Trying to get started - suggestions?...

[ShootingBlanks]

Hello, everyone. I spend way too much time reading these forums!

Anyway, I'm planning my attack on a home theater. I have a good friend willing to help me who is the most gifted person I've ever met in my life when it comes to home construction. The guy can build anything. The thing is, he doesn't know a thing about home theater construction. Not that he can't do it (I'm sure he can - he literally built his entire house on his own, minus the foundation work), but he hasn't ever done home theater work in the past.

So, that's one resource.

My other resource is another great friend of mine who not only does high-end home audio installation for a living, but also gets all audio equipment at cost. He's an amazing asset for any of my audio questions and hookups (he'll do the work), but doesn't deal in construction at all, nor does he know about video.

That's my other resource.

So, my question is how should I go about this? I don't want to go hire out a contractor to do the work because I have tons of talent at my fingertips. I basically need a guy that can spec-out (in detail) a way to convert a room of my house into a home theater. Then I'd give those specs to my construction friend who would make that happen for me (at a considerable less cost than if I hired a contractor to actually do the work). Then I also need someone savvy in the "video" end of things.

Okay - that's my story. What do you all think I should do in order to save the most money but still get a top-quality environment. I plan on a front-projection 7.1 system.

Thanks!