worzel

I am the only one who doesn't understand this obsession with home theatre rooms over here?

We were looking in the paper at ads for new builds and they nearly all have a large room in a prominent position for this.

The normal layout for such a room is a large corner or "U" shaped sofa at $5K, say. Then you buy the biggest plasma / LCD TV you can afford / fit in at $6K or so. $1000 for all the speakers etc then a similar amount for an AV receiver so you can watch / listen to other devices located in other rooms.

How many trips to the cinema would you have to avoid for that to pay for itself???

And as houses are open plan you can't turn the volume past about 5% without disturbing everyone else in the house.

What am I missing?

While I am on the subject, our rental has two dining rooms and 2 lounge rooms, one formal and one casual of each. What is that all about?

We have 4.5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, yet nowhere to hang hats and coats up and only one cupboard with shelves so nowhere to store anything.

Shellfish

Don't you understand? It's not about the money, it's about the enjoyment

I am with you, a tv is a tv and a movie is a movie but my husband is one of these nuts. Won't watch a dvd at my sister's place because they don't have surround sound

NickyC

'Home Theatre' rooms are just the flavour of the year in Project Home land. I think last year it was the 'media room' - there's always something flashy-sounding on offer going right back to the 'conversation pits' of the 1970's that everyone aspired to.

It's all a load of nonsense. I can't understand why the average 4-person family would want or need two dining rooms, two living rooms and three bathrooms - usually at the expense of a decent sized backyard.

All to do with keeping up with the Joneses.

jad n rich

I understand it, partners a builder and its marketing bullshi! that has worked very well.

People go on and on (droan) about their home theatre, non materialistic classless OZ remember but its just one of the living rooms renamed and have a big telly stuck in it, the idea to market it like that came off the big mansions that really do have a home theatre fully kitted out with rows of seats, no windows and AC, surround sound in the walls, etc etc 2 years ago the same room was called the family room, or pool table room but didnt impress as much.

Anyway what are all these people doing stuck inside watching TV

worzel

Now we are talking!!!

We have our study in the games room, our cloakroom in the study, our "library" in the formal dining room and music room in the formal lounge room, the fourth bedroom is another study and the laundry cupboard is my shed for tools etc. At least we still use the kitchen for food preparation.

Jacqui

I know just where you're coming from. I have wandered around show homes and looked at house plans in the paper. None of these houses seem "practical".
Most houses don't have a hallway, so there is nowhere to store coats and shoes (big problem with 3 kids). They all have an access door from the garage to the kitchen, handy for the shopping, but a nuisance (and possibly dangerous) to have people traipsing through this way when you are trying to cook.
We have a "formal" lounge in addition to the family room - but it never gets used.
We have a laundry but it's at the other end of the house (ie nowhere near the kitchen) so I'm back and forth between the kitchen and the laundry, it would be so much easier to put the two rooms together. Also, the laundry room is tiny, there are no cupboards or shelves, nowhere to store such useful items as washing-powder, ironing-board or a vacuum cleaner. The room is too small to iron in!
Because of the open plan layouts, you can't put a tv in each lounge room without disturbing each other.
They never put a hand-basin in the "cloakroom". Why do they call it that? It's a lavatory for god's sake, not somewhere to store coats.
Why is the master bedroom always situated at the other end of the house to the children's bedrooms? Does it not occur to anyone that you might need to be able to hear your children get up in the middle of the night, if they are sick or have nightmares for instance? Or you have a small baby.
The children's bedrooms all have built-in robes, but there are no other cupboards in this house to store anything useful, such as toys. I'm thinking of buying freestanding wardrobes and having shelves put in their robes to turn them into proper cupboards.
I wish I could afford to design and build my own "dream-house"

wanderingwombat

It's all about marketing what you (as a first time new home buyer) thinks you want in a new home.

The nice designer kitchen and ensuite (no full height walls, etc) has more to do with the emotional buying of the house than anything to do with practicality So yes the home theatre/games/rumpus (big bloody corridor pretending to be a room) gets a lot of attention but probably no sound attentuation to the adjoining bedrooms.

Throw in some slick 'smaller' than normal furniture and the buyer is so overwhelmed that the signature is on the paper in a blink.

Then they move in......

After about 12 months the new house honeymoon is over and it goes onto the market.

WW

G'Day

It's so that they can better sell you the idea that they are "giving" you that wide screen plasma TV for "free" when you buy the house. You will need somewhere to house that puppy, so here we have, just for your enjoyment, a theatre room. How did you ever live without it?

We asked them: "Now if you took away all these "freebies" you are giving us, how much would the house actually cost?" and they were speechless

And the three living areas? One for you, one for him, one for the children??? Who wants to clean that many rooms?! :scared:

jad n rich

So between building a house so big you have no yard, cleaning all the rooms and watching the impressively large TV does this explain why some claim they never see anyone outside in the suburbs

brisnick

now this (http://theater.stevejenkins.com/gallery/) is a home theatre!

cranni

you know , i thought the same thing, THEN i went to pick my son up from his friends and they where watching star wars, on a big big screen , it was just fantastic, the atmosphere was like being at the cinemas. Well thats what we have to have, the kids love it. Densie

G'Day

Probably. I've NEVER understood a 500sq m property. What is that? A postage stamp? Highway robbery by land-barrons methinks

G'Day

WOW.

cranni

We have built . so have the house just how you want it. we had enough rooms, so we had one of the lounges as a 5th bedroom. we have a theatre room also, but its just a TV room to me, it doesnt have to have a big plasma TV. Make your home how you want to and dont worry about it.

brisnick

i never have time to sit and watch tv. i've downloaded so many tv shows from the uk, and still have them all to watch!