New House, New Basement, New Layout...

[tt0880]

Hey everyone!

 

Long time no talk! You may remember me from my old new layout post here, but my last update there was quite a while ago and involved me moving into a house with a basement! Well, a LOT has happened since then, and I still can't believe my luck. Let's start at the beginning.

 

I mentioned in my original post that my neighbor (whom I didn't know super well yet at the time) was a carpenter and offered to help me build the benchwork. Well, after talking with him more about it, he decided that we shouldn't just willy nilly build a layout in the basement. He wanted to remodel the basement. I was hesitant, because I didn't want to spend too much money yet, but he kept saying not to worry about it and we'll talk about it later. Little did I know at the time, we would never really talk about it and that he would be doing all of this work for free.

 

Here's a before picture of a corner of my basement: 

 

And, without further ado, let's look at it now:

 

So... Yeah. It's massive. I have so much model train space now I can hardly believe it. It's going to be a long, expensive road, but I look forward to building the layout of my dreams. It will legitimately take me probably decades to make full use of this space, but I'm excited. If anyone has any tips on how to best utilize this space, let me know, because I'm not very creative 😉

 

Also, didn't I mention he wanted to remodel the entire basement? Well, here's a before from the other side of the basement:

 

And, you're not going to believe this is the same space, but here's the after:

 

TONS of work space to do my modeling (and some craft space for the girlfriend too). The decorations adorning the walls are German beer coasters because my neighbors wife is actually from Germany, and not only that, she's from a city about 20 minutes from where my family lives, and we both ended up on this side of the world as neighbors. Insanely crazy.

 

And yes, I've been keeping myself busy in these last few months... Although I haven't done a ton, I have put together some kits! Now just to plan a track and get going!

 

Hopefully I have more updates soon! It will be slow, as I'm sure like everyone else, my spare time is limited, but I'm excited and still in disbelief!

 

[Kiha66]

Welcome back Tim, what an awesome space!  I cant wait to see what you fill it with.  

[katoftw]

That is a lot of beer coasters.  Look like a fun hobby space.

[serotta1972]

It looks like we finally have an appropriate space for our JNS Forum Headquarters! When is the first meeting? 😀

[cteno4]

Wow! What a great neighbor to have! That’s a fantastic space.

 

when is the open house?! 

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Can you send your neighbour over to my place? I have some things that could use some work 😄

 

[cteno4]

The guy does nice work, that’s a nice design for very solid builtin work benches.

 

are you going to put a ceiling in? Might think about even just thin Masonite screwed to the joists. The reason is there will be an ongoing rain of fine particles from the baseboards as the floor above is walked on. This never seems to end. One of our club members with a large basement layout and open floor joists above is forever cleaning tracks and such. I noticed grit around some in our basement where I do trains a lot and put up 3/16” Masonite panels (cheap, quick and removable if needed) and was amazed how much Schmutz it removed. Small air filter got a lot of the rest of the dust.

 

also look at the thin led strip lights. They are like 4’ Long and about 3/4” x 1” in cross section. Very light and low profile so you can put them every couple of feet and they spread the light really nice in a lower basement room. I’m replacing all the fluorescent lights in the basement with them now after moving to leds in the shop. 

 

Love your new play spaces. Tell your neighbor we all think he is the best!

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

Welcome back Tim! It's great to hear from you! 

 

Wow! I'm GREEN PURPLE RED BLACK with envy of your space! It looks like a space where I can spend an entire weekend in! Cosy and fun!  🙂

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, JR 500系 said:

Welcome back Tim! It's great to hear from you! 

 

Wow! I'm GREEN PURPLE RED BLACK with envy of your space! It looks like a space where I can spend an entire weekend in! Cosy and fun!  🙂

Only the weekend? You d never get me out of there!!

 

wow! what a space and what a neighbour!

good for you Tim,looks like with all that space planning is out of the window,just go for it,make a Start and see where you end up👍👍😀

 

[Chuo]

Still making me jealous of the new basement.  👍