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In 2012 I sold a good number of games to clear some stuff out. I actually went from 700+ games down to 400 I think. Well, I'm cheating a bit on that - I removed all the kids games and put them on a different account (except a couple I happen to really like) which dropped the count by 71. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
(Besides, they only take up a couple of cupboards in the family room...they aren't REALLY there because you mostly can't see them....)
And, I removed many of the smaller expansions (there are still many on the list). Actually, I just checked - I 'own' 544 games, but excluding expansions brings it down to 471. That's still 73 expansions ferreted away somewhere. Most times I combine with the base games which helps with space. Right?
Regarding the SOLD games, the Marketplace shows I sold 118 games. I've also traded a number of games, but that didn't actually help with the totals too much (in fact, probably went up a tad as a result). Oh, I *did* also sell some games on ebay....but not sure how many. I'm sure it was a lot! Really!
Oh, and I donated a bunch of games - to a couple of local schools and also to a Scout camp.
Again, I'm cheating though - because of my thrifting I don't always list those as 'owned'. In fact, I have quite a few now that I 'own' but are not listed. If I decide to keep them then I'll own them....later. So, many donations and sales were thrifted games. But many WERE games I decided to get rid of, even ones that I sort of, kind of, liked and ones that I actually liked.
It was a real struggle to get myself to sell off some games the first time through, but the more I looked and was honest with myself, the more I realized I didn't like them as much as I thought, or I just wasn't that interested in playing them, or no one ELSE wanted to play them.
The interesting thing is, once I started finding things to sell and they ACTUALLY STARTED SELLING, there was a bit of an adrenaline rush and I kind of wanted to find some more to sell!
Lately, I've been thinking of selling more off. Again. So I finally did it, I pulled all the games from the shelves, re-sorted them, weeded out a few, and put them back on. Well, the REAL problem I was having was games were starting to pile up everywhere including all over the game room table and I couldn't even play in here! I would think "Gosh, I really ought to go in there and clean it up so I can have some friends over again".
Well, last week I invited my friend Bob over. That was the motivation I needed. I had already 'cleaned up' earlier in the month for my birthday gaming weekend, but cleaning up meant 'setting up a table in the garage and stacking everything on it that was in the way so I could see and use the top of the DAMN TABLE AGAIN!!!!'
And I'm yelling because I'm overwhelmed - it's the problem of gamers like me who like a lot of different types of games and so I buy and buy and trade and buy some more until I'm OVERWHELMED with the sheer volume of games! There are SO MANY GOOD GAMES! And I want to play them ALL!
But you know, you don't have to OWN them all to play them all. At least thats what I tell myself. And then I look at each game and try to assess it. Have I played it? Will I play it again if I have? Do I want to even play it if I haven't yet? When did I last play it? Is it worth money? Is it worth a LOT of money?
All these things roll through my mind as I look over each game. And I desperately want to play them - ALL OF THEM. And then I slide slowly into the trap of thinking about how much time it would take to learn and play each and every game that I haven't played yet. Then I think about playing ALL of them - every SINGLE game I own. And I keep sliding into that time pit, that gaping hole of time that is required to get them all to the table! And my mind explodes! And I'm sad. Sad that I may not even get to play them all. May NEVER get to play them all. But I MUST keep them because I *might* play them again. Sometime. Very soon. I JUST KNOW IT.
AUCTION BREAK! Please help me out of my dire situation! Buy a game! Please!
[CLOSED] SUPER FAST AUCTION - With Global Shipping OR Pick up @ EGG in Eugene, Oregon [ENDS JAN 30TH]
(ok, I know its only 12 games - a small dent - but its a start ---- again)
Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game
Villa Paletti (Zoch Verlag 2002)
The Settlers of Catan (Mayfair 2007)
Fresh Fish
Silverton
Empire Builder
Ever Green
Mykerinos
Sagaland (original 1st edition German version of Enchanted Forest)
Platoon
Cathedral WORLD (resin version with nice architectural pieces instead of simple blocks)
Yacht Race (rare/hard to find)
Anyhow, I have climbed out of pit of despair. And I'm happy again. Because I look around and I'm surrounded by games.
Look, here's what my game room looked like in May 2011...:strip_icc()/pic886946.jpg)
then August 2012....:strip_icc()/pic1397917.jpg)
...and finally this is today. Now. January 2014.:strip_icc()/pic1911161.jpg)
Well, I'm cheating again. Because it actually looks like this::strip_icc()/pic1907301.jpg)
Or rather, like this::strip_icc()/pic1907303.jpg)
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WHY IS IT SOOOOOO HARD? Oh yeah, because they're fun!
Matt's Board Game Back Room
Join me in my cozy little back room filled with games! Ooh and ah at some new releases. Learn about some more recent games. Or, look back at some older and classic games. From Euros to Ameritrash, kids games to grown-up games, easy to intense - nothing much is ignored in Matt's Board Game Back Room!
(Updates will be cross-posted from my blogspot blog - click my Blogger microbadge to go there now)
Archive for State of the Back Room
- [+] Dice rolls
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My wife and daughter took a 3 week trip to England (and a short overnight train trip to Paris) back in August. The trip was an adventure for her, her Mom (who is a UK native), and my daughter - but I'm not going into any of that here.
However, I bring it up because my wonderful wife asked me before leaving if there were any game stores that she should stop by to pick up some games for me!!!!
Well, I only knew about one game store specifically off the top of my head: Shire Games
I'm sure there are others and I might have spent time researching more stores, but I knew they probably weren't going to be making a lot of stops for games AND when I looked on Google Maps, I saw it was directly on their way from Shillington to the Liverpool/Blackpool area (a route they were already planning on taking), so it was perfect!
Plus, I had ordered from them a couple of times in the past and found Nick, the owner, to be quite friendly. I even sent a note to him to ask for detailed information on finding the store and other information about the area. His response was very helpful!
Anyhow, they arrived at the store (which is upstairs) sometime early in their trip on a weekday::strip_icc()/pic1755049.jpg)
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Front of the building (store on the 2nd floor) and my daughter in front of the door leading up
Nick happened to be coming DOWNSTAIRS while they were going up, apparently off to the Post Office. Well, I presume he recognized them as my family (due to my heads-up email - he probably doesn't get too many Americans wandering in) and was very kind to go back up and help them out (although I presume he would have done this anyway being the awesome bloke he is) for a good amount of time while my wife hemmed and hawed about what to get, despite me sending a detailed list of my interests based on the online listings.
I figured she'd get one or two games that weren't too big (to fit into luggage) and not too expensive (since she always loves a bargain). I had focused mainly on sale items that I knew were harder to get or were just great deals but of course she had to consider every option!
While she was deciding what to get, my daughter snapped a bunch of photos so that I could see what the store was like. It looked like a lovely homey feeling sort of place, granted filled with only tables, chairs, and lots and lots of games
These are shots of the first room you come into. Looks like a shipment had come in recently!/pic1755051.jpg)
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Main first room, Nick and my wife discussing options/pic1755060.jpg)
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A closeup of one table near the entrance, A shot from the front area looking back toward the game room/game shelve areas
Going further into the store you can see there are 3 main rooms, one off to the left, one to the right (both with blue walls) and one furthest back (with red walls)/pic1755054.jpg)
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Rooms off the the left and off to the right
You can see the rooms on the left are on the street facing side and have lots of natural light as well. The room on the right is on the darker side, although all rooms seem to have been outfitted with lots of ceiling spot lights to get good lighting all around./pic1755057.jpg)
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The red room, with lots of games newly arriving and waiting to be stocked onto the shelves.
For some reason when imagining Shire Games in my head I was thinking a darker cave-like environment on the first floor of some older building. Yes, it looks like an older building here, but its certainly not a dark cave! I have to say if I lived in or near Stoke-on-Trent I'd definitely be popping into Nick's store for some gaming goodness on a regular basis as it seems very inviting and comfortable.
And, finally, here is Nick, the friendly bloke himself::strip_icc()/pic1755061.jpg)
Nick of Shire Games
I also enjoy Nick's weekly newsletters because they are both informative (he gives brief descriptions of the latest games he has coming in, plus a review of a game that was played that week) and entertaining (jokes and anecdotes of some kind).
Thanks Nick for the friendly service and helping my wife out when she came visiting!
- [+] Dice rolls
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My game room has been a horrible mess for the past 2-3 months. Probably longer. And I seem to have acquired a good number of games (I've been trying to cut back, but it just doesn't ever seem to actually happen!) And, they have been piling up to the point where I was getting stressed about it.
Piles of games on side tables, on the game table, on the floor! Even worse, they were piling up in my garage as well! Earlier in the year I cleaned up the garage and got a bunch of stuff out (or re-organized) such that I had some extra storage space for my thrift finds! Boy, those shelves sure filled up fast!
As I mentioned before, this was all stressing me out and I finally bit the bullet. GASP! I was considering cutting back on my game collection. GASP! I was considering selling some of my games off!
Well, first steps in June involved setting up a BGG auction. I put up 50 items and sold nearly that many! YAH! Cash in my pocket! YAH! Games cleared out! YAH! And I didn't even miss them. Not ONE!
I have to admit I made some tough decisions in some cases. My criteria became: what is my excitement level when I think about this game? Am I excited about it enough to want to play it? If someone asked me about getting it to the table would I really want to, or would there be something else I'd want to play instead?
And, interestingly, I found some games to get rid of. Quite a few more, in fact, than I thought I would. It became easier as I thought about it more. It was freeing in fact!
Unfortunately, the tide turned again. I was hitting the thrift stores. Then my wife was hitting the thrift stores for me (without my prompting, I might add). And she actually found some really interesting games! Heroscape! The Omega Virus! Squad Leader! Axis & Allies! We even hit a bunch of stores on our way home from Portland, OR, and found some decent games.
Now, mind you, often times I'm not just looking for games for me to keep but with the intention of re-selling them. The right games can bring in some decent cash if you know what to look for!
However, it got to the point that I was (almost!) dreading her calling from the thrift store asking about games and finding more good stuff to bring back! I had too many games!!!
The real problem here is that it takes time to list games. At least, it does for me. I'm a perfectionist and detailed oriented about the whole process. I have to take several pictures, weigh them, measure them (to ensure proper shipping costs and such), then I have to research the potential price, then write up the listing (which involves inspecting each game, sometimes counting dozens or hundreds of components) and decide when to list them and for how much. Phew, it's a lot of little things that add up to TIME because I'm not going to do it half-assed!
So, earlier this month I determined it was time for ANOTHER auction. I set up a 6-foot folding table and started piling it with games, and more games, and MORE games! Dozens of thrifted games that I hadn't 'gotten around' to selling. IT WAS TIME!
I then started going through the game room and pulling games I decided I didn't need anymore. Some kind of hurt (Age of Steam plus a bunch of expansion maps), some hurt a lot (American Megafauna/Origins combo which I had pimped out but NEVER even played!
) There were several others as well. Some that I even surprised myself with in choosing them to sell. These games I piled up on a separate card table.
Then, I rifled through all the games, made value choices on the thrifted games and got everything listed in another huge BGG auction. I sold a good number of them, too! It also took me a while to get it all shipped out. A few went on ebay and a couple of those sold as well.
While the auction was still running, the neat piles on the tables had become a jumble, plus a couple more had been added from more thrifting (AGH!)
The good thing was, I realized I had more shelf space again in my game room! So, I pulled EVERYTHING from the shelves and started sorting by box size (exact sizes as much as possible). Oddballs were set on a separate side table or on the floor. Eventually, everything was sorted. Then I carefully started stacking them back onto the shelves. I was a little extra OCD at first with the boxes that had several all of one size - I sorted THOSE by color as well. I know.......don't say it.......
Anyhow, I eventually got everything back onto the shelves, more neatly organized than before. Well, ALMOST all of it. A few still had to go on the ledge below the shelves. But, it was DONE! It looked great! And I didn't feel embarrassed to have friends over for games again!
Here's how it looks now:"The Wall o' Games""Collection o' Dice":strip_icc()/pic1397916.jpg)
Coincidentally, right after I finished cleaning up my game room, I got a message from my friend Andy (Count Von Luckner) stating he was cleaning out HIS garage and he had a set of plastic drawers he didn't need anymore and asked if I wanted them. It was EXACTLY what I needed::strip_icc()/pic1397913.jpg)
The old drawers I had were relegated to 'box' storage::strip_icc()/pic1397915.jpg)
Here's a few of the games ready to ship out!:strip_icc()/pic1397914.jpg)
I was sad to see them go but happy to have the space and the $$ in my pocket!
I still have some insanity to tackle in my garage (that 6' table is still there and stacked with games), but my game room is no longer driving me crazy.....for now.
- [+] Dice rolls
STATE OF THE BACK ROOM - The Oregon Cup, Thrifting Nirvana, and TtR: Northern Egypt results!
11
Aug
2011
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Gosh, it's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a blog post. I guess I've been busy with 2 different trips, one to Washington last weekend for a wedding and family reunion and one the week before to Ashland, OR, and The 1st Annual Oregon Cup my friend Chris's house. Plus, we had an auction leading up to The Cup and had to work in some time to package and ship games.
Also, for The Oregon Cup, I was requested to do the geeklist writeup - which you can find here: The 1st Annual OREGON CUP - 'Down to the Wire'
THAT took me a while to write up and I guess is sort of a very long blogging entry.
To summarize, The Oregon Cup is a sort of Olympic Decathlon of gaming - we play 10 games and get 1000 points for first place and proportional points after that. After 10 games we determine who the winner is! You'll have to read it to find out if I won or not....
So, here's the STATE OF THE BACK ROOM as of last evening::strip_icc()/pic1061649.jpg)
As you can see there's been some thrifting going on although Midgard, Merkator, Luna and Unbongo Extreme are all new games - recent purchases or gifts (which I still haven't opened). I seem to be doing a lot of thrifting lately. I think it has cascaded since mid-June and early-July when my wife OFFERED to go into thrift stores to see what they might have! She seems to have become quite the good-luck charm for me in thrifting. Our initial finds included an unpunched Power Barons, a complete copy of Space Dealer in German, Clue Master Detective, Powerpuff Girls: Saving the World Before Bedtime, Scrabble: R.S.V.P, Risk tin edition (has cool plastic boxes for the pieces that I'm using to make Risk Express), and 10 Days in the USA in mint condition.
Since then I've also found 2 more Clue Master Detective games, a Clue: The Great Museum Caper, another Scrabble: R.S.V.P. (which I've been using the dice to make custom Risk Express games with), an unpunched Heroquest: Return of the Witch Lord (got if for $2.99 and sold it for $40 in The Oregon Cup auction), and a complete Water Works. Ahhh, Thrifting Nirvana! But wait, there's more!
So on the table you see 2 Inner Circle games. If you read my profile this was a game I had as a kid and my parents got rid of when I moved out. For some reason something intrigues me about it's maze-like quality and how the number of pawns get whittled down on each passing level - I don't know, it's just a great mechanic. Yes, I know the game is mostly a solvable puzzle with a memory component, but so what? It's fun!
Anyhow, the first one I found in Washington for $0.38. But, it was missing some pawns. Someone on the parts list offered to send me some pawns but the colors don't all match. I accepted, but then yesterday I found ANOTHER copy at our local Goodwill! It had ALL the pawns, but the boards were all warped. I'm thinking I can use the remaining parts for my own game of some sort.....I'm just letting that roll around in the back of my head for now.
Also, while in Washington this past weekend, my wife found Sly which is a collection of 6 games by Sid Sackson which uses the same board and pieces for all 6 games. I'm really interested in trying all those games out...it's a very interesting piece of history.
Speaking of game collections, I also found Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game for $1.00 which contains 5 board games using the same components and includes games designed by Richard Garfield, Richard Borg, Mike Selinker, James Ernest and Bruno Faidutti. It is missing a couple of discs but I'm certainly interested in trying some of these games as well.
You can also see 2 Jumanji's here that I'm combining into one good game as well. When I got it I probably should have left it as it really doesn't have a lot of value game-wise or money-wise. BUT, it might be a fun game to put into the 'Scout' game box that I've been putting together. I'll have to do another post about that later as that's another story.
Well, let me put some MORE stuff on the table that I found just yesterday along with the Inner Circle::strip_icc()/pic1061652.jpg)
I found a Heroscape Marvel: The Conflict Begins which is complete and like new. I found a Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie about 2 months ago but have yet to get it out and play although I WAS thinking about it the other day....hmmm, perhaps I need to think about games I want more often - the same thing happened with Clue: The Great Museum Caper.....weird. (what game should I think about now? ah, I know! Advanced Civilization.....come to me.....!)
Anyhow, I also found not 1 but *2* copies of Bandu - neither were complete, BUT the missing pieces were mutually exclusive so I have a full set now and one that is missing 6 pieces. All of these could be resold for decent amounts of money, but I don't have any intention of selling them - at least not yet. Funny, I just sold a bunch of stuff off and now I'm finding more interesting games...
Oh yeah, one last thing...I found a game called Vector Chess which doesn't appear to be in the BGG database so I'm going write it up to add it::strip_icc()/pic1061651.jpg)
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The instructions are deteriorating so I'm going to have to make an electronic copy of them that I can post those in the game entry.
Well, I finally got around to picking a winner for the Ticket to Ride: Northern Egypt map and cards - and the winner is:
I'm very happy to see he's a big Ticket to Ride fan and has pretty much all the different versions of TtR.
As an added bonus, I noticed Logan doesn't have an Avatar yet so I'm sending him 30GG as well to help him get one.
Thanks to everyone who has been thumbing my posts. I'm not holding a contest this month...but perhaps next month!
Thanks for stopping by! Good luck if you go thrifting!
- Waterworks
- Power Barons
- The Powerpuff Girls: Saving the World Before Bedtime
- Bausack
- Clue: The Great Museum Caper
- Clue Master Detective
- Jumanji
- HeroQuest: Return of the Witch Lord
- Inner Circle
- RSVP: Vertical Crossword Game
- Sly
- 10 Days in the USA
- Ticket to Ride
- Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game
- Space Dealer
- Heroscape Marvel: The Conflict Begins
- Sid Sackson
Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:31 am
- [+] Dice rolls
- [+]
- 48039. tasajara
- d380 =
- (254) =
- 254
- TtR:NE Winner!
- Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:50 am
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What's on the table today? Or rather, what happened to the table? Well, I was cleaning out the garage a bit over the weekend and wanted to try to get all 6 of my chairs into the room. So, I got most everything picked up and stacked back up on the shelves. Then, I moved the table a bit - at an angle so that I could maybe get the other 2 chairs on the ends. And, that seemed to work. Now, it's all in there and it's sort of tight but I think it works.
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Well, I did until I had Bob over and it wasn't really set up properly with the side tables for drinks. So, I had to move stuff around a bit to make it work.
So, it's a little crowded in the room and I'm still figuring it out. But I like the dynamic feel of it at an angle. It also opens up a little space around the shelves.
Anyhow, we'll see how the room works out this way.
You may have noticed that box on the side table. That's my box of Dominion. I just updated it with more dividers to fit Dominion: Cornucopia into the box. I also created labels to give it a cover and sides - it's been a plain brown box since I put it together back in December (I think) and I wanted it labeled so others would know what's inside.
Here's the box::strip_icc()/pic1043171.jpg)
And here's how it looks inside::strip_icc()/pic1043172.jpg)
I have uploaded all the files and they are STILL pending (they've been pending for at least 4 days now I think - hopefully they go through soon). Actually, most of the dividers were already uploaded but I did a few small fixes, re-adjusted the pages for more flexibility in printing, and added some new additional dividers - all based on requests from other users.
I'll post the links to the files here once they are approved.
Also, you can see there's a small red box on the side table as well. That's my newly created Risk Express. I built it from the cards, box and bits from the big round tin edition of Risk
Here's the tin edition that I started with:/pic1044586.jpg)
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Here's what the end product looks like::strip_icc()/pic1044575.jpg)
I 'pimped' it out a bit more by re-using the player pieces to indicate point values. The cool thing about this is that at the end of the game each player has a line of soldiers in in front of them indicating their score...plus it just adds to the theme a bit more.:strip_icc()/pic1044577.jpg)
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The dice are made from RSVP: Vertical Crossword Game letter cubes with stickers applied. They fit very nicely into the little box.
Speaking of those letter cubes, here are some creative shots I had fun taking::strip_icc()/pic1044572.jpg)
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While I was feeling creative, I also tried some 'action' shots rolling the Risk Express dice:^^ This is my favorite ^^ - I love the look of the shadows.:strip_icc()/pic1044580.jpg)
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Well, that's just a quick update for this week. This weekend I hope to get Part 2 posted with more images and details about the Ticket to Ride: Northern Egypt map.
Finally, if you thumb this post and come back to thumb ANY BLOG post of mine this month (July) I will be giving away a copy of the final version of Ticket to Ride: Northern Egypt + cards that we submitted to the TtR design contest. Don't forget to check out all my posts for this month! Good luck!
Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:09 am
- [+] Dice rolls
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Well, I've been inviting you all to my Board Game Back Room for the past 6 months (5 months almost to the day on BGG) but I still haven't given a proper tour of 'The Back Room' other than the small pic in my avatar and the slightly larger one on the blogspot site, although I did post a few pics to the shelf pron geeklist a while back.
So, when you come in our house and go down the main hall a bit, there's a door to the garage here::strip_icc()/pic1035983.jpg)
The gauntlet when you first enter the garage - please ignore the cat boxes (yes, 4 boxes for 3 cats - supposedly this is the ratio you're supposed to have according to somebody, probably some shadowy kitty litter exec or something):strip_icc()/pic1035985.jpg)
Inside the garage is a big mess. Well, it's not THAT bad, just sort of a mess - it's somewhat organized and you can at least walk through it. Just ignore that....unless you want to buy something (NOTE: We are doing a BIG combined BGG auction later this month and a couple of the games on the table might be in it...):strip_icc()/pic1035990.jpg)
I just looked closer and there's not really much to see in that pic I guess other than a bunch of boxes. On the table is Skirrid and Power Barons....
Here's the wall that we had built to create an art studio for myself back when we first moved into the house.:strip_icc()/pic1035995.jpg)
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The original garage was actually deep enough for 2 cars on this side. This seemed like a spectacular waste of space, so we converted it. Now, here's a small shop area where I get to fix things my kids break. Or fix game boxes in need of repair. And, oh yeah, any manly stuff my wife needs done gets done here. Well, most of it....
I wanted a door with glass in it so that light from the room would help light up the garage, and also it kind of makes a connection between the garage and the room. You can also see if someone is trying to sneak up on you.
Well, here we go inside....:strip_icc()/pic1035996.jpg)
You will see some art supplies and various paintings strewn about in here. See, before I got into board games (and predominantly before I met my wife, got married, had kids and otherwise mucked up my wide open schedule for doing stuff I want to do) I was really into oil painting. I still am 'into' oil painting, except I never get around to actually doing it. It always seems I have a gazillion other projects for my free time now, usually related to gaming.
Here's an example of the last painting I was working on::strip_icc()/pic1036008.jpg)
Ah well. I keep telling myself I'm going to sit down and paint again but it still doesn't happen very much.
Here are some shots of some of the paintings that you get to stare at when sitting at one side of the table::strip_icc()/pic1036004.jpg)
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Oh yeah, there's a crokinole board on that wall as well...I sometimes forget I have it hidden back there. Need to pull that sucker out again soon....
Lower down on the floor is this Pachinko machine that my dad bought 20 years ago.:strip_icc()/pic1036006.jpg)
It was in my room growing up and now I have it but never play it. I need to get it working again as my son is very interested in it.
Notice the back wall here is painted black.:strip_icc()/pic1036001.jpg)
When I was putting together the room I didn't want bright colors that would reflect on paintings and affect the look of them. But, I also didn't want a completely white room either. So, I decided one wall would provide some nice contrast if it was all black.
Also notice the 'square' motif going on - square window, square sconces, square block shelves, square wall....
To contrast that, I have a round ceiling light for the center light.:strip_icc()/pic1036002.jpg)
I LOVE the light rays coming out of it...I ordered the light online and noticed this cool feature, but the picture did NOT do it justice. Having it in the room makes me happy for some reason.
I also have adjustable lighting like you might see in a museum or art gallery (in fact, it sort of gives that art gallery feel). The only problem is that they are all halogen lights and they get HOT. Which, of course, heats up the room quite a bit which is good in winter, not so good in summer.
We have air conditioning pumping into the room, but sometimes it isn't quite enough.
We did put in an exhaust fan (primarily to vent out an paint odors, etc) and sometimes I turn it on to help pull out the hot air.
Over here we have my movable art rack.:strip_icc()/pic1036000.jpg)
(oops, it's kind of a crappy pic) It's big and heavy and pretty much stays right there. It has all sorts of sizes of canvases that I've gotten for good deals here and there. Poor things, they just stare at me blankly all day long.....sorry, couldn't resist.
You can also see part of a wooden shelving rack from the daughter of my wife's long-time friend who passed away from cancer a couple of years back...it's a nice small reminder of her and I like it despite it being slightly wobbly and a little inconvenient with the slats.
I think it's a plant stand but I use it for storing various gaming supplies, plus my nifty scanner up there on top.
Well, that's it. How do you like the room?!
Oh yeah!
I still have to show you all the games and related 'stuff'!
Here's the game wall.:strip_icc()/pic1036012.jpg)
That is SUMO shelving. It has a honeycomb center which makes it really strong and which allows it to hang out from the wall like that. I love the look of it.
However, I still really worry about it though...sometimes it creaks and I fear it will fall and crush me with the weight of a 100 boxes. I sometimes have nightmares of the entire wall coming crashing down on my, boxes flying everywhere. Sometimes I even think just before I come into the room "I wonder if all the shelving is still up on the walls". And, it always is. Yes, the clips holding it up are all drilled directly into the studs and I added an extra bracket in the middle of each to give it a bit more insurance.
But I still worry.
Further down on that wall there is a low shelf where more games are stashed as well as gaming parts, boxes and some art supplies.:strip_icc()/pic1036013.jpg)
That shelf is there because we had to build over the exposed foundation wall -- well, we could have left it exposed it wouldn't have looked nearly as nice. this also allowed for insulation and -- the 'floor shelf'! I actually really like it for keeping smaller stuff off the floor and out of the way.
To the left of this pic on the same wall are a couple is a craft cart my wife gave to me when she decided she didn't need them which I stuff all sorts of extra gaming bits and dice into, plus my gaming bowls and my dice tower.:strip_icc()/pic1036014.jpg)
There are also two small totes full of all my smaller games that take up space on the shelves inefficiently. They're also great for grabbing to take with me to game nights and other events.
Above that on the wall is a white board for writing down possible games for the evening when game night is at my house.:strip_icc()/pic1036015.jpg)
Here's the gaming table. This is from a couple of days ago when I was sorting through a thrifted copy of Clue Master Detective.:strip_icc()/pic1036011.jpg)
Here's what is looks like at this exact moment::strip_icc()/pic1036019.jpg)
These are items I'm gearing up to put in the BGG auction I mentioned earlier. I'll post here on my blog once the auction goes live. I just have a few items in it (actually 13) but my other friends have another 125+ items in it.
I got this table for $40 from a Craigslist ad. The table cloth is an irregular one that I bought with 2 others (black and tan) from an online store that was clearancing them out.
Here's one of the 6 gaming chairs I got from St Vinny's last month for a grand total of $12.50!:strip_icc()/pic1036018.jpg)
They were just what I was looking for: cheap, padded, with arms, and cheap. Did I mention cheap?
Hiding behind the table on the back wall is this other 'floor shelf' that has a set of speakers, some knick-knacks, art supplies and other goodies.:strip_icc()/pic1036009.jpg)
Hiding even further behind the table is a stack of unopened games....:strip_icc()/pic1036010.jpg)
Next up after the thrifting stuff and updating my Dominion card dividers for Cornucopia is getting these opened as well as the new version of Factory Fun!
Well, that's the grand tour! I've got a lot of stuff crammed into this room, but I love it! I'm considering trying a different layout with the table but I think I'm going to have to keep it like it is now as there isn't too much room to maneuver. The new chairs crowd the room just a bit because of the arms on them, but I love having arms on my chairs so....it's worth the bit of inconvenience.
Thanks for stopping by! Now go out and enjoy the nice summer weather before heading in for a nice game or two!
Oops! Almost forgot! If you thumb this post - and come back to thumb ANY BLOG post of mine this month (July) I will be giving away something special/game related at the end of July (I'm trying something new to see if I can encourage readers to let me know if they read my posts here on BGG or not since 'hits' are not actually available on BGG) - it will either be a copy of the Ticket to Ride map (in Northern Africa) + cards that my wife and I created and submitted to the TtR design contest OR it will be a really nice hand-made copy of Bongo! (made by me!)
Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:31 am
- [+] Dice rolls
