Model railroader's dilemma..or how to beat the home owner's association -up date pics

[MAbruce]

Ahh, yes. Good old Homeowners associations. I did my time in a townhouse development and even served on the “transitional” board for a few months.

I can tell you (or anyone else): BUYER BEWARE! If you are considering purchasing a home/condo that is under an association, I can’t urge you enough to carefully read over the regulations. While the intent of these associations is to keep order in the neighborhood (usually by keeping a wacko neighbor from doing something outlandish like painting his house neon pink), I can tell you that these boards are often run by people with way too much time on their hands.

The thing (in my opinion) to watch out for is vague regulations that leave specific enforcement interpretation up to the board. This is not a good thing, especially if your board is made up of anal retentive FBI wannabes.

On the other hand, many association boards have to put up with a great deal of nonsense from homeowners. This can include something ridiculous as complaints about the color/style of a neighbor’s barbecue grill.

Chuck - It sounds like you came up with an inventive solution to your dilemma. My advice is to NEVER tell anyone in the neighborhood about what you did. You would be surprised at how many trusted neighbors turn into [censored]
back stabbing stool pigeons…

[tomwatkins]

Chuck,
Excellent soloution to a potentially thorny problem. I also had a window in the part of my basement which became the train room. Did much the same thing and it works great. I didn't have to deal with a homeowner's assoc. though. The house I owned previously was in an area with one. I don't miss it.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins

[cwclark]

My wife and I purchased a new home which has a detatched workshop that was perfect for a train room...it also has a home owners' association...My first project on the building for getting the trains up and running was to remove a garage door and brick up the big hole in the wall where the garage door had been...I took the plan to the home owners' association for approval and they would not accept it unless I put in a window...a window in a train room?..well needless to say i had to put in a window to get approval for bricking up the building or face them with their liens on the property for disobeying the rules of their little social tea club....well here's the good part...the window is in with a twist...I framed the window, took a 1/2 sheet of plywood, measured it to fit in the window, mounted drywall to the plywood, painted the plywood black, mounted it in the window, and floated and taped the drywall section in the inside of the building...if you look at the building now and glance thru the window, it just looks like a regular room with the lights off....they'll never know any different!...Chuck[:D]
img src=<"http://thumb7.webshots.com/s/thumb4/4/18/87/143341887SHlycx_th.jpg">
img src=<"http://thumb4.webshots.com/s/thumb2/4/21/4/143342104sHqmKb_th.jpg">
img src=<"http://thumb3.webshots.com/s/thumb2/4/25/73/143342573llTsRd_th.jpg">