Doing some chores. Actually, doing up a Congo I just scored.

Some thoughts.

A/ Build single level. What's up with you guys and your basements?

B/ Think ahead for the future. When you sell (and one day you will), odds on there won't be another twit with 100 pinball machines who wants to buy it. What can you use the room for? Mine is designed so if/when I sell the house, the room can be used for either a big home office (eg Accountants, Lawyer, lots of companies want to work from home now) or for a big car collection, or split up and used for another lounge, more bedrooms, another separate granny flat, whatever. Its a blank canvas for someone.

C/ Get as close to town as you can. I am 3 minutes from the main street here. I used to be 10 minutes out .. doesn't sound like much but it makes a BIG difference if you travel it 5x every day.

ummm think that's about it. Gary Stern said he liked the layout The room is about 180sqm = 2000sqft, plus its own toilet/handbasin on top of that. Its pretty much standalone from the house, but it is joined .. watch the video.

I regularly have 100 people here playing the pins, and the room with its indoor-outdoor flow accommodates them all no sweat. Which wouldn't happen in a basement.

I don't have the house plans on this computer but I can post them here on Sunday if you want.

rd

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Well, you gotta die somewhere.

I thought I would live all my life in my last house. I bought it when I was 22 and we lived there for 17 years. By that stage, we had outgrown it and we were ready to move on. Things change ...

Two months ago I was trying to buy a 90 year old 600sqm commercial building in the central city. I was so close to getting it but got outbid at the last minute. If I had got that, all the pins (and the family) would have been living there, and the big new house would have gone on the market.

rd

Yeah, I know that ... But Hilton said he wanted to be out in the country.

There is still a huge emphasis in the USA on multi story homes, even on country blocks, where there is no need to go up. Building up costs double of building wide, at least here in NZ it does anyway.

rd

As a property developer/wanna-be builder, I find that hard to fathom. A two level house has so much more timber/strengthening in it than a single level house.

rd

Head to the shelterrrrrrrr!!!

Back to the 2 story thing, one of the reasons houses in NZ are expensive to build is we have to engineer them strong for earthquakes. We couldn't build a US spec house here, it wouldn't pass engineering.

Being attached to the house is a must in my books.

I know first hand .. In my old house, I had 20 machines in my half basement (house was built on a slope, basement had driveway access) and 10 outside in my workshop. I very rarely ventured out to the cold, damp shed to play. And it'd be even worse if it snowed like it does around Hiltons area (it doesn't snow here, and I still never went out there)

rd

Here are some plans and pics of my house/games room.

Just for you, Hilton old buddy

rd

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Oh, we do that too. But instead of Maria, we go with TELL ME WHY I HAVE TO BE A POWERSLAAAAVEEEE!!! And other sing-a-long hits like that.

Ask and you shall receive....

rd

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The sizes are on the plan. . 17145mm X 10500mm internal size = 180sqm inside.

Which is 56.5ft x 34.5ft = 1937sqft. Plus bathroom on top.

That room takes 100 pins. Plus a corner sofa, plus my big stereo, plus a bookcase, plus my Marshall amp and quad.

I drew up a plan before I built. Originally the room was 150sqm, but after I drew a layout plan, I figured out it wasn't big enough and took it out further to suit the layout.

Originally the machines ran in long rows down the 17000mm wall, but I found that running them this way made people congestion in the long rows. I drew up a plan with them sideways, and it really improved people flow so last year they got moved sideways. This layout actually allowed more pins as well!

But to further improve flow, I removed 20 pins and put them in my garage on the other side. This is where I held the Sys11 World Champs. This way, 20-40 people can be in the garage playing/waiting/watching comp games, which means less people in the main room.

Also, with the large concrete area inbetween the games room and garage, I put a few tables and chairs out there. This is the area where people gather for drink and food and breaks from pinball, which again decreases the flow in the games room.

You can sort of see how it all works together in this video the NZ Herald newspaper made when I had the Sys11 champs.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=158604

Oh yeah. Those static images in the video were taken before I changed the layout. You can see the games are in long rows. In the video footage, you can see they are sideways in shorter rows. (The walk through video I posted earlier also shows the sideways rows) This is the best layout for the room.

rd

Sys11 World Champs champ!!

They will be on again early next March.

All welcome!!

rd

My spacing is 1/2" between games.

A foot!! Crazy talk.

When I had the Sys11 Champs, I spaced those games in the garage out about 6 inches between the headboxes I guess. Which would equate to about a foot between the flippers. You need space for competitions.

rd

Yep. Same here.

The moral of the story is, whatever you think you need, double it.

rd

Man, the church looks awesome.

$400 grand? On 1.3 acres? You couldn't even buy 0.3 of an acre here for $400k, let alone with a building on it.

PinChurch!!! Do it!!

rd