Quoted from Luckydogg420:This is coming along quickly.
I'm glad it feels this way to someone. 
Forgot to post a tantalizing shot of refined edges yesterday:
IMG_20190726_135732504 (resized).jpg
Doesn't look a whole lot different, but this was another few hours of our builder's time.
Builder put in a heck of a day today. Not only did he spend HOURS sanding and refining the joins, edges, and corners, but he also managed to prime all the walls:
IMG_20190729_214236164 (resized).jpg
IMG_20190729_214256596 (resized).jpg
This was all cause for another...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:...minor high.
During the course of conversation with my builder, he asked if I'd purchased paint yet. I told him, "Not yet," and that I'd more or less picked the colors, but was still hemming and hawing and being a wishy-washy artist about the whole thing. He told me that he might be ready for paint today, which surprised me and wrenched me out of my indecisive state. In an effort to keep this project moving, I immediately drove to the paint store, debated the color qualities of a number of paint chips, and made a choice. Here's the carpet sample (OH it's such glorious carpet!!!) and the paint chips:
IMG_20190729_103216804 (resized).jpg
Depending upon the lighting, they kinda change color:
IMG_20190729_110700479 (resized).jpg
...which was part of the reason I had such a hard time picking paint colors. The ones I thought were "it" didn't work like I thought they would once they were in the light of the basement. Anyhow, I made some executive, on-the-fly decisions at Sherwin Williams today and I'm happy with the way they're working now. The light color will go on the walls and the darker color on the ceiling. I understand that will make the space feel a little more...oh, what's the realtor euphemism...COZY! But I wanted a darker color above all the glass (yet not black) to avoid reflections. I mocked it up quickly and I'm happy with the virtual version:
So there you have it, the buried lead of the neon design choice.
Result: the one that nobody voted for. *LOL*
I really love it, though. Big, colorful, animated and personal. ...and PRETTY much within budget. I can't wait to see it illuminating the space.
Still a healthy way to go before the basement is done, but I wanted to thank everyone here for following along and making this long process a fun one.
Until next update...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:So there you have it, the buried lead of the neon design choice.
Result: the one that nobody voted for. *LOL*
Its not who voted for what, its the process which was a lot of fun to watch unfold 
Sign looks great! Animation on the flippers and the Elephant bite?
Quoted from RyanClaytor:Result: the one that nobody voted for. *LOL*
Looks great in the space, though!
Quoted from ReadyPO:Animation on the flippers and the Elephant bite?
Yeah. Here's the final version:
Quoted from ReadyPO:Its not who voted for what, its the process which was a lot of fun to watch unfold Sign looks great!
Quoted from manitouguy:Fantastic stuff Ryan – that neon sign will be absolutely awesome!
Quoted from yancy:Looks great in the space, though!
Ha-ha! Thanks, guys.
In an effort to help move this project along and save my builder some time, I offered to do some painting before he returns tomorrow. 4.5 hours later and a post-midnight completion time, the ceiling is painted. 
IMG_20190731_002433035 (resized).jpgIMG_20190731_002539254 (resized).jpgIMG_20190731_002625467 (resized).jpgIMG_20190731_002711094 (resized).jpg
G'nite...
This morning, my builder walked in and said, "So, late night, huh?"
I proceeded to tell him about my 4.5 hour, post-midnight, Sistine Chapel, ceiling painting marathon that took place mere hours ago. After spying his jolly mug, I asked how long he thought it would take him to do it. He said, "Probably an hour." After voicing my skepticism, he told me, "Well, it needs another coat, so when you bring me back another gallon, I'll do it and time myself."
Fast forward to the end of the day and I come down to survey his progress, and he greets me with, "43 minutes." *LOL* ...even more important, it looks great.
So, anyway, PAINT!
IMG_20190731_105106693 (resized).jpg
Also...
IMG_20190731_105046783 (resized).jpg
The ceiling is supposed to be darker than the walls, but when you see the whole thing at once (above) the difference is pretty negligible. I guess when you see it at certain angles...
IMG_20190731_130721574 (resized).jpg
...it's more apparent.
*shrugs*
When I take in the entire room and imagine most of it covered with pinball machines and neon, I can't imagine anyone besides me and you, dear reader, will ever take notice. ...at least, that's what I'm trying to tell myself. 
Anyhow, here's how things sit right now:
IMG_20190731_170830976 (resized).jpg
Trim is painted and ready to go and crown molding waits in the wings. Tomorrow, all that should go up, and if we're lucky, maybe even a couple of doors.
See ya then.
And then there were doors...
IMG_20190801_214739793 (resized).jpg
...and trim and crown molding!!!
IMG_20190801_214825017 (resized).jpg
It's all looking pretty great! It's like, a mature, big-boy, room! Which is kinda the vibe I'm hoping for! Only...with...a mountain of pinball and arcade games in it.
So, it's certainly not done yet. There's still a lot of finishing elements to polish off...
IMG_20190801_214931426 (resized).jpg
But my builder is just as anal-retentive and meticulous as I am, so I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be either.
By the way, in case anyone's wondering about the trifecta of doors, that left one...
...is simply the entrance to the space.
The middle door...
...allows access to the heater:
IMG_20190801_215004236 (resized).jpg
...and the door on the right...
...leads to the storage space...
IMG_20190801_215045612 (resized).jpg
...which will need A LOT OF ATTENTION once this job is done. 
But in the meantime, just look at how the builder finished this window like a boss:
As my wife put it, "It's almost like a feature of the room it's done so nicely." I mean, it pretty much looked like garbage yesterday. Just a raw, unfinished, cinder block concrete and metal stud surround:
I could not wrap my head around how that window was gonna look "done"...and also function. I'd kinda resigned myself to just having a really nice room with a garbage window and thought, "Welp, I guess 99% awesome is still pretty good." But miraculously that window is now both done and functional. ...or, it will be after some paint. Nevertheless...more excitement!
I also played more General Contractor and managed some boring stuff today. Carpet guys are scheduled for an install on Aug 16th. Electrical inspection is scheduled for Aug 5th (Monday!?). So, you know...things are happening.
Alright,
I'm off to Houston, TX for the weekend. See ya there? 
If not, see ya back here next week!
Quoted from LargemouthAss:Looks great!
Quoted from jeffsgames:Looks great Ryan! Can't wait to see this full of games!
Thanks a bunch, guys. I'm starting to feel like there's a light at the end of this tunnel.
Yesterday, a few things happened. First, the electrical guy came over to polish off some final trim stuff, like installing the pot light surrounds, lowering them a bit after the drywall was installed, putting covers on all the switches and outlets and also putting some washers behind them to bring 'em to an appropriate depth. So, outlets are finished:
IMG_20190806_204555462 (resized).jpg
...as are the light switches (and MOAR OUTLETS):
IMG_20190806_204617868 (resized).jpg
The other thing that happened yesterday was the electrical inspector came for his final once over. He mentioned three minor things last time, which were all taken care of, so we expected a quick inspection and approval. However, before he would give final approval the inspector said, "Woopsies, I forgot to mention that you need a light in the furnace area."
Thankfully, my electrician made short work of installing a bare bulb in that section with a pull-chord:
IMG_20190806_223348426 (resized).jpg
...unlocking the final electrical approval achievement:
The last thing that happened yesterday was a guy from the carpet store came to get final measurements for the room. The room is kind of a big rectangle, so he was in and out toot suite.
Au revoir...
Today was another massive workday for my builder. He pretty much finished everything. I mean, the doors were all painted so they match the trim and each other...
IMG_20190806_204527621 (resized).jpg
...the duct vents were installed...
IMG_20190806_204408315 (resized).jpg
...that trim around the...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:...feature of the room...
...was painted out...
IMG_20190806_204503717 (resized).jpg
...and do you remember the bits of trim and polish on the crown molding that needed finished:
IMG_20190801_214931426 (resized).jpg
Well, that's done, too:
IMG_20190806_204344876 (resized).jpg
...as is all the final paint:
IMG_20190806_204701688 (resized).jpg
This place is really shaping up.
Almost forgot to mention another thing that happened today; I spent most of it making final measurements and refinements to my custom neon design in an effort to send a comprehensive email to my neon guy. The email went something like this:
- --- ------ --- -
I've attached a PDF file of the final, full-sized, black and white version of my neon sign. (I saved a TIF file, too, but it was almost 100megs, so it wouldn't attach. If you need that or some other format, just let me know.) The attached file is 8'x4', which corresponds to the backer board and exact position of the neon on that board.
I'll try to outline the specifications here.
First, you might see some faint vertical lines. Those are simply demarcating a measurement every foot. Also, when you open the file, you'll see a dark rectangle in the upper-right corner:
That is where the backer board should be notched/cut out in order to fit around the duct work. Here is an image of the wall to give you a better understanding of the space:
...and where the sign with backer will be placed on that back wall:
...those other dark silhouettes are outlines of a couple of games that will be sitting in front of the wall. Kinda like this:
I also wanted to show you the placement of the studs behind the drywall:
...so that you can place the transformers accordingly. (If you need more precise measurements for the placement of these existing metal studs, just let me know.) Please also note that there is a gas line in the upper right portion immediately behind the studs:
...which will prevent the placement of transformers or nailing in that area.
In the meantime, here's a composite mock-up of where the neon sign with backer will sit in relationship to the existing metal studs:
That brings us to the color of the neon, which should correspond to this image:
I would like the red to be the ruby red coated tubes and the yellow to be the better yellow that will not show light through in the tight bends. I know we had some discussion about the color of the elephant toes. I saw a sign with sort of an off-white/beige color neon that I'm hoping you can replicate:
The animated elements are the flippers and the bite out of the elephant foot. These are all linked on an alternating transformer. I would like those elements to alternate every 2 seconds, as shown above.
The backer board should be painted the same color as the wall of my basement. I can bring the paint to your shop and even paint the backer for you whenever you're ready.
I think that's it. If you have any other questions, I'm happy to chat. I guess my only questions are; what's the final estimate for this and when can it be ready to install?
- --- ------ --- -
So that ball is also rolling. We'll see what he has to say!
I’m guessing you’re the single most prepared customer that guy ever had, if not the most prepared in the entire history of neon. Reminds me of when I took very detailed room measurements (including a scale drawing) to a carpet shop and the guy said, “do you want a job?”
Quoted from Insane:MOAR outlets? shouldn't that be more?
HEY..........give him a break..........remember he is an artist .......not an English teacher!
Quoted from yancy:I’m guessing you’re the single most prepared customer that guy ever if had, if not the most prepared in the entire history of neon. Reminds me of when I took very detailed room measurements (including a scale drawing) to a carpet shop and the guy said, “do you want a job?”
Ha-ha! Nice to meet another Type-A, control freak, perfectionist, Yancy.
Quoted from Insane:MOAR outlets? shouldn't that be more?
Not when there's that...maNY...MMOOOAARRR!!!
Quoted from zerbam:HEY..........give him a break..........remember he is an artist .......not an English teacher!
Maybe a little of that, too.
...but not in the case oF MOOOOOAAAAARRR!!!
Remember that...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:...PDF file of the final, full-sized, black and white version of my neon sign...
...that I sent my neon guy yesterday? Well, evidently plotters don't like PDF's because he was having a heck of time outputting it. I asked him what file format he would prefer. He asked if I have a vector file. I told him I didn't, but that I could make one. So that's what I did today. I started by placing my existing rasterized file in Adobe Illustrator:
Then began the mild tedium of manually vector tracing all lines:
It looks like this as I toggle that tracing layer on and off to see how things are going:
Ultimately it ended up looking like this:
ClaytorArcadeVector (resized).jpg
For those interested in the difference between the couple of files, here's the rasterized version (the first file, the one I sent him yesterday):
...and here's the vector version that I retraced today (the second file, which took me about 90 minutes to manually retrace):
Essentially the first one is made of a limited number of pixels and the second one is made up of anchor points and mathematical equations to create those lines between the points (making them infinitely scale-able).
Anyhow, a while back when I visited the neon shop, I saw my neon guy working on a giant piece of paper with what looked like outlines of all those lines/tubing, so I gave him a version like this, too:
ClaytorArcadeVectorOutlines (resized).jpg
...because I am a...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:...Type-A, control freak, perfectionist...
...so there you go.
Neon guy doesn't have interwebs in his office (only at home) so I'll likely receive feedback tomorrow.
Until then...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:I dunno, man. I think it kinda loses something without the glow.
...thoughts?
Add some glow to the illustration for the shirt. I heard there was a guy in your area that is amazing at art!
I visited the neon guy today at his new location. He was renting some space before but recently purchased his own place.
IMG_20190813_094416935 (resized).jpg
Pretty cool to see his new digs with a lot more space than he had before. Anyhow, I brought him a can of my basement wall paint so that the backer would look the same as the wall itself. When I walked in, I saw the full sized print-out of my sign laying on a work bench:
Pretty impressive to see it that large. We also got to chat about a bunch of minutiae and logistics.
IMG_20190813_101225375 (resized).jpg
A couple additional pieces of info he needed were the size of the notch cut out of the top right (how did I forget that in my...
Quoted from RyanClaytor:...Type-A, control freak, perfectionist...
...write-up!??!) and the location of the studs behind the drywall. So I emailed him some info and a diagram when I got home:
Sounds like we'll likely be installing in a couple weeks or so. Still can't believe this is actually happening. Makes me want a...
...dance break:
Its really cool how they make those neon signs. And there is no way to short cut this, is there? You gotta do what you gotta do in order to get all that glass shaped right and everything connected, filled with gas, etc. No way will it ever be done for cheap, it takes too much skilled manual labor. But it will hopefully continue to be around for a long time, because it is just cool as heck.
In carpet news...
IMG_20190816_121229760.jpgIMG_20190816_121258221.jpgIMG_20190816_121312199.jpg
...man, this is glorious. Here's our basement security camera footage of me once the carpet guys left:
Speaking of the carpet guys, turns out one of them used to work with the neon guy I'm working with. He swore up and down about what a phenomonal artist and person he was, which made me feel pretty great as that was the sense I got from him. Glad to know I wasn't off base. I texted the neon fellow while carpet installer was still here and to make a long story short, I think I reunited two long lost buds. Both had great things to say about one another and through a series of texts was able to get both of them one another's info. Pretty rad.
Alright, after some doorknobs there's one last thing to do before games get moved in!!!
Probably a week or two until that's ready to install. Until then, enjoy your dance breaks.
Quoted from RyanClaytor:Alright, after some doorknobs there's one last thing to do before games get moved in!!!
After looking around a couple local big box stores for doorknobs that match the existing hardware in our house and coming up empty-handed, we found some online and placed an order.
Welp, these arrived a few days ago:
So I spent some time tonight turning this...
...into this:
(Sing this next part to your own personal rhythmless tune) : EH-VRY ONE'S EXCITED ABOUT KNOBBIES FOR THE DOORS...IF EVERYONE IS MEEEEE! JUST BIDING TIME UNTIL MY NEON IS...FIIIINIIIISHED! TRYIN' REAL HARD NOT TO BE THE MERVYN'S GAL...SITTIN' OUT-SIDE THE NEON SHOP EACH MORNIN'!
Until the next update, door dances, y'all...
My desperation vibes must have been palpable when I posted last night because I received an exciting series of images today...
38f5eeeb-c926-4d43-a558-7c2221725442 (resized).jpg
499cf135-7439-4264-b233-fa60c8b1927f (resized).jpg
7b10b90a-074a-4df7-a3d8-d98b36395111 (resized).jpg
94281cfe-3417-4a28-92fb-bdf9976ce734 (resized).jpg
a6737615-4d57-4e34-b6ef-952d567dd384 (resized).jpg
...all sent in a very nice text message...
...which was equally as enjoyable as the images:
Screenshot_20190819-202731 (resized).jpg
Love this guy!
Time to occupy myself with another...
Quoted from Luckydogg420:I wonder if you’ve underestimated how bright that will be.[quoted image][quoted image]
Seinfeld_kenny_rogers_roasters (resized).jpgSo, from my wife (above) to my mom, who just saw the process photos. I think she had my favorite reaction yet:
...squiggly, indeed.
In other news, we have a neon installation date scheduled for Aug 29th, 2019. Set your notifications for a week from Thursday. I sure have.
Dance breaking in anticipation,
Ryan
Quoted from xsvtoys:Can't wait
... it's full of stars!
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Holt, MI
Vancouver, BC
