Construction Update

Whoohoo! The 5 rolls of blacklight carpeting arrived today! My precious....

This the same design as my current gameroom. Click here to see a picture of the carpet pattern.

This is 5 rolls (12' wide) of 43 feet. It was such a large order that they had to make a special run of the carpet just for me to make sure all the rolls matched.

Unfortunately, the truck driver delivering the carpet ran over our mailbox pulling in. I don't think he even noticed. And I don't mean he knocked it over, I mean he RAN IT OVER. Pole and all. Amazingly my Netflix DVD didn't get damaged. Tomorrow I will be mailbox shopping.



They worked more on the steps.



And they worked on the upstairs carpeting. They are coming back tomorrow to finish up.



I had a really hard time finding replacement bulbs for the Chuck E Cheese signs. They use a weird single-pin fluorescent bulb. I finally found a local electrical store that had a bunch. And looks like the ballasts and starters are good on both units too.

Construction Update

Update on the steps/deckwork. Looks like it's slow-going. Hopefully after they have all the supports in place, it will go quicker.

Boy, that door is really way up there, isn't it?

Construction Update

At long last, they have begun the deckwork/steps that go from the upper floor of the garage to the existing house deck, and from the existing deck to the ground. After the removal of our front steps early in the construction, we've been forced to enter our house through the garage ever since. They originally removed the steps back on February 5th!!! Gaahh!! Here's the blog posting about it.

Anyway, it looks like these are the holes for the footers.

Chuck E. Cheese Signs for the Arcade

I installed one of the two giant illuminated Chuck E. Cheese signs I have. Well, partially installed it. I got the frame hung. They both need new bulbs, and the plastic trim pieces that hold the plexi front panels on the frames are all broken apart. It's going to be tricky to figure out a way to hold the plexis on there.

These things are HEAVY. Jeez they are heavy. I had a near catastrophe installing the first one, and ended up with a huge bleeding gash on my hand. Havin' fun, havin' fun.

Seattle Science Fiction Museum

UPDATE!
I found a bunch of photos from the museum on Flickr. Please take the time to flip through them. It's worth it!

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=science%20fiction%20museum%20seattle&w=all&s=int

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While in Seattle this week, I visited the Science Fiction Museum. A definite MUST SEE for any true sci-fi movie fan. Heartbreakingly, they did not allow photos inside the exhibit. I took this single photo of "Gort" at the entrance to the exhibit, before you actually go in.

"Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

Since no photos were allowed, I'll see if I can describe some of the things I remember seeing. Please note, these items are for the most part entirely originals used during the filming of these classic films and TV shows.

• Hal 9000 "eye" assembly
• Full size Cylon costume from "Gun on Ice Planet Zero" (original series)
  
• Original Muffet dagget costume (originally worn by a chimp for the show) from Battlestar Galactica.
  
• And entire wall of '60s style "ray guns". I think I remember seeing Deckard's gun from Blade Runner in there somewhere.
• From the original series Star Trek, they had the Enterprise filming model, the captains chair, a "computer console" from the bridge, and several authentic uniforms worn during the show including Kirk's and Spock's uniforms.
• From Aliens, a full size loader exoskeleton as worn by Sigourney Weaver, and a full size (I think) Queen Alien (which was unbelievably awesome).
• Robot B9 from "Lost in Space" and Robbie the Robot from "Forbidden Planet" - both were in the same exhibit and were "bickering" back and forth.
• A full-sized ET (not sure if this was a filming copy or not)
• An R2-D2 (didn't look original but I could be wrong)
  
• Original "Twiki" costume from Buck Rogers in the 25th century. It looked like time had started to take its toll on that costume as some of the rubber parts of the suit looked like they were degrading.
• Original latex masks worn by some of the Cantina creatures in the first Star Wars movie.
  
• A Stormtrooper costume (I believe this said it was fan-made, but it looked cool)
  
• Original Death Star model from the 1977 film. The model was lit from within - the tiny windows formed by scratching holes in the paint. Oddly, the model was only built on one side (the side with the giant laser dish) - the other side was clear plastic. They may have added the clear plastic rear side just for the exhibit. The inside was plywood, with the thin plastic shell over it.
• A controller for the full-size robotic T-Rex in Jurassic Park. I assume the operators would move parts of the small armatured model which had sensors on every joint, and the computers would reflect these movements into the full size Rex.
• An "egg" (or I guess a cocoon, to be exact) from "Cocoon".
• Some costumes from Blade Runner (including the clear plastic outfit worn by Zhora).
• Lots of Borg prosthetics and appendages.
• A small model of all the sets for the original Star Trek Enterprise. This was cool to see them all laid out together to see how they sort of connected. I imaging this was the layout they had them on the soundstage.
• Small "Squiddies" models from The Matrix.
  
• Movie posters from perhaps every sci-fi film ever made. I'm not kidding.
  

The outside of the building was EXTREMELY unusual, and I was allowed to take photos (at least I assume, and if not, kiss my butt). It seemed to be made of thousands of squares of curved metal all riveted together.





I found this article which describes the architecture of the museum. There's even a monorail that runs through the middle of the building. Here's a nice illustration of the museum I found on the site.

Construction Update

The flooring for the bathroom was completed today. We should be able to get the fixtures installed now!

Construction Update - Gutters

Here's the promised photo of the newly-installed gutters.


Seattle trip photos coming soon.

Still Rockin' Seattle (and gutters)

We had some fun today. We went to the Space Needle and I even went all the way to the top. Very cool. Right next to the Space Needle is an AWESOME science fiction museum. Unbelievably they DON'T ALLOW PHOTOS! WTF!!?? They've got the largest collection of sci-fi film artifacts I've ever seen, but I'm not allowed to take any pictures? Seriously guys, that's messed up. I went to the gift shop thinking that, okay, maybe they've got DVDs of the exhibit - but no, nothing. Completely brain dead.

Anyway, I didn't bring my SD card reader with me, or I'd post my pictures of the Space Needle and the OUTSIDE of the science fiction museum (duh). I'll post photos here when I get home, and blog about all the cool artifacts I was allowed to LOOK AT in the museum.

I heard from home that the gutters have been installed on the garage. I'll get photos of that up as soon as I can.

My return flight is tomorrow.

In Seattle Again

AOL sent me to Seattle again on business. I'll be hopefully getting updates on the construction from my wife and will post here if anything happens. I should be back home Friday.

Chasing Ghosts at AOL

Last Tuesday we got a bunch of colleagues together for an informal screening of Chasing Ghosts at AOL where I work. Everyone really seemed to like it!

Nice Chasing Ghosts review

http://notcoming.com/reviews/chasingghosts/

Construction Update

Looks like we got our final electrical inspection. We're in the home stretch now!



I felt sorry for the poor guy moving the wires for the speakers and the phone. He really had to gut the wall to get things where they were supposed to be.



I called the carpet place today (kidcarpet.com) to order the blacklight carpet for the gameroom and they were extremely friendly and helpful. I need to mail payment for the carpet, but it should be here in about 3 weeks they said. Five rolls of 43ft each. The same design as the current gameroom, "Space Voyage".

Construction Update

A lot happened this last week, but I was so busy with work I didn't get a chance to update the blog. Not to mention that now that they days are getting shorter, I leave in the morning and it's dark, and when I get home from work it's dark again. It makes it hard to take photos of stuff outside. That said, we are getting REALLY close to the end here. Just a few more items and we'll be done. We're still trying to figure out where to get all the money we need for the carpet.

Here's a list of things that happend since the last update -

All the fan neons finally work! Yay!



The last of the outdoor lanterns.



The plumbing ran into some difficulties when they couldn't get the right fall on the sewer line to the septic system. It had been run incorrectly before they poured the slab. Originally we were being told we'd need a pump, but they were able to jackhammer up a small area of the floor and re-route the line so that it would work.

But - it's got the access cap sticking up right where I want the steps to come down from the deck. I'm hoping that it's just there for inspection, and then we can cut it off at ground level and bury it.



Here's the area they pulled up to change the septic line.



They also added the concrete skirt around the building. It looks really nice. The sidewalk going to the door is where I plan on bringing machines in.



And now that all the water and septic lines have been run, they've filled in the trench they dug.



While they were out filling the trenches, they also smoothed out the grading a bit in the yard.



Originally the bathroom was going to be the same color blue as the wall just outside the bathroom, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided I wanted it black instead. They primered it one day and painted it the next. It sure looks cool.





Back before they drywalled, there was some sort of disconnect between me, the builder, and the electrician, about who was going to run the speaker wires to the modular hookup panel I have, the phone line, etc. As a result, the wires were just left hanging. Now we're having to tear up drywall to run the wires to the proper place. At least the builder is doing this for us, but it still sucks having to tear up brand new drywall.



And finally, they installed a couple pieces of slate to even out the walkway.



Like I said, we're getting really close now.