Buying a Home - Cost Questions

[HomeBrewer]

Hi All,

My wife and I will be buying a home and I'm trying my best to hold out for one with space for a 10 ft. heated table. I understand it may be some time before I get the table itself, but want to have the space available all the same. I know I'm not the first to try (and maybe fail) but I love the game and there's no place I know of to play near my city (New Orleans). We did not buy a 'starter home' in our 20s and so I feel like while rates are good I'd like to take advantage of my VA loan opportunity and 'buy up' a bit. I do not intend to sell in the near-term and want something we'll be for a long while.

I've read up on the necessary room dimensions and am mostly curious about the current up-front prices as well as the ongoing cost of ownership. Also, any anecdotes about table ownership, or 'gotchas', would be most welcome.

Towards that end, does anyone have advice on the following:

--Minimum price for a table not in need of restoration. I would assume that under this category go tables that are used once for tournaments and disassembled, are found from rooms going out of business, or perhaps new from Mexican companies? I seem to recall some years ago that there was a Mexican Spider Ellitte (maybe endores by Rojas?) or some such table but I'm not seeing much chatter about it currently.

--Minimum cost for a reputable, expert mechanic. I want to do this once and will spend what is needed, or wait the requisite amount of time, for a mechanic who has the specific skills necessary. I understand well the dangers of not paying the right person the right price.

--Ongoing costs. Can anyone speak to the monthly cost of having the thing heating 24 hours a day? Is that even necessary or could I set a timer to kick in heating at 3 PM in anticipation of coming home at 5? Obviously, it would turn on at 3 AM on weekends so I could be playing by 5 AM :smile:

Thanks in advance,

Jason

 

[tiger37373]

Basic setup of the table will cost you about $1000, these days. Plus delivery cost of about $1 per mile. Pluus balls, and cloth. Table cost will vary wildly depending on your preference. Minimum $4000 for decent sogard. It's false economy to turn the heater off, unless it's going to stay off. It takes about 8 hours for the slate to heat up to a temperature that will allow it to do the intended job of drying the cloth, etc. Other than electricity, the table shouldn't cost you anything extra, until it's time for new cloth or balls. Which will be a long time. Best of luck.

 

[dharrell]

I grew up in New Orleans and I was hard pressed to find a pocket table, the majority were old Brunswick 5x10. this was the 60's-70's. When I was at Tulane we had a billiard team and had 2 5x10s at the student union so you could try there. It is wierd that in a town with all the european history that billiards didn't last. I have a Soren Sogaard 5x10 in a large upstairs room. You need at least 20ft length by 16ft width. I love my table, agree with everything Jamie said in the above post. Good luck to you. I miss all that cajun cooking.