[jrjr729]

Hello,
My wife and I are planning to buy in TV in early 2009. We really can't wait. We have been looking at all of the home layouts and have already been down to view the homes in person. Both of us like the Gardenia and the Bridgeport. I was wondering if there is an easy way to set up a home theater in either of those models. Is there enough headroom in the ceiling to wire the speakers? Is there any way to create a 7.1 or 5.1 system given the wall configurations? If anyone has a home theater can you tell me what subwoofer or pair of subwoofers you use to fill the greatroom.

I know that we'll be spending the bulk of our time outside of our home because there are so many interesting things to do, but we have a pretty nice home theater in our current house we think that we would miss it, at least for a while.

Thank you for taking the time to think about this.

[darbyduff]

I'm really interested to see what answers you receive! We too have a home theater here in Colorado and we were thinking that the only thing possible for us was to turn one of the bedrooms into a smaller version of what we have here. One of only a few regrets when we move to TV.

[Villages Kahuna]

I own a Lantana with raised interior ceilings. When I called my audio contractor to install a Bose surround sound system in the large front bedroom in the house, he came down from the attic after an hour or so and told me it couldn't be done. This was a division of the electrical contractor who was a sub-contractor on the construction of my house, so he knew the house (and others like it) intimately.

With that, I was left with the choice of having the speakers, sub-woofer, etc. sitting on the floor with wires around the perimeter of the room or the choice of a less sophisticated system. I opted for a Bose 3-2-1 system which was about $3,000 cheaper and performs as well ams y old ears can appreciate anyway.

A similar issue exists if you intend to have a satellite dish installed instead of Comcast cable. Villages houses are wired with high quality video cable, but have only one jack per room. The digital video recorders currently being offered by DirecTV, as an example, require two jacks in order for you to record one program while watching another. In my house the electrician was only able to get the second jack into my "TV room" by coming thru the garage, tunneling under the front walk, and then thru the wall into the room from the outside. It's not terribly unsightly, but not the way I would have preferred if there was sufficient space between the exterior roof and the interior ceiling to permit a contractor to get up there with tools and components.

I would be very careful before making any assumptions regarding home theatre in a house with raised ceilings, particularly a Lantana where you wish to use the front bedroom as a TV room.