Spiroagnew's basement thread

[spiroagnew]

Dateline: Monday January 20th. The day the renovation of the basement begins. Can't take any credit for the progress being made down there...I got a great local firm to come in and get it done. I have little time and skill for such things, and besides, I'd rather get it completed in a month rather than having it fester for months or even years in construction limbo. The company I'm using is known to us...we have used them before with great and honest and timely results. You can't put a price on trust and quality. So the pins are wrapped and protected, dust is in the air, and the allergies are taking their toll. The little man, crazy with excitement, is making as much noise upstairs with his little plastic hammer as the real workers are in the basement. But come mid-February, my pins, my LP records and my aforementioned (in another thread) Islanders memorabilia will have a new home. My wife's shoes too....they'll have a rather large place to live (read on). The finished basement will give me just short of 650sqft of space all of which is being built with my electronic Williams monsters in mind...wiring, clearance, layout, and so forth. 70sqft of that 650 is dedicated to my wife's shoe closet...it had to be there...or the basement would not have got the A-OK. And before you ask she has more than enough shoes to fill those all those square inches. Stay tuned for more updates...hopefully no catastrophic surprises!

Original layout...a few minor changes have been made since it was drawn up.

End of day two: framing completed in the main gameroom space. I'll be lining up the machines on that left hand wall.

End of day three: the shoe closet rears its ugly head...my wife squeals with delight.

 

[spiroagnew]

I've also decided to use a commercial grade low-pile durable carpeting with no under-pad glued to the subfloor. Lots of factors but it was decided out of economics more than anything...a buddy of mine is a carpet rep for all of Southern Ontario with a national manufacturer, so a deal could be had, and he also has a connection to what he claims is the best installer in the Western GTA. Going to pick something with a pattern and a few different colours (to both hide the dirt and give it that zany arcade feel).

 

[brewmanager]

Looks awesome. I wasn't into pins when we bought this place, or I might have set things up quite differently. A neat experience to get to design things with them in mind, I would guess.

 

[WARLOCK]

Congrats Rob!
Enjoy!

 

[domino]

I'm in the process of getting quotes on mine. I'll make sure my wife doesn't get any ideas from this thread, as it will encroach my pinball space

 

[WARLOCK]

Take the "shoe room" space loss and run with it long....and far....
and rejoice in the glory of thy newfound mancave space!

My wife knows me far too well.....
When my reno's do occur in time,
I hope for perhaps a shoe room.

 

[Hugthemouse]

Look forward to updates and the finished space. I could use the inspiration for my unfinished basement.

 

[tim.sanderson]

Nice! Congrats Rob!

Although, I've taken the liberty to ad what I feel everyone's gameroom should have in it:

 

[WARLOCK]

Tim,
You kill me.
lmfao.
Scott

 

[luch]

Tim is that like the private rooms at the strip club . Will Justin Beiber be your guest ? What's that Lassie ? Timmy fell down the well !

 

[DRANO]

Tim,
I thought you'd be happy sleeping in a Farbman drawer while humming 'desperado'.
A whole room is quite the upgrade


I love these threads. Now that my own is sorta done... I need mancave porn.
Congrats Rob!

 

[spiroagnew]

I've taken the liberty to ad what I feel everyone's gameroom should have in it:

Had a good laugh at this one. Funny of you to take this route...I believe the contractor thought I was trying to get around code by calling this area a "closet". All bedrooms, by code, must have a window for an emergency exit...he thought I was trying to sneak a bedroom in under the wire because of the footprint of this space. Then I explained the shoe obsession, and he understood completely.

 

[spiroagnew]

Framing is complete at the end of day four. The hallway that leads to the main space is tighter than I expected, but still more than the minimum 32 inches one would need to freely move furniture...and you know...pinball machines. No pool tables going into the main space anytime soon, so it will do. They have hidden a few of the supports, but as you can see, they are still an eyesore. Again, that's the drawback of having an open concept on the main floor.

Work/furnace room on the left, shoe closet aka Tim's room on the right, down to the main area. Oh, and a jungle of support poles.

The "tight hall" down to the main area. Good news though, it opened up more storage space under the stairs AND provided the PERFECT place for another pin. It would be just at the bottom of the stairs welcoming you to the basement. Could be a space for the grail pin so it stands out (FH or Creech) or a place of exile to put the oddball pin that doesn't fit in the collection (a Stern if I can ever bring myself to buy one, or the Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball that I will be looking for at Allentown this year).

 

[mwong168]

It looks great Rob and I bet you are counting the days till it is done and you can finally unfold all your games. In the meantime you are welcome to come over again anytime you need your "fix".

 

[spiroagnew]

Moving along nicely. Framing complete (save for boxing in the two remaining exposed supports), electrical complete, insulation complete. It appears that drywall will round out the week.

I will have a handful of circuits in the basement, with two being dedicated solely for pinball on 20a service. More than enough for the six I have, and the maximum of seven that has been set by the warden (haha, we will see about that). If things really do get out of control in the future, I’ll have to get creative and plug into the other non-dedicated pin circuits down there and all will be well.

Also had a moment of panic...worrying that the pins were not going to fit under the bulkhead that bisects the wall where the pins will be lined. Turns out it will be fine. But the stupid toppers limit the setup arrangement. Further, there is one REALLY low bulkhead that had to be put in place to hide a vent that was dropped under a steel beam. It’ll be the only danger area for head smashing. We plan to put a couch there, in order to minimize the chance of accidents.

My wife also put an end to the flooring discussion. Carpet with under-pad. Discussion over. The compromise, if you can call it that, was using a low pile, high traffic commercial carpet with an off-beat pattern and a thinner memory foam under-pad. She has visions of spending a lot of time down there with the kids, and she wanted it to be as comfortable as possible. In that respect, she’s right. Hardwood would have been murder on the feet and kiddie knees, and no under-pad on a low-pile carpet glued down to the subfloor wouldn’t be much better. To top it off, under-pad only cost us an extra $300...and the total for carpet/pad/install/tax was at the $2000 mark for a set of stairs and 1000sqft. Got a deal from a buddy who is a Canadian carpet distributor’s rep for Southern Ontario....supplied one of the stores local to me with the carpet I wanted for peanuts and the store passed along the savings at his request. I wasn’t able to carpet my last basement, at half the size with a lower quality carpet, for what I paid this time around. Comfort, durability, compromise, all at a good price.

Cameo by my son. Again, pins lined on the left hand wall. Aforementioned bisecting bulkhead AND the really, really low bulkhead.

Back to the pin wall looking towards the shoe closet on the left, work room on the right and hallway exit down the middle.

 

[Menace]

Looking great. This thread is seriously forcing me to consider finishing my basement sooner than later.

D

 

[DRANO]

Looking great. This thread is seriously forcing me to consider finishing my basement sooner than later.

D

Especially with your shop moving out to the garage!
I can't wait to finish my game room. It's like I got 80% of the way and had to stop. Still, I cannot complain one bit.
Just gotta get the family room completed so I can move the two couches and a bunch of boxes out of the gameroom and finally bring in the last few pins and build my Bar-Cade.
This is the problem with being your own contractor.

Sounds like you don't have that problem Rob.
Stuff is moving along nicely!
Can't wait to see more.

 

[spiroagnew]

The contractor is certainly a luxury that I am lucky to be able to take advantage of. And to have one I have worked with before and trust implicitly with honest, thoughtful and personable employees is worth the price of admission. I was able to cut a few corners with him...axing a few different inclusions he offered, like the carpet, to save a few dollars.

Paint selection needs to be done by the end of the week. Carpet has elements of blue...looking at some shade of orange for the walls. Committing fully to the NY Islanders colour scheme, no matter how awful the team is currently. The idea had struck me that some of the blue in the carpet is one of the defining colours of Funhouse...if I were to add bright yellow walls and red accents, I could have a basement themed after the game that means the most to me. My wife doesn't mind...most of our old house had to be repainted before the sale because it was filled with bright bold colours...looked like a box of crayons threw up in there. We have not went crazy with colour in the new place yet...this would be the perfect place to start. However, I am also dedicated to the idea of creating an accent wall that is covered in corrugated steel, which would work better with a darker shade of orange, in my opinion. But hanging that steel will be a project for a year or so down the line. No sense blowing my creative load right out of the gate. I think the orange will prevail but we will see what the warden says.

 

[WARLOCK]

Great progress Rob.

 

[Hugthemouse]

Good idea to put down the underpad for warmth on the floor. Good to see your guy is dropping the heating vents to the floor too.

Noticed some steel on the ceiling...are you going with a drop ceiling or drywall?

Keep the updates coming.