The Great Escape

Well folks, I've become the prime example of what NOT to do in the hobby. I wanted to get stuff so badly, I managed to redline my account. To the max. Oy vey....Never hand a autistisc person like me a credit card when he's got blinkers on. Tunnel vision, but with no light at the end of the tunnel. I've been a very, very bad man.

When I noticed my spending had gone out of control and with a few euros left in my bankaccount, I confessed my sins to my gf. Who suddenly turned into the most understanding gf I ever had. I handed over my ATM and creditcards so she would be in control of my finances and explained my dire situation. She admitted I had been very stupid, but she also said she was sure I would be able to rectify the situation by doubling my efforts in selling stuff. And that was a week ago. (in the meantime I got the ATM cards back cause without I can't tank for gas and doing last minute groceries ordered by her have to be done with family account anyway)

In the week since then I have posted a ton of stuff for sale on various podia, scanned every invoice for medication and docters visists and dumped them at my healthcare provider all at once to be reimbursed for all of the things I paid in advance for, and cut down my spending to 5 euro (at Poldercon, more about that in another post). And I'm still looking for more things to sell.

And as a added bonus I haven't snacked or had a soda for over a week now, as I'm flatout refusing to spend money till I'm in the clear and all the money that I owe to people (yes, you too Sander) has been paid back in full. And trading is still ok, as long as more figures go out then come back, but that is very low priority right now.

So I'm on the mend and things look brighter alrady. I've even sold a few things :) And gotten quite a few replies from people who want to trade even though I'm clearly saying in the topic that I'm not trading right now.....I've just gone back and put that line in bold and bigger font just to be sure. <sigh>

Right, thats the current situation adressed, now the future. I'll be moving from the current all purpose room a to a 3x3 metre room by the end of the year, and I want to make it more useful compared to the way we use our current room. I have 5 cabinets (4x 80cm ones and 1x 40cm one) and 3 drawers (stacked, 70 wide) in the current room, the gf has 2 cabinets (60 wide each) and a small 60cm drawers. We both have a PC and we both have a printer/scanner. We both have a table, mine slightly larger then hers (160x80 vs 120x80). I've got a big ass whiteboard (95 x 120 cm). And then I have a teensy 40cm cabinet I keep project stuff in. And that is it (if we ignore the big white elephant that is the stored hobby mess in the attic....).

See pic of current situation :) Well, more of a, not to scale, quick sketch.....

The new (current babies) room is in the opposite side of the house, facing West. So no enjoying long hours of daylight I'm afraid. We have quite a few things double that we really don't need, like in as in each has his own pc, extra harddisk, printer. Bit of a waste of space. As her pc is fast becoming an old clapper and mine is good for another 4 years, my suggestion would be that I make another account on this PC so we can share this one, or she gets a laptop. I'm behind the PC daily, she maybe once a week, usually less. 1 of my cabinets is devoted to scenery, and 1 cabinet is half empty. She has 2 cabinets full of Stephen King books, pictures from her youth, and some fianacial stuff. Other then the financial stuff, I've never seen her use anything from those cabinets. She does use the small drawers often so that stays. If I get rid of 2 cabinets by culling stuff and putting all of my scenery in black transport boxes in the attic, she culls both cabinets of all of the unneeded stuff (old school stuff and Stephen Kingbooks) and we combine our fiancial stuff and pictures in one cabinet, we can drop 3 cabinets right now. How's that for saving space. And it would look a little like this:

2 desks up against the window, there will be about 20cm worth of space between then, plenty of space for the recycling bins. Left one will be the hobby station, right one for the desktop pc with space for the laptop would she choose that option. On the left/North wall would be 2x 80cm cabinet and 1x 40cm cabinet. Parts in the first, spares and projects in the 2nd and the smaller one holds all of my paint and tools. The small cabinet currently at my side can go into the recycling bin or in the girls new bedroom. On the right/South wall I've retained Kims small drawers, but after measuring it has to go as it is 70cm and that is 10cm too wide., so the printer goes on the table. 2 more cabinets, 1 for both of us, 1 I'm leaving off the books for now as that might be the cabinet for my special plan. My sets of drawers go next to the door as they leave enough room to swing the door on the cabinet.

My gf, who was just hovering over my shoulder, was kind enough to point out the door in the room actually swings the other way....doh! But that is even better, as this means I have more room for plan P

Plan P you say?

It has been a dream of me to have my own gaming table. Just before I moved in with my gf I had made one, 200 x 300 in 200x100 boards. They have been in storage ever since. As the table did make it across during the move, but is current;y occupied most of the time by the kids and us having dinner, leaving a game up overnight is not an option. Also, smaller is better cause my love lies with skirmishing, and for that a 120 by 120 (4x4) is sufficient.

So I've been thinking (Danger! Danger!) and looking at the Ikea catalog again, and I have come up with a plan. I feel there is room for a 120 x 120 gaming table in this room, albeit not a permanent one. If I drop 1 cabinet, I have a 80cm slot. 80cm is a good size to support a 120cm table with. A 80 x 80 cm table would be ideal as a support. A mobile table with storage space would be perfection on a small scale. Now, back up a few months. We installed a kitchen a few months ago and it has very wide drawers for pots and pans and stuff. And it has a drawer inside a drawer to maximise space. I wondered then, what if you mounted a gaming table on top of this?

So out comes the Ikea catalog. I've looked at either 40x40 blocks times 4 andn 80x40 blocks times 2. (Also I must not forget to get 4 big wheels, and 2 80x80cm slabs of MDF as the base and the table top). Looking at the low end of the budget, 4 blocks of 40, just planks and a door is 172 euros for the set (excluding wheels and 2x 80 square). So these:

 If I want sets of drawers, what I prefer as I have to store miniatures, I'm looking at two 80 x 37cm blocks, with the following options:

One for each side. The lower one would be handy for storing my toolchests for the airbush and other tools plus the airbrush itself, the upper one has easy space for miniatures, dice, rulers, more paints etc. The 80x80 top would be handy for taking photographs on while not in use. The minimum height of these cabinets is 80. This would be raised by two 12mm thick MDF base and top, plus the size of the wheels meaning a height of at least 90cm should be ok. Which is higher then most tables I ever gamed on :)

So, I think this is a great idea. It adds storage space, it doesn't take up too much space in the room (the location to put this would be behind my desk, in between the 40cm bookcase and the 80 cm bookcase), is strong and sturdy enough to be the base of a 120 x 120 cm gaming table. And the gaming table can be made in 2 parts and stored in the attic when not in use. The only problem I see right now is the finances cause I'm guessing a budget of 500 euros for this should suffice, and I don't have that kind of money at the moment (well duh). But, if my sales go well, and use part or all of my Crisis 2015 budget for this, all of this isn't as far fetched as it seems right now.

But am I missing something? Ok, I need to solve the problem how to connect the 2 120x60 boards, but I'm sure there will be ideas for it online. But other then that....well, let me know what you think about it, k?