The 'Cracker-Box' becomes The 'Cozy-Cottage'!

Sometimes there's things and events in life--- that just 'BLOW our BRAINS completely OUT of our ever-lovin-NOGGINS'! Developments in recent months, with our current abode-- have SURE done that to the 'ol Loydster! (AND his lovely wife, Mrs. Debbie too!!) THIS time around, (thank the good LORD!) the series of events have been positive & HAPPY!

 Just like the title for this post indicates-- The 'ol Loydster has had to do a SERIOUS amount of reconsidering! Specifically-- just how I've been referring to the little mobile home and property the wifey and I have been calling 'home', these past 3-years-plus.

For MOST of that time, I've been calling the little 3-bedroom / 2-bathroom mobile home: the 'Cracker-Box'! Not the nicest way to refer to the place one lives! It being a 'single-wide'-style mobile home though, versus the 'double-wide' that we'd previously lived in --- it WAS quite a bit smaller than what we were living in for the nearly 12 years prior to moving here!

Oh, the circumstances for our move here pretty much SUCKED too! But, I won't BORE any of you good folks out there with all the depressing details of THAT! Let's just say the relocation here was, to start-out with at least.... NOT an entirely 'happy' one!

BUT--- a couple of months back, our landlords here made us the offer to BUY this property--- at an AMAZING price! It was a TRUE 'once-in-a-life-time' opportunity! After a few days of SERIOUS thought (not to mention PRAYERS!)--- we decided to take them up on the offer! Yes, this WAS a MUCH smaller house, yes it's not exactly perfect! That's about where the 'down-side' of this all ends though!

One of the lessons that my special little lady and I have learned--- that's turned out to a BIG-time positive thing in our time living here--- is how to live a MUCH more 'streamlined' and 'lean' life! This has included multiple trips to the storage unit, where we stashed SO much material before our move here--- and 'trimming-out' / donating / getting rid of... a LOT of the excess STUFF we let accumulate / build-up over the 12 years we lived at our previous place! 

This was a painful process at first, especially for a LONG-time collector of GEEKY items, like myself! But... it's HELPED us--- to take a LONG, hard look at our life (AND our belongings!) up to this point--- and decide what REALLY matters! In MY case, the question became: Just WHAT things / 'nerd-related' stuff am I really passionate about? What items are absolute 'MUST-haves' / 'MUST-keeps'? 

Turns out, I've been able to whittle things down QUITE a bit! Though the 'sorting' and 'thinning-out' of 'Loydster-doo-dads and gee-gaws' is STILL ongoing-- and probably WILL be for another month or two! But more on THAT subject a little further down in this here post!

So.... now we're getting near to the 'closing' of all the 'mortgage-stuff' with our local bank, and it's becoming a pretty exciting time for us! Deb and I are doing LOTS of talking and throwing ideas around, about all the NIFTY things we want to do here with the place! But, along with all of that.... we're STILL kind of in a state, where our brains are not ONLY in a mode like the cartoon above... but also we're doing a TON of thinking like THIS!!----

Despite our minds being kinda twisted-out of shape about this whole thing... it's been for the MOST part an upbeat and positive time for Mrs. Deb and myself!  In fact, it was my 'better-half'--- who suggested I get going on fixing-up the smaller of the two 'spare bedrooms' into my NEW 'Secret Sanctum' / Man-Cave!

So, while we've been slogging-away at all of the financial details and 'mortgage-stuff'--- I've been slowly tinkering away on and planning -- yet ANOTHER version of the 'Loydster-Man-Cave'! The room being pretty small (a mere 8 feet wide and about 10 feet long-- pretty TINY!), the very FIRST thing I decided to do, was to come up with a 'floor-plan' of how things could be placed in it! Below is the 'blue-print' / lay-out I eventually came up with!---

After a couple of REALLY rough pencil-scribblings, THIS was the final inked-up 'lay-out' of the 'Secret Crime-Fighting-Headquarters'!)

After that, Deb and I spent most of a weekend around mid-July--- loading up my shelves, bookcases, etc... that were in storage--- and bringing them here. LOTS of clean-up (as well as both major and minor repairs!) was necessary on a majority of it all! Hey, it HAS been sitting in a storage unit for OVER 3 years! 

I then double-checked the measurements on it all (BOTH the room AND the shelves / cases!), and got down to the 'grunt-work' of putting it ALL together in the room. (WITH the PRICELESS help of my wife, of COURSE!) As you can see below, it's pretty snug! BUT-- everything in my original 'lay-out' drawing does INDEED fit!---

What you see as you enter the 'Sanctum'! The display-shelf against the wall to the right of my little desk-- the one on the left, fit better placed flat against the west-wall, instead of at an angle like in the original 'lay-out' drawing. otherwise, it's ALL just like the drawing! There's also STILL some cleaning-up & repainting to do, obviously!

After entering, here's what's on the left side. Yes, the desk is fairly DINKY--- but since MOST of what I'll be doing in this room is stuff like rattling away at posts for this here bloggy-thingy-thang-- on my trusty lap-top--- not a LOT of 'desk-space' is really needed! I do have a little fold-up 'card-table', stashed elsewhere in the house-- if I ever need more 'working / project-space'!

The former closet, on the right. The bookcase that I've put in there, (where additional books will be stashed, 'natch!) will eventually be joined by a good chunk of my CD collection, as well as some additional framed and small display-items

The view facing the door, from where the little desk sits. The shelf for the Hot Wheels collection is eventually going to be mounted to the wall, just a few inches higher than it's sitting now.

After getting all the shelves / display cases into the room and where they needed to be.... I sat down and did another kinda painful task! I figured out just exactly WHAT kind of 'wall-space' I had for 'framed items' / wall display-goodies! (As well as numerous items I had NO space for!-- the 'painful part'!)

After scribbling-out the list shown below, (which includes notes on what wall each of the items will fit! Again-- a small room, takes CAREFUL planning!) I made another trip to the storage-unit --- to dig all those items out of various boxes and totes. This alone took another good-sized CHUNK out of a Saturday morning / early afternoon!---

Keep this list in mind, for later reference! We'll see how faithful I've stayed with it-- when I eventually put up the (hopefully NEAR-future) post about the FINISHED 'Man-Cave'!

Speaking of 'display items,' I also scribbled-out---VERY crudely, I might add--- an idea for how to display my FUN little collection of 'Bat-Air-Craft'! A simple series of little 'triangle-shaped' wood-blocks-- each one around 1-by-4 inches, with a little peg wood-glued into each (the planes would then have a small hole drilled into them--VERY carefully, of COURSE!), would display each of them at an 'attack-angle' on the top edge of the large bookcase-- which will also house most of my collection of various-sized 'Bat-ride' toys / models. (As it has in the past.)

One of the 'triangle / peg' set-ups! (Complete with gray paint-job!) Also, how one of the models looks 'mounted-up'! I decided to make the 'attack-angle' a bit less steep--- so the little 'stands' are more 'semi-triangles', I guess!

And--- that's pretty much my progress so far, on the 'new hidey-hole'! Doing the tinkering as time and energy permits, means it's all coming together fairly slow! But... that's NOT at all a bad thing. This gives me time to give things more thought, and plan-out how the room should be coming together! It's been a gradually more and more FUN process, as I'm seeing things coming together! In OTHER words, I'm pretty much in the frame-of-mind of THIS guy!!---

VERY much like this fellow, I realize all of life might not be exactly perfect and 'easy'! (Notice the bags under the eyes and his 'frazzled' hair??) -- BUT-- I've STILL got LOTS of good reasons to grin a BIG-'ol -GOOFY-type grin! AND--- I'm NOW, from this point onward--- referring to our home as the 'Cozy-Cottage'! It is the 'Cracker-Box' NO LONGER!!

Of course, in upcoming posts-- I'll keep tabs on the progress I'm (SLOWLY-but-SURELY) making! In the meantime, stay SAFE, SANE, and HAPPY everybody!