The game room has finally been redecorated and organized

So it took awhile, but at last the room seems to have come together. I still change things every now and then, more refinements than actual changes I mean it all seems complete. The painting area is the real big change, it feels so much more open, I no longer feel like I am crammed in against the gaming table (which is what I was) Now I have room to move, I can push back from the table and not bump into anything. I reduced the depth of the shelves so the wall of shelves is no longer so imposing. I have also shifted anything that I could out of the room. Such things as my bits boxes, my collection of models to be built (plastic) and sundry other containers are now out in the garage. Anything that might be harmed by the extreme cold/heat are now in the storage room. Just the essentials remain.

One of the big things that I did was to add more lighting. It is now bright down there, really bright. There are the two original hard wired LED overhead lights, but I have now added eight (8) more twin LED overhead lights, not hardwired, so I can rearrange them should I ever reorganize the room again (hopefully never again!)

Oh, there are many 'little' projects still to be done. I do need to label a lot of boxes where ever they might be stored, and I really need to organize the miniatures shelves, group stuff in some form of order, but also consolidate stuff, I still have some shelves not well used.

The new painting area, roomier no more bumping into things

Re-purposed shelf unit will be for big scenery items

More space around the table even places to sit

The shrine to my late, great dog, Hamish!

Still have a fridge, but the area is better organized!

The view as you enter the room, a pillar with pithy statements

 

So that's it for now. But please visit the club site to see our first battle in over two years!

Progress is my middle name

Not really, what a dumb name that would be!

But the work has progressed, somewhat.

Mid move as seen last post

Paint racks moved to new location & shelving units in place

Cleaned up and shelves organized now a wider area.

Mid move

First shelf up

Last shelf up & new light installed

Still a lot of work to be done, but the painting table is almost usable and most of the floor is safe to walk on!

End of day one...can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

 

Thankfully nothing has been broken, yet, but it certainly looks like a tornado went through the place. Technically it is a simple straightforward  swap of furniture, but it has become like one of those puzzle squares where you have to slide the pieces around to form up what ever the image is, or the correct number sequence etc etc. To move the main storage shelf I had to move chairs and a desk to make a path. Before I can  place the storage unit where I want to I have to move the paints, but that means I have to set up the painting table but some bookcases are in the way. You get the point.

Here is the largest of the storage units to be moved. 

OOP Ikea large Billy cabinet 16" deep

An especially large fully loaded cabinet with 20 shelves in in, bloody heavy!  So out came everything, however 2o shelves of miniatures is not an easy thing to disperse around a crowded room. I had already taken other items off other shelves so the pile on the gaming table really started getting out of hand.

Stud finding with magnets!

Now, normally I am kind of lazy and will try to move a cabinet even with stuff in it, but this cabinet presented a challenge. As you can see, an air duct blocked me from doing a simple dragging of the cabinet. This challenge meant that I was forced to remove the 20 shelves in addition to the miniatures. Once done it was a 'simple' job  of tilting the whole thing onto me then pushing wobbling it over a floor joint hump, and under the air duct then back up with out crushing me or pushing it over the other way. All this with out ant help even from a traveling gamer (not pointing any fingers) Anyways as I am writing this after the fact you may surmise that I survived the experience and also the second large cabinet that was quite heavier, oddly shaped and just as awkward to shift as the first cabinet.

However despite the chaos and confusion I do see a glimmer of hope. Below is the newly cleared area where my painting table had been. Once done this area should be about a foot wider affording more room for the players and even room for a chair or two.

So could not work on it as much as I would have like to on Sunday, some rearranging and culling of books, the big push will come Monday and Tuesday. As a side benefit it was good to take another look at my Sci-Fi and fantasy book collection to see what I wanted to keep and what I could give away. Thanks to kindle a fair amount of my collection has migrated from paperback to digital. While I still love the feel and smell of books, the ability to easily flip back and forth to find certain passages, the lovely covers, my eyesight is much worse and the ability to adjust font size must win out over nostalgia and tradition.

A change is coming...

This may not be a bad idea, but it certainly will be painful and disruptive as I have decided to rearrange my gaming room. After two years of no gaming and with the first potential gaming day just a month away, I have decided that now is the time to rearrange my gaming room. 

When I started to think about this reorganization I figured that there was no way that it could work, there just wouldn't be room for everything to be shifted where I wanted. Then I started taking measurements and plotting what I might be able to do. Well, sadly it should (at least in theory) fit perfectly, damn. 

So the plan is to 'simply' have this painting area...

 

 ...trade places with these shelves and wall unit. As it so happens both are 280cm in length (there is 60cm of CD racks just out of the shot).

 

Also plan to do something with this corner unit and replace it with a more conventional shelving unit. This part of the plan has not yet been figured out. Originally I simply planned to replace it and chuck it out (actually Kijiji it). Now however I may have figured out a use for it we shall see. It also looks like I will replace at least one low shelving Ikea Billy unit with a high unit. My rule storage are has become a little crowded of late.

 

Also in the mix, I plan to remove my bits boxes to the garage freeing up shelf space below the gaming table. This space will allow me to store some scenery under the gaming table either in photo copier boxes or simply free standing.

 

 The new high book shelf unit may also free up some of these shelves for scenery as well.

Finally, this reorg will open up some of the zones in my room. Once moved, the painting tables new location will mean  that I can push back away from it without colliding with the gaming table. The area where the painting table was, will gain one foot of space making moving around the gaming table that much easier.  In addition there were things that got in the way of the miniature cabinets, specifically a low wheeled table was for ever getting in the way, soon it no longer will. 

All this will also require some additional lighting, I will need to replace one light fixture with an outlet that will then have some overhead lighting plugged into it to provide illumination to the new painting area. 

IKEA here I come!

Updated Sanctum page (see top of blog)

Just a quick note I have finally updated the Sanctum page detailing my gaming room.

Finally some pics of my game room

ERB favorite covers

Here are some of my favorite covers.
A fighting man of Mars and LLana of Gathol easily top the list.

Edgar Rice Burroughs covers