You know when you got it bad when...

[DigitalGriffin]

You go house shopping and you look at a house basement wondering how big a train room you can stick in there....[:D] ?What have I gotten myself into?

Good news is I have a 25 x 40 space now for trains. :-)

[rrinker]

That's awesome!

Drove my wife nuts, but every house we looked at, I ALWAYS headed for the basement, even before heading up to check the bedrooms. I usually did a walkthru imagining where the benchwork would be.

--Randy

[willy6]

Basement? Whats that? They don't exist in the south.

[Adelie]

I did the same thing. The wife would be oohing and aahing about things upstairs while I was downstairs, inspecting joists, plumbing, electrical, HVAC and unobstructed space for trains.

[Anonymous]

LOL already warned my wife next house will have a huge basement thats totally mine!!!! Well maybe room for a washer and dryer but thats it.

[tstage]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Adelie
The wife would be oohing and aahing about things upstairs while I was downstairs, inspecting joists, plumbing, electrical, HVAC and unobstructed space for trains.

Mark,

You're such a guy...[:)] (I'd be doing the same thing.)

I remember looking at a house with my wife about 10 years ago. It was an oblong ranch and the layout on the first floor was kinda funky. But the basement...ahhhhh, THAT wonderful basement....[sigh]...I just wanted to somehow stick in my back pocket and take it home with me. It was probably 24 x 50' and completely open. (I don't even remember there being even a support post throughout the entire thing.)

Tom

[Anonymous]

That's cool - wish we had a basement (though I have a vague urge to knock a few holes in walls in the attic - if I knocked suitable holes in the walls between the rooms up there I'd be able to have a continuous run around the attic with no need for lift out sections (stairs to the attic would come up inside the loop). One day....[:)]

[dave9999]

QUOTE: Originally posted by willy6

Basement? Whats that? They don't exist in the south.

Yeah, what Willy said! I have only been in one basement in my entire
life. If you try to dig a basement in Florida... you get a swimming pool.
The water table is too high around here. Dave

[tatans]

No basements?? c'mon, what do you do, just set your little wooden houses on the ground, where do you put the furnace? washer & dryer, sewer and water pipes and all the crap you collected for the last 30 years. Where do you go when the tornado is at the end of the block? up in the attic--do you have attics? These are big mysteries to people that don't live on the equator, then again I guess you don't worry about electrical plug-ins in your parking stalls either or sticking your tongue to a steel pole in January. And do you know what an Optimist is in Canada? he's a guy that scrapes all the ice off his car windows before he tries to start his car. we need answers.

[dave9999]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tatans

No basements?? c'mon, what do you do, just set your little wooden houses on the ground, where do you put the furnace? washer & dryer, sewer and water pipes and all the crap you collected for the last 30 years. Where do you go when the tornado is at the end of the block? up in the attic--do you have attics? These are big mysteries to people that don't live on the equator, then again I guess you don't worry about electrical plug-ins in your parking stalls either or sticking your tongue to a steel pole in January. And do you know what an Optimist is in Canada? he's a guy that scrapes all the ice off his car windows before he tries to start his car. we need answers.

What is a furnace?! [;)][:-^]

[cmrproducts]

There was no way I was going to go house hunting. I decided that we would build so things would be right from the start! And just because I worked at a Modular Housing plant and the Engineering dept was right next door didn’t hurt.

The house has everything up stairs! There is nothing in the basement, zip zero! The stairs comes down from the garage and enters the office and then just a doorway into the 25’ by 75’ basement. 13 rows for blocks (8ft high plus) and no windows (they would be covered up with plasterboard.

The room has a drop ceiling, plasterboard, about 40 plus 8 ft 4 tube florescent lights, insulated walls and it is completely dry. I had the contractors add extra drains all around the building.

I would never be able to find a train room like this in random house hunting. People out there have no idea what a basement is supposed to be used for! So they fill it up with junk like furnace, water tank, storage for junk. What a waste!

BOB H – Clarion, PA

[RedGrey62]

I was visiting someone in St Louis who ran a small hobby shop (devoted to CB&Q modlers mainly) out of his house. My wife and sister in law were talking to his wife while he and I did business and discussed his future empire. The house was new and very large. It seems that every house they went into, she headed upstairs and he downstairs. After a few houses the realtor finally had to ask just what the heck he was doing! His wife explained that he was looking for the perfect basement, large with a staircase entering the center. They finally found a house that met both hers and his requirements!

Rick

[Anonymous]

Toolbox guy, You have to use the old Jedi mind trick on the wife. Convince her that it would be "so" much easier on her if her washer and dryer were upstairs. That way she won't have to carry clothes up and down steps. She'll think you're being really considerate. Don't tell her that space would make a good industrial siding! [(-D]
The other guy that goes by Willy

[Attaboy]

I just bought my house about a year and a half ago, one of the determining factors was the oversized two car garage trainroom in the back yard.

[Anonymous]

Attaboy, you lucky dog!

[rrinker]

Ah, I see how you worked THAT trick Attaboy - you planted grass over the driveway and then when your wife mentioned something about 'garage' you just showed her the nice lawn you'd have to tear up to put the driveway back.

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

--Randy

[Anonymous]

We live in Georgia and we have a basement. Although the ceiling is 7 foot where the ducts come across, and the walls leak at the bottom (gonna have to get that fixed before i build my layout...sigh).

[loathar]

I used to have a basement with a toilet and a shower. I never had to go upstairs!
Now I have a new 20 by 20 dedicated train out building with a garden hose and I pee in the woods. But if you notice in my bio I am "Happilly Devorsed" (more train time!)
loathar

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't even consider buying a house without a basment - and the only purpose for the rest of the house (i.e. the "upstairs") is to keep the rain off the layout![:D]

[sledgehammer]

when me and my wife bought our house I did not see the inside of the house until I had to move the funiture in . I alwayst kept going to the garage and measuring and drawing out plans on the floor for my layout. she said she like the house so i bid on it . Im not too fussy as lond as I have A dry place to sleep.

[Anonymous]

You mean everyone doesn't look at the foundation of the house? I mean really you got to know what the house is built on to know if it is a good investment. It also helps to look at he stairway to see if that 9 foot section of layout you were never going to move will physically fit in the house. 13 basements houses in one day when we last moved. Bought the only one that worked.

Rich

[littleboom]

Hey all!

I'm in the process of buying sweet train room! It actually includes a whole house around and above it! It's about 15 x 15, already carpeted and drywalled, etc(someone was using it as a spare bedroom, can you believe that?!) There's a full bathroom down there, so I guess I only have to come up for food [dinner]

My wife is actually pretty supportive. As soon as we saw it, she asked me if that's where I wanted the trains to go [bday]

Bonuses include a Norfolk Southern line through town, and across the river is the North Shore shortline. Additionally, there is a sweet MRR shop about 30 mins away!

Later,
Mike

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tstage
I remember looking at a house with my wife about 10 years ago. It was an oblong ranch and the layout on the first floor was kinda funky. But the basement...ahhhhh, THAT wonderful basement....[sigh]...I just wanted to somehow stick in my back pocket and take it home with me. It was probably 24 x 50' and completely open. (I don't even remember there being even a support post throughout the entire thing.)

So what did you end up with?

[jfugate]

When we finally moved in 1990 (been in the same house for 13 years prior to that), my wife told me we needed to get a house with space for the trains (nice to have a supportive wife).

So we ended up buying a 3400 sq foot home with about 1000 sq feet in the semi-finished daylight basement for trains ... and that's where my Siskiyou Line has been built. I spent time moving some partitions around and finishing off the basement. So today we not only have the trains down there, but we have a bathroom and a crew lounge.

[cwclark]

I don't know what a basement or a furnace is..but if i had one, you can bet there would be trains in it...chuck

[jeffshultz]

Uh, Joe, you might also want to mention that the only part of the garage that is left is the doors... [8D]

[Texas Zepher]

Being a Colorado native, and after CF&I (Colorado Fuel and Iron) began to shut down my parents moved us to Kansas. After spending my entire life getting back to Colorado - guess what. I am now planning on retiring guess where Kansas. Why? Well this topic. I've never had enough room for my model railroad. So when we found this on e-bay we acted.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4351835715

If everything works as planned, this school house will be used for a few years for a TV series (about a high school football team), and then I will become the proud owner.

Even after we have mapped out about 6200 sq ft for living quarters on the 3rd floor. I have room for my offices. And of course my dream museum quality model railroad. As planned the layout has a 30 x 90 space (two stories tall, with an observation balcony off the main 2nd storry hallway).

The only disadvantage is the location of Stafford. It is on US highway 50 but MILES and MILES from the nearest Interstate. It also didn't help that they put the new highway 400 in along US 54 about 30 miles to the south.

But that brings up another topic. What sort of exhibits should I be preparing for a model railroad museum?

I've thought of things like evolution of locomotives, evolution of a specific railroad's paint schemes, Merger mania, the ubiquitous caboose. I've been thinking about inviting other people with massive collections to develop "visiting exhibits".

[railroadyoshi]

Well, my parents are building a huge house with somethin like a 30x80 basement

Thank goodness I dont have that space for myself!
Being 12 years old, my mind could run wild.

My parents alloted me a 10x20 space, which is an empire to me!
Sweet part is its a walkout, so transporting materials in will be easy!

[dano99a]

QUOTE: Originally posted by toolbox_guy_va

LOL already warned my wife next house will have a huge basement thats totally mine!!!! Well maybe room for a washer and dryer but thats it.

LOL!!! AMEN!

[Attaboy]

rrinker, not quite, the trick was that I don't have a wife so the only person I had to please was me. So that's what I did. There's also another garage attached to the house that I actually use as a garage. [:)]