Guys, I've been wanting to post on here for months as this project commenced but the actual DOING it pretty much has taken all our time. We bought a 1700 sq ft ranch with a wide open basement back in Jan and started on the basement around the end of Feb. It's almost done now, but I will just dole out the pics a few at a time so its not overload - plus, we are still working on other projects.

Anyways, here's what we started with - // Error: Image 255071 not found //IMG_20140112_135305_011.jpgIMG_20140112_135326_623.jpgIMG_20140112_135345_501.jpgIMG_20140112_135319_860.jpg

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Long story short, the last 6 or 7 games that I've bought over the last few years went straight into a storage unit, so this is the first time I'll see all 18 pins, 2 gun games, air hockey and foosball all together. I am as excited as you guys! The plan is for a workshop to the right of the stairs, a display area straight ahead for all the goofy collectibles, a small science fiction/mad scientist themed bar area, a tv area, half bath and storage area but basically leaving it as wide open as possible.

Framing under way/completed -IMG_20140321_124726_716.jpg

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Bathroom and storage way back there...

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display area for stupid stuff
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Some kind of feature wall on the right, first thing you see when you come down the stairs, room for 8 pins
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Workshop - 36" door to get pins in easy...
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TV area on other side of half wall. 4 pins (back to back pairs) on this side.

I'll post more very soon guys! I'm really bummed i didnt do this as it was actually happening but at least you wont have to follow this thread for 6 months....lol.

You wouldn't have wanted to been here this winter, Terry - one of the worst we've ever had. I believe we either set a new snowfall record or missed it by less than an inch.

Yes, too late for those kinds of changes. We wanted to be able to market the house as a 4 bedroom if/ when we sell one day so we went with an actual door on the workshop. But at 36" will still be fine to get pins in. The closet will be cedar, havent gotten to that yet.
We will have some kind of countertop on the half wall so we can put a couple stools on the tv side and people can watch the pin action on the other side. We do have an idea for the poles though - at least one of them. Thats for a future post to this thread as its not implemented yet.
And unfortunately no walkout. I do have access to a 24' liftgate truck and an Escalera ( and several volunteers that want everything set up so they can play too) so the pain of getting everything down there should be eased a bit.

With the framing done, it was on to electrical. We were planning on 3 separate areas - the big space on one side of the half wall with 8 pins against some kind of feature wall and 2 pairs of pins back to back against the half wall. A tv area with couch, popcorn machine, etc on the other side of the half wall. And a wall of 6 pins on the long wall near the bathroom. I wanted them all on dimmers to customize the feel. And I wanted to be able to turn all the pins on from one spot. So we planned 3 20 amp circuits for the pins. I bought a couple books on electricity/wiring and started reading. I did all the wiring myself. I ended up pulling over 1000 feet of wire.

The plan - the only thing we ended up changing was the location of the wall switches to turn on the games.
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Can lights up - I can finally see. Spacing out the outlets...
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Pulling wire....lots of wire.....
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We lost about 5 inches due to that PVC pipe - I wanted a flat wall there to hang posters or whatever so we had to build it out. I would do the same thing again. In fact I did on another wall.
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The switch box for the 3 20 amp circuits to control the pins.
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Believe it or not, running the wire to the half wall gave me more problems than almost anything...
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The basement wasn't plumbed for a half bath (i mean, seriously? so we had to bust up the floor.IMG_20140422_121749_254.jpg
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Next installment - insulation and drywall.......

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We still have to install the fixtures in the bathroom and finish up a couple odds and ends. The carpet and trim went in 2 or 3 weeks ago..... And yes, we definitely wanted a bathroom downstairs. Thanks -

We had to get an egress window installed as the basement was now considered "living space" ( in February in Michigan. Those guys earned their money.)

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We (meaning my wife) decided to go with blow in insulation.
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Drywall getting ready to go up.
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Drywall. We thought about doing it ourselves. For about 5 minutes.

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18 pins, 2 gun games, air hockey, foosball, a sci fi/mad scientist themed bar, and a tv area.

We did the ceiling flat black too. Due to scheduling restraints we had to do the ceiling after the drywall which required a little extra work, but not much. We used DryFall flat black, which dries to dust when it falls 8' or more and can be swept up. Unfortunately our ceiling was a few inches shy, but we were sealing the floor anyways so it wasn't a concern. Sprayer rental $99, 2 5-gal buckets of DryFall $198.00.

The equipment.
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Before
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After - notice the floor too....Pictures kinda suck but there are better shots coming.
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And floor sealed.......
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While shopping for the floor sealer we got an idea for the feature wall. Next will be those, and pics of paint, trim and carpet, and that will pretty much bring it up to where we are right now.

Carpet for both reasons....j would lean more towards comfort though.

Yeah, I love playing with lighting. I have hidden outlets all over the place in the ceiling to add random neon or track lights to accent certain things. Drives the wife nuts when we r settling down to.watch a movie and I'll turn off this lamp, turn on that one, then do the opposite. Gotta create the mood, you know?, lol

Ann Arbor, you're like 20 min from me! I smell a little pinball party brewing.....

Ok, I am

That looks killer! I see you arent afraid of a little color either! Great job

While we were getting floor sealer, I saw something that I thought would look great for the "feature wall" that you see first thing when you come down the stairs....and I remembered my "Pinball Alley" sign I'd gotten at the Chicago Expo years before.....

The cut-out area is where the 3 switches will go that will turn on all the games at once. Three 20 amp circuits spread around the basement.
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Heck, let's start slinging some paint. I've been lucky enough to have friends with awesome game rooms so we had an idea or 2 about colors......

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And life is too short for an ordinary light switch, This one lights up and makes 2 80's arcade sounds : )

Thank you wayner! It's been a long time coming but we're finally almost done.

Well, nothing lasts forever and this post is about to come to a close for a little while. This brings us up to the present day. We've moved the air hockey and foosball in but still have to get our final inspection before we can move everything else over. Carpet and trim -

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I cant get a good picture of how bright this neon green actually is -
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That's about it for now, guys. I'll post more when the sci-fi/mad scientist bar is done and the games go in. Thanks for the kind words and compliments, I've enjoyed sharing this with everyone! If you're ever around southeast MI, drop me a line. Don

Me too!

Lol....I have been following your thread for a while! Gameroom looks great!

Yes, an Escalera : )
I wish it was a walkout but it's a straight shot through the garage straight down the basement so it's the best I could ask for.

You didn't read the entire thread..... We started back in January, I'm just now posting the pics.....

You weren't supposed to see these! Lol....

Its a small world! I used to work at Willow Run at Active Aero - USA Jet Airlines....

Games started moving in this weekend. Theater of Magic and rocky and Bullwinkle are on deck in the garage waiting for their turn.
I was amazed after being in storage for 6 years, not a single error message on AFM. One switch adjustment on ToM. Even KISS fired right up.
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Medusa topper - snakes rattle and move as she talks........tn.jpg

Pain was the word of the day yesterday. Moved 8 pins and 2 rifle games from my storage unit to the basement. Only ended up setting 2 more up though, LONG day. Basement is getting smaller by the day - - - -

Loaded up -
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IMG_20140726_214052_152.jpgThank you! Soon as I get all of them set up and dialed in - looking forward to starting on the mad scientist lab, picked up a couple cool things for that today. Anyways, put fresh batteries in the games today, the crowd was getting restless that they couldnt save their initials....

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Thanks for the compliments guys, we're really having fun now that the games are going in! Did a little more cleaning up the past couple days - still have a few games to bring down but at least the majority of them are down there. Started bringing down the stuff for the sci-fi/mad scientist bar - i think this thread is gonna go on a little longer than i thought lol

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