The Barncade Takes Shape

My roommate Kelly has been my best friend for about 25 years. We are like brothers, and he helped get me my current job. In a previous post I mentioned he found the White Water on eBay that I ended up buying while he was living in my house. He got sucked into pinball through my addiction and we pooled our funds several years ago to buy Scared Stiff and Creature From the Black Lagoon. He bought his own machine, Popeye, outright. He's just a casual flipper, but appreciates the beauty of the machines and is attracted to theme instead of difficulty, depth of rulesets or manufacturer.

Later he bought a house and our roles reversed as I roomed with him and rented out my house. Kelly has a lot of property, and for years we have dreamed of building a bar and game room to house our beer collectibles, jukebox, and pinball machines.

That dream is now becoming a reality!

Work has begun on building a two-story, 2400 square foot detached bar and game room on the property that we have started calling "The Barncade". What I really find exciting is the entire upstairs will be devoted to pinball machines and video games, with space to work on them and also on my Steampunk Time Machine Virtual Pinball system. After drawing up the plans and acquiring the necessary permits, we broke ground a few weeks ago. Once the excavation was complete, gravel was delivered and a concrete slab was poured. The bottom floor walls went up fast, and now the upstairs floor and walls have been started. After that will be installation of the trusses and roof, shingles, windows, and siding. Of course the interior will need insulation and drywall.

Here's a photo montage of the progress so far:

Excavation Begins

The Concrete Slab Is In!

Boy Those Walls Go Up Fast!

The Floor Joists Are Hangin'

More to follow...