We got trouble.

If you’ve cruised on over here to my blog this week, you may have seen that we’ve got trouble.

Oh, we got trouble.
Right here in River City.
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool,
That stands for Pool.

I should thank the person who left that not-so-nice post (and Meredith Willson) for affording me the transitional phrasing here. From trouble earlier this week to a glimpse at one of our newest rooms…

TADA! We did it. We eschewed the traditional dining room in favor of billiards. The pool table est arrive!

Now, granted, this is not one of my frugal finds. But we shopped around a lot to find a deal. The tables we liked all looked the same to us, but prices were all over the map. Seems it comes down to the construction and guts of the table: Brazilian slate…Italian slate…Mother of Pearl inlay…Simulated pearl inlay…At the end of the day we asked, “What’s the difference?” And the answer seemed to be: Not much for you shlubs. Unless you’re Minnesota Fats or The Black Widow, you’ll be just fine with a cheaper (emphasis on “-er”) model. And one pool table and the whole room is furnished. Done! So one could argue we ultimately saved money. And one (me) does.

The slate was fused together right there in the room, and the table gingerly assembled around it. While it was kind of cool to watch – it was like having our own performance art installation – there’s basically no turning back now.

There’s a couple of things left to do in the room. We need to figure out the wall art situation, and address that built-in in the back corner. It’s a useful and pretty piece made from salvaged items (that’s a cast iron coal fireplace cover on the bottom) that the former owner put together. It’s actually kind of cool.

And, when you open it you can get a glimpse of the wallpaper the entire room was covered in.

Wowza, right? That’s a whole lot of flower.

We’re thinking of turning it into a bar. Adding some corner shelves won’t be much of a problem, and someone suggested maybe mirroring the back walls. Too much? The door will be closed most of the time, so it could be cool…Or over-the-top tack-a-brack?

Then there’s the light fixture (the one that’s there came with the house). It’s hard to find one that will work for a pool table that does not look like this:

I totally dug this one as soon as I saw it in the newest Gump’s catalog…

…but then quickly saw the $670 price tag and moved on.

This one I found online and like quite a bit. I like that it’s simple and somewhat modern, which would go with the whole eclectic thing we seem to have going on.
It’s certainly not urgent so when we find something that works well in the room, we’ll go for it. Until then, rack ‘em up. I got next game.