Michael Pennisi
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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... where everybody knows your game.
This is the story of my board game room which is now fully operational.
Like most of us, I played games in my dining room / kitchen. I was even lucky enough to be allowed to have my collection in the dining room, it looked like this:
But I had a dream of something more. I grew up in an apartment and I was always jealous of my friends who all had basements. One of them even had a pool table and a pinball machine which was just awesome (needless to say he was the most popular among us). So when I finally had a chance to buy a home I wanted it to have a basement that I could make into a cool rec. room, not for pinball or pool but for games because I always have been a game player. This year we decided that enough money had been saved and so the project began last April. I had a vision:
This area would become a bar (excuse the dirty lens):
This area would have shelves for my games:
So I went looking for a contractor because I know very little about framing walls and running electrical connections. We found a builder who seemed to be very good at basement remodels and for the most part they were. Only one little mishap occured with my game shelves. I specified the area that I wanted to have shelves and their designer bought shelves that fit that area... big, giant, oak shelves. She never bothered to see if those shelves would fit down my basement stairs which of course, they didn't. A hole was cut in my wall but this wasn't enough to get the shelves down. A few stairs were also removed but this wasn't enough. By the end of the day I had TWO stairs left. For four days I didn't have a way into my basement. Of course they were going to replace the stairs at their expense but I figured that it was a golden opportunity for me so I upgraded my basement stairs to oak. So, for a little inconvenience I have a gorgeous staircase. Anyway back to the main story...
The work wrapped-up two weeks ago and we spent the whole weekend painting and last weekend doing a little decorating (although more is needed). Here is my gaming paradise:
The little wooden figure underneath the bar is from the now defunct LaSalle Hotel in Chicago. My grandfather was the head bartender there for many years. Behind the bar is a sink, a mini-fridge for drinks, and a toaster oven for snacks. The dart board is hung with the bull at exactly 5' 8" and by a stroke of incredible luck the carpet/floor line occurs at exactly 7' 9 1/4" from the bulls-eye (I am not making that up and I didn't plan it). I know, I need better barstools and a shelf for booze. They are coming.
Anyway now for the business end of the room on the other side of the room from the bar are my games:
And of course, I need someplace to play:
The table is pretty cool because it flips over. The other side is black felt and has a padded ring around the edge embedded with cup holders. Most importantly, it's big enough to nicely accomodate the largest sized game in my collection:
So there you have it. I'm just so darn excited / proud of how it looks that I has to share it with all of you. I'm looking forward to having my geekbuddies over for games (well maybe not all at once).
Thanks for reading this. Even if you aren't jealous, if you could just pretend to be I'd appreciate it. 
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mike hibbert
United Kingdom
Gloucester
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Wow - that looks fantastic - very cooool!
I need to move now - must get a place with a cellar!
Can we all game at your gaff now?
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Walt
United States
Orange County
California
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Very, very cool. We don't have basements in California, generally. I am very jealous!
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Michael Pennisi
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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mikehibbert wrote:
Can we all game at your gaff now?
Sure as long as you keep using cool words that I don't understand like "gaff". Besides, having English people around would make my place seem classy.
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Marc B.
United States
Palm Bay
Florida
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No pretending here. Full on jealousy.
Awesome! Congrats!
Wishing you many hundreds of hours of fun with family and friends in your new gaming paradise!
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Panayiotis Zinoviadis
Greece
Ioannina
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Where did you find THAT table!?
Holly crap! It's FABOULOUS!!!
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mike hibbert
United Kingdom
Gloucester
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fizzix wrote:
Sure as long as you keep using cool words that I don't understand like "gaff".
gaff Noun. 1. Place of residence or work. E.g."My gaff is just around the corner." [1930s] 2. Place. E.g."It was all over the gaff but at least I had a week to clean it up."
fizzix wrote:
Besides, having English people around would make my place seem classy.
As long as you realise it would seem but not actually be classier - hey who am I kidding, if we brought the butler to get us our sherry all night - it'd be kicking!
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Cynthia Landon
United States
Kissimmee
Florida
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Wow that is beautiful! Great job - I'm sure it will be worth all the work.
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Chapel
United States
Round Rock
Texas
Only for the love of the game...
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Great setup! Now all you need is some art on the walls.
 I dig the gaming table and chairs. looks comfy.
fizzix wrote:
Besides, having English people around would make my place seem classy.
Don't kid yourself. My EX is from Stoke on Tent, and if England had an equivalent of West Virginia, Stoke would be right at home. Oi!
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Ed Mittelstedt
United States
New Windsor
Maryland
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Dirty lens? Nay, those are orbs in your unfinished basement pictures. Your basement is haunted!
Seriously, there must have been a lot of dust down there.... or they're orbs. 
But you have inspired me sir. My unfinished basement has a game room waiting to be fleshed out in there somewhere...
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Bob McMurray
United States
LaGrange
Illinois
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Congratulations! I made the decision 5 years ago to have a pool table, bar, and bubble dome hockey in my finished basement and the truth is I'd much rather have a gaming table like yours instead of the pool table.
When I think about that I picture having a game out on the table at all times just for the sheer beauty of it or perhaps to invite a game between me and my sons at any time.
Do you leave anything out like that or do you always pack them away due to dust or whatever?
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Jeff Thompson
United States
Homewood
Illinois
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Once again proving that all culture in the Chicago suburbs is from I88 and clockwise.
I live about as far counter-clockwise as possible.
The room looks comfortable and accomodating. Cheers.
If anyone can refute this statement, please contact me so we can play some games.
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Michael Pennisi
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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Quote:
Do you leave anything out like that or do you always pack them away due to dust or whatever?
I haven't had the room set up for long enough to consider that but maybe I will. Maybe a Heroscape board or a nice PIN game.
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Michael Pennisi
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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ZiNOS wrote: Where did you find THAT table!?
Holly crap! It's FABOULOUS!!!
Well thanks. I spent a lot of time going to bar / pool stores in the area trying to find a reasonably priced one. I found many unreasonably priced tables and many that I thought were too small or too cheaply built. The store I went to (not that it will help you in Greece) was called Bar Stools & Etc in Palatine, IL. It's officially described as a poker table.
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Very nice. Too bad I'm not in the area to test it out.
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Scott Nicholson
United States
Cambridge
Massachusetts
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ZiNOS wrote: Where did you find THAT table!?
Holly crap! It's FABOULOUS!!!
I have to agree. I really like that table. Where did you get it? What was your process in picking out that one?
I'll be curious to find out if, with use, you end up finding it to be too wide. That's one concern I have with many poker tables - they are too wide for everyone to reach and play with a normal-sized gameboard.
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Jasen Robillard
Canada
Calgary
Alberta
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Nice setup Mike. Great inspiration for when I decide to do work on our basement.
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Jorge Portillo
Spain
Madrid
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You can’t imagine how jealous I am. Where I live, in Madrid, the capital city of Spain, we pay like 6.000 $ for each square meter, and I’m speaking about apartments here, of course. Obviously “basements” and even “Game rooms” are out of discussion unless you have really big money.
By the way, would you mind If I expend my next holydays in your home? 
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Tom Rosen
United States
Arlington
Virginia
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Very jealous here! Definitely not pretending
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Chapel
United States
Round Rock
Texas
Only for the love of the game...
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Makes me wish we had basements in Austin.
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Paul Brooks
Scotland
Stirling
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Well I'm jealous. My collection iss currently in the process of outgrowing its dining room shelves and is gradually ending up in storage in a loft area
 .
One day I shall have a games room as nice as yours. It looks great - well done.
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Ray
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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Ooh. very nice. Given that I'm your closest geekbuddy I expect an invite any day now. That table and chairs doesn't look cheap. I'll bring Hamsterwheel over so we can test your tables levelness.
But what I'm most jealous of is that you were able to empty out your basement enough to do the project in the first place.
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Allen Vailliencourt
United States
Greer
South Carolina
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Jealousy + 1
Very nice work. Love the gaming table and layout, etc. Man, time for me to rip out the back of my house and 'upgrade'.
Shh..don't tell my wife
"Honey what's this new mortgage?...."
hehe.
Nice work though!
~V
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Jeff Thompson
United States
Homewood
Illinois
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Bob M,
My apologies, perhaps I55 and clockwise.
Jeff
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Rick Keuler
United States
Nashville
Tennessee
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I'll chime in with my own "Nice work!" as well. We are getting ready to redo our basement here, and at one point talked about making it a game room. Ultimately, I redid an upstairs bedroom into our current "game room." But on the eve of getting going on the basement, your post makes me think about changing my mind, again.
My concern, however, is that every game I had in my youth that was kept in our toy closet (which was in the basement) eventually smelled musty. Any concern about that result here? Anyone that has been using a basement game room for a while have a thought? (And before someone says it, we ran a dehumidifier in the basement all the time at my parent's home.)
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Posted Mon Oct 2, 2006 1:51 pm
