Yes, I stole the quote from the internet, via Dr Stangelove but it sort of sums up where I am at the moment. I decided to convert my integral garage into a proper games room/hobby room. I was spending a great deal of my spare time out there and at my age, I decided a bit of comfort would be nice. I had in effect closed the garage up and used some big sheets of marine ply, polystyrene foam sheet and some expanding foam to seal the door in an effort to make it a permanent den. My work bench was hand built and whilst functional, was not the greatest piece of carpentry that you would see! Add to that, I was sitting on a bar stool to paint and it’s little wonder that I have back issues!
That all said, it was a permanent set up that allowed me to pursue my hobby and paint and play when it wasn’t too cold or too hot. I was inspired by the gaming rooms that two of my friends have and I decided it was time that I had my own purpose built war games den! That was in October 2019 and I approached a local builder with my plans. These plans also included erecting a new shed in the garden to take the over spill of ‘stuff’ from the garage and a replacement for my 25 year old garden shed at the side of the house, that had rotted out so badly that I could see the house wall through the holes…
The builder provided an estimate and work was due to start in the Spring of 2020. Well, we all know what happened next and thanks to the various COVID lock downs, massive pressure on the building industry and the difficulty in getting building materials, the project has proceeded at a slow pace. The sheds were completed back at the start of the summer and work was pencilled in to start on the garage conversion in August. In order for the work to start I had to empty the garage. Quite a task, not quite the Augean stables, the only live stock there being a huge number of spiders! This meant that all the ‘stuff’ ( an accumulation of 30 years of ‘That might come in handy one day…’)was moved either to fill my new shed, into the dining room or up into my office. Mrs W has been very patient as my ‘lead pile’ also occupied the tops of the wardrobes in the bedroom…
The result was that I no longer had a permanent set up and was reduced to painting and modelling on my office desk, using one of the granddaughters crafting trays as a paint station! If I have complained that my painting output was slow in the past, it was even worse now. Every time that I needed a new paint colour or tool, I had to ferret around in the various locations to try and find the required item.
At last, though, the project is moving along with an end in sight. As you can see from the pictures running through the blog, the main building work has been completed and the first fix for the electrics has been done. The next phase is to get the walls plastered, the carpet or flooring down and of course to move everything back in. Well, perhaps everything…The plan is that the new ‘big shed in the back garden will be home to some of my ‘proper’ tools and decorating gear and any other paraphernalia that you usually find in a garage. The gardening tools and such are already neatly stored in the rebuilt garden shed at the side of the house.
So in theory, all that is going back in will be a nice new desk, my figure cabinets, a very much culled book and magazine collection and of course a war games table. Oh! and as part of the deal, Julie will have some proper cupboard space to store some of the cleaning stuff and ironing board, as well as a new fridge and freezer, both easily accessible from the kitchen. The fridge being particularly useful for storing my beer!
I hope to be back in and painting comfortably by mid October! An up date will follow!
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Happy Modelling!