March 3rd, 2003

The new stub wall in the main model railroad room was completed on this day. It will provide support for the cabinets and the layout benchwork as it curves around this wall. The wall consists of two standard interior walls made out of 2x4's. These walls are spaced 13 inches (33 cm) apart so that the total wall width comes to 20 inches (51 cm). Horizontal braces were installed to keep the walls straight and at the right distance from each other. This wall will not be covered with drywall because it is going to be completely hidden when the cabinets are in place. The photo view is from the room's main entrance. I added 1/4" bolts to the horizontal braces (which were simply nailed in place), because the boards kept on popping as the temperature changed in the room. Quite an annoying noise in an quiet house. Once the bolts were installed, all the noises disappeared.

March 5th, 2003

The framing for the new wall in the bedroom is almost complete. This wall is being erected in the same spot the builder had originally installed a wall. You are viewing the new model railroad room's "extension" from the master bedroom.

March 9th, 2003

Almost all of the insulation is in the wall. Why insulate an interior wall? Noise reduction into the master bedroom.

March 11th, 2003

Drywall has been installed on both sides of this new wall. This is the view from the master bedroom.

March 16th, 2003

Joint compound now covers the drywall gaps and screw heads. Although I am only showing the view from the master bedroom, other parts of the model railroad room are seeing similar progress; they're just not as "dramatic". This includes covering holes in the walls made throughout the years and damage done during demolition. After this photo was taken, the master bedroom wall was painted to match the rest of the room, and the carpet installation was finished.

March 26th, 2003

I filled in all the holes in the floor left by removing the carpet tack strips. Then the walls and ceilings were painted with "Ultra Bright White" latex paint (several coats). The photo shows one wall in the main room (entrance on the left) that is painted with "Charcoal Smoke", which is a very dark green. I chose this color, because it is the color with which the valances and layout fascia panels will be painted. This wall will not have any model railroad cabinets, so I wanted to create a cohesive whole with the layout.

April 2nd, 2003

After thoroughly cleaning the concrete floors, I painted them with an epoxy-based paint typically used for painting garage floors. I chose the tan color because it contrasts nicely with the dark green walls, yet it is light enough to see any fallen parts. I bought the paint at Lowe's home center for around $50.

I flush cut all the window panes and removed all trim during the demolition phase so that the new cabinets will sit flush against the walls. This is a nice view of the new walkway between the two rooms (where the closets used to be).

April 8th, 2003

The next major task was to build a new door frame. I decided to go all out on this and make it out of solid oak. The left photo shows the room's entrance from the hallway, and the right photo shows the door from inside the room. The Pennsylvania Railroad sign was installed in an area routed out so that it sat inset into the wood surface. The door frame took almost a week to build.

April 10th, 2003

During one of the previous layouts I came up with the idea of using an exterior screen-door for this room. It allowed our two cats to see into the room while preventing them from coming into the room and destroying the miniature world, and allowed air to flow freely in and out of the room. The main reason for rebuilding the door frame was so that I could have the screen-door fit the opening. Before, it was mounted to the outside of the door frame, and looked bad.

April 17th, 2003

The room's entrance door frame has been stained with Minwax' Red Oak, followed by three coats of lacquer to protect the surface.

From inside the room, the door looks very striking next to the dark green wall. Now that the remodeling is done, I believe I have accomplished one of the goals - to have a finished, appealing room within which to build a nice model railroad. This was one of the things that bothered me about the last layout. I was so eager, then, to "get some track up" that I didn't take the proper time to finish the room. I tried, but finishing the room with the layout up is very difficult to do. I set out to do things differently this time. It takes more patience, but I can now much more easily resist the urge to "get some track up" - I have seen what it does if you don't resist that urge. It took two months, but it was worth it.