Remodelling the game room

I am making some changes to the games room to fix two issues.  Firstly I do not have enough storage for stuff so need some more cupboards.  Secondly being below the house there is little air movement and so it gets a bit stuffy, so I have spoken to a builder about getting a smallish window at one end above the table.  I am lucky as the room sits about 4 feet below the driveway and so a window would open out onto the driveway and faces east which is where most of the (good) breezes come from (NE or SE).

While I am at it - I decided to widen the table to make it 6 feet wide and add the ability to have an extension of 2 feet which, when added, will make it 10 feet long.

So it has meant taking off the table top and frame, dismantling the terrain storage rack that I built and getting a few new cupboards.

So now need to engage an engineer and someone to amend the drawings so I can submit it to the council to get the window approved.  It is supposed to be easier under the new process - ha ha.

Progress on the Military History Library Annexe

Things have been quiet around here on the blog front and the painting (miniatures) front.  The main reason is that I have been labouring away with the DIY bug on building the bookcases for the military history annexe to our library.

You may recall from my post at the beginning of March that we had quite a bit to repair after the old builtin wardrobe was removed.  So after gyprocking, searching for a matching cornice and struggling with out of alignment and damaged wall, I can happily report that the room once again looks like a whole room.

 



Might not look like much to you, but when I consider this is how it looked in March when the wardrobe was removed, then I am happy.

I have also started construction of the bookcases and yesterday installed the bottom cases.  This is just the carcase - there is still a shelf, then much higher carcases to come on top and then a nicely detailed face frame.  The wood is all cut for the remaining carcases - just need to rip down to size a thick piece of MDF for the shelf. 

It has rained heavily here most of the weekend and so I have been curtailed as I need the heavy saw setup in the garden to proceed.  Next weekend is a long weekend so I have great hopes and plans - as long as the rain holds off.

Despite the workload on the construction front, I have found time to continue the search for new and old interesting books and I am glad to inform you that more have been acquired.  Don't know yet whether the bookcases when finished will be big enough.

Construction of a heavier type



Sorry for the tardy posting, there will be a miniatures related post along in the next few days.

 

Having been pretty happy with how the games room turned out, I have started the next phase of the remodelling of our house to accomodate this crazy hobby.

 

Our whole family loves books, and we are lucky enough to have a library installed in a spare bedroom.  Unfortunately, the lure of Amazon and AbeBooks (and others) is too strong and we long ago outgrew the library.  So something needed to be done.

 

So last weekend I started my project to build the Military History Library Annexe.

 

The room I use for painting and where the computer etc is located had a very questionable built in wardrobe installed when we moved in.  The wardrobe has worked well as a place to store (hide) many of my painted and unpainted stuff over the past 10 years. 

 

First few hours work was removing the wardrobe and all of its paraphenalia. 

But it is never as easy as you think when doing DIY.  Turns out that the wardrobe was installed before the room was covered in plasterboard and carpet - hence the bloody thing is built like a brick sh**house and constructed into the frame of the room.  This also means that the plasterboard and carpet have a gap in them where the frame attached to the walls, floor and ceiling.

So this morning a trip to the hardware store was in order to get a crowbar and the fun started.  Two hours (and a very sore back) later all is removed and I am ready to get new plasterboard to fill the gaps.

Room's first outing

First game in the new room this morning.  My son wanted to play a game of Rapid Fire so we got a few units out and had a Commando attacking a village held by two companies from 21 Panzer with support.

He was most interested in getting the buildings on the table.  It made it very obvious how much more terrain we need (maybe not buildings - although there are a few boxes left of unpainted resin ones).  Need lots of trees, hedgerows, roads etc.

Part of a lead mountain

The process of sorting out miniatures and terrain stored all over the house continues so it can be boxed and placed in the cupboards under the table.

So, this is what my lead mountain looks like (or to be completely truthful I haven't yet pulled out all the projects from their various hiding places).

It is like a week long shopping trip - similar to Historicon visits.  I am discovering things that I had forgotten I had or had lost among the various boxes.  Given the size of the mountain, I think it may be the last shopping trip I enjoy for a while.

Terrain racks finished

Lots of woodworking and most of the joints fit and match up - so not bad.

This is a terrain rack that will allow us to store the TSS tiles we have when others are being used on the table top.

All in place waiting for the frame and table top to be placed - needed to stop as it was very dark and raining outside - not good for the power saw!

Progress continues on the room

Busy weekend so far - cupboards all finished and lights installed.  Very happy with the Ikea cupboards that were on special.  Especially when I had originally planned to make them myself.

Need a trip to the hardware store to get the timber to make the terrain racks and the table top.  BUT, it is pouring rain and I need to do the work with tools like a router etc in the yard - so brakes are on at the moment.

Notice the 'test' unit in the cupboard.

Room - paint, carpet and lights

The title probably says it all.

Painting is finished and the electricians have returned to install ceiling lights.  My son and I have just finished laying the carpet tiles I picked up at a bargain basement price.

Have spent the remainder of today building cabinets.  Another update soon.

Room update - plastering all done

Have just finished all of the work on the ceiling ready for painting tomorrow.  All gyprock seams covered and smoothed and the cornice installed.  Paint is sitting on the laundry cupboard waiting.

Got 4 cabinets on sale during the week at Ikea - reduced in price from $389 to $189 plus a 15% discount off that.  I first saw these on Olincanalad's blog.  They come with glass shelves but more could be installed if needed.  They also have a hole at the back of the two levels to take power for a small light to illuminate the figures inside.  They were delivered on Thursday and all eight of the boxes are lying in the lounge room which is OK as long as they are gone by next Saturday. 

So, quite a bit of work to do over the next few weeknights to get painting finished, carpet tiles down and cabinets installed.

Progress on the room

Time for an update on the room.  I know it has been a long time since I said I hoped to get the plasterboard ceiling up in a week or two - well a few months has passed.  But I have an excuse which I will explain in a minute.

In any case, after much hard work with my son we got the plasterboard up.  It has taken ages to get this correct as the room is anything but square - the beam supporting the floor above is up to 60mm out of alignment over its length.  Then there are the various other alignment / set issues with trying to put a plasterboard ceiling up on timbers that were never installed with that in mind.  Hope when it is finished and in white not too many blemishes will be seen.

Have started taping and using the setting compound last night.  Intention is to do a bit each evening this week so it can be painted at the weekend.

Cupboards to hold troops / terrain have been spotted at Ikea - order will be going in this week for a home delivery - they are 72kg each and my car won't fit the boxes.

Now for the reason for the delay.

About 3 months ago we had the most torrential rain in a day that I have ever seen in Sydney.  Unfortunately, in this older part of Sydney many storm water outlets go into the sewer system and it chose that day to block at the bottom of our street.  Our next door neighbour who is up the hill is one of those whose storm water goes into the sewer and it chose their outlet to fountain out up to 2 feet high from 11am until the water board could fix it at 11pm that night.  The newly installed sump pump was coping very well with the rising water table until the quantity of water coming from next door inundated elsewhere under out house and partially submerged the heating system which shorted the power.  No power - no sump pump.  It took 10 minutes or so to isolate the issue and rig up a power lead from elsewhere in the house to get the pump going again.  

Water covering the heating outlet tube.

We then spent the next 3 days cleaning up as the accumulated water elsewhere under the house found it way down through little streams and into my room which is the lowest point and then out through the sump pump.  It did sterling work over 3 days almost full-time on.

Water across the floor as we swept it into the sump

Some progress on the games room

It has been a while - but some progress has been made in the last 10 days.

Flat pack kitchen cupboards purchased to form most of the base of the table.  Also got some waterproof (unlikely but just in case) carpet tiles that manage to feel OK.

Then have just had the electricians in who wired up for lights - put some extra power points in - for future plans.

Have also managed to finally find a company that sell small form rectangular air ducting that will replace that big lump of a heating pipe.

Had plasterboard delivered today for the ceiling / cornices.  The walls are not that straight so it will be a bit of a mess - but I thought long and hard and really wanted to get rid of the rough underside of the floor above.  So I will be pulling my long out of practice gyprocking skills to the test (hopefully this weekend).  Then can get the eletricians back in to connect the lights.

Wiring in, cupboards, carpet tiles and lights waiting

Not too much different from last picture, but I'm excited.  Should see some good progress now.

Don't worry about the stormwater / sewer pipes at the back.  They will be covered with some cupboards to contain / display painted troops in.  I will leave some way for the plumbers to get to the pipes if needed - some form of detachable front to the cupbard base.
While the electricians were here, I got them to run some extra network cable down to the room - one day I might have the inclination to put a small LCD screen on the wall to stream movies etc (Waterloo, Zulu, Bridge Too Far - depending on what is being gamed.

Power and data plugs for future expansion!

Beginnings of my game cave

Finally.  It was spur of the moment thing 8 years ago when we renovated the house to excavate dirt from under two of the rooms and lay a slab.  Since then, one has become a wine cellar. 

In the other I have had a desire to turn it into my own modest space to put a table and store my painted things.  However, this has stayed a storage space - partly because it has a tendency to become an indoor pool when we have heavy sustained rain (once or twice a year).

So today two builders who have been doing some other work for us put in a pit and sump pump in the hope of preventing the water getting in.  All the gurus tell us it should work - but won't know until it pours again.

Anyway, first steps - with lots of work to go.  The room is approx 12 x 12 (feet).  So I am thinking of a 8 * 5 table with a two foot folding extension on it.  Some shelves at the end between the piers to hold buildings and terrain and some shelves covering the storm water pipes to hold painted armies.  Will find some form of cheap carpet to put on the ground so that it is easier on the feet.  Will also need much better lighting.

Ideas / suggestions welcomed.