Here's the basement prep post from the railroad update thread. Figured I'd go ahead and make this a seperate thread.
It turns out we may be remodeling out basement (to hide the water heaters and AC unit) so it might be a while before I can really begin on the railroad. But for now, I can continue my track planning and working on the plan for the basement remodel.
Since we haven't ever used our basement for anything except storing junk, we'll have to clean it out. Then, I'll bring in my uncle (who happens to work in construction and will be able to help with the putting up of walls) and put up the wood framing and drywall. Then we'll start on the ceiling (probably putting up some soffits around the airconditioner ducts and putting in a semi-drop ceiling (our basement has 8 foot ceilings, but there are ducts and pipes that make the usable ceiling 7 feet) and making the wires (cable coming in from the street, etc) up against the wall). We'll have to replace the window, put down some outdoor carpeting, and then put in some more lights. Quite a list when you think about it. So, I will be posting the progress of that remodel as well.
click picture to enlarge
Our basement is roughly 50 by 25 (the usable part, the section under the laudry room is a crawlspace) and the part that will become the train room is about 10 by 30. That includes the window and what will become the workbench. The section on the other side of the new wall will become the "manhole" with TV and couch, and probably a fridge of some type (also doubles as a layout reception room). All of this will most likely take over a month, and we can't start until the basement is cleaned out. That's a task in and of itself. The reason there's so much of the basement going to be lost by the new wall is because I have to have a buffer around the AC and water heaters and there's some extremely low ducts and pipes, and I decided to seal those inside the new wall. The space inside the new wall will probably become a closet.