Spot Killers - basement arcade build

Water heater was replaced before we bought the house, so we should have a while on that one. We had one near failure when my wife and I were renting our townhouse years back, and was fairly easy to spot that it was failing. Hopefully I'd see something like that before it happens, lol.

Most people don't know you are supposed to drain the sediment out of them every six months until the water runs clear. They are less likely to corrode and leak if properly maintained. I hate doing it, but I can see it needs to be done with all the crap that comes out.

Love the progress so far and the game lineup. Keep up the great work!
 
Mudding/sanding - Done!

Glad this step is over. Not a fan of being covered in dust. Mudding wasn't horrible. It was my first time doing a room like this. Didn't do the best job in the world, but it's not horrible at the same time. I'm happy with how it turned out. Yeah, you'll probably see a bit of the joints or whatever after painting, but given I'll have games covering the majority of the walls (and I also just don't care, lol); I'm fine with how it's turned out.

Stopped by Menards on the way home from work and picked up paint/supplies. Thankfully the 11% sale is going on, so getting some money back; that I'll probably use for the room again. Hoping to clean the walls of dust and get started on priming tomorrow.

Still on track for my schedule to get the room wrapped up for carpet.
 

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Is that BROWN paint?


Mudding/sanding - Done!

Glad this step is over. Not a fan of being covered in dust. Mudding wasn't horrible. It was my first time doing a room like this. Didn't do the best job in the world, but it's not horrible at the same time. I'm happy with how it turned out. Yeah, you'll probably see a bit of the joints or whatever after painting, but given I'll have games covering the majority of the walls (and I also just don't care, lol); I'm fine with how it's turned out.

Stopped by Menards on the way home from work and picked up paint/supplies. Thankfully the 11% sale is going on, so getting some money back; that I'll probably use for the room again. Hoping to clean the walls of dust and get started on priming tomorrow.

Still on track for my schedule to get the room wrapped up for carpet.
 
Is that BROWN paint?
No, they didn't put the colors on the can for whatever reason. We went with: purple, green, pink, teal. My wife wanted the pink/teal and they matched the blacklite carpet as well; so I'll use them in the arcade space with the other two colors.

Attached images are the paint swatches and blacklite carpet pattern. Really excited that the carpet will be in in less than 2 weeks.
 

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Been working on the basement a ton this past week in prep for carpet being installed Monday. Finished up mudding, priming and painting the walls. Picked up some trim and started into priming/painting all those pieces as well. In-between trim painting, I got 3 of the 4 doors installed. Wasn't too hard getting those on and they're fairly level as well! They don't close by themselves, which is good.
 

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Got a call from the carpet place today saying that the first 10 - 12 feet of the carpet was bad. Basically, the pattern ran and looks smudged. I had to run out to the warehouse to inspect the whole room and make a call on what to do; either reject the whole roll or just cut out the wife's room. The plan was to use the little extra for her music room, but now with the defect in printing; we're scratching that and she'll just pick out whatever carpet she wants.

Looks like I get to call the carpet manufacturer Monday and figure out the plan on the defect. Luckily the rest of the carpet is fine, so the main arcade room will continue as planned. This is really annoying, but not the worst. Especially since I asked the manufacturer if they quality check the carpet; which I was told yes.
 

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I love that carpet! I also am making an arcade room. Trying to figure out what carpet to get. Have a couple from a couple places, but i really like yours. Where did you get it from? I hsvent seen that design. Thanks!
 
Spent this weekend getting the basement finished up. Had one more door to cut down and hang, finished painting trim, installed all the trim and got the room swept/vacuumed. I'm sore and tired; and also just sick of working on this, lol. But, on the up-side; carpet is coming to be installed....tomorrow! Can't wait for it to be here, as that means I can start bringing in games.

Still have yet to run the power for the room, but that's easy enough to do whenever; just waiting for my friend's schedule to open back up or find another electrician to do the work on the side. I'll have enough to run the first batch of games, so won't be without some games running.
 

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Spent this weekend getting the basement finished up. Had one more door to cut down and hang, finished painting trim, installed all the trim and got the room swept/vacuumed. I'm sore and tired; and also just sick of working on this, lol. But, on the up-side; carpet is coming to be installed....tomorrow! Can't wait for it to be here, as that means I can start bringing in games.

Still have yet to run the power for the room, but that's easy enough to do whenever; just waiting for my friend's schedule to open back up or find another electrician to do the work on the side. I'll have enough to run the first batch of games, so won't be without some games running.

Looking great! In Texas you can do your own electrical work as long as it is your homestead. You just need to pull a permit, meet code, and get an inspection. I wouldn't have even considered doing that before I got into fixing arcade games. Put in a second breaker panel in the garage, some new outlets, and a NEMA 15-40 plug in the garage for the car charger. If you can do it where you live, I highly recommend it. Can't wait to see the carpet and games in the space. :)
 
Looking great! In Texas you can do your own electrical work as long as it is your homestead. You just need to pull a permit, meet code, and get an inspection. I wouldn't have even considered doing that before I got into fixing arcade games. Put in a second breaker panel in the garage, some new outlets, and a NEMA 15-40 plug in the garage for the car charger. If you can do it where you live, I highly recommend it. Can't wait to see the carpet and games in the space. :)
I'm fairly sure here you can do your own work, but same: needs permit/meet code/inspection. There's 2 things I don't really like doing on my house: electric and plumbing. I don't need to burn my house down or flood it (extreme examples, but still). My friend who did the lighting is a licensed electrician, just doesn't work on residential. He still knows the code, so will do work on the side. I'm just gonna wait for him, or see if he knows someone, to finish it up and follow code and everything; but give a "side job" price.

Carpet is being installed currently! They're working today and tomorrow to get that in; so later tomorrow I should have pics of it! I have three games already downstairs that I'll move in right away:
- Ripoff
- Space War
- Omega Race

Then, I'll move the couple from my garage that are in nice shape/restored down so I can start getting that space back in order. It's a huge mess of boxes, games, junk; still left from moving in this past December. Crazy how long it takes to unpack and just get past the "moving" stage of stuff.
 
All of this is looking great. I really like the carpet you picked out. Looking forward to the pictures. You have to fire up the black lights so we can see how it looks.
 
All of this is looking great. I really like the carpet you picked out. Looking forward to the pictures. You have to fire up the black lights so we can see how it looks.

Thanks! I still have to BUY the blacklights as well, lol. The place I was going to order them from is out of stock, so waiting til they're back in to snag them.
 
Carpet is finally in!

Still some smaller, easier things to do: paint touch up from carpet install, run electrical, blacklight bulbs are on their way; maybe a couple more things. But, this feels like it's finished for the most part. Moved the first couple games, that were already in the other room in the basement, into the arcade. Also have a single fluorescent blacklight that I hung. It's crazy how much the carpet lights up with just that single one, and I have a bunch more coming soon! Now time to start getting the games and get this thing really wrapped up; but happy with progress for now. Can finally stop working 5 - 6 hours a night on it!
 

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