It has been a while again since posting but I have the perfect excuse. Without disclosing too much, my partner and I welcomed our first Child into the world on the 16th of October 2024. Baby Michael was born at 0940am and weighed 3.5kg and was perfect. We are truly blessed and I appreciate what I have everyday.
Leading up to baby Michael’s birth I had to do some huge changes to our house. I am quite the DIYer but I also used professionals when required.
Goodbye Hobby Room
For nearly 10 years I have been using one of our spare bedrooms as a dedicated hobby and storage space. I had a built-in Wardrobe that was chocablock with terrain, hobby supplies and miniatures. It was a fantastic, albeit poorly designed space for storage needs. It was hard to access everything and a haven for attracting mold due to poor air flow. The plan was to gut this room and remodel it for Michael but where would all my hobby go?
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| My Old Hobby Room |
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| How I stored my painted figures. I also built that coffee table when I was 15 |
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| I patched the walls, repainted and put in new carpet for the baby |
Putting in an attic
We have an old 1960s built home, single story with not a very high roof. This aside I was hoping I could squeeze an attic in and I got some experts in that surprisingly gave us nearly 14m squared of storage space! I transferred all my hobby into the attic successfully and was very pleased with the outcome. It is the perfect solution for both short term and long term storage, especially when it comes to hard to store items such as terrain.
I am most likely going to leave my 3d printer in the attic as I have power and a good space for it there. I have a monitoring camera for it and it will be out of the way. I will install a small smoke detector up there for peace of mind.
The outdoor Cabin
I did not want to take over another room in our house with my hobby and after months of searching I found the perfect solution, an outdoor studio. I got an absolute banger of a deal on an ex-display model. I got it professionally installed and did the majority of the internal fit out myself. Given the angled roof I decided against doing the dry wall myself and got some plasterers in. I then installed floor boards, window jambs, and added molding to the window jambs and door jamb. I added skirting boards and architraves around the doors and the windows and was rather pleased with the outcome.
The old space and crappy garden shed
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| The new outdoor cabin installed |
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| Deck added, doors primed and flooring down |
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| Setup very WIP |
Creating the ultimate gaming setup.
The Cabin features a Desky standing desk that is motorised. I also have an ergonomic chair as I have had dramas with sitting at desks and using a computer. I almost stand exclusively now. I have a 5 x 5 IKEA Kallax shelf for storage, and IKEA side table and lamp and have a Temple and Webster 2 seater couch.
I scored some sweet Displates for Christmas. One being the cover art for Warhammer 40000 second edition box set. The other two are from Back to the Future (the greatest trilogy ever) and Spider-Man (my all time favorite superhero).
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| Warhammer 40k Second Edition Box Art Displate |
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| A mere fraction of my collection of games |
I have a 32 inch true 4k monitor with HDMI 2.1 support and have a HMDI splitter box.
I also have a gaming laptop that I mostly use for anything but gaming.
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| Cable management... very WIP! |
Hobby wise I have a number of dedicated spaces within the Kallax for miniatures and paints. I will store my painted miniatures in the attic but build and paint in the cabin. I will have all my books and magazines in the cabin. I have installed some cupboard doors on the Kallax to hide some stuff as well as having some baskets for bulky items I want out of site.
It's still very work in progress and once completed I will show the cabin off. The company that sold it to me has seen my work in progress and want to eventually send a professional photographer out to photograph it. See how we go.
Externally I have repaired a lot of the weatherboards as they were probably a good few years old and a little neglected as it was an old display model that was in storage for a few years. I have given an entire fresh coat of paint to the exterior and still need to landscape around it.
It truly is going to be an awesome set up once I am done with it.
Hobby Projects
As I'm a dad to an infant my hobby time is extremely limited. I'm going to try and focus on a couple of projects being, WW2 28mm Battle of the Bulge and the other painting up my various board game miniatures as I really enjoy these games.
I have always had a keen interest in the Battle of the Bulge and I love hobbying a winter theme. With Bolt Action 3rd edition coming out with a starter set themed for this period, it's a great time to revive my long delayed project. I can wait to mix up a number of Warlord Sprues and create some awesome looking winter Germans and US forces.
I will still use Twitter for now despite how Elon has pretty much destroyed the platform however I am now on BlueSky. I will post regularly on BlueSky once I get some hobby done.
Thanks for reading.
Bring on 2025!
