My new job has a foosball table. That’s probably a little unusual for those of you who work outside of Internet startups. Here in Silicon Valley, it’s more common than you might think.
I was watching a couple of people play in the office. One remarked, “I really should get a foosball table.” I immediately entertained the myself. A foosball table would be fun. They can get expensive, but I could probably save up for short time and get one. The problem isn’t actually the foosball table itself… it’s finding a place to put the foosball.
We have an office in our home… and we could probably fit a foosball table in there if we did a little re-organization. The problem is that we are thinking of moving soon. Will we have buy a bigger place? How much would that foosball table raise our rent?
I had never thought about the monthly fee of buying stuff that have no monthly fee. In some places like Iowa, that monthly fee probably isn’t much. Those of you who live in New York City probably think it’s quite a bit.
Have you ever bought something (not huge) while factoring how much it might cost to physically store it? Am I weird here?
P.S.
For those wondering about my foosball skills. I like to say that I’m East Coast good. That’s to say that I haven’t had the experience that those in Silicon Valley have, but I’m better than the average Joe. I play tremendous defense, but I have no offensive game. My biggest weaknesses lack of power with my left hand and only being able to pass it where I want some 80% of the time. (I know you woke up this morning wondering about Lazy Man’s foosball game… now you can say your day is complete.)
That is freeking awesome! I’m going to set up a Fooseball fund at my company, I’ll even lead invest! We will bring a bit of the valley to Cleveland!
What type of foosball table is it? A good one (i.e. not made in the US and not available at Wal-Mart) or the other kind?
Are you permitted to score with the fives? Hopefully not… that’s amateur hour.
Yeah, you can definitely get a lot more square footage in Iowa. We have 1800 square feet (1200 upper level, 600 finished lower level) in a somewhat typical house for the area. I can’t imagine living in a significantly smaller place. It can be hard enough finding storage space in this house – especially with all the baby/toddler stuff we have accumulated in the last 18 months.
Of course, I grew up on a farm, where storage is even less of a problem.
Maybe the coastal peeps are just a lot more creative with storage.
Lazy – couldn’t you just raise your bed a few feet off the floor and slide the foosball table under it for storage? :)
Brian, I can only score with my defense… and it usually is an unintended goal.
Kosmo, good idea raising the bed. I’d probably get excited and bump my head on the bed though. :-)
I don’t think that’s weird at all, LM. I consider the big purchases like that all the time. I want a pool table and since I live like a bachelor in my apartment, I have very little furniture to speak of. So, I could realistically fit a pool table in the “dining area” of any apartment – although, a bigger one does give more room with the sticks, a smaller one makes it somewhat cramped. At any rate, upon investigating this, it would cost me additional on the security deposit and a monthly fee. I’m already paying a monthly fee just to have pets, so for me, I’m going to hold off on the pool table. I’ll leave that purchase for when I buy a house.
Kristy – you would have to pay an additional security deposit for a pool table? What’s the logic? Balls flying off the table and damaging the drywall? Damage to the floor because of the weight of the table?
This is a serious question – I’ve never heard of an additional deposit because of a pool table (then again, I don’t know many people who own pool tables). Maybe it’s typical for pool tables.
I’ve certainly consider the amount of room things take up when I work out whether I can afford to have it. I’ve got a reasonable amount of furniture sized things, but very little is so important that I wouldn’t get rid of it when downsizing. I did consider wall space for art when I was looking to buy a place though.
not weird – this comes into play for items such as a sewing machine or if you are master of your own garage with an array of tools. tools are expensive and most of the people that have them around my area don’t park in the garage. i have a garage and plenty of higher end tools, but the rule on buying stuff like that is that the garage is where i park my vehicles, anything i get has to be able to work within that context.
not considering space when buying something likely equates to a person having a lot of …. “noise” …. in their life. crap, it adds up quickly.
We have a foosball table in our basement, and it gets a lot of use from my kids (good practice for when they get to college). We considered storage space when buying an outdoor pool table (don’t laugh), and opted for a smaller model that would fit in my shed for the winter.
Drew Carey had an outdoor pool table. You’ll hear no laughter from me. :-)
It is funny you picked today for this topic. As the $90,000 Hall of Fame Classic started today it the Riviera Casino Hotel in Las Vegas.
Heh, sounds like a fun worksite accoutrement. I don’t know that I’ve ever considered the physical size and storage before I bought something. Although, most of my purchases are physically small, so it hasn’t led to any problems (yet…)
Interesting thought. To be completely honest, I had never even thought of what my furniture, etc… might cost me in terms of “monthly rent.”
Interesting. You gave me something to think about.
Interesting thought. To be completely honest, I had never even thought of what my furniture, etc… might cost me in terms of “monthly rent.”
Interesting. You gave me something to think about.
Should say excellent post! Can’t wait to seeing your next one!
I bought a used foosball table off craigslist for real cheap. It is smaller than a normal table but is fun to play. Actually have perfect spot in apt for it. My roommate never wants to play though, so tough to find someone.
Foosball table + removable wooden top = dining room table.
:)
forget foosball and get an air hockey table!
I LOVE foosball!
You and I would make a great team — I can score at will (or at least I used to be able to — a bit rusty since college.) ;-)