Hi Pinside,

I'm starting a basement remodel and thought I'd document it here. Currently, we have room for about 10 games and our goal is to finish an unfinished portion of our basement that will accommodate about 15 games. For those of you who have followed my threads in the past, you know you're in for a slow burn. So, buckle-up, buddies, and let's spin this yarn...

Prior to purchasing and moving into our current home, I mocked up a basement space that looked something like this:

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At this time, 2014, we had 4 pinball machines. This made me feel pretty good, because I knew we'd have room for a few more games. When we moved in, it looked like this:

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...which was a pretty amazing feeling to OWN our own house and have a few games to set up in a playable space.

But you guys all know how this story goes once you have one, so let's fast track this...

Circa late 2016:
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Mid 2017:
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The Claytorian Flood of Early 2018:
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...and eventual resurrection:
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Finally, this is how our space has settled down as of 2019:
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...but that doesn't mean there aren't a few more lurking in the wings :
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Because of that, I've had my eye on an unfinished portion of our basement that, until now, has been used largely for storage. I did some mock-ups of that space for our contractor:

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And started the daunting task of putting all our games on their butts for a couple (few? ) months and moving all of our accumulated sundry junk out of a particular space to be finished (the half-wall storage area):

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So, presently, this is what our glorious gameroom looked like during our Easter party:

Saturday, April 20, 2019:
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Sunday, April 21, 2019, my helpful topless son assisted me in disassembling our fleet:
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...and eventually it looked like this:
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...ready to receive an avalanche of outgrown baby stuffs and mystery boxes largely unopened since we moved into this house 5 years ago:
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So that was today's task (Tuesday, April 23, 2019), which essentially cleared out roughly half of that half-wall storage area, which had very little organization.

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Just a large open area that we hope to turn into a more usable and organized space with the addition of shelving and padded carpet (shown in the mock-ups above).

In an effort to compartmentalize this little venture and make it feel like perhaps some progress is being made, I tried to organize this undertaking into phases:

Phase 1: Clear-out half-wall storage
Phase 2: Remodel half-wall storage with wardrobe, shelving, and padded carpet
Phase 3: Move junk into remodeled half-wall storage and migrate junk from new game room onto new half-wall storage
Phase 4: Remodel new game room with drywall, electrical, and padded carpet
Phase 5: Paint walls
Phase 6: Move games into remodeled game room
Phase 7: Paint feature wall mural and incorporate neon sign
Phase 8: Regain sanity and enjoy new space

I'm trying to have that storage space cleared and ready by May 1st, which is around when our contractor will be ready to start. ...still gotta pick out some carpet before then.

Here we go!!! Thanks in advance for taggin' along on this exciting and daunting ride with us.

Sincerely,
Ryan Claytor

Us too! BTW, I think I've mentioned this before, Lint, but nice avatar.

Ha-ha! So true, Rody. I'm trying to brace myself for the inevitable mismanagement of time and budget.

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Don't tempt us, BingoPodcast! We've done it before!

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Thanks, RCA1! See you at PatZ this weekend?

Doin' our best, OldPinGuy! Keepin' eyeses on prizes over here!

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You know, they say the journey is the destination, but I kinda feel like in this case the destination is the destination. I mean, I sure hope this isn't the destination:

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Speaking of which, shrewd viewers may have noticed some additional garbage in that heap. It's because last night, the second half of that half-wall storage unit:

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...got cleared out:

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So that today a carpet guy could come do some measurements:

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He said this was the first time he'd seen this half-wall type of area.

Just a brief aside, we bought our place from the original owner/builder. We've since asked him, "Why the half-wall?" We assumed there was an obstruction of some sort. Maybe a sewer pipe or an immovable subterranean boulder or perhaps a pirate chest of doubloons that could help us with this remodel. But, no. It was strictly cost-cutting. I believe his response to us was something like, "You know, in retrospect, I could kick myself for not digging that out the rest of the way, as it would have only added another $200 - $300 to the cost of the build."

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Minor updates: On Friday, I received the final quotes on both areas of carpet (cheap stuff for the half-wall storage area and also luxurious carpet and padding for the new arcade area). I handed over 50% payment for both areas and scheduled the soonest available installation for the half-wall storage area, which was about two and a half weeks away (May 14th). That's a lot longer than I hoped to wait, as I previously told my contractor he could start building the shelving on top of the carpet around May 1st. However, I repeated the aforementioned basement building mantra:

So, I reluctantly accepted, but not before asking to be notified about any potential cancellations or openings in their schedule. They assured me I was on a list of one kind or another and, after hanging up, I left a voicemail with my contractor to let him know about the 2+ week delay.

Fast forward to today and I received a call from the carpet folks. Turns out they DID have an unexpected opening and now we'll be getting carpet installed on May 6th instead of the 14th.

Woo-hoo!

Once again, contractor was notified of this next change and, thankfully, he seems awfully calm, cool, and collected about the whole thing.

Until May 6th,
Ryan

P.S. Dance break:

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Man, that's a fun game. I'd pick that up off the curb in a heartbeat.

Thanks, Jim!

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Sooo...as you may have suspected, that's been back-burnered due to this basement remodel and other projects taking precedent, but it's still firmly in my mind (gnawing at the back of my brain).

THANK, JIM!!!

- --- ----- --- -

In other news, I received an order of pin-footies today:

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With this glorious gameroom carpet coming soon-ish, I wanted to be ready to plop some games on it without destroying it.

Shouts and thanks to Terry @pinballlife for distributing a great product finely crafted by @bryan_kelly !

May the sixth be with you. And you know what that means. Carpet day for the half-wall storage area!

So the carpet installers showed up this morning:

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After the tack strips went down, they got the padding installed in pretty short order:

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...and wrapped it up post-lunch. After which I ran our vacu-bot a couple of times:

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And, by golly, I think that's about the best this awkward little space is ever going to look:

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Now it's prepped and ready for the shelving:

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Unfortunately, the contractor (scheduled to install the shelving tomorrow) won't be able to make it here until next week.

Living my mantra over here:

Until next (week's) update, stay classy, Pinside.

Dance Break!

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I honestly have no idea. Just found it in my typical searches for animated gifs. Sorry. Pretty glorious, though, right!?

You're welcome.

Thanks, Pecos! Here's hoping!

Us, too!!!

Word-up. We've got those gutter covers installed all over the house, and outside of a check-valve failure, our basement has been quite dry for the 5 years we've lived here. *knocking on wooden crossed fingers holding horseshoes and rabbit feet*

Aw yeah.

Come to Michigan (I say as a former Californian). We're lousy with basements and reasonably priced real estate over here.

Since we're all just twiddling our thumbs until next week, I thought I'd mention another bit of excitement. About 5 days ago, my buddy, Nick bingopodcast Baldridge, and I were interviewed on NPR for the Michigan program called "Stateside" to talk about our new pinball-related project. Here's an excerpt from an email we just received:

- --- --- -
The conversation you recorded with Cynthia Canty about Coin-Op Carnival will air today on our show.

Stateside airs from 3-4 p.m. and again from 10-11 p.m. on Michigan Radio:
91.7 FM – Ann Arbor/Detroit
91.1 FM – Flint
104.1 FM – West Michigan
MichiganRadio.org – online streaming

You'll also be able to find the full audio of your segment around 5 p.m. today on the Stateside page of our website, MichiganRadio.org.
- --- --- -

Let's see how this turned out and if they honored my request NOT to play The Who's "Pinball Wizard."

Dance break (in the back right):

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PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT YOU FIND!!!

My gawd...that's brilliant. Thank you for snapping me out of my task-oriented stupor. Sincerely. Fort-time needs to happen.

So, that aired, and now it's archived here:

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/stateside-state-senate-passes-auto-insurance-reform-pinball-history-comic-book-new-west-mi

^^^ ...just scroll about 1/2 - 2/3 down that page to find our isolated segment.

Enjoy,
Ryan

P.S. Dance break:

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Oh my gawd...I about died watching this. *LOL* Showed it to my wife who had the same reaction. Currently, my son is all about the Wild Kratts(two animal-excited bros educating kiddos about creatures and their "powers") so this hit us just right. Thank you, for this, Jim.

Sounds plausible! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

God bless the internet.

I need mah pinballz back on their feets!

That sounds nice.

My sincere hope is that before all of our junk goes back, we'll cut a bunch of it from our permanent storage line-up. Wish us well and send us your clutter-free thoughts, Mitch!

Thank you, c508, and you're a bunch of right...

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3. If it is a comic book.

You know you're welcome here anytime, Tommy. ...but I've gotta say, I'm not sure the place is trip-worthy, yet. Ha-ha!

Speaking of which...

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...here's the Tuesday update! The storage shelving is going in today as I type. This area should take another day or two to finish, then it's time to sift through all that miscellaneous debris I've been judged so harshly for and decide what stays and what will go.

Thanks for keepin' me company here in my up-turned basement, guys!

Dance Break:

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Thanks, Jeff! The feeling is mutual.

To not read Groo is to err like a mendicant.

Amen, brother! ...glad I'm not the only one.

- --- ----- --- -

Okay, today was a pretty exciting day! CHECK IT OUT!!!

The half-wall basement storage area is COMPLETE!!! WOOO!!!

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For those that aren't keen on video, here are some stills.

From ground level:

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Topside:

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...with a built-in wardrobe for my wife's clothes on the left (in Michigan we need a summer and winter wardrobe...and a place to store them in the off-season):

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Rounding that corner behind the wardrobe:

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This back portion has three sets of shelves that are sized to fit my

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Hard to photograph some of these spaces but here's an orange-peeled panorama:

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...and finally, leading back out:

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I told my wife tonight, if I'm this happy about the storage space getting finished, I don't know what I'm gonna do when the arcade is done.

Mighty-night, all!

...

...

...

...a weary, incoherent dance break:

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As of the last update, we've completed:

Phase 1: Clear-out half-wall storage
Phase 2: Remodel half-wall storage with wardrobe, shelving, and padded carpet

Now we're on to...

Phase 3: Move junk into remodeled half-wall storage and migrate junk from new game room onto new half-wall storage

...which is actually proving to be more gratifying than I suspected.

But not before finding a...

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Thanks, C508.

Anyhow, do you recall that little, nondescript, hobbit door under our stairway in the old arcade:

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(Insert Penny Pitch flex )

Well, through that door held roughly half of my comic boxes:

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...which were quasi inaccessible beneath that stairway:

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Consequently, I rarely accessed my comics and, as you can see, organization and, shamefully, filing kinda fell by the wayside (for YEARS) as it was such a pain in the buns to grab anything in there. So, new acquisitions often just got piled atop those poorly stored boxes.

Alright, now that the shelves are built, I started schlepping all the boxes from said closet, as well as the new storage room:

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...into the newly renovated half-wall storage area:

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And eventually got most of those boxes into their respective spots:

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Which felt pretty amazing. There's still a healthy amount of sorting to do...

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...but it's getting done. I'm also making lists for additional supplies (boxes, bags, boards, etc) that I need to finish this long-neglected task. Should be complete in the next day or two, but, man, this already feels like a bright light at the end of a tunnel.

Dance break:

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Yesterday I stopped at a local comic shop to pick up those...

...that I mentioned last time. So, I've been chipping away at the organization of my comic library space. Gratifying, but it doesn't look much different to anyone besides me, so I'll save you the image bandwidth...at least for that part.

My wife was really the champ today. She sorted through a TON of stuff and got it organized into piles to sell, piles to hand to Goodwill, and piles to throw away. The back of my car is filled with bags I'll be dropping off to Goodwill in the morning...

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...and shredding later in the day...

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While we've given away carloads of baby stuff, we still have mountains more we'll try to sell in the coming week. Evidently my wife looked into some store in the area. Again, she's the trophy winner today. She even went through a mountain of her old clothes and is selling or donating A BUNCH of it. So proud of her.

Anyhow, we're thinning the boxes from our old arcade/current storage area, as well as our current unfinished storage/soon-to-be-finished-arcade:

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It may not look like much, but that entire right side was cleared of junk:

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Now I've gotta step up and clear out that other portion of my debris:

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Basement Dance Break:

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It's true. My wife likes a pristine freezer top. She's a meticulous one.

Anyhow, we're still getting rid of more junk. Today we sold a healthy amount of baby stuff:

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...and took SEVERAL. MORE. TRIPS. ...to Goodwill. We're practically on a first name basis now...us and Ole' Good.

We're also getting rid of lots of boxes. Here's our recycle for proof:

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Typically our 2 weeks of recycling fits in that brown bin on the right. ...we still have a week to go before our next pick-up.

In addition to clearing out more detritus, one of the puzzle pieces that needs to fit together somewhere between framing our unfinished future arcade and running electrical, is the creation of a custom neon sign.

So, if you recall, this was our existing arcade space:

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Here you can see the floor plan in comparison to our proposed space:

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...and here's what it currently looks like from eye level:

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And this is a 3D rendering of that same space finished:

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That image above shows a feature wall at the end of the row. That's where I'd like to design the sign.

This is a mock-up I created of that far wall with the silhouettes of the couple games that will hug that wall:

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For the inquiring minds, it will be a Penny Pitch on the left:

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...and a puck bowler on the right:

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So I tried making some quick and dirty sketches of what the sign might look like, just so I had something to chat about with the neon guy:

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Late last night, I did a color rendition:

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And what it might look like animated:

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I'd love to have some sort of animation on my sign. I also tossed it into that proposed environment:

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...and did my best to figure out the ideal size I'd want it:

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...knowing full well that these could quite possibly be pie-in-the-sky dreams. I mean, that sign looks a little big...and potentially out of our budget.

I went to the neon guy today and it turns out that size doesn't matter. (I can feel the cursors highlighting that last sentence and quote option being pushed.) I asked if I were to shave off a foot on each dimension, would that bring the price down? He said no, but the cost increases significantly with EACH FRAME of animation. Evidently, every frame needs a separate transformer...on top of the 3-ish transformers that I'd need anyway. Just to put this into perspective, if we made that sign without any animation, the price would be around a grand. If we made it animated as you see there, it would be in the 3-4k range.

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Just a touch out of our budget.

There's hope, though! For not much additional money, I could create an ALTERNATING element (first 1, then 2, then back to one, repeat). I could also have a FLASHING element, for not much additional outlay (on, then off, back on, repeat). The final thing neon guy mentioned is that there's a special transformer that can do 4 frames of animation for one low price. Sounds great, but he went on to say that he's seen a lot of these types of transformers that kinda crap-out. When I asked for specifics he said that the ON/OFF of each frame isn't very good...like, previous "frames" will stay lit or look kinda be lit when they should be off, or not quite animate crisply. I don't think I want to deal with that, but we'll see how much I can pair back this animated business. He did say that he could check/test the transformer once it arrives. If it doesn't act appropriately, he could send it back and get another one. I asked him if he ever sees good, four-frame, transformers crap-out in short order. He said no, but didn't have a lot of experience with the signs after they're out of his shop so...

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Sooo...that's where we're at right now. Trying to get everything lined up. Builder should be back next week (really gotta keep moving on this clearing-out business), electrical guy should be here on June 5th, and before either of them do their thing, I needed some info from neon guy so that I can mount that sign in a clean way (I don't want any chords visible and I'd like the neon to be flush on the wall). I think I got all those questions answered today, though, so that's good.

Alright, more to do. Thanks for hangin' out here.

Oh, before I go, I'm up for suggestions on that neon sign business. Nothing is set in stone yet, so I'm all ears...for the time being.

So, if you recall, this space:

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...needed to get cleaned up. So the past week has yeilded this:

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...PREH-TEE much cleaned up.

I've had to get creative with storage:

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...and things are starting to invade odd places:

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...until this remodel is finished. Honestly, it's starting to feel a little claustrophobic.

In other news, I mentioned last week that the...

...which meant he was gonna start working on this space you see above (the new arcade) today or so.

However, when I contacted him last week, I received some really awful news...

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Needless to say, I sent him our condolences and left him alone since then. I'm impressed he even wrote back. Not sure I could have under the same circumstances. We'd chat about her condition when he was finishing the half-wall storage area, but didn't expect things to progress so rapidly. All this to say, this thread might be on hiatus for a bit.

I worked a bit on an alternate neon design today. Here's what I came up with:

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I'm not convinced this is "it" but I was trying for a couple of things:

1. to further personalize the sign (I'm a comics artist and the book in the top left is representative of a comic book, the font is art-deco-inspired rather than a simple single-line font, and those vegas-y stars just scream yesteryear cool)

~and~

2. to design within the more price-efficient animation parameters I learned about last week (flashing, alternating, or 4-frame transformers).

So, here's the first mock-up:

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...in which I tried using that 4-frame animation on the book in the top left.

Then, the flashing transformer for the star:

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Finally, I pulled those flippers away from the central design a bit, which allowed them to have an alternating animation:

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There are elements I like about this and others I do not.

I like the color choices (I tried A LOT of different combinations and I'm pretty happy with this scheme), I like the new font (I think the additional pieces of tubing look pretty great), and I like multiple types of animation without having to break the bank (it's pretty mesmerizing...I just kinda wanna sit here and stare at that last one, which is the effect I want it to have).

I'm not super keen on the outline shape around the letters. I think it kinda looks like a Chevrolet logo...

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...or a Southwestern motif:

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I'd rather it look like a 70's bowling alley than a dive-y motel in New Mexico.

So, we'll see. I've not run these designs past my neon guy (just finished this evening), but I'll try to get in touch with him soon to trouble-shoot any more ignorant design oversights I may have commited. Until then, I thought I'd share some progress to see if there might be any constructive criticism.