so much work to do for this, it's pretty overwhelming.
i wasn't going to say anything to anybody about it either until it was more near ready to open. but a local radio station was at the planning zone meeting, and documented the whole re-zoning thing. it was on their website in hours, and then hit the AP wire. if you do a google search on "green oaks pinball museum", about 7 pages of different google returns show. Newspapers from California to Texas to Kansas City to Miami and of course Detroit carried the article. It must have been a pretty slow news day.

Thank you all for the kind words. There's a website for the venture at http://www.vfwpinball.com and i've also started a Kickstarter campaign to help with funding (burning through money on the build out like it grows on trees...) http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52228098/ann-arbor-pinball-museum-wants-to-open

Got rid of that safe! man that thing took 3 of us to push it out of the building (yes it has wheels.) Also had to remove a wall to get it out. It must have weighed 1000 pounds. put it outside and put a 'free' ad on Criags list. within 30 minutes a guy was on the way. why anyone would want a safe that is 6' tall, 4' wide, 2.5' deep and weighs half a ton, i don't know. Don't know the combo and frankly i think the lock is broken on it too. but it's gone. probably can't recycle it either, as the steel walls are filled with concrete.

again thanks everyone for your support. you can keep an eye on the project by visiting http://www.vfwpinball.com - i usually add a blog post about every day.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.
on the public opening thing. Even though it was a working VFW until April 1st 2013, apparently the township had no idea that they were doing fish frys on fridays and sunday brunches. The zoning person at the township said if they knew that was going on, they would have put a stop to it. So there i am, wandering into city hall, asking for a public pinball museum, thinking they knew about the vfw operations...

the way it went down was this.... We bought a new house about a mile from the vfw on 10 acres. i was going to put a 6000 sqft pole barn on that property. So i called Morton buildings (the Cadillac of pole barns) for a quote. I nearly died when i got the quote for a 6000 sqft insulated pole barn. Then add site excavation, water (would need a new well dug), new septic field, heating/cooling, electric 400 amps, and finally a concrete driveway to the building. WOW. it was just too much money. Plus my wife was wondering, "why does anyone need 6000 sqft for pinballs???" And having all my pinball buddies over at the house, well, she was concerned...

so then my wife found the vfw for sale. Seemed perfect. Commercially set up for crowds with full water, septic, parking lot, 6500+ sqft, new heating/cooling. And for a fair price, and just a mile from our house. The problem is the zoning. it's R2 which is residential but allows for day care centers and museums. Still had to pay $1500 and go in front of the zoning board with a business plan. But they tell me it can't really be a "business", it has to be a museum. I ask how can i have a museum that's never open?? It makes no sense. So they agree to limited public openings of four weekends a year. Which i guess is fine. Actually it's pretty good. They could have said none.

So with that in mind, there's no limit on "private" things. After all, i own the property. Just can't have a zillion people there. I told them there would be 20 or so guys on any given night, and they were fine with that. Just can't be an arcade (no quarter, everything free play), no retail shop selling games, and no major signage other than what's already there.

It's not perfect, but it's as good as i'm going to get. The property was affordable and close to my new house. Yes the building needs work (new roof!), but it's still cheaper than a pole barn on my property. The open four weekends a year lets me do maybe a pinball showcase, or a tournament, something like that. But I can do the private, less crowded things anytime. Which suites us fine, because that's what we've been doing in the Tilt Town and Flipper City models (which frankly has been working out OK as of late.) And now the township is in full knowledge of what I'm doing, so i can't get in any trouble. That was the important part.

Thank you all for your comments and support!
i'm hoping more michigan guys will do the kickstarter thing, since clearly this venue benefits them the most. But i'm amazed by the outside-the-area support we've been receiving. It truly is humbling that so many people whom don't live even close have contributed. Thank you all again!

Yes of course everything has to have a time limit, especially Kickstarter rewards. Because there's a firm delivery date required and hence an ending date too. They can't be open ended.

Things are progressing. This week the new drywall should be up and i hope next weekend painted. Some new flooring needs to be installed too, which should be next week.

Starting to get more Michigan kickstarter donations. that's a good thing as we were amiss at the low numbers of michigan people getting involved. The point that is largely missed is that since the township locked us at public openings four weekends a year, the best way to get "private" and weekly visitation rights is to jump on the kickstarter program. So for michigan people, that's the best way to get involved.

The other challenge for the project is getting "traction" (as they say) in the pinball media. Meaning we really haven't been asked any "formal" questions by blogs or websites or other pinball related media. The reason we find this interesting is that we're for real, this IS happening, it's not some wild wide-scope dream. The pieces are coming in place nicely, and by sometime in September, it will be a functional pinball museum.

The local media has been all over it! at the township media a local radio station was there, and put it on the AP wire. if you googled "green oaks pinball museum" seven pages of unique news outlets showed they carried it. which we thought was pretty cool, everywhere from San Diego to Texas to Kansas City to Miami to Detroit. But that said, no pinball news blogs or websites have contacted us. We find that pretty interesting that the people whom are most effected, seem the least interested. It may just be the state of affairs now with everyone seemingly wanting to open a barcade or museum.