I warned you in the beginning of April that I might not get much done and well, I was right. Although not something I was hoping to be right about. I have been out of town a lot for work and when I’m home it’s been all about catch up.

First a confession. About mid March you may have noticed that there was something of a work slow down. Before that I was marching right along with laying track, getting it wired up and running a train back and forth across what was down. Then there was a switch to working on buildings. Confession time. My wife and I were out and about on a lazy Sunday with nothing much to do. Being kind of bored we decided to hit the “Parade of Homes” here in the Twin Cities. For those unfamiliar with a Parade, it happens spring and fall when all the builders showcase their latest and greatest.

Now we weren’t looking for a new home, but rather what’s new and hoping to pick up an idea or two for what improvements we could make at home.

Long about the third model we walked into we were both floored. (no that’s wasn’t meant as a pun). The house was perfect. We had talked over the last couple of years what our “Golden Years” were going to look like. One of the things we have talked about was what happens if navigating stairs became an issue (we both have Parents/ grandparents/family members where this was/is an issue) and thought that having a house where all the main living is on one level would keep us in the house longer.

Anyways, you would have thought that they knew that my wife was  coming. Not only was the house everything we had talked about in regards to main floor living (yes it has a basement) and then some, it was also painted and staged (you know, all the “stuff” they decorate with that makes it look lived in) with all the things my wife would do. She had mentally moved in before we left the model. After about three weeks of picking out all the things one picks out for a new home we decided that at this time to just stay put where we are right now. We love our present home, but this still could happen but not in the near future.

That’s why the “work slowdown”. I didn’t want to be working on something that I was going to tear down. And once we decided to stay put, the travel for work started.

Anyways it has made me think about what I’m doing downstairs. Going forward I have to plan on being able to disassemble the layout (because believe me, she hasn’t let this one go. Again, know your audience).  This won’t stop me from moving forward, I just have to have an eye on moving it.

About the new space. It’s approximately the same square footage, but without all the things I had to work around in the present space – ei. support posts, utility room, store room and stairs. Dimensionally it’s the same, but I actually pick up space.

Back to reality. Tonight I finally had about an hour to play with and started working on the track work in Brandon. I spent most of that hour rounding up all my tools and supplies for track work as they had been scattered because of various other projects. I hope to have a post on actual progress very soon.

Till then, Happy Railroading and thanks for sticking around…