A couple months ago I was out in the backyard watering my garden when my neighbor Survey came over to chat with me. Survey is the sweetest guy. He's lived at his house since 1975. English is his second language so it can sometimes take us a bit to get our points across to each other. He asked me if I knew pool. I said yeah I know about pools. He said no...pool and I said yeah a pool. To which he said...no pool and proceeded to make the motions of playing pool. That's when I said oh you mean pool not a pool. He asked me if my kids liked pool and I said yes. We had just recently gotten back from Michael's family reunion in Oregon and the boys had such a good time playing pool at Aunt Vicki's in the garage. He then asked me if we wanted a pool table for free. I didn't even know he had a pool table. I told him that sounded great, but I'd need to ask Michael. While I was still watering the garden Michael came out and I told him about what Survey said. He went over to talk with him and check the pool table out. He said we'd take it.
At first we thought we'd clear out a place in the basement and put it down there, but the more we thought about it the more I was thinking it would actually be better to put it in the garage. For one thing the basement is unfinished and it gets very cold down there. The other main reason was the fact that I know the kids are going to argue and I did not want to be going up and down the stairs to the basement over and over. It also dawned on me that when the kids are older they will want to invite their girlfriends or boyfriends over to the house I do not want them in the basement. I wasn't sure what Michael was going to think about that especially since I just asked him if we could store the trailer down the easement in order to free up the garage. When I brought it up he actually said he'd been feeling the same way. Yahoo for being on the same page!
Since we were getting the pool table for free, Michael thought it might be worth it to have pool table movers move the table for us. He found a company online and decided to call them. He figured if it cost a couple hundred dollars it would be totally worth it. Turns out to move it from Survey's first floor to our first floor which is less than 200 ft would cost us $1475!!!! Yeah....no that's a pass!
After hearing that news, Michael got online and watched a YouTube video on how take apart and move a pool table. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we thought it would be worth a go. Michael talked with Violy, Survey's wife and set up a date for us to come disassemble the pool table.
Saturday, September 5th we showed up at Survey's house around 10am.
I hadn't see the table yet, but Michael told me it was actually in pretty good shape. He did read that once you take the table apart it's really wise to go ahead and put new felt on it. If you've already gotten the hard part out of the way....taking it apart it makes sense it to replace it. Plus the old felt will most likely get damaged so it's not worth trying to save it.
The first thing Michael took off were the side bumpers and pockets. While he removed parts I took them over to the house.
One thing we were eager to find out was whether or not the stone was one big slab or a multiple pieces. As you can see below...it was one big slab. We estimated that that slab weighed about 450lbs.
I kept encouraging Michael to call some of his guys from work or even our neighbor Lance, but he wasn't having it. Darn guy just likes to do things without asking for help.
He did borrow a furniture dolly from Chris at work. Look at Survey....he's out there in sandals moving a 450lb slab of stone.
This was where things got tricky. The road slopes down towards our driveway and then our driveway slopes back up to the house. That's where the slab got stuck because the front end and back end were touching the ground, but the middle wasn't touching the furniture dolly anymore. That's when a neighbor we'd never met before just happen to be walking by and offered to help us.
Michael decided it would work if we used a traditional dolly and the furniture dolly together. He had me move the furniture dolly to the front side and the regular dolly to the other side and then the 4 of us worked together to lay it down on the two dollies. It was scary!!!
We got the pool table legs on, positioned the table where we wanted it and then the 4 of us....Survey, Michael, our new neighbor John and I lifted the slab of stone up onto the table.
Here's where we were after that first initial day.
It was an exhausting experience, but oh so fun too! While Michael was busy taking the table apart I had been going online and spending money to make our new to us pool table everything we'd dreamed it would be. I ended up spending around $450. I got new felt, new pockets, a cover, a light to hang above the table and a billiard accessory kit that came with everything...balls, sticks, brushes...etc.
The wood was in pretty good shape, but Michael thought he'd try to see if he could buff it a little to bring out the shine more. He used the same sanding pads he used for the kids' desks, but it didn't have any effect so he left it alone. He knew he was going to have enough work ahead of him already.
A few days later on September, 8th we got to work refelting the table. Originally the table had this light brown colored felt. When I envision a pool table though I see standard green so that's what I got.
I was worried about the fold lines in the felt so I was researching how to iron it. It totally freaked me out and I was sure I was going to ruin the felt. Thankfully Michael told me not to worry about it since he would be stretching the felt and it would pull out any wrinkles.
Here it is after he stretched it and stapled it around the table. So pretty!
When Michael said we were going to refelt the table I had no idea how we were going to do the bumpers. In the above picture you can see the little wood strip on the left side. That piece comes out, you then tuck the felt under it, you replace the wood piece and using a rubber mallet to bang the wood piece down into the channel it came out of.
When you flip the felt over it looks like this. It's so cool!
We then had to stretch the felt and staple it underneath.
Here's the first bumper all finished.
This is where we took a break on working on the table for a few reasons. One we were going camping and then two we ran into a snag in the process. We realized that the original pockets for the pool table were extremely small. When I ordered new pockets from Amazon I just figured they were a universal size. That is not the case though. Michael had finished all the bumpers and was trying to put the table back together and it was not fitting at all. It was so maddening. We had been working on it for hours when I finally pulled out the original pockets and we figured out that was why it wasn't fitting together properly.
Here's the difference....new on the left...old on the right. They were the tiniest pockets. Since the first set of pockets I bought didn't fit I ended up sending them back. I tried to find smaller pockets and thought I had so I ordered them. They weren't any better. Then Michael decided that he were going to alter the pool table in order to make it so the bigger pockets would fit. The reason being even if we could find super small pockets like the original ones trying to actually shoot a ball into the pocket would be a nightmare. We wanted our kids to actually be able to enjoy playing and not end up getting frustrated over and over and not want to play at all. I had returned the second set of pockets since they weren't really the look I was going for and I ordered another set. Third times a charm right!
While we were waiting for the new pockets to show up I talked Michael into doing other bits of work. At first I thought Survey was going to give us the light he had over his pool table but then he found out his son actually wanted it. No worries....I went online and found one. It wasn't actually a billiard light since those cost a couple hundred if not more. It's really for a kitchen island or peninsula, but I liked how it looked industrial and since our pool table was going in the garage it seemed fitting.
Of course putting in a light can not be easy in our house. Michael was going to add onto the existing lights in the garage and of course once we opened up the existing lights there were some pretty weird things going on. It took a bit to figure out, but of course Michael did. He's a rockstar! He also had to go up in the attic above the garage in order to cut a hole right above the pool table for the new light.
The new light is amazing! I love the industrial vibe!
It lights up the table so nicely!
Now to fix the bumpers so the new pockets will fit.
When we were stapling the felt onto the table we were using a regular staple gun, but once we started doing the bumpers it dawned on Michael to use the nematic staple gun. It made it go so much faster, however, when it came time for us to cut down the bumpers it made it difficult to remove the felt. Of course at the time we were putting the new felt on we never imagined that we'd have to remove it. We were also trying to be careful with the new felt so we wouldn't have to buy more.
Michael took all sorts of measurements and figured out how much he needed to cut off each bumper. This was a bit scary since we had no idea if it would work and if it didn't how much it would cost to buy new bumpers or if the whole project would end up being a bust or not. Michael used the protractor I bought Owen for homeschool and measured the angle he needed to cut. He also taped all around where he was cutting. The part that gave him the most trouble was the front side of the bumpers....it's made of rubber so the balls can bounce off the sides and not damage the wood. When he was cutting that section the saw would jump on him. Scary stuff for sure! After a couple cuts he figured out which direction to cut it so it wasn't quite so scary. He did have to use his hand saw for the first cut since the rubber piece just wanted to move and tear with the miter saw.
Measuring to make his cut.
The new pocket fits perfectly!
Jackson and I sat out in the garage watching Michael. We also drew up drawings for me to make him some BeyBlade display cases that will hold 25 BeyBlades each. I'm planning on making 4 of them. He already has over 70 BeyBlades. Of course Michael was shaking his head because here he is still working on one big project and we're already coming up with new ones. :)
Looking good!
Michael used C clamps to hold the bumper in place while he attached it to the table.
All the bumpers and the pockets attached!
It took Michael 2 days to cut all the bumpers to fit! It was such a relief that it was over and that it worked!
Of course it wasn't totally finished since he still had to trim down the side decorative pieces and attach them, but that would happen on another day.
On September 30th, the pool table was open for business.
Michael always jokes that I seem to think that all these projects are SO easy. It's not that I think it's SO easy, it's that I know no matter what Michael encounters he will rise to the challenge. He will do what's necessary to figure out the problem and solve it. It's not necessarily easier for him to accomplish things, it's just that he's not the type of person that lets a problem get him down.
One of the reasons I was open to having a pool table was because we were homeschooling. I knew that with the weather being as it is in Washington state there would be lots of indoor recess opportunities. I knew that it would be something that the kids could enjoy during those days. It's also something that will definitely grow with them. It's not going to be a toy they are finished with in a few months.
We of course have had issues arise and kids have lost their privilege to play since there were so many disagreements. Thankfully one day Michael played with the kids and explained all the rules and since then we haven't really had any issues at all. If anyone does raise their voice they are automatically removed from the game. Also if someone makes a bad shot it's a bad shot...it happens there are no do overs...that's life.
Since we were turning the garage into a sort of game room per se, I thought it was time to finally get around to fixing something we've had in our basement for years now....a Foosball Table! I saw it on the Des Moines FB Buy Nothing group and put my name on the comments and was chosen. The only thing was it didn't have any legs.
I wish I had remembered to take a picture prior to cleaning it up. Like I said it had been in the basement for years. It was so dusty! I used the vacuum with the brush attachment to get most of the dust off. Then I used my Enviro cloth from Norwex to really thoroughly clean it.
Another minor problem with the table was one of the scoreboards was missing and the previous owners kids thought it would be a good idea to use a Sharpie to keep score. :)
You can see the new legs Michael attached in the above picture. He used simple 4 x 4's.
If you look back at the picture of Michael with the pool table you'll notice that my Elliptical is on the other side of the table. That made it really hard to play on that far side of the pool table. I knew we needed to move it away from the table so it wouldn't impact the game. I had the kids help me move a few things from the garage down to the basement and that freed up this area in the corner for my Elliptical. I'm thinking I want to turn it around so I'm not staring into the corner when I go on it. I haven't actually gone on my Elliptical for months since Rachael and I were walking together at the track all summer. Since school started I wanted to get into a nice rhythm before I added something else to my plate. I'm also trying to figure out exact when I should use it. In the past I liked working out in the morning prior to getting the kids up for school. Then once they were off to school I would take a shower and get ready for the day. Now that I'm showering at night due to my allergies it seems silly to workout first thing in the morning and be sweaty all day. I suppose I could shower both in the morning and at night....not washing my hair of course, but that seems a bit much. The thought of working out right after dinner just prior to showering doesn't sound like fun either. I might have to give it a go though since I do want to get back in the habit of using it.
Here's the area where the Elliptical used to be. As you can imagine it basically took up this whole space. Now with it being moved out of the way it makes this area so much more roomy. In order to prepare for the pool table Michael bought this handy organizer at Home Depot. It's very well constructed and has tons of storage. He isn't even using all the bins yet so there's plenty of room for future tools or hardware storage. We also chose to put his moveable workbenches in front of the garage door simply because we very rarely use that door and if we need to we can move them out of the way.
Since we had a pool table and a Foosball table I had to buy a dart board. This was a cheap one...it's the plastic kind. I would love to get an electronic one someday, but those are spendy. This one was $34 on Amazon. We had this bulletin board laying around not being used so I had Michael mount it behind the board so the kids won't damage the drywall. Our billiard accessories kit came with the hanger for us to be able to hang up the new sticks. It fit perfectly right here.
This is the corner where the Foosball table fit nicely. It's just far enough away from Michael's tool box on the left that out of the picture for him to be able to stand there, open drawers and get the tools he needs. It's also pulled out from the back wall enough where the kids can get on the other side to play or we can get back there to pull bins off the shelves and it doesn't prohibit the refrigerator on the right from opening all the way.
Remember those Sharpie numbers....Michael taped off the ends and I sprayed them with black spray paint. I think it looks like it should have always been black on the ends like that.
I spent about $85 in order to make our Foosball table top notch. I was thinking of putting new players on, but that is a whole long process so no thank you. The current players are not broken I was just thinking it would be fun to get some that were red and blue since I had found a scoreboard where one was red and one was blue. Since that was going to be such a hassle though, I just bought new black scoreboards instead. I also bought new end caps for each of the rods, silicone gel to lubricate the rods, a table cover and new foosballs that look like mini soccer balls. I wasn't sure if the silicone gel was going to do anything, but I applied it to the rods and now they move around like butter. It made a HUGE difference!
Here's what the garage/game room looks like now. There's only one thing that Michael needs to do to make it 100% complete and that's to jack up the pool table and put on these adjustable leveling feet that I bought. The table is level right now, but not perfectly. It still leans just a hair towards the garage doors. He used a bunch of washers to level it since they're small and flat. This will definitely be a more precise way to get it level and it will be easier to adjust each individual leg to exactly the correct height.
Now we just need to invite friends over and have game night!
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