Pool Table Dilema?

plshrk22

plshrk22

A Holes Billiards
Silver Member
Growing up I had a pool table right in the middle of the living room and played whenever I wanted to. I saved up when I was 10 and bought a pool table. I played every chance I got. Grew up, went to college and sold the pool table because I moved out of state. I now own a home but there are no rooms in my house that will house a pool table :(. I was sitting brain storming and a light came on, " I will put it in the garage ". Ran it across with the wife and she said, " Hell No!". The garage is for our cars blah blah. I think I can convince her if I give up my spot for the pool table and just pull her car out when I want to play but I am worried about the temperature differences in our garage. I mean it is still a garage and it is going to get cold in there. Are the differences in Temp going to affect the table badly? I can do some insulating in the garage if need be. I was thinking just some $500-$700 Brunswick or something along those lines. I have just always wondered if the cold is going to affect the table that much? I live in Boise ID and our winters are not very harsh but they do get pretty cool. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks.
 
I was in your situation about 5 years ago....except I never owned a pool table but wanted one badly. I convinced my wife to let me clean up the garage and use one of the bays for a table. After some negotiating we agreed that I would finish the garage with sheetrock and create storage space in the rafters. In order to fit the table, I had to do some serious cleaning...but it was well worth it. Before taping and painting the walls, I had someone blow insulation between the drywall. I bought some indoor/outdoor carpet from Lowes the size to fit one bay. For climate issues, I bought a cheap wall unit AC/Heater. I found one on craigslist for $75! This worked perfectly for the garage...no noticable differences in the way the table played. It would only take about 10 minutes for the room to be comfortable enough to play in.

Funny thing is after all my work my wife realized that it was great entertainment for family and friends that she wanted to move it inside to the family room :-)

Good luck with your wife!

-Phillip
 
I can sympathise as I too own a home and can't come close to fitting a table anywhere. Is that a good reason to move ? I was told by a good table mechanic that it's essential to control the humidity where a table is kept. We were discussing a commercial location and we assumed that there would always be at least 55 degrees F maintained at a minimum. That having been said, they have tables that can sit out in the rain now, year round, but I seriously doubt that a real pool player would be satisfied with how they play. I want an old 5' X 10' convertible anyway:rolleyes: ...Tom
 
Yeh my wife keeps saying just get an outdoor table and I know I would not be satisfied.
 
tpdtom said:
I can sympathise as I too own a home and can't come close to fitting a table anywhere. Is that a good reason to move ? I was told by a good table mechanic that it's essential to control the humidity where a table is kept. We were discussing a commercial location and we assumed that there would always be at least 55 degrees F maintained at a minimum. That having been said, they have tables that can sit out in the rain now, year round, but I seriously doubt that a real pool player would be satisfied with how they play. I want an old 5' X 10' convertible anyway:rolleyes: ...Tom
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In what way would an outdoor table play badly? And in what way does any table differ to another table in the way it plays? Is it just the rails? If all table had the exact same cloth what would be different from table to table?
 
I don't know if you have seen "My Garage" threads or not. But, I was in a similar situation. We bought our house about 8 years ago and the deal was that I got to put my Gold Crown III in the only roon large enough for it in the house. With the agreement that someday soon it would get moved out to the garage. Well, 6 years later I finally have a table in my garage!!

I live in So Cal so the weather here is not bad. I do have HVAC in the room in case I need it and an insulated garage door.

A buddy of mine moved from LA to ID and set his table up in his garage. It was unbearably cold to play during the winter so he insulated the walls and put in a heater. Not so bad now!!

Good luck!

Russ...
 
You need to get control of your woman, man..

(Just kidding, just kidding!)


Seriously tho.. When my wife first met me, she knew my whole life revolved around pool, and she saw me playing my best. She's seen that I have generally been unhappy when not able to play for an extended period of time. Plus, it helps that I told her before we got married that pool was still going to be a big part of my life, and she had no problem with that.

So, when the time came that I decided while over in Iraq that I was going to have a pool room in my house one way or the other, she agreed to let go of the garage, and she couldn't be more pleased with the decision now.

She knows that after 9 years of marriage, and never having a pool table in the house, she felt that it was something I really deserved.

Now, as far as your wife is concerned, you and she need to sit down and have a talk. If this is really, really important to you to get back into the game, then let her know that. If you never really made a big deal about the lack of a pool table before now, then you might just have to suck it up until you can move into a bigger house. Any house that has a whole separate room, pool table ready.. Is going to be expensive.

Have you made any big sacrifices for her? In my case, I used to play no less than 8 tournaments weekly, which went down to 1-2 a week right after we got married, and then down to 1 every two months when I went to Germany. So, my wife realizes the massive change marriage played in my day to day life.

Do I regret it? No. I quit playing for lack of practice, more than lack of time to play tournaments. I'm no going to go out there and play 3-4 speeds below where I know I can play. It's just too frustrating.

Feel free to show her this post, and have another discussion with her. For a married pool player who is not rich, there aren't many other options to get a pool table other than taking over the garage.

The main factor in our decision was the comparison between the benefits versus the sacrifices needing to be made.

I bought a mini storage shed for the back yard to store tools, etc.. We get another full room in our house, and a pool table. Lots of people come over to the house now.. The pool table has made our house a social magnet, since we actually did a full renovation on the garage and made it look nice. We closed up the door, and designed the closure to look exactly like the house was made that way. (Lots of people in the neighborhood noticed it as it was being completed, liked that you could not tell it was a garage renovation, and asked who our contractor was...)

The cons: Wifey has to park her car outside. Hmmmmmmmmm... That's pretty much all I can see from here. You really need to let her read this post.

Good luck, man..

Russ
 
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Have an engineer figure out what ya have to do to knock out 16 feet of load bearing wall, put up beam so house doesn't cave in, viola, private pool hall. Tell wifey to keep her decorations the hell away from the pool table. good luck.
 
plshrk22 said:
And what if time of purchase you already have $20,000 in equity? :)
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I paid about $20,000 altogether for my garage renovation, including the HDTV on the wall and the table itself.

It really depends on what you want from life. If you can afford the hit to the wallet, and you think your life would be improved with a pool table at home, then make that choice.

I still think you need to communicate to the wife how important the pool table is. If she still says "no way" just because she doesn't want to park the car in the driveway, I think you have bigger issues than a pool table.

Marriage is give and take....

Russ
 
Just send her on a week long vacation to somewhere nice and when she gets back... WHAM, you've finished the project. Yeah, she'll hate you for weeks but, shit, man you've got a man cave
 
REALLY appreciate it!

Russ Chewning said:
I paid about $20,000 altogether for my garage renovation, including the HDTV on the wall and the table itself.

It really depends on what you want from life. If you can afford the hit to the wallet, and you think your life would be improved with a pool table at home, then make that choice.

I still think you need to communicate to the wife how important the pool table is. If she still says "no way" just because she doesn't want to park the car in the driveway, I think you have bigger issues than a pool table.

Marriage is give and take....

Russ
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You speak some inspiring words! It really makes me think about it actually. What the hell is the problem with it? I mean I am giving up my parking space! It really will not be affecting her at all. I guess I can try it and if it doesnt work out I will just sell the table..
 
In my situation, the garage has ALWAYS been mine. It just worked out that way since I have been married. I have needed room for my toys and she has the yard for her horses. I have spent countless days / weeks building horse corals, stable, etc... for her, so if she has to park here car (new Bimmer!) outside, oh well !!

Another plus for me is that when I had a table in the house, it was constantly covered with CRAP!! Now that it is in the garage, MY garage, it will not take 20 minutes to clean it off in order to shoot some pool.

One more thought ........ when the table was in the house and my wife wanted to go to bed, I had to stop shooting because it was too loud. Now that the table is in the garage, on the other side of the house, I can shoot all night and it does not bother her.

Russ....
 
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