Hi John,
Thanks for the kind words. This disease is not going to slow me down. Quite the opposite in fact.
Back to the garage renovation, I finally got the quote for all the drywall and electrical work yesterday. The electrician's portion is about what I expected, but the drywall is a fair bit higher. After consulting with my wonderfully supportive wife, Dianne, we decided to go ahead. Not only will this give me a beautiful train room, but it will enhance the value of the house significantly.
I did not get any other quotes. Some will call me stupid for that but I refuse to take a chance on getting a shoddy job from an unknown contractor. The company that we are using has done a lot of work for us before and their workmanship is absolutely flawless!! For me to say that is amazing. I am a very fussy customer.
Work will begin in 5 - 6 weeks and it will take about a month to complete. All that will be left to do in the garage is the floor, and of course, the layout!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave, I think you are making a wise decision with respect to the drywall. An awfull drywall job really stands out and is a pain to fix.
Simon
Hi Simon,
I want the garage to 'pop' when you first step into it. Based on our past experience, the contractor is a master at straight lines and smooth surfaces. When they did our kitchen and dining room they fixed a number of builder's mistakes that were not in the contract. Some of those jobs were not minor. For example, they straightened out the dividing wall between the kitchen and the living room. They had to replace wall studs to fix the problem.
Hiring contractors usually causes great stress. This time I have nothing to worry about.
One other point worth noting is that you pay as the work is done. For a four week job, there is 5% due on signing and then 25% due per week with a final payment upon completion. There is no huge payment up front. They also stay on your project until it is done. They do not try to do a bunch of jobs at the same time.
Hi rrebell,
I owe you an apology. I forgot to respond to your suggestion about using plastic boxes to lower the LED potlights.
My plan is to create one large box which will hold all the potlights that will shine directly onto the layout. They will be 4000k 3" spot lights with a 40° spread. The box will extend about 10" below the main ceiling and it will be shaped similarly to the layout. The bottom of the box will be the same height as the beams that run through it. There will not be individual boxes for each potlight, which I think is what you were suggesting. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The general room lighting will come from 5000k 6" wide beam LED potlights at the height of the original ceiling.
It's a bit difficult to explain. You will understand better when I get some pictures in a few weeks.
Looking forward to pics. Been hard to visit this site for weeks, keep timing out.