What dream room would you add to your house?
Please check out my story in today's Chronicle about Brett and Danielle Pulliam, who recently remodeled their El Cerrito home and made room in the blueprints for Brett's dream -- a 1980s arcade, complete with more than 35 games and pinball machines, industrial grade carpet, a juke box that plays Van Halen, a token machine and even a security mirror.
Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle
Brett and Danielle Pulliam in their El Cerrito home.
I met Brett a couple of years ago, when I wrote a bigger magazine piece about Bay Area residents who collect, fix and display old arcade games of the old school Defender/Berzerk variety. At the time, the Pixar animator had his games in storage, and the remodel was still in the planning stages. He sent me an e-mail last year letting me know that the arcade was done, and I pitched the story for the Datebook section. It turned out even better than I imagined when I met Brett's wife, a San Francisco teacher who encouraged his dream. As I interviewed them, they were really well matched in a way that reminded me of those older couples in "When Harry Met Sally" -- I included one of their exchanges in the story verbatim to show how they completed each other's sentences.
The story also got me thinking about dream rooms. If you had the space and could afford it, what kind of room would you add on to your house?
My three choices are below. Yours in the comments. I didn't set any space or cost limitations, but I did keep the level of technology/construction to the current century. In other words, no Holodecks or Danger Rooms ...
3. Arcade: Whether I'm in Brett's arcade or at one of the annual Cal Extreme shows, my blood pressure drops about 20 points whenever I'm surrounded by older arcade games. I think this is because when I was 12 or 13 years old, arcades and role playing game conventions were the only places I could go and be around my peers without thinking I was about to get my ass kicked. Stage 2 of my basement project is renovating our already converted garage from storage into an office/writing space/multimedia room. I'm thinking of taking on a few freelance projects between now and then and saving up so I can put a Robotron in the corner. It's cheaper than taking hypertension medication for the next 50 years.
billsmovieemporium.com
Embargo lifted.
2: Thunderdome: I may not even need an extra room for this one. We have a pretty big backyard. I'm probably the only person on the planet who liked "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" even better than the first two films. As my boys grow older, I think a Thunderdome would be a great way to settle household disputes. (We would remove the spikes, of course, and replace the chainsaws and giant mallets with less destructive items such as wiffle ball bats.) You break a deal, you spin the wheel! Having a Thunderdome within our property line would also increase the chances of one of my sons agreeing to dress up with me as Master Blaster on Halloween. Doubtful that my wife will agree to wear the Tina Turner chainmail dress, but she might cut up orange slices for after our battles.
1. Basketball court: With apologies to Jesse James, I have to think that John Edwards is the most horrible man who is not (currently) incarcerated on the planet. After cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, lying to the American people, single-handedly making the National Enquirer look like a reputable news source, fathering a child with his campaign videographer and then denying the existence of that daughter, it's easy to say "How does that guy live with himself?" The answer: the dude, as seen on Oprah, has his own basketball court. I think I could live with being a multiple murderer, serial arsonist and BP executive all at once if I had an indoor basketball court.
I've been playing basketball twice per week for the past 15 years, and I have to say -- it would be a lot easier if I didn't have to drive so much. I'm also pretty sure that if I had a basketball court attached to my house, I might be able to make a right-handed layup.
PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.
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| May 26 2010 at 02:32 PM
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