Big-time movie buffs Jack and Hilary Wilson had always planned to have a home theater: They just couldn’t find the right place for it. The family room was out. So was the master bedroom.

“I really wanted something that was authentic—something that felt like you were sitting in an actual cinema,” says Jack. So with pickaxes and shovels in tow, the family headed to the only free space in their daylight rambler: the crawl space.

At 960 square feet, the area certainly had enough floor space to accommodate a home theater system. However, the ceiling would pose a problem. “In most spots, the ceiling was so low that you had to crawl on your hands and knees,” Jack explains. “We had always thought about digging it out, but it wasn’t until our son hit high school that we decided that shoveling would be a great summer project for him and his buddies.”

After getting the go-ahead from a soil engineer that it was safe to dig into the home’s foundation, Jack put the boys to work. “Depending on what they had going on, they would work a few nights a week—usually just enough for gas money,” Jack says. Over the course of three years, the amateur excavation crew removed 170 cubic feet of dirt, enough to fill 17 dump trucks—and to raise the ceiling to a comfortable height of 9 feet.

This newly acquired headroom would be able to accommodate a 6-inch concrete floor, a riser for a second row of seats and a ceiling-suspended video projector. For those projects, though, the Wilsons would hire several seasoned professionals. “My general contractor and I would spend hours talking about how to make the room water-resistant and soundproof,” Jack recalls.

For the walls, they decided on a combination of double-wall and staggered-stud construction. They packed in a double layer of insulation and hung two sheets of drywall. Acoustical tiles finished off the dropped ceiling. “We also moved the HVAC ducts and plumbing and added a separate furnace just for the theater,” Jack says.

The planning stages of the project also involved audio/video experts from Seattle-based Theater Xtreme. “The room was extremely long and large, so there were numerous options for laying out the furniture and equipment,” says Scott Fehr, owner of the company. “Once we decided on the orientation of the theater, as well as the wine cellar, we started choosing products.”

“Screen size was our only disagreement,” says Jack. “Scott recommended a 110-inch size, but I wanted something that was at least 120 inches.” Jack ultimately got his way, and along with the 123-inch Vutec screen positioned on the front wall, the home theater features a Klipsch 7.1 surround-sound system, Panasonic Blu-ray player and a JVC D-ILA video projector. “When you watch a movie like Patton, you feel like you’re in the middle of the battle scene,” Jack enthuses.

It’s a feeling that has the family visiting their subterranean theater several times a week. With cold weather on the horizon, the Wilsons are building up their Blu-ray library in preparation for a winter’s worth of great entertainment.

Says Jack: “The best part is that we never have to leave our house to feel like we’ve gone somewhere special.”

Click here to view photos of this crawlspace renovation.

About the Author:
Lisa Montgomery - Contributing Writer

Lisa Montgomery has been writing about home technology for 15 years, with a focus on the impact of electronics on a modern lifestyle.