Time to expand!

[jdkmunch]

Here's my plan...  If you look at my profile you will see that I have two slots shoved in the corner of my pool room.  This has been bothering me since I put them in.  The trouble is I am deathly afraid that someone will crack their stick in to the glass and shatter it.   

I also have a piggy dotmation that is in my living room.  After about 2 weeks of work I finally cleared out the hallway to make room for this.  I'm planning on putting my slots along this wall as an entrance to my game room.    I got the idea of a counter top from someone here.  I hope it comes out good.  The only trouble is this counter is 10' long and about half way down the hallway gets about 50' wide.  It's going to be tight but I don't know what else to do.

 

[jdkmunch]

more..

[jay]

Well I am going to break the cardinal rule of this forum against flaming......

First off why are you posting in the wrong section.... this should be under the classified section under the heading WTB

I am glad that you got the idea of the counter top from some one here..........
...... however don't just be a dumb ass and complain that the length of counter is too long

The answer is so clearly obvious...... BUY MORE SLOTS 

Why are you wasting post space .... Where hell is your wishlist ??

(yes this post is in jest.....)

[jdkmunch]

Oh no no I made a horrible mistake.... the hallway shrinks down to 50 INCHES wide... I had feet in my post.  I'll fill it up 


Someone got me going on a Reel Touch machine.    I think they may be impossible to find though. 

[jdkmunch]

I think for 10 ' I can only fit 4 slots right... ?

Maybe 5 .. If it were only 1 foot longer

[jay]

You can get away with 24" spacing. Its not casino width but you should be able to fit 5. The glass is typically 19" wide + slot arm.
One dude on the old forum had removed all his slot arms so he could squeeze 1 more into some nook he had. He didn't post much. I just remember him asking the question - If I remove the arm will the slot still work.

[Bettor Slots]

Jonathan,

My opinion is that the hall is not going to be wide enough.  No seating and standing room only will be the result.  It will also be impossible for someone to get from one end to the hallway to another, lets say when you have some friends over, and you have one person in front of every machine, without everybody moving.  And, how can anyone enjoy the beauty of your machines from a side view angle?  Let's do and experiment that will require no physical effort on my part...   ... let's roll a machine over there, stand a person in front of it, and take a picture again...let's see what you think at that point.  Can you post the pic when you are done?

Jim

[tjkeller]

I guess I would have to coattail Jim.
I would be concerned of the amount of space...not only to Jim's concern
but also to the players concern in that you would feel 'closed in' when sitting
at machines in such a tight space...better to knock the wall out if it is not
load bearing or open it to the load bearing posts if it is. 
...my 2-cents

[uniman]

Obviously your pool table has to go.  
Seriously that hallway will be very tight. And maybe a bit warm too with all machines on.
I have the same problem in my current rental house, no room for more slots! 

[Buzz]

JD  I'm the last person you would want to design a game room. But I have a idea, I don't know if it will work or if it's been try ed!  I can understand you want all your machines facing out .But what if you placed your machines or  regular slot stands, that had heavy duty caster wheels.  when you have people over to play them, looks like you could place two machines side by side at the end of the hall and turn the other two a 1/4 turn back to back.  Now my never seeing your hall would you have room??  I did have one more idea something along the lines of double decking your machines, inviting short women, tall men, and instructing the femail to never turn around when top machine was being played!!  X rated game room. 

[jdkmunch]

I like the X-Rated idea! 

There are a couple of constants  -  The pool table has to stay.  Far more of my family and friends play pool when we get together than slots.   I am most concerned about what Jim said and I won't be able to enjoy the beauty of the machines.    95% of the time it is just my wife and me playing with ourselves.

Here is the layout for the pool room.  I have to take the dimensions of the rest of the basement. 

[Bettor Slots]

Jonathan,

What is behind the wall of the bar?

Jim

[jdkmunch]

It's a foundation wall from the original house.  So that wall is 12" thick concrete -  man it took a long time to drill through to put the sink in.

[jdkmunch]

I"ll take the measurements tonight so it fills in the rest.  To answer your question though - on the other side of the foundation wall there is a bathroom (off the hallway) and a washer/dryer.

[Bettor Slots]

I'm having a hard time seeing how your theater fits into this equation....can you give us a sketch of your complete basement.

I have an idea of how to get this to work...but I need to see everything...sorry to be a pain.

Jim

[jdkmunch]

Oh its no problem at all and thank you so much for the help.  I have to run out now I'll post the rest when I get back.

[jay]

Since the root cause is a concern for the glass there are places that will etch stainless steel with whatever pattern you want.
Just change out the glass to etched steel and the problem is solved.

[jdkmunch]

I made this from my iPhone... It may help?? I sound like a doof though.. sorry

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/UaPm4GwyXfw&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/UaPm4GwyXfw&rel=0</a>


It should process soon i guess?

[edski]

I like the X-Rated idea! 

95% of the time it is just my wife and me playing with ourselves.

[StatFreak]

First, I'm also no designer, so my suggestions may not be that useful..

If you don't want to knock out walls, I'm leaning towards Buzz's idea of putting the machines back-to-back in pairs. That way, people playing will be standing in the niches between the slots and the rest of the hallway will remain free. It's hard to tell exactly how wide your hallway is. The diagram would seem to indicate 18", but that can't be right.

The slots would take up about 20" when facing out (not including human space) and about 26"-27" when facing sideways with 2-3" of space between the handle and the wall for the slots with handles on that side. Each pair of slots would need about 8 feet, so you should be able to put in 4 slots (if that bench is 10ft long -- I see plenty of extra room on either end.) Is that a closet in the corner at 1:03 in the video (to the left of the bench)? Could that be removed to gain extra length?

Just a thought. Jim will no doubt have better ideas.

[jdkmunch]

Stat - the only thing that would drive me nuts with having the slots back to back is I don't have the same top of slots.  One is 9" the other is 16" and that would put me into an OCD fit. 

I don't know where that 18" came from but the width of the hallway is 50".  Here is my scratch for the measurements.  I have to throw them in my design program later.   

I think what I have to do is stick with Jim's first comment and put a machine there and see what it looks like. 

[Bettor Slots]

Jonathan,

Thanks for the video...huge help.  

Just my opinion....

The back to back idea down the hall might work, however, I feel it would still "feel" tight especially when you consider the height of the machines on bases and only 26" of hall space remaining.  And once done...good luck moving something in an out of the billiards room once this is done.

The party / billiards room is really perfect as is.  The walk up bar is a great use of space.  Big screen projection is great for the games...etc.  I really wouldn't change or force anything more into that area.  You make a good point about you fear of a pool cue hitting the machines glass.  And what about a flying cue ball?  Given today's rarity of glass, you really need to do something to get the machines out of that area.  Finally, as the wall between the bar and bathroom / laundry is masonry and you have all the plumbing stacks there....there is no sense in try to change that around.  The bathroom centrally located is also good functionally as is and expensive to move.

Consider presentation.  As it is, when you bring guests to your home for party night, you are walking them down the stairs right into stacks of storage...   stacks of it.  Then you file them down a hall with nothing really going except the smell of fresh grass from your clubs, hope no one trips over them, and a view through to an open door to a bathroom until they finally make it to the party room.  

Often times, the journey to the destination is just as important as the destination itself.

If it were me, this is how I would go:

1)  I can see storage space is an issue and takes precedence.  Spring cleaning time first before you do any thing else.  Go through everything you do not really need and have a garage sale.  Results might buy you a new machine.  Golf clubs belong in the trunk of your car, in the garage, or under the bed.  I also would like to ask the question....the exercise equipment you have...is this "exercise on display" or is it actually used at least once a week?  I can't tell you how many clients I have that I built an exercise room for and the only exercise that goes on in that room is vacuuming the floor and dusting things off once a week.  Make better use of the high storage area above the washer dryer with some extra shelves and long term storage up high.  Lower the existing shelf 6 inches and add a shelf.  You have a lot of closets, go through them and make sure you really need what you have on those shelves.  Do I need to call the pack rat nanny?

2)  Consider eliminating the extra fridge you have to the right of the stairs.  You have a bar fridge already and that is a more than enough for most.  You are not having huge parties here of more than 10 because of space...so you really do not need it.  In it's place construct a new closet for storage, or even better, consider a low cabinet base storage only.  This keeps the feeling open as you walk down the stairs and look to the right...it also suggests direction to the destination.  With the energy you save getting rid of that fridge over a two year period you can buy another machine.

3)  In the hall that leads to the party room, consider some wall art and some things of interest.  And I am not talking about paintings here, you can't appreciate paintings on that wall, I am talking about something that projects out from the wall.  Maybe put a exit sign that projects out and points to the bathroom...that might be fun....just keeping with the flavor of your party room.

You might also consider a 7 to 8 foot wide area of 12" deep storage cabinets about midway of that hall.  At Home Depot you can buy some economical unfinished wall cabinets, 12" deep by up to 42" high.  Double stack them for some good shallow depth, concealed storage in that hall.  Another good trick...contact a local kitchen cabinet supplier and ask them if they have any big kitchen jobs where they are tearing out the old cabinets and replacing....often times those cabinets into up in a dumpster...and they might be great with a coat of paint.  Either way, you will still have 38" of hall width for circulation which is a minimum for me, but fine.  This element adds some visual interest and breaks up the seemingly long walk to the party room.

4)  When this is done, I would expect that the stacks of storage at the bottom of your stairs (all 12 feet of it at least) is now moved and restored somewhere else.  Results are that you have a free wall now with good depth for at least 6 machines across that wall.  

And best of all, now when you have guests over, as they walk down the stairs on the way to your party room, they get to see your machines on display as they should be seen, front on.  As you said, mostly it is just you and your wife enjoying the machines, so make them part of the journey rather than stuffing them in the room that is the destination.  You do not have to have a stool in front of every machine, keep the space open at the bottom of the stair and clear the circulation to the party room.  Just keep a couple of loose stools to the left in the exercise area that you can slide around.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[jay]

One option might be to move the slots to where the movie screen is.
You would then get a electric screen that goes up/down at the push of a remote and move that about 1ft in front of the slots.
Screen comes down when you want to watch, goes up when you want to play.

Check out www.monoprice.com for the electric screens. Not that expensive.

[Tbone]

I would move all the movie stuff into the wife's room. (She could watch the screen, when she works out as well)
Then I would move the machines to the sofa wall or move the pool table towards the sofa wall and put the machines on that long 14'2" wall. If you want to watch the game in that room, when people come over, a nice flat screen would fit great on that 19' wall.

Looks like there is room in the wife's room, just push her stuff towards the back...

[StatFreak]

The real questions are: Does she actually use the exercise equipment? Can you sweet-talk her into changing the room?