Garage Update

We've been in this house three years now.  When we first moved in I wrote about my detached garage, and the possibilities for using the space for hobby purposes.  By September of 2022 I had settled in enough to set up a workbench there alongside the layout, still hopeful that the space could be used.  But by September of 2023 I had determined the garage was not a suitable place for model trains, beyond storage - and even that's less than ideal.  Since then I have said nothing more about it but work on the space has resumed so it is time for an update.

Let's start here:

Eagle eyed among you might see it says "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"...ha.  No, it says "2 110V circ 20A w/switch leg".  I braved the crawl space to find the junction box where the wiring comes from the garage into the house.  I was rewarded with the solution to a mystery we have pondered since we moved in, a light switch with no apparent function.  Now we know.  A cable run in the garage that seemed to go nowhere and connect to nothing actually connects to that light switch in the den, and will allow a person to operate a garage light from the house.  Neat.  But I digress.

What led me under the house was the garage wiring, specifically that mystery cable.  But the mystery cable wasn't a mystery until we started examining the garage wiring in more detail.  That room needs additional outlets and better lighting.  We (me, my son, and retired electrician Jack) were looking at options and plotting the current system.  Turns out there's enough room on the circuit to add all the lighting I want and the outlets I'll need.  Great.  But I'm still burying the lead.

Why now?  Why after all this time have I returned to the garage project?  Because I have finally arrived at a place of...well, let's not say peace, but acceptance.  The beginning of peace.  I accept this space will make a decent shop for cutting, sanding, painting, plastering, etc..  I accept this will likely never be a space for a large, beautifully scenicked layout populated with craftsman structures and vintage rolling stock.  I had suspected this would be the case last year but now I have come to terms with this idea.

That acceptance broke the log jam that had stymied any real progress on restructuring that area.  Sure, I had tinkered around with some decluttering, having a successful yard sale, clearing out items that could live elsewhere, but with no clear picture of what the space would be beyond a cluttered storage unit with some tools and supplies strewn about.  Accepting that this room will, for the foreseeable future, be primarily a shop for "messy" projects, with a well-organized storage space, and secondarily a home for the family bicycles, allowed me to make concrete choices to move the space in that direction.

One such choice is depicted below in a sequence of images:

 

Going, going, gone!  These built-in shelves served their purpose but have now been deemed surplus to requirements.  The window is likely original to the structure (1930s) and is a feature of the room, in my opinion.  My workbench will live there beneath it, with storage racks on either side.  The redwood planks that made up the shelves - former roof boards from the garage's original roof - will be repurposed.  The outlet in the image above will be shifted closer to that window and the extension cord leading up to the ceiling will go away once new lighting is installed.

I'm excited about the possibilities for this space, a feeling I haven't had since I moved in.  Now those possibilities aren't some distant dream of what might be, rather, they're a set of steps I can take right away to improve this room and build a shop that supports my hobbies and meets my family's needs.  Look for future updates as the work continues.  Thanks for reading.

Time to Think Again

It has been over a year since I wrote the post, Time to Think.  There I pondered what to do with the space I have been blessed with; a garage.  Since then I have determined that space is not so good for model trains.  In fact, it needs more work than I realized even though it isn't a bad space for a workshop and storage.  It will be a fine place to build Halloween props each year, work on home improvement projects or generally make a mess I wouldn't make in the house.  In fact, I built this year's NMRBO diorama in that space and the Pine Branch Park railroad has lived there since we moved in.

Can you find the diorama in this image?

But the trains can't live there much longer.  The winter was indeed cold and damp.  No leaks in the roof, but seepage from the concrete floor needs to be addressed eventually.  The summers have been hot and dry but thanks to our evening lows the mornings are pleasant and the garage can be used for a few hours.  If the weather is mild and the evening breeze picks up it is downright enjoyable with the garage door open (and a cold beverage!).  The spiders aren't too bad, nor the dust, and so far - knock on wood - no sign of rodents!  Still, it is a hostile environment for vintage craftsman structures and rolling stock!

So where will the trains go?  As I mentioned in my post "New Digs", this house has a second living room we call the den.  There I'll be sharing the space with my son's computer desk, a bookshelf with display cabinet, and a TV area.  The bookshelf was built last fall and just in the last month I installed new lighting.  My son's computer area is well established and he regularly plays VR games in that end of the room, wildly swinging his arms, working up a sweat!  The workbench has been moved to make room for the trains.

Percy enjoys his new bed atop a Helmer cabinet between my workbench and the sliding glass doors overlooking the back yard.  We both enjoy the natural light and the view.

 
All that remains before the trains come inside is to build some legs for the railroad.  In the garage, both this one and the last, it rested on metal shelving and that will remain in the garage.  In the den it will need legs with wheels; not that it will be rolled around that often, but it will be convenient for photo shoots and cleaning.  Beneath the benchwork will be space for rolling carts.  These will hold paints, supplies, tools, etc. that don't fit in the Ikea Helmer drawers at the workbench.

I'm also going to make some shelves to go over the workbench.  The lowest will include a section of cork board for tacking up instructions (or maybe a metal strip for magnets).  As I've used this smaller bench I have discovered the need to set large plan sheets and even smaller instruction pages...somewhere.  Now that the cat is sharing the space, there's really no good place to put pages of plans.  My desk lamp seen in the photo above will be relocated and strip lighting will be attached under the lowest shelf.  This will not only give me a few more inches on the work surface, but the shelf will provide a place to attach a camera looking straight down onto the bench, should I decide to shoot a video or two.

Hopefully all this will be accomplished in September because October will be for building new Halloween yard haunt props and that time will be here soon!  Feel free to leave comments or questions down below and thanks for reading!

This is Not Benchwork...Yet

Ikea furniture seems to have become fodder for small layout builders as potential benchwork.  It is mentioned in Iain Rice's perennial "Small, Smart and Practical" layout design book (terrific eye candy, that stuff!) and a quick Google search will turn up some fine examples of others who have "hacked" Ikea furniture into all sorts of things.  Bernie Kempinski even used some under one of his layouts and another modeler posted a link in the comments to his use of IVAR shelving as benchwork here:

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/2015/03/ivar-instant-benchwork.html

I have now joined the ranks of Ikea Hackers, though not formally on their website.  My eldest needed a desk in his room but had these "GORM" shelves.  They came with our last house and moved with us to this one.  After a bit of cogitating I determined that I could use the components from the shelves plus a few planks from the store and arrive at a desk/shelf combo for his room.  With the leftover bits I could then create benchwork that doubles as shelving for the layout space in the living room.

Here is the desk/shelf combo (minus the desk top still to come) in my son's room:

And here are the bits left over, some of which will be used in the benchwork:

BTW, I am hoping to make this Sunday afternoon posting a regular occurrence.  I have been successful at fighting my perfectionist tendencies lately...they tend to get in the way of all kinds of productivity and fun.  So these blog posts may not be as polished as they could be, but I will be sharing content and hopefully eventually gaining a few more readers who share my interests.  If you like this sort of stuff, please share with others who do also.