Chapter 136...Our New Pool Table...And A Fun Pool Game

Good morning.  Today's story is about how to install a new pool table and a cool game to play.

Mike and I love to play pool.  A camping couple who Mike and I know taught us this fun game.  Thank you Ernie and Linda:)  It is called 101 which is a great game for two or more people and luck can be involved which makes it fun for everyone.  We gave our old pool table to my stepdaughter and her family.  They now play 101 most nights.:)

Here are the rules for 101:

Each pocket is assigned an amount from 1-15.

On your turn you can shoot at any ball you want into any pocket.  If you get the ball in a pocket you get to keep going. Once you miss you stop.  Add up the points from each pocket and that becomes your score.

"If" you happen to scratch(hit the cue ball into a pocket) you lose all of your points but just for that turn.

After your turn is done, all balls that went into any pockets are taken out and then lined up in a row on the center dot.  See picture:

So you know where the pockets and points are:

The object is to get to 100.  Once you get to 100 you write your score down and wait.  Now you have to get 1.  At this point all of the other players will try to keep you from getting any ball into the "1" pocket.  If you scratch you still have your 100 but if you go over by hitting a ball into a pocket other than the "one" pocket you lose.

The first person to make it to the final 101 wins.

It's a really fun game.  Try it:)

OK...now on to the rest of our Pool Table Story

Unfortunately we gave our old pool table away too soon and Mike and I had to wait a few weeks to fix the troubles that happened when we bought our new pool table.  We decided to spend a little more money and get a real slate pool table.  We found a distributor down the mountain about 1 1/2 hours away.  Mike and I got up early one morning to look at their pool tables.  We got there when the store was opening.  After finding a table we liked we started picking our options.  First there is the wood color.  We went with Original Cherry.  Then  we got to pick the legs.  There were two choices.  One was A standard block leg and the other was a claw like leg.  Mike and I both liked the claw leg.  The only problem was the claw leg that came with that table "wasn't" the same color as the pool table top.  Hmm...even the salesman/owner agreed.  Mike and I weren't happy about that.  The owner said he would call the company, Olhausen, and see if they could send a better match.  The owner told us when he got them in, they would deliver the table for us and bring both sets of legs.  We could decide once we saw the table inside the house.  OK...sounds good.  Then we picked the fabric color and talked about the date for delivery.  The owner said he would call us when he got the new legs in.

We went home and the next day we delivered our old pool table to the kids house.  A week later Mike called the pool store to see what was going on.  The owner told Mike we were scheduled for delivery the next Tuesday.  Great.  So on Monday, Mike called to check and the man that answered said the owner had a heart attack and died.  Talk about a fluke thing.  The poor man was fairly young.  But now Mike is in a panic.  We gave them a deposit and now we don't even know if they will stick to our contract up or close up shop.  After being avoided by phone calls Mike finally spoke to the widow.  She said she needed to cancel our order.  Mike said "if we show up and load it ourselves will that work?"  She said yes.  The next morning we got the motorhome ready by taking out the sofa bed and packing extra blankets and pillows.  Then we drove van down the mountain on an icy day and our adventure began.

We go the top of the table in the motorhome aisle.  Gotta love the crazy stuff we do, lol.

In the back we were able to load the three pieces of slate, the legs, the felt, and the accessories.

Now for the trip home.  It was much warmer down the mountain so we had no problems.  Going back up to the higher elevations we ran into icy roads and a lot of downed trees.  This really wasn't the best day to do this but we had to do it before the widow closed the store on us.

Once we make it home we unload the motorhome in between the rain.


Here is Mike checking out the new legs for the pool table.

And we got the top piece down.

While it is raining, mike works on the legs.

He has to screw a long bolt into each leg so it can be screwed into the top of the pool table.

The first two legs are on.

Mike getting ready.  I will lift the end of the table and he will attach the leg from underneath.

The legs are on and Mike is making sure they are aligned properly..

Measuring to make sure the legs are all in the same position on the top.

Screwing then top and the legs together.

Now it's time for the slate.  This table has 1 inch slate and the slate weighs about 450 pounds.  Thankfully it comes in three pieces.  Mike and I carefully slide one piece at a time onto our hand truck and take it down the the house.  The hand truck with the slate can't fit through our front door so at that point we have to lift it and turn it sideways.  

One down and two more to go.

Yay the second one is on the table

And the last one.  Now we have to make sure everything is even and lined up.  Thankfully there is a red semi circle drawn onto the pieces of slate.  Match up the lines and it "should" be right.

There are holes along the ends of the slate.  That is where the screws go in and then get screwed down to the wood pool table top.  Mike is screwing the slate to the table top.

Mike making sure things are level.

And now it's time to fill in the spaces between the pieces of slate.  Mike does it the way he has done in the past.  He uses spackle.

He scrapes it down and lets it dry.

Now he has time to work on the rails.  There are six bumper rails that need to be covered with cloth.

Stapling the cloth to the bumper rails.

Mike sanding the spackle off the pool table.  The first round.

Once the sanding is done and new spackle is added and resanded the slate top is smooth and level.  Time to put the felt on the slate.

Here is Mike stapling the felt to the table top.  It gets stretched and pulled under the slate and stapled into the wood.

The felt is done on the sides.  Now it's time for the pockets.

Oh joy... pockets.  What a mess of bolts and screws.

Mike cutting holes into the cloth where the bumper rails need to be screwed/bolted down.

Making sure it's all still level.

Getting ready to attach all the brackets to the finish wood.

Bumper Rails Are On.

The pockets are done.

We still have to add the "finish" pieces of wood but we've been without a pool table for too long.  Time to play a game:):)

The finish pieces being added.  You can see the brackets on the back side.  That's how they get attached.  Mike added those.  The way they came from the company was a nightmare.

The finishing touch.

Mike and I are now very happy.  We have our new pool table and it is safely up the mountain and ready for use:):)

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter of our lives.  Have a great day and I will post again on Thursday, Saturday, and Monday.