Feeling Overwhemed Again


SpaceMouse

Fun Lover
For the last month, I have been devoting every spare second to building a room in the basement to use as an entertainment center for the kids. The goal was to create storage for my wife's paintings and get the kid's video game activities out of the living room. (Actually the main goal is cleaning up an impossible basement.)

My wife has since decided that if she put her paintings in that room, they will block the kid's view or at least loom heavily over them in a Feng Shei nightmare sorta way. So she suggested I build a layout in that area. Turns out I could make an L shaped switching layout with staging that is 11 feet long with a 4 foot return. Furthermore, I could incorporate an extensive saw mill which could represent the Union Lumber Company in the 4-foot return. The town of Fort Bragg with the terminus yard/service facility of the California Western Railroad would be in the long section. Ergo, it would be the start of the Redwood Empire I have been planning since day one. Furthermore, it would be the hardest most labor intensive, so I could get that part out of the way first.

I'm planning on building a scratch-built version of something like this based upon photos I have of the Union Lumbe Co.

mill-overall.jpg


That sounds like good news right? Well I guess it is. It's just that my next project in the basement will be to build the benchwork/video storage area for the new layout. Then, I have to organize a bunch of Junk and rip out a couple walls and reroute the house's wiring, cable and phone lines. Then I have to build a laundry room and another wall and my work benches.

All of this while, I'm trying to finish up the Rock Ridge and Train City layout--which I figure, with no basement construction, I have another 6 months or so. But with the construction, I'm going nuts because I haven't gotten anything done in 6 weeks or so and before that I was working on club projects.

I'll have the benchwork in place for 12-18 months before I can lay track on just the first phase of the layout. Well, I guess that gives me a lot of time for planning.

I just need some good quality layout time. Maybe when the room is done and before the benchwork is done, I'll take a couple weeks off.

Thanks for letting me rant. I kinda feel like the Microsoft engineer with the virgin wife after three years of marriage. He just sat on the edge of the bed and told her how good it was going to be.
 
SpaceMouse said:
I kinda feel like the Microsoft engineer with the virgin wife after three years of marriage. He just sat on the edge of the bed and told her how good it was going to be.

I'm having a tough time seeing this from your perspective, Chip...:D
 
I'm going nuts because I haven't gotten anything done in 6 weeks or so and before that I was working on club projects.
Hi Chip Well ranting is OK I guess if it's done in a nice way :D
First of all are you the only one in the club? If not spend less time there, more in the proposed work area (primarily the layout area). Put your divider walls up then do the required wiring. Put the wallboard on, clean up the area. Put your wife's stuff in the room it's going in and your son's stuff where it will eventually go. Then work on your layout. Now if you do all that you won't have time to go nuts or procrastinate about it, see how easy it is. :D Oh! yeah! cleanup is a family chore.
Now if I could only take my own advice, I'd get something done on mine :D
Cheers
Willis
 
grande man said:
I'm having a tough time seeing this from your perspective, Chip...:D

It's a metaphor, Dang it! I don't work for MicroSoft.

(MicroSoft does mean limp little thing, don't it?)
 
Chip, I would actually like the prep part of it. The tearing out of walls, the rewiring , big drills a-drillin', big saws a-sawin'. I'm great at that kinda stuff, it's the building of layouts that still puzzle me, the planning of ittybitty highways and how to get a bridge to look like it really is a bonafide bridge. That's the part that gets me.
Jarrell
 
Chip .. Im new here but couldnt resist .. Make the kids help and have a beer/building party and while everyone else is working on the renovations you can work on the layout .... of course trusting your home to a bunch of drunken guys with hammers and saws is a whole seperate issue :D :D

that saw mill is extensive .. i would like to see the finished product ..
 
Make the kids help and have a beer/building party and while everyone else is working on the renovations you can work on the layout
Great idea and while you're at it invite the club members over for a change of venue :D

Cheers Willis
 
Chip, I thought you were moving? and a layout was just for now. Seems like alot of work.

Ken.
 
Jarell,

I was building contractor for 15 years. I know how to do it. One thing I tell younger guys is that I can lift what I used to be able to lift. I just can't get up once I get down. I burnt out on construction 20 years ago. I guess I never got unburnt.

Vyceroy,

The kids could care less. When I was I kid I would have been hanging around my dad trying to figure out what he was doing. He would have showed me stuff and explained. I have to drag them down to show them progress.
 
> I'm planning on building a scratch-built version of something
> like this based upon photos I have of the Union Lumbe Co.

I'm curious, why scratch build instead of using that series of kits.

I can think of three reasons, either one (or both) may apply to you:

1) You enjoy scratch building
2) Those kits just cost too much
3) You want to model a specific prototype scene, and they don't match it.
 
Ken,

Not moving for the foreseeable future. The 4 x 8 will move into my home office once it is set up. So it has to find a way up stairs. I expect a litle breakage.
 
modelbob said:
> I'm planning on building a scratch-built version of something
> like this based upon photos I have of the Union Lumbe Co.

I'm curious, why scratch build instead of using that series of kits.

I can think of three reasons, either one (or both) may apply to you:

1) You enjoy scratch building
2) Those kits just cost too much
3) You want to model a specific prototype scene, and they don't match it.

Mostly cost, but a little of all three. There's over a grand in the kits. I can do a reasonable job of scratch for around $100. Plus, there's nothing really complicated that I can see. Just time intensive.
 
Chip;
Hang in there,you come before the club don't you???Besides Jarrell is right!SAWS,DRILLS,HAMMERS and things like that are cool!!!;) :p :rolleyes: :D :)
JIM
 
Chip
You've already come a long way from where you were at this time 1 year ago.

I've seen a few editorials in MR, RMC, etc. that talk about the 'burnout' syndrome you're describing, and how it's usually caused by wanting to jump from point A to point Z overnight. Relax, you've got a lifetime to finish that logging railroad - don't let it become your Master. [An easier concept for me to preach than to practice, I'll admit...:eek: ]
 
Ken,

The logging layout is under control. What is bugging me is not making progress on the 4 x 8. There's a major project that is holding up the works--a need to raise the ground 1/4 in relation to the track so that the buildings are the right height. I can't do any scenicing, etc. until that is done. If it was done, I could do a little here and ther like balasting or sticking in trees or painting. But without the base correct, it all has to wait. But all my big blocks of time go to the room construction. I got a fix last couple days. I built 10 cars.
 
SpaceMouse said:
...The logging layout is under control. What is bugging me is not making progress on the 4 x 8...
Multitasking, eh? With my ADHD I'd be a basket case if I attempted that...one under-construction layout keeps me plenty busy!:D
 
CSX_road_slug said:
Multitasking, eh? With my ADHD I'd be a basket case if I attempted that...one under-construction layout keeps me plenty busy!:D

There is no problem with the logging layout because I'm not going to work on ti until I have finished the Train City and Rock Ridge. I'm only doing the benchwork and backdrop because they are needed for the room plan. Not a multi-task.
 
Chip
:) I had a similar problem in how to raise my buildings/structures to the height that I wanted. I bought some Core Foam Board and it worked to perfection. It is white foam with a thin layer of paper on each side and it copmes in various thickness's. It cuts easily for fitting in odd shaped areas and makes it easy to remove a section for remodeling. Hiding the seams is the hardest part for me for easy removal of a section. I am still working on this part of the solution.:)
 
leghome said:
Chip
:) I had a similar problem in how to raise my buildings/structures to the height that I wanted. I bought some Core Foam Board and it worked to perfection. It is white foam with a thin layer of paper on each side and it copmes in various thickness's. It cuts easily for fitting in odd shaped areas and makes it easy to remove a section for remodeling. Hiding the seams is the hardest part for me for easy removal of a section. I am still working on this part of the solution.:)


I got a bunch at a local crafts store. I'm not worried about removal. Just finding the time to do it. Maybe Christmas Eve.
 
Chip, remember - Model Railroading is FUN!

Seriously, just because your wife has suggested you put a railroad in there does not mean that you have to do it now. Work on some of the other stuff right now.

I'm in the pre-Christmas doldrums, where I'm at a point where I don't feel very comfortable going any further right now because either it would make too much of a mess (family coming over) or I'm waiting to see what I get for Christmas, as it may have an influence on the next stage of things. So I'm relaxing and reading all the back issues of Model Railroader magazine that my parents exhumed from their garage a few months ago. I'm in the late 80s now.
 



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