A new house, a new model railway?

Regular readers might know that I have been looking at buying a house in Canberra for some time now. Well, the house I blogged about on 26th September is now the house that has been purchased. In a month's time we will be living in our own house in Canberra and we can put to an end the renting cycle that has bedevilled us this year.

The house has a separate-standing double garage with two external doors, and two roll-a-doors at the front. The structure used to be a single garage but has been extended to a double. It now incorporates a pitched roof, but the original outer brick wall remains as a central divide in the remodelled double garage.

I mentioned in that previous blog post in September that I was concerned about the brick wall down the centre of the garage. However, I can now report that this isn't such a major problem after all. Firstly, the brick wall doesn't extend all the way to the front of the garage and there is sufficient space to wind a peninsula around the edge. Secondly, the brick wall is certainly strong enough to run a shelf layout around it (and through a couple of the bricks if need be). And thirdly, I can pull the brick wall down if I really have to since it no longer provides any structural support.

The garage has to have insulation added to the walls and under the pitched roof. The walls also have to be lined. I may paint the concrete floor, although I am not so sure that this really helps all that much in preventing the build-up of dust. There also needs to be improved lighting. And oh by the way, somehow I have to find room for a work bench, a couple of steel cabinets, all my tools, gardening equipment, a lawn mower, and three bicycles. And Winmar. Hmmmmmm.

This brings me to my closing thought on this evening's blog post: should I keep my existing layout, Winmar, or should I scrap it and start a new Australian-prototype layout from scratch?