchasing these items. The VC150s, I bought from the home theater store that I had worked at for the "saleman accommodation" half price which came to something like $28 each at that time. The speakers came from an off-chance visit to the Lowes store in Midland where they were on clearance for less than $50. I bought the 3rd in-ceiling speaker off of eBay as "new old stock" for something ridiculous like less than $15 since nobody wanted a single. I think I remember paying more to ship it than the price of the item.

Sadly due to my laziness and the fact that I'd never installed anything "in-ceiling" before, all this stuff has sat for the last 6 years awaiting action. As you guys know, I've been kind of on a kick to do work my system, so this item once again reared it's ugly head. So, I found a pair of in-expensive indoor/outdoor speakers on eBay (Dual LU53p) for $49 after shipping

So, what needs to be done to get all this going? Well....first of all, it'll require crawling around in the attic without falling through the ceiling, finding the wires that are now under the blown-in insulation, then finding the correct spot to cut the holes for the 3 speakers. Then cutting those holes correctly, hooking up the speakers and getting out of there without falling through the ceiling. Then installing the speaker wire connector panels in the triple-gang box behind my massive entertainment center (with the correct wires). Installing the new speakers outside on the porch, connect the VC150 in the box for that with the correct wiring (there are 4 pairs in there, 2 in, 2 out) then the other end at the connection panel behind the entertainment center as well!

I think you can see why I've put all this off for so long! But now the time has come and I have even gotten a committment from a former electrician friend to help with the install....so stay tuned. Unfortunately he's not available for a couple of weeks AND we still have kids birthdays (including a building project of a loft for my son) to deal with.