Good News...And Bad News
#1
Out of nowhere the other day, my wife announced that we could clear out the spare bedroom - that would be the one without the snakes and other critters - and give me room to put up my layout. This immediately gave rise to mixed emotions, as when someone you hate backs your new car over a cliff. The reason for this emotional dichotomy is simple - the room is a utilization nightmare.

It contains four doors, an entry door, a pocket door to a bathroom, a set of double-wide closet sliding doors and a set of patio doors. The only long wall not pierced by other openings is home to a 45" window, and the entry door opens into an alcove formed by boxing off the space needed to form the walk-in closet. It would be a hard room to set up as a bedroom, but trying to envision it as a 'layout room" is taxing my mind to the utmost, despite the dimensions being a healthy 14.5' x 12'.

Nevertheless, what I see is as good as it will ever get, so...I will try and draw up a crude plan to post here in the hopes that some hardy soul with a lot of creativity can offer some badly needed advice,m like moving to another house. :?
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#2
I faced the same issue. I have two spare bedrooms, and I chose the smallest of the two for the layout room because it has fewer windows and doors. The room has one window, an entry door, and a closet door. Blocking the window or either door was not an option, and I was wary of duckunders. That forced me to build a 4x8 island layout, with approximately 24" between the layout edges and the walls. The disadvantages are that I was stuck with tight curves, and the room is useless for anything else.
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#3
With a shelf layout set 48" - 60" high, you may cross the window (use a roller blind) and the pocket door (duckunder only). That leaves the entrance door, closet, and patio doors... whew! Well, stay completely off the wall containing the patio doors, using a configuration that allows "through traffic" to go from the entryway to the patio without ducking under. Can you eliminate the closet all together, or incorporate it into the layout as staging (or even remove the doors and tuck your workbench in there)?

Got a drawing?

Andrew
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#4
MasonJar Wrote:With a shelf layout set 48" - 60" high, you may cross the window (use a roller blind) and the pocket door (duckunder only). That leaves the entrance door, closet, and patio doors... whew! Well, stay completely off the wall containing the patio doors, using a configuration that allows "through traffic" to go from the entryway to the patio without ducking under. Can you eliminate the closet all together, or incorporate it into the layout as staging (or even remove the doors and tuck your workbench in there)?

Got a drawing?

Andrew

Working on the drawing. I don't have either of the MRR Cad programs on the new computer, so... At age 65 I have a strict rule about building anything across the pocket door to the bathroom...know what I mean...Vern? Tongue
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#5
MountainMan Wrote:Working on the drawing. I don't have either of the MRR Cad programs on the new computer, so... At age 65 I have a strict rule about building anything across the pocket door to the bathroom...know what I mean...Vern? Tongue

I hear ya! Eek Big Grin

Andrew
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#6
Let's see what happens...

Didn't work, but it can be opened either with XTrkCad or Internet Explorer... 35


Attached Files
.xtc   roomplan.xtc (Size: 3.24 KB / Downloads: 70)
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#7
I have neither XTrkCAD nor IE - can you convert to a jpg?

Andrew
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#8
And I thought I was the only one who had situations like this! as my two small layouts have "migrated" around to different parts of the basement.

Just offhand, I was thinking that something like an island layout would work well for you, especially since the room is large and has so many doors and windows. Keep us posted and send diagrams and pics when you can.

We have one spare bedroom (which is in the basement) and I've set my 4x6 layout up in there, in one corner. There is still room for the other bits of furniture although the layout will still have to lean against the wall when it's to be used as a bedroom again. I hope one day we'll have a bigger house and I can have permanent room.

Rob
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#9
MasonJar Wrote:I have neither XTrkCAD nor IE - can you convert to a jpg?

Andrew
I tohught I had, but it...disappeared.
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#10
Here you go. Hope you don't mind MM.

Loren


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#11
On the contrary, I'm grateful! Thumbsup

Maybe sometime you can tell me how you did it.

My current thinking is to go along the left-hand wall with a small peninsula somewhere around the middle, although that doesn't seem too imaginative. I may have to conduct further negotiations with my wife re dedicated right-of-way! 8-)
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#12
Is there another access to the patio besides the doors here..?? And how high off the floor is the window..?
Gus (LC&P).
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#13
MountainMan Wrote:On the contrary, I'm grateful! Thumbsup

Maybe sometime you can tell me how you did it.

My current thinking is to go along the left-hand wall with a small peninsula somewhere around the middle, although that doesn't seem too imaginative. I may have to conduct further negotiations with my wife re dedicated right-of-way! 8-)

Go to file, then export to bitmap. It will say you are exporting a big file, don't let that scare you. Then save. You can only save as bmp file now. I save to the desktop, makes it easier to find. Re size it with any picture editing program and then save as jpg. Hope this helps.

Loren
I got my first train when I was three,
put a hundred thousand miles on my knees.
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#14
nomad Wrote:
MountainMan Wrote:On the contrary, I'm grateful! Thumbsup

Maybe sometime you can tell me how you did it.

My current thinking is to go along the left-hand wall with a small peninsula somewhere around the middle, although that doesn't seem too imaginative. I may have to conduct further negotiations with my wife re dedicated right-of-way! 8-)

Go to file, then export to bitmap. It will say you are exporting a big file, don't let that scare you. Then save. You can only save as bmp file now. I save to the desktop, makes it easier to find. Re size it with any picture editing program and then save as jpg. Hope this helps.

Loren

It does! Thanks, nomad! Thumbsup
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#15
Steamtrains Wrote:Is there another access to the patio besides the doors here..?? And how high off the floor is the window..?

There is access from the living room through the solarium - active and passive solar home - and then out, but not from this room.

The window is, hmmm...34" up. To me, that means that a layout will have to cross the window and be blocked by the backdrop, unless I want to look down on what is supposed to be mountainous terrain. :?
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