no way I'm going to your house, bad shit keeps happening there!

I hope you are not going to put a black light in there

Lol. No black light.

Games are starting to take up more real estate. Added a couple new additions and a Dirty Donny print. It's always a work in progress.

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Love that fluorescent carpet and that super nice combination of pins and classic arcades! Who's goalie sticks are they?

Thank you. The sticks were signed by a local USHL team. I won a couple charity auctions bids. Probably the best player to sign is David Backes who has had a nice NHL career.

A former Blue! Real good player, I was sad to see him go.

Whats your PPD & MPR?

Got a week's worth of work in on finishing the basement, insulating and framing.

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Good choice on the insulation

Be sure you put too many electrical outlets in. Also some high enough to power neon signs. Now's the time. Are you using conduit?

And if there is even the slightest chance that you get water in there (broken water pipe, sewer backup, excessive rain), you'll probably want to use pressure treated stringers on the floor. I lived in Chicago suburbs and my game room flooded four times within 15 years because of heavy rain or sump pump failure. Learned the hard way, eventually put ceramic flooring down instead of carpet. Once water hits, you tear out the walls a foot above the floor and blow-dry to minimize mold. I put horizontal stringers in-between the studs 15 in. off the floor so if it ever happened again, I'd just need to drywall from the floor up to that point, making the project much cleaner and easier.

Basement water always made me nervous when I lived in Illinois.

20201107_191421 (resized).jpgIts just for the kids and grandkids....right

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Kind of perfect, actually!

I really respect people who can do things like finish a basement themselves. I wish I had more skills like that.

When we bought our house it had an unfinished basement. I had absolutely no home improvement or building skills. I had honestly never even cut a 2x4 in half. I paid $99 for an online course that walked you though everything. What tools to buy, framing, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, etc.

I spent days with a pen and paper taking notes and watching videos.

Let’s just say it worked. I paid an electrician to wire up the breaker box and my dad and I did the rest. Even built a theater.

You can do it if you put your mind to it. I probably saved $20,000 doing it myself, if not more.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread

http://basementfinishinguniversity.com/

My game room project. Wife wanted a kitchen expansion into she's space that wasn't over a foundation, just on posts. I made the case that any kitchen over a crawl space would add little to the value of a house and would be a pita to keep from freezing up, as well as constantly adjusting cabinet doors seasonally. So a deal was made. I started digging under the shed in late August with a mini backhoe I borrowed from a friend. Poured the footers, stacked ICF blocks with rebar, made foot drains that drain into a dry well in the backyard and poured the concrete. I did it in two stages to keep the house supported on the existing posts as much as I could until I could transfer the weight onto the foundation. I wired a sub panel, plumbed a zone off the boiler and installed radiators. Now down to finishing with as much reclaimed/salvage material as possible. More pics to follow.

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Wow!

Looking forward to it!

I remember this process All to well!!! lol Best investment I ever made. What we won't do for the sake of pinball.........lol Have 45 machines now thanks to this Crazy commitment.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-game-room-underground-excavation-and-expansion-for-themodcouple

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Wow Yelobird, that's a much more ambitious project than mine. I left the existing foundation wall undisturbed and made an external entry for this room. I have room for about half a dozen games, plus maybe an arcade cab. I went back through and checked out your game room and that's amazing!

Those doors are AMAZING. Where did you find those?

Yep... I did that too. Started in Mar 2018 and finished (the setup pics below) in Jan 2020. I should have just moved to a different house... Thankfully mine was finished just before the epidemic hit.

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Wow that turned out Amazing and what a collection!

Thank you. I'm very happy with it and it's coming together as I've added art on the walls, filled the whiskey bar , and added some more comfortable furniture. There have been several game changes in the past year too. I can't wait for the epidemic to be over...

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Tell me about it... We started our project early 2019 with designs. Adding 1200 sq ft. to the house in 3 levels (not all of it's for pinball! )

Broke ground in Feb. 2020, and in May had the new basement dug out, concrete wall removed. All framing up June 4th or so. Now it's December. In 6 months we've had our (minimal) ductwork put in, and plumbing. Our county does framing, plumbing, elec, and HVAC all in the same inspection. No elec, so no inspection. To say I'm pissed with the GC is an understatement.

The photos you guys are posting gives me some hope though!

Agreed on the epidemic though if I ever had to be sequestered Your basement looks like an Awesome place to do it! Well done love it.

wow those basement addons are insane

im wondering if it would just be cheaper to sell and buy a house with a basement

Not in my area. It's a direct trade off of time vs $$. I am (repeating to myself on the hour) investing time into our future so that we can turn it into money when we sell, which then allows us to turn it back into time. Despite my bitching about how long it's taking, we'll make about $300K in equity profit the day they give us the occupancy permit. Buying a similar house in our area us like 1.5million. and I can tell you i am -WAY NOT- paying that much for this addition.

But you have to be on it like crazy. I had guys who put in a new 13ft header which was holding up the 1st floor ceiling and the entire 2nd floor. They installed it without checking where the supports in the basement were, so we had it just sitting basically on the floorboards and not truly bearing the load. Could have ended really badly...

Keith, did you not have a basement at all beforehand?

Not very good. Just a casual player these days.

My wife and I did ours with 2 exceptions. We hired out the electric and the drop ceiling / soffit work.

It took us about a year to get it all done working here and there. If you're really bored we took lots of pics.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91696572@N00/albums/1049931

Since then it flooded once and we no longer have the laminate wood floors, but things happen. Was a great learning experience and we only had one mishap which required an ER visit. LOL

Chris

I did not. There are very few basements in the bay area CA...

You guys are all crazy..brilliant! Remodeling and dedicating a basement (in some cases actually digging a basement) it's totally a good idea for such a great hobby! Very inspiring!

So, the lazy, accident prone me, has started to look for a new house that will accommodate pinballs & arcades with street level access. E.g. a big bungalow!

Lucky me, my girlfriend thinks it's a great idea as well! Then again, I can't get her away from her Pac-Man or Hulk LE!! So, may as well have a dedicated spot for them..!

I live very comfortably in a 480sqm industrial warehouse with a container house in it. Just saying.

What! That’s fascinating! Post photos!

Best record here on our Stilldragon page i think.

https://www.stilldragon.org/discussion/2140/new-office

So I learned a few things here:
-StillDragon is going to be on my buy list soon
-American construction is pathetically slow compared to Aussie ingenuity
-between SD, rock n’ roll, pinball, the space, the beach, and Snake - clearly I need to move down under.
- who does those amazing murals!

I developed my first basement when I was 25 with no skills besides watching/helping my dad whenever we moved into a new house growing up. I've done three more since and it's so rewarding when the project is complete. I've learned how to plumb/wire/hvac a entire home along the way.

When our current house sells, we'll be building this time and I will never have a basement again. So many worries/problems. Single floor/ranch style home only for us. After going thru flooded, molded, molded again basements, NEVER AGAIN! Current blueprints have a 600 sq2 gameroom/bar and a spare bedroom that could be used to store a few games.

If you are buying in the states tell Larry i sent ya, he's in Florida. There's two snakes here now if you don't count that carpet snake that got away and lives in the shed somewhere. Really the place is full of them, find them down the back and in the driveway all the time. My companion snakes are both Morelia Bredli, a desert loving snake.

This was them last night on a visit to each other, they are usually housed separately, but i get stoned sometimes and want to see what they do.

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Murals were all done by a local artist ash Johnston;

https://www.facebook.com/openstudiocoffs/

http://openstudioweb.blogspot.com/

He's really active in the graffiti scene organizing festivals and shows all over the world.

Gunna get him to do the design for this years T shirts for the Woopi Freeballers;

https://www.facebook.com/Woopi-Freeballers-Inc-1079332152257683/

I must say, these game rooms are impressive. Some of them are more like game compounds. I got into the hobby about 2 years ago. This month, I repurposed my media room to be a dedicated pin sanctuary. There is room for 7 of I really pack the room. I have 4 now, and once my GnR CE gets here, 5 will be the count. Thank goodness my wife has been supportive...

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What kind of snake is that?

Morelia Bredli - he mentioned above. Beautiful snakes!

Finally having our close-in inspection today at 11. guys are upstairs loading insulation batts into the new space. New basement is full of our crap from the rest of the house - no games in there yet except for Heist!, which I've been playing non-stop. It's 20 degrees colder in there than the rest of the house, which sucks but that will soon no longer be an issue!

Bredli as said above, yes;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morelia_bredli

Wonderful nature. When i first got the smaller one he was a rescue. owned by a couple of teenagers who loved to watch him strike and wouldn't pick him up.
I asked if i could get him out and they said 'If you want to get bitten'.
He bit me on the face.

Next time i picked him up he cruised on my arm for 1/2 an hour without striking. Since then and since i owned him the only time i've ever seen him strike at a person was when the ex owner came here once and i got him out, he struck at him.

Funny how they remember people, he loves obne of my mates, and gets excited when he sees him at the table through his tank and want's to get out and say hello all the time.

That's how he got the name 'Hoodat'.

My bigger fella came from a breeder as a yearling, he's never struck except if i've made a stupid mistake like putting my hands in the tank to move something straight after feeding him.

Both snakes get out for an hour or so most days, i try to toilet train them as they don't like messing up their tanks and i don't like cleaning it up. If i take them out the front on the grass when they look like they are full, they like to crap on the grass. Must be the texture i think, they run at about 8 out of 10 outside craps usually.

Sorry, that's more than you asked but i get carried away.

5 new machines and no Stern? You don't see that often.

Lol this thread is turning into snake school!

Great story about how they remember people - I had no idea. I saw a video with Kerry King talking about all his snakes but I think he’s more of a specialty breeder. Not sure how many are companions

Apologies for getting carried away. Someone above showed interest in my best mates is all.

Back to our regular programming.

I had Iron Maiden Premium and Star Wars Premium. Played them for about a year and sold them to make room for the machines I have now. I also had LOTR for about a month...but I had to sell it to make room for GnR and TBL.

I enjoy all of the brands to be honest, although I do believe that JJP does build the most amazing machines...but I have no complaints about Stern, Spooky or my one Bally machine! They all are equally in need to love and care periodically. Also, I've literally never had a NIB or Used machine not need something fixed when it arrived to my house. It's all part of pinball IMO.

Digging it

Well said. I have no complaints about any of the manufacturers - it occurs to me we have at least one from all the current manufacturers (of course I have 3 B/W games!) in the bolted-to-the-floor lineup, including AP and Multimorphic. All are sticking around