Well, after 6 months of no progress with this project there is a sniff in the air that things might be about to change. I have currently four house renovation projects on the go and one will have a huge bearing on Rospeath Lane's future.
During the last six months what little spare time I had was spent mulling over the direction I’d have to go without a dedicated area for constructing a layout. A lot of modelling could be done at the kitchen table but continuing with Rospeath Lane would require a large dedicated space which, within the house, there was nowhere appropriate.
Thinking that Rospeath Lane was dead in the water, I'd been putting plans together for building a small branch line terminus A small layout might have been manageable by working on sub-sections that could have been packed away somewhere in the house. I'd even started on building a few wagons for such a layout. But then one of our renovation projects grew the proverbial 'arms and legs'. What started out as a relatively small task of installing a multi fuel stove in the fireplace in the lounge resulted removing two fireplaces that had been built infront of the original 300+ year old sandstone Jambs and Lintel. This made us think further about what we'd like to achieve with the room. The result being the lounge will possibly be out of commission for a couple of months. The extra work we're planning is; install a new doorway, removing the cosmetic beams in the ceiling (which now means pulling down the ceiling as it's in such a poor state, knock blown plaster off the walls, see if the random damp patches halfway up part of the walls can be cured and then replaster. Whether the ceiling will be replaced is one decision we will make once the state of the floor above is ascertained along with dealing with any exposed electrical cabling.
So how does this affect Rospeath Lane? After some hearty discussions we've decided the solution is... purchasing a 7m x 3m log cabin which will become my 'Man Cave'. The base has been prepared, the jigsaw of components have arrived, and it looks like it will take a week to build if the weather holds out. I'll be able to move most of my modelling items in straight away but Rospeath Lane may have to wait as we will also be using the ‘Man Cave’ to temporarily store some furniture while the Lounge, Dining room and Kitchen are being renovated.
What a result! ...Long live Rospeath Lane (it may even get extended slightly)...
