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It’s always been a bit of an embarrassment that a guy running a website about photobooths doesn’t actually have one of his own. Tim’s got more than a few himself, and after finally buying a house a few years back, it was high time I got my own. When we had our first child last year, the idea sounded even better, and I’ve been working to make it happen. We’re very, very close.

The saga began in April, 2009, just after the end of the last photobooth convention. Our buddy Anthony had a line on a Model 14 photobooth that had lived at the Texas State Fair for many years, and was up for sale. He suggested I buy it and we would fix it up and ship it out. Since then, that booth actually got switched out for a different booth, I suddenly had no time to go on photobooth-fixing jaunts, and Anthony had more than a lot on his plate as well. This month, he finished refurbishing it on the inside, replacing parts big and small and making sure everything worked. Now, more than two years later, the booth is on a truck, on its way from Chicago to Los Angeles.

The second part of the story is the work that I’ve been doing on my end to make our house ready for the booth. It’s not a big place, and having run out of room inside, we decided the best place for the booth would be in its own little space out in the backyard. Next to our shed, we’ve got a strange little space protected by an overhang, which my friend Jeff and I have, over the course of the last two months, transformed into a tiny, photobooth-sized room. We framed the walls, put in a door, added siding, did the electrical, and hung drywall. I’m about to prime and paint, with not much time to spare: the booth is due here in three days. 

The space began like this:

And eventually became this:

And looks like this on the outside (though it will be painted at some point):

Once the space is ready, the next challenge is making sure that the booth can get from the driveway to its new home. A balky gate, an uneven pathway, and a huge lip at the base of the door are all obstacles in the way of a successful move, so I’m trying to make sure we’ve got the right tools (“Roll-Or-Kari” and “Dutchman’s Dolly,” anyone?) and strength in numbers to carry it off. And if that wasn’t enough, my daughter’s first birthday party is next weekend, and if the booth isn’t ready by then, well, I don’t want to think about that. I’ve got my fingers crossed.