I'm still alive!

[rrinker]

haha. Haven't been over here to visit for a LONG time. Lots new - new house, basement to build in - all sorts of goodies. Figured it's time to get some expert advice on my new goings on and see what people have to say. Maybe keep a running thread of my progress. Yes, I now have my very own basement to work in, or rather most of one. Needs a lot of work. It's already finished - badly. So step one will be tons of demolition. The ugly paneling will have to come out. Because of the way they installed the paneling all the way tot he top of the 9 foot ceiling and THEN installed the drop ceiling grid, at the 8 foot level, the ceiling will have to come out too. Lighting was pretty poor. The carpet is horrible. So out it all comes. Walls and floors sealed, new wall covering, with a thin later of foam insulation. Couple of silly walls (all non-load bearing) to come out. New subpanel put in near the garage, so I can then run whatever I need for the layout.
The good, it's dry and not too humid. The stairs come down about in the middle, and the mechanicals are all off in one corner, already walled off in their own utility room.
The bad, the horrible finish job, it's broken up into 4 sections. Laundry is still downstairs (future plans call for making a master suite upstairs out of 2 of the 4 bedrooms and the existing master bath which is just a shower stall, sink, and toilet. There will be plenty of room for a bedroom, walkthrough closet, nice bathroom, with space left over (and en extra door) which is where the laundry will end up). So for now, I have use of about 3/4 of the basement, though plans I've come up with so far put staging and a helix in the laundry area, which really doesn't interfere with the washer, dryer, or sink. Also, since the house is a raised ranch, the garage sucks a LOT of potential layout space. 2 cars+ wide and almost deep enough for 2 cars front to back as well. I guess if I am dreaming, I could do a Tony Koester and build a new half high firewall in the garage that extends out at hood height and that would give me a good 13x20 extra space, but it would also be off the laundry. ANd expensive to do.
The other good (at least in summer, although not for model railroading) is this place came with a pool. All summer I've been living in it, when I'm home. Drifting around the pool is relaxing and makes it easy to visualize possible track plans. Now that it's getting cold, time to close the pool and start on the railroad. I'll expect I'll be back here frequently, little more 'high level' that the other place I usually hang out.

--Randy