Tuesday, November 27, 2012

006 - Richlawn RR v2 - Move In and Measurements

Rick has moved in to his new abode in Florida.  No snow in any of the pictures, anyway.  Looks like a nice place!  Now that he's in I asked him to give me precise measurements of the room so that I can adjust the drawing, which was made off estimates.  NEVER design a layout on rough measurements.  I also allow for 2" of play in all my drawing, because no room is truly square nor are any walls 100% flat.

Here are the room dimensions.  They are very close to what I had, but every detail is important.  Note that the double doors are about 1/2" off to the left of center.   When drawing a room, don't just think about around the walls.  A room is a cube, so we need wall height and  the height of windows and doors.  One other thing that I like to mark are walls that can and can't be penetrated with track.  That I already know from a previous drawing, so we are ok there.

 This wall is unobstructed.  Ok, he's moving so there is stuff in the room, but once it is gone, there is nothing blocking the way.  There is a two switch light switch though!  That is a bad place to put one.  We'll have to get measurements for that as it could be right in the way of benchwork.

I like French doors...very appealing.  But they don't work for a train room.  Double doors take up too much valuable wall space.  Even worse, these open in.  I've asked Rick if we can have them remounted to open into the foyer.  If not, we'll work around them.

 I'm not exactly sure but I think this is the ceiling look toward the back wall.  There is an HVAC air return here, which we don't want to block.  No light fixture yet, which is good.  There is another box in the back corner, but I have no idea what it is.  Have to ask about that.


The walls on either side of the door are 28.5" wide.  That is a bit tight but we could put a 24" radius curve in that spot.  If the doors open out, we can expand it easily.


The two windows need to be accessible, but we can run some benchwork in front of them.  A double deck here would wipe them out, so we probably need to keep them single decked.


I think the room will double as a funeral parlor, judging from the lamp.


Rick wants to use this room as an office as well, so maybe we can work the desk under the benchwork by the windows so that he can see the nice view.  That means higher benchwork of 50" or more in this area.


The outer wall appears to be unobstructed.  Good!  We have two great walls to work with.  There is one wall outlet here, but I'm not sure where the other ones are.  We'll need to map them.


Good, square corner.  This might also be where the railroad could grow into the adjacent craft room.  My first drawings had this as partial staging of trains on a long then shelf in the other room.



There appears to be another air duct on the ceiling...but not sure where it is.  I learned from my friend Mike that you want to make sure you know where your airflow is (especially in Florida) because:

1.  You don't want to roast or freeze
2.  In bound ducts dump dust and dirt on your layout

Rick, what I need from you:


  1. Wall height
  2. Door height
  3. Window height
  4. What wall is the air return on?  How high?
  5. Location of electrical plugs
  6. Light switch vertical and horizontal measurements
  7. On the ceiling toward the doors is a square something...what is it?
  8. Location of all air ducts

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