I am a N00B when it comes to DIY speakers so be gentle. I am finishing my dedicated home theater. It is 30' long, 18'6" wide and 9' ceilings. I will have two rows of recliners, the second on a riser and some bar seating behind the 2nd row. I will be using an acoustically transparent screen and I plan on placing my LCR behind it. I am somewhat handy and think I possess the necessary skills with some guidance to assemble most kits. I would like to keep my LCR budget around $1000 or less. The room will be mostly used for watching movies, playing video games and watching sports on TV.
The Cheap Thrill does sound like a good candidate for you, come within your budget, have the needed oomph to get the job done and are the current value leader. The other options I would look at are the Karma-12 and the Fusion-12 Tempest. The Karma-12 is another excellent value that will fit the bill quite nicely and I am surprised how often it is overlooked. It has a flatpack enclsosure available too just in case you don't like making MDF dust. What the Fusion-12 offers over the Karma-12 is a woofer with more throw so it can deliver higher SPL levels at the lower frequencies and the DNA-360 CD which has a bit smoother frequency response the 350 in the Karma-12 kit. The Fusion-12 also uses the same 2.0cuft flatpack but that might push you just above you budget and that doesn't even include items needed to complete the kit, glue, paint, internal speaker wire for wiring drivers to crossover, terminal cups or binding posts and dampening material to line inside of enclosure. (I think that is everything)