Jeff Martin is a veteran of the home-building business in the Greater Pittsburgh area.

As an upscale home builder, Martin, the owner of Primrose Homes Inc. in Harmony, wanted to do something to distinguish his high-end homes from those of other home builders in the North Hills. After talking with area real estate agents, Martin had an epiphany. Why not offer his clients a fully equipped, installed theater room? Just a couple of years ago, he says, no other home builder in the North Hills was including this as an amenity in their
spec homes.

“The idea made a lot of sense to me,” says Martin, who has a theater room in his own home that sits eight people comfortably. “No one was building homes and equipping them with a movie theater. I thought if I included a movie theater in a house, it would make it much more of a usable destination area,” and prove to be a selling point for families, especially those with young children, looking to buy a newly constructed home.

“I put dishwashers and microwaves into the homes I build, why not a home theater?” Martin says.

That was when Martin went to see Tim Ciccone, owner of TheaterXtreme, a home cinema and furnishings store in Cranberry Township on Route 19, to talk about a working relationship.

“I was very interested in the idea,” recalls Ciccone during a recent interview in his Cranberry Township store. “Very few homes (in the North Hills) have these kinds of rooms” devoted solely to a home theater.

The home builder and the home theater store owner began discussing how they could merge their two fields of expertise. After several successful projects, the pair recently decided to try putting in a theater room in an upscale, Victorian-style spec-built home that Martin was building in Lake Macleod in Pine Township. In addition to the theater room, Ciccone would also design an audio system that would provide for sound throughout the entire 5,500-square-foot house.

DOING THE PROJECT

As the Lake Macleod spec home was being constructed, Ciccone, armed with blueprints of the house, brought in several of his employees to wire the theater room for the 110” high definition video screen and surround sound system. He would also wire the entire house for sound throughout all three levels and the outdoor living areas. This phase of the project took three days to complete. “The picture quality on the 110”screen is as sharp as you would find on any smaller, flat-screen television,” Ciccone says. The functionality and control of the whole house sound system makes it possible for everyone in the family to enjoy their favorite music anytime, anywhere.

“And I just wrote the check,” Martin joked. Complete theater systems can run anywhere from a base of around $6,000 to whatever the client wants, Ciccone says. “The sky is pretty much the limit!”

The theater room’s speakers are hidden in the walls for aesthetic reasons, as well as to protect them from inadvertent damage. To make the speakers even less visible, the grills can be painted to match the wall color of
the room.

ONE AWESOME ROOM

Rather than have a separate enclosed room, Martin decided to leave the L-shaped room open. This way, he says, people are able to move about freely and may come and go as they please. The large screen – with speakers on both sides - dominates the wall at one end of the L-shaped room which includes a tray ceiling and some thoughtful architectural detailing such as wainscoting and crown molding. Below the screen sits custom-built shelving for a DVD player, surround sound receiver and other equipment. For additional comfort, Martin installed baseboard radiant heat.

The longer portion of the L-shaped room is indeed an ideal place for entertaining. A stone bar – supplied by P.F. Cook of Cranberry – sits behind the theater seating area. This way, children can watch movies undistracted. The adults, meanwhile, can talk amongst themselves in the bar area without being disturbed by their children. Pro Source of Cranberry supplied the room’s ceramic flooring.

This room and its layout is partially why Stanton and Molly McComb purchased Martin’s Lake Macleod spec home. The parents of four young children ages six, four, two and a half, and five months relocated to Pittsburgh from Detroit in July. Stanton McComb is president of McKesson Pharmacy Systems, an automated healthcare services provider with an office on Washington’s Landing.

Because of their young children, the McCombs opted – at the advice of both Primrose and TheaterXtreme – to put couches and comfortable chairs in the theater room instead of tiered seating. “My husband just loves movies,” Molly McComb says. “We are watching a lot of kid stuff right now.

…I think this room is
BEAUTIFUL and A LOT OF FUN. IT'S ONE OF OUR
FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THE HOUSE.
Her husband agreed.

“Well, the whole house is beautifully done, so it is hard to say that the theater room alone sealed the deal,” says Stanton McComb. “However, I will say that when I first saw the theater in tandem with the entertaining area, I was thrilled with the prospect of spending time with my family and friends in this area of the home. It was definitely a vision that made me think, maybe this is the right house for us.“

“The whole system and set up creates an amazing viewing and listening experience that in many ways is better than what you might experience in a traditional theater setting,” says McComb, adding he’ll have no problem rooting for the Steelers as a newly transplanted Pittsburgher. But because he is from Detroit, McComb grudgingly says rooting for the Penguins “is a work in progress.”

The location of the screen is perfect for the layout of the room, Molly and Stanton McComb both said. “The theater is not enclosed by four walls. The back wall is open to the bar and a very nice living room like area. This means that a bunch of people can be over and they can watch the game and float in and out of the large theater area. This really compliments the beautiful bar and makes the whole space far more useable. It also allows parents to set their kids up in front of a movie and still break away to the bar but keep an eye on them.”

WORKING TOGETHER

Both Jeff Martin and Tim Ciccone say they are pleased with the success of all their projects to date. Since completing their first joint project nearly three years ago, they have partnered and put theater rooms in several of the homes that Primrose has constructed, all mostly in North Hills subdivisions such as Carriage Manor in Adams and Cranberry Townships; and Walden Pond, also in Cranberry Township.

Because the theater rooms have proved to be popular with Primrose clients, Martin now gives his buyers a survey that asks if they want a theater room in their new home. In fact, Martin now includes theater rooms in all of the spec homes that he builds priced $800,000 and higher.

“Tim is beginning to influence Primrose’s preconstruction plans,” Martin says. “These meetings are not short. Now, when I build the lower level of one of my homes, I tend to build around the theater room. Eighty percent of my contracts now include built-in theater rooms. Parents want control of their gatherings. The theater is the greatest way to accomplish this.”

Both Martin and Ciccone say the next step for them will be for Primose to build a home that TheaterXtreme will fully automate. Complete home automation including video, sound, lights, security and even the temperature can be controlled by a panel in the house, or by remote control. Or, if you know you will be home in an hour and want your home to either warm up, or cool down, you can make the request via the Internet.

“I wouldn’t consider working with anyone else,” says Martin, who now considers Ciccone a close friend. NH