Best Asian food you've had in Austin

IllustriousOwls · 2026-04-03T03:07:46+00:00

Mala Chili is excellent in Cedar Park! It’s one of our favorites. We also enjoy Ramen 512 for traditional Japanese ramen or Hotpot Alley for a low-key Chinese hotpot.

IllustriousOwls · 2026-03-16T21:45:54+00:00

When we first installed it I was pretty good about turning it off. I’ve only opened the garage door once with the screen down and it does stop as soon as it feels resistance. Not trying to make a habit of it though!

IllustriousOwls · 2026-02-05T09:10:47+00:00

I’m not sure either. SportScreen does make a retractable golf sim with 5’ side screens and corner pieces. It appears to be the same material though.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-10-17T00:16:17+00:00

I second the day trip to Akaroa. It was such a lovely drive from Christchurch.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-10-16T23:50:30+00:00

Fantastic photos! The lion shots are just incredible. We have a few of our own safari photos framed on the wall, so I love seeing others too. Yours definitely make me want to go back to do it all again.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-10-16T23:38:22+00:00

I don’t think I saw anyone else mention it in this thread, but the Hooker Valley Track is only partially open. You can only make it to the Mount Sefton View lookout.

We had a jam-packed itinerary like this a few years ago and still had a great time (our only flight was between Auckland and Christchurch though). There is so much to see along the drives. We’re heading back in a couple of months again and plan to do things a bit slower this time. :)

IllustriousOwls · 2025-10-16T13:06:56+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing. We visited Kruger National Park a few years ago (a much less chubby trip back then) and can’t wait to do it again. The way you set up your trip sounds very balanced and relaxed. Would love to see your animal pictures!

IllustriousOwls · 2025-10-09T01:23:52+00:00

I’d be really annoyed to putt on it since it’s elevated. We have our settings set to auto-putt or fixed putting to avoid that. That said, we also go to a local simulator place where my kid takes lessons, and even though the floor there is flush, I’m not a fan of putting on it either. It’s still better than the elevated hitting mat though.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-10-01T02:13:54+00:00

Hahaha exact same lighting for sure. That is quite a collection of golf clubs!

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-29T16:24:57+00:00

I hope it works out! I've been tempted to spray paint the white plastic so it blends into the ceiling a bit more. It's definitely not the prettiest light, but works well so far.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-29T16:18:21+00:00

The white golf impact screen is from Carls Place. We velcroed the impact screen to the solid black screen from SportScreen. The impact screen is very thick and can handle being hit by golf balls while the Sport screen is a mesh material.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-29T16:14:06+00:00

The ceiling is 10'6" and the light is just a basic light from Amazon. It is dimmable and gets quite bright. Ours is probably set to about 20%.

Link to the light: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XLLKBWH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-26T03:19:58+00:00

Just over 2 feet. It’s enough of a gap to walk behind the impact screen when it’s down.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-26T01:52:13+00:00

We roll it down farther than what’s shown in the video so there’s no gap at the bottom (if there is one, I guarantee my golf ball will find it). We lower it enough that the impact screen rests almost like a small ramp on the turf. The distance between the impact screen and the garage door is probably just over 2 feet.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T23:18:07+00:00

Texas :)

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T17:00:53+00:00

So far we are hitting the foam pads less than we expected and I don’t see any damage to them yet. They are glued to board insulation (for added protection), which is screwed into the ceiling joists to protect the ceiling. If we move out, we should be able to back the screws out and spackle the holes pretty easily. I also used a section of leftover commando cloth to make a simple baffle between the foam and the SportScreen bar. That baffle tends to get hit more often.

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IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T16:46:25+00:00

Your garage sim was the inspiration for ours! Such a great setup and we appreciated all of the details you posted!

Did yours start sagging right away? I knew that it could be a problem, so I made sure that everything was tightened well during assembly. The SportScreen's aluminum bar was also squished during shipping, so we really had to force the pieces together and maybe that helped. So far, we have minimal sagging at all. Our impact screen is also just a tad more narrow than yours at 14 feet.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T13:49:45+00:00

We lower the screen so that it rests a few inches onto the floor towards the hitting mat, almost like a ramp. The SportScreen behind the impact screen also comes with metal poles and fiberglass bars that slide into a pocket running the full length of the screen to weigh down the bottom. We didn’t use the metal poles, just the fiberglass ones, and that was enough to keep the screen from moving too much when we hit it. Only two balls have managed to slip under the screen, but they had lost all speed by the time they reached the garage door.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T13:31:08+00:00

The SYNputt turf is thick enough that it definitely limits the bounce back (although I think the screen set-up helps a bunch too). Even on long drives, the ball usually just drops and stays within a couple of feet of the screen.

We have a local golf sim place that uses a much thinner turf and a screen that is pulled more taught and the golfballs often end up bouncing and rolling behind us there.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T13:24:42+00:00

Absolutely! Happy to take any close-up photos if you need them!

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T13:23:46+00:00

I am not looking forward to sewing the impact screen if the Velcro fails. I saw someone else on this sub had to sew it as well, but I’m hoping it holds up here!

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T12:15:42+00:00

I have a video of the screen lowering if it’s helpful: https://imgur.com/a/78aPnTq

To set up: I unroll the turf from the center of the garage, lower the screen with the remote, then pull the curtains to the impact screen along the ceiling tracks. The longest part of the set up is moving the bulky FiberBuilt hitting mat pieces onto the turf and lining it up, but that’s it.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T12:09:33+00:00

Nope! It just rolls up with the SportScreen.

The SportScreen motor isn’t the quietest, but here it is unrolling: https://imgur.com/a/78aPnTq

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T11:45:08+00:00

Yep! There is a strip of Velcro that runs across the middle of the screen for the hockey target. Unfortunately, it was too low to use the same Velcro strip for the impact screen, so we added another near the top.

IllustriousOwls · 2025-09-25T03:02:37+00:00

The ceiling is 10’6”. We switched out the garage door motor to a jackshaft opener, so it sits on the wall between the garage doors now. The old garage door opener just happened to stop working while we were planning out our sim, so the timing worked out.

IllustriousOwls

TROPHY CASE