March 6, 2008
The Wall
Sorry I've been inactive lately. Moving into a new house, unpacking, and generally making the place livable and homey has left little spare time for blogging. I've been too busy at work to slack off and write entries there, either-- a situation likely to be the norm for a while (which, frankly, isn't a bad thing). But I figure loyal Zombies deserve something, so here's a photo of the new Wall O' Games in the new game room. The other three walls are almost entirely windows, from two feet off the ground to a foot from the 9' high ceiling. Big windows = great light, but not a lot of room for storage. So all the games have to go on the front wall, as does the brand-spanking-new 52" HD LCD screen (we considered a projector, but then we'd have to mount a drop-down screen to the ceiling, and did I mention all the windows?). That's seventeen of the wall's eighteen feet, solid games from the floor right up to the ceiling, except for the space in the middle carved out for the television.
The shelving is one of the ubiquitous mount-a-rail-to-the-drywall-then-hang-uprights-from-it systems, in this case from Storables, custom cut to our measurements. We actually have two extra shelves, because we thought we'd space them closer together and fit another one on each side of the TV, but in practice it made more sense to make each shelf taller. We originally thought we'd also hang a track in front of the shelves and put up sliding doors, fabric panels, or shoji panels, but I have to admit I like the open display of gaming goodness-- it makes the room feel comfortably casual to me. We'll see how the fiancee feels over time.
And yes, that's all my games. Well, except for one small box of party games that are in my office right now. When those come back, they'll simply replace a few games whose borrowed time would have long ago expired if I didn't hate the hassle of selling and trading crap online. I'm looking at you, Proverbial Wisdom. And all the small-box card games, which are in an Ikea CD tower across the room which, its former purpose now obsolete in the age of MP3s, has been repurposed to a higher calling.
The room also holds my Addams Family pinball machine, Boccerball set, a couch and a game table, and the ceiling has built-in Dolby 7.1 surround speakers. It's a vast improvement on the old gaming space. We had our first game night here this week, and I can't speak for the rest of the group but I really dug it. The vibe was just much cosier and more adult, whereas the previous space was definitely collegiate / early bachelor. Unfortunately it's a longer commute for everyone-- only time will tell if they stick with it or if we break up the band.
Posted by Peter at March 6, 2008 11:24 PM