09-04-2009, 11:48 AM
For a layout located in a basement, the cost of the space is part of the house design, and would be there whether or not a train layout were involved. Most homes in my area (southern Ontario) have basements, although not all are suitable for anything more than acting as a foundation for the house. Many house the home's utilities (furnace, water heater, electrical panel, etc.) and the rest of the space may be used for whatever uses best suit the homeowner.
I designed and built my own house, with the tacit agreement that the basement was "mine", so I located the water heater and electrical panel on the ground floor. With electric heat, there was no need for a furnace. Before construction had even begun, though, I lost part of the basement to a laundry room (which was supposed to be on the ground floor also - there's no accounting for some people's preferences
).
We moved in as soon as we could obtain an occupancy permit, even though there was still lots of work to be done. The basement was used as a workshop while I was doing the finish carpentry (nothing to do with Helsinki
), although I was finally able to set-up the benchwork supports and some of the open grid benchwork, too.
After an hiatus from modelling for 1:1 landscaping and other considerations, it was "decided" (oddly enough, misspelled as "decreed")
that some space would be required for a recroom for the kids - might as well put it in the basement - there's nothing but a laundry room down there anyway. 
I'm also not without guilt in this "land grab", as I realised that I'd need a workshop for my trains, too, shrinking the layout space down to its current 560 sq.ft.
Much of the lumber used for layout construction was "leftovers" from the house build (officially know as "waste allowance") , and operating costs are limited to electricity to run the lighting. Because the entire basement was well insulated as soon as the house had been closed-in, it requires no heating or cooling.
So, the layout cost is, for the most part, solely for the layout itself. The basement would have been required for the construction of the house, and would have been insulated and drywalled regardless of whether or not model trains were going to be involved - it doesn't make sense to not do so when attempting to save energy costs in the rest of the construction.
For the next house, I'd prefer to have a separate building for the trains, but that would also involve separate heating and cooling costs, in addition to the cost of the building and the layout. I don't see it happening.
Maybe musing aloud about live steam, with tracks all around the property, can help win some additional indoor real estate if and when those "negotiations" arise.
Wayne
I designed and built my own house, with the tacit agreement that the basement was "mine", so I located the water heater and electrical panel on the ground floor. With electric heat, there was no need for a furnace. Before construction had even begun, though, I lost part of the basement to a laundry room (which was supposed to be on the ground floor also - there's no accounting for some people's preferences
). We moved in as soon as we could obtain an occupancy permit, even though there was still lots of work to be done. The basement was used as a workshop while I was doing the finish carpentry (nothing to do with Helsinki
), although I was finally able to set-up the benchwork supports and some of the open grid benchwork, too.After an hiatus from modelling for 1:1 landscaping and other considerations, it was "decided" (oddly enough, misspelled as "decreed")
that some space would be required for a recroom for the kids - might as well put it in the basement - there's nothing but a laundry room down there anyway. I'm also not without guilt in this "land grab", as I realised that I'd need a workshop for my trains, too, shrinking the layout space down to its current 560 sq.ft. Much of the lumber used for layout construction was "leftovers" from the house build (officially know as "waste allowance")
, and operating costs are limited to electricity to run the lighting. Because the entire basement was well insulated as soon as the house had been closed-in, it requires no heating or cooling. So, the layout cost is, for the most part, solely for the layout itself. The basement would have been required for the construction of the house, and would have been insulated and drywalled regardless of whether or not model trains were going to be involved - it doesn't make sense to not do so when attempting to save energy costs in the rest of the construction.
For the next house, I'd prefer to have a separate building for the trains, but that would also involve separate heating and cooling costs, in addition to the cost of the building and the layout. I don't see it happening.
Maybe musing aloud about live steam, with tracks all around the property, can help win some additional indoor real estate if and when those "negotiations" arise. Wayne