Received and replied!

Update:

Haven't done alot lately because I have been working at the real job too much, plus I was feeling ill the past couple of days, and it has gone back to just being cold, wet, and nasty around here. I did put up a little insualtion in the walls and got some more sheetrock done. Supposed to be good weather this weekend, hopefully i can make some major accomplishments.

I'm off to play sheetrocker today. Wish me luck. I'm ready to have thid thing FINISHED so i can get back to the layout.

Some of the progress from today. If I can find someone to do the sheetrock finishing for a reasonalbe price, I'm gonna let them do it. I' m getting kind of tired of sheetrock. :x

[attachment=19620]

Haven't posted on this in awhile. Progress has been rather slow. Too much of my real job. :evil:

But today, I took off a little early, bought the remainder of the sheetrock, and made good progress on the center wall. We had discussed earlier about whether the center wall should go all the way to the ceiling or not, and some said yes, some said no. I started out with full height, then stood back and looked at the room. It just seemed so confined, and the room seemingly shrunk by four fold. So, I went back and cut some studs out, dismantled some of the wall, rebuilt part of it as a non-full-height wall, and put sheetrock on it. I like it alot better being lower. Sorry, no pictures tonight, maybe tomorrow.

Now, I agree that it will affect the scenic aspects, but I wasn't really doing this layout for photography anyway. On that note, I'm getting excited about moving the layout into the building.

I'm hoping to take off early tomorrow too, and get this thing to the point where I can hire the sheetrock finisher.

C'mon guys, give me some encouragement!

:hey: Go! Go! Gary, Go!! Put up dat board an' doan be slow.

Gimme a shout when yer done - I'm goin' for a nap.

Wayne

Thanks Wayne, i really appreciate that!

I am debating right now whether to go in to work tomorrow, or take the day off and finish the sheetrock. The only thing holding me up from finishing the sheetrock is the air conditioner/heater. I am going to have to order the unit - it is a wall mount type. And I can't cut the hole until I have the unit for the exact dimensions.

I wanna get back to the layout!!!!

Looking good Gary. I think you will like not having the room cut in half by a floor to ceiling wall. I just wish I had enough room to build a dedicated railroad building, but with property prices what they are in the Los Angeles area, I consider myself lucky to have a couple of walls available in a spare bedroom.

Thanks Russ. I'll be sure to take some photos and get them posted tonight.

On the tax note, I'm sure mine will go up, but our property taxes aren't all that high. I live in an unincorporated area so we don't have any city taxes or fees or such. The biggest hit is the school district... I don't mind paying that as my daughter is getting a good education.

doctorwayne Wrote:Gimme a shout when yer done - I'm goin' for a nap.

Wayne

Continue your nap, Wayne... I didn't get finished.

But I did get alot done on the middle wall. As I mentioned, I had originally put up a few sheets all the way to the ceiling, but it just felt so confining and made the room feel so small.

[attachment=19622]

[attachment=19621]

Actually the property taxes here aren't bad. The electorate passed proposition 13 back in the 1970's to restrict how much the state could raise property taxes. This was done at a time when the state had a budget surplus and the crooks in the state legislature were too busy trying to figure out how to spend the money, rather than either saving it for a shortfall or returning it to the tax payers. The problem out here is that property values are so high even after the drop last year, and the area where I live is almost back to where the values were before they fell. I guess the big difference between Los Angeles County and the high desert in Victorville or Lancaster, for instance, is that we don't have the excess inventory of built but unsold homes in addition to the foreclosed homes. The foreclosed homes got snapped up by speculators out here as soon as the prices dropped to where they were perceived as values. My house is now about 1800 square feet on a small lot and is probably appraised at @ $450k, another lot that would allow me to build a storage building on to house a model railroad is simply not available. I could buy a second house for 450K to house my railroad, but I can barely afford my first house!

Russ, several years ago a friend of mine got transferred from Houston to California. His home here in Houston was a really nice 2500 square foot house in an upscale neighborhood. He sold it for $350,000. When he went to California to buy a new house, he found out that his $350,000 didn't go very far. The difference in housing costs from Texas to California surprises me. We really do have a very low cost of living.

Our business partner lives inland a bit in San Diego. He's got a little 2B/1bath, 900SF house on a lot not much bigger than the house. It's worth upwards of 400K. Sick. He's got a Toyota Tundra and he can't park it in his driveway because it's not wide enough to get his doors open.

I like how you framed and sheetrocked the opening between the two rooms. I can see a suspended cable car hanging from the ceiling traveling through that space from room to room.

Gary S Wrote:Russ, several years ago a friend of mine got transferred from Houston to California. His home here in Houston was a really nice 2500 square foot house in an upscale neighborhood. He sold it for $350,000. When he went to California to buy a new house, he found out that his $350,000 didn't go very far. The difference in housing costs from Texas to California surprises me. We really do have a very low cost of living.

Similar story - my company's headquarters are in SF, CA. I've spoken to several folks about housing costs, and even with the premium paid for folks working there, I can't figure out how many afford it. I've decided that they just have to learn to be comfortable with a MUCH higher debt load than I.

The building is fascinating Gary. Though you make me feel slow and unproductive...