Before the celing is installed (later this week?) I decided to install some PVC and low-voltage quad boxes to act as conduit for speaker wire, RG-6 and cat5e cabling. The plan is to install 2 sets of 6.25″ speakers in the ceiling — two on the north wall and two on the south just below the sky lights. I also placed two boxes on the outside back wall to allow for external speakers facing the back yard.In each corner is a quad box that may be used as an access point for any cable, cat5e and/or speaker wires depending ultimately on exactly where I wind up placing the audio/video components.
Though I’m fairly certain where I want everything, now’s the time to do this and I can never be 100% certain of where everything will ultimately wind up. Also, should the purpose of this room change, having a number of options will be attractive.
Finally, I was able to take advantage of this opportunity to rectify a situation that’s bugged me for some time. Our master bedroom has only a single cable outlet, inconveniently located on the wall behind our headboard. Apparently no one considered our particular arrangement of furniture when the room was designed. Unfortunately, the TV is in a corner of outside walls — where it’s rather painful to run cabling from the basement. As the addition adjoins one of these walls, I was able to open it up from the outside and finally run some PVC conduit and cabling to exactly where I need it. My wife’s eyes glazed over when I gleefully explained this to her — but I’ll be happy to finally be rid of the RG-6 cable and IR receiver wiring currently running along the entire side wall from the headboard to the TV in the opposite corner!