Allan Miller posted:Fortunately, I don't have that problem. Wendy, my wife-to-be effective Dec. 18 when we will make it official, and I are renovating a ranch-style home and the agreement we made was that the upstairs living area, aside from my home office, is her's to do anything she cares to do with it. Since cooking is her passion, she now has a kitchen that includes everything she wanted and/or needs. The basement, aside from the laundry area, is mine, and it is currently being worked on by my contractor, with layout benchwork to get underway before the end of the year. About half the basement will be a train room exclusive to the layout, and the other half, which includes a fireplace, will be a lounge/man cave/safe space, or whatever other term one might want to apply to an area when train friends can gather to watch videos or TV, enjoy some snacks and beverages, and engage in train talk.
I will be posting progress reports on the forum, and also documenting building of the layout (lessons learned, in particular) in the magazine over the next couple of years. It will be a medium-size layout, not an expansive empire, because I want something that I can comfortably manage, maintain, and have fun with well into the future. I hope to incorporate a good number of operational capabilities in this layout since that is an aspect of the hobby that increasingly interests me and I want to be able to do more than just watch trains run around in circles (although continuous running will also be possible).
A comfortable home office upstairs and a train room downstairs... does it get any better than that?
Congratulations on the marriage. Many happy years to you both!
Between our classic cars and my trains I can basically do what I want, as long as she gets what she wants too. Works really well for us.
