I used circular vents for the ceilings, simply because I thought they were nicer looking than the square floor-style vents mounted upside down. There are two 5″ vents in the main room, one 5″ vent in the laundry room, and a smaller 3″ vent in the bathroom. For all but the bathroom, I just used the previously existing vent lines, but cut them shorter and used 5″ flexible duct to connect them to the vent in the ceiling tiles. This made it easier to hook up, and possible to move the tiles later without having to disconnect everything.

You can see the completed vents in yesterday’s post.

Since the bathroom didn’t exist as a separate room before I started, I had to add a new vent line for it. I thought this was necessary, just because of the way I split up the rooms – the only remotely close vent to the bathroom is around the corner in the laundry room, and if the door is closed then there is nothing.

The main ducts run just outside the bathroom door, so it was relatively easy to add a new line for the bathroom. I just added a 4″ collar into the side of the duct, and then used a reducer and flexible 3″ vent tube to bring it into the bathroom. I’m using relatively rigid pipe for this, not the thin flimsy stuff you’d find on the back of a dryer. The below pictures are older, obviously, and are from in the bathroom, looking out at the top of the doorway.

Continuing to move along, with painting complete, suspended ceiling finished, and lights installed. Still need to make a couple touchups on paint in some spots where the tape pulled it off, and a couple dings I made moving things around. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, the main area is painted dark grayish-brown (though it took Joce a good week or two to acknowledge it even had brown in it, to me that was the first color I saw..), the laundry and bathrooms are a light gray.

Here you can see the bathroom ceiling, with the completed bathroom vent visible. The light in here is a vanity light on the wall, I don’t think it was mounted yet when I took this picture.

I used low-profile “circ-line” fluorescent fixtures in the laundry room. These fixtures take two bulbs each (a 32W and a 22W) but I just used the one 32W in both which provides plenty of light. They’re very nice, only extending a couple inches down.

For the main area, I have 3 independent sets of lights: 4 wall sconces (dimmable); 8 halogen pot lights (dimmable); and 1 halogen pot light mounted for a dart board, controlled by a switch on the wall next to it. Since one of the major uses of this room is a home theater, that was my main concern with lighting. I initially spent a lot of time researching dimmable CFL and LED technology, only to come to the conclusion that right now, even if I were to spend a ton of money (eg, even more than I would paying for electricity for these bulbs for a few years), it simply wouldn’t be as good as halogen/incandescent for dimming and warmth/color.

Mounting the pot lights was a bit of a challenge – I spent a couple hours trying to figure out the best number of pots and layout, which would provide adequate light when needed, but also physically fit the lights (eg, not have vents/joists in the way). Ultimately, I had to cut out notches in a couple joists to make it work. I used some reflective tape to try and reduce some heat, not sure how well it will work yet. I may ultimately end up cutting another inch or two out.