When Adam Vinatieri kicked the winning field goal to give the US New England Patriots their first Super Bowl championship last February, his life changed instantly. It brought a big contract, several commercial endorsements and a new house for him and his wife, Valerie.
And the new house had to be decorated. That meant the busy couple had to make quick decisions on flooring, countertops, wall colours, carpeting, you name it – all this while Adam and his teammates endured two-a-day practices at Training Camp. During their little spare time together, Adam and Valerie went through decorator Training Camp. Vinatieri also wanted his house to have a music system and a home theatre.
"I always enjoyed electronics and music, and I thought they'd be neat to have in the house," he says. That meant even more decisions and navigating through the maze of today's electronics options. Many people would rather be levelled by a 300-pound lineman.
Adam was seeking a basic entertainment system with a couple of rooms of audio and a big-screen TV, but when he witnessed the possibilities at custom installation company Home Smart Home's show house in North Attleboro, MA, US, the plans changed. The couple of rooms of audio turned into a wholehouse system, and the big-screen TV turned into a dedicated home theatre.
There was only one problem for Craig Cooley and the crew at Home Smart Home. With the exception of the basement, the walls and ceilings in the home had been finished, which meant routing speaker wires could get tricky. To preclude having to drill into the newly finished walls, closets and cubby spaces were used as routing points to reach speaker locations, and a 3-inch conduit was installed to route wire from the basement-level garage to the second-floor locations.
Entertaining at home
The Vinatieris' home is now equipped for the couple's relaxation and entertainment, with the bar and game room, a dedicated home theatre, and eight zones of whole-house audio, including outdoor speakers in a deck and hot tub area.
"We don't do a ton of entertaining, but we thought having a bar and game room for small get-togethers and family functions would be a neat thing," Adam says.
