rorymac | 15 Sep 2014 10:45 p.m. PST |
I have been watching the TV show Tiny House Nation and thought if I ever found myself single again someday how cool it would be to have a small house built with an attached garage that could be converted to a wargames room. I found a couple of floorplans online that looked good. The one I liked the best was 420 sq.ft. of living space with 1 bedroom/1 full bathroom. The attached garage was for a single car and was 12'x27'. With the purchase of a small plot of land, I think you could keep the cost down. What do you guys think? Russ |
D A THB | 15 Sep 2014 10:59 p.m. PST |
A friend of mine had an old shop with offices at the front and a warehouse area behind. All on the same level under one roof. He turned the offices into bedrooms and ran an electrical business from the warehouse. I thought at the time that it would have been perfect for a war-gaming house. |
Murphy | 15 Sep 2014 11:04 p.m. PST |
We've got a good size piece of land and I have been looking at building a "man cave/wargames building" for a while now…the issues with us boils down to… 1: Money vs what I am looking at. 2: Removing 2-3 trees BEFORE even laying the slab. 3: The onset of winter will essentially stop ALL construction until March…. |
Nick Bowler | 15 Sep 2014 11:39 p.m. PST |
All wargamers are frustrated megalomaniacs. You need at least a double garage, if not a triple. Somewhere you can lay out that full size Stalingrad or Waterloo. (I have a double garage and space is getting tight …) |
Zargon | 15 Sep 2014 11:56 p.m. PST |
House- there can be no compromise :) let's take it to those couch pot*to sloth that need a 40 zillion inch TV to watch boring reruns of their favorite sport and let their ethos of what is 'acceptable' pastimes be banished . OK not being serious (just in case PL and NFL are watching ;) but you get the drift. One other thing all Wargames rooms should. Have a. Bunk bed for mates staying over and when you're tired of the rest of the house:) so where my invite :) Cheers all. |
ochoin | 16 Sep 2014 12:05 a.m. PST |
House? Does your grasp exceed your reach? And I'm frankly jealous. |
Dave Jackson | 16 Sep 2014 3:48 a.m. PST |
And…it should have a fully stocked bar and a cigar room |
Trebian | 16 Sep 2014 3:57 a.m. PST |
The answer is a really big shed: link Plus follow up blogs called "Shed Update" |
OSchmidt | 16 Sep 2014 4:12 a.m. PST |
Dear List Heh, heh, heh… Sorry boys. Got one. My wife and I agreed that when we bought the house "She would have the upstairs and I would have the downstairs." This immediately happened and in our 25 by 35 foot footprint house I have all of the downstairs (including the garage. This includes TWO large rooms for gaming, one the big room where I can put up the wargame table (the small one) and which has my shelves of collections of wargame figures and boxed games, artwork, and stuff. (The garage hasn't seen a car in years and has work tables for my projects and my home repairs and tools. Underneath a long covered, enclosed front portch is a stoarage room lined with shelves and racks for figures and terrain in storage-- and-- oh- yes a few tubs of clothes in storage. The Upstairs however has been slowly "Ahnschlused" to the cause. The dining room has a long hip-high bookshelves, as does the enclosed front porch (18' long 2 shelf high. This it shares with my wife's elephant collection (not real ones, statues), and along the 8' side wall. The Living room, 16 ft by 31ft (over the garage, windows on three sides half of it floor to ceiling, half with a hip wall 36" high has another row of bookcases up to the hip wall halfway around the room. This has a display case for minis, but it also is the place where I have most of my games on my 6' by 12' war game table. It's in sections so it's taken down between games. Don't like permanent tables they become junk collectors where all the "loose" junk from the house winds up. Oh yeah, there's a kitchen, master-bedroom, guest bedroom and a small bathroom too. I once wrote an article for the HMGS Newsletter called "The War Gamers Houze." It was a purpose built structure for the gamer. I was asked if there were detailed plans for this. My wife doesn't mind at all. She thinks the books look nice and the other stuff is quite decorative. The washer, drier, and slop sink is in the basement but it's hidden behind a cross wall where you never see it during a game. The furnace and the hot water tank is in a small enclosure between the big wargame room and the small one. The door to this enclosure is made of two miniatures display cases on hinges that can swing open to allow free maintenance to the furnace and hot water heater, and also another shelf area with soldiers and games. My wife's desk and computer she does the bills and finances on is under the stairs to the main floor. (Oh yes I live in a raised ranch. The basement is on a slab above ground. The small war game room has a triangular enclosure for the well water tank. The front of this is another swinging door on hinges with miniature storage in lexan fronted shelves 6" apart. The rear wargame room has my e-mail computer (the only one hooked up to the net) and the wargame computer with all the graphics, rules, maps, projects etc. This room also has my painting table, more bookcases and storage shelves for miniature, snd the file cabinets. One for my home, rental, and business records and the other for wargames. I'll be moving to Maine in a year and will essentialy be rebuilding the same house, only 6 ft larger in each direction for more closet space, and more book and miniature sapace.
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Razor78 | 16 Sep 2014 4:29 a.m. PST |
When we built our house several years ago I had only two demands, a full basement and a two car garage. After about a year I put walls up to seperate the equipment room (furnace, water heater, freezer and full size "drinks" refrigerator) my main wargaming room (24' x 12') which has an additional 12' x 3' shelving for minis and terrrain, my work room (12' x 12')for the dirty stuff (terrain building, painting etc)and an absolute must 1/2 bath. An added plus was that in the wargaming room was an alcove under the front porch that I was able to build three full size bookcases into and not take up floor space. The garage has space for one car (my wife's of course), storage, lawn equipment, and a work bench that has my tabletop band saw and belt sander. If I need to do large projects, like terrain boards, then the car has to spend some nights out in the cold. |
dBerczerk | 16 Sep 2014 4:41 a.m. PST |
The wargames room at Downton Abbey is quite spectacular. |
YogiBearMinis | 16 Sep 2014 4:54 a.m. PST |
Downton Abbey has a wargames room? I may have to watch it finally. We are building a house right now, with same deal described above--I get my share of the basement. I ended up with a 20' x 20' room with an extra 6' x 10' alcove poking out in one corner that will be for hobby desk and supplies. Luckily the boys want a Geek Chic gaming table rather than a pool table for the main area of the basement , so RPG and board games can be played outside of my hobby area, leaving my are just for miniatures. |
Extra Crispy | 16 Sep 2014 4:57 a.m. PST |
There's a new business in town here – The Liberty Hobby Center. I believe part of the business model is renting out space for storage and gaming. Not sure of the business model though. As for me, the business requires about 400 square feet. But I now rent 1000 square feet and the remaining 600 is for gaming. I have plenty of storage for armies and terrain, and room for a 6x9 table plus two more small tables (5x8 each). What I need now are more gamers in the neighborhood…. My last house I had the basement as well: painting studio (5x7'), game room (15x22') and storage room (10x10'). Now I'm in a 2 bedroom condo and a tiny paint desk is about it…. |
Rdfraf | 16 Sep 2014 7:12 a.m. PST |
My property has two houses on it. My wife agreed to let me use one as a wargame house. I had a custom table built and glass cases installed to showcase miniatures. It was great! I had games every Tuesday . . . until I went to law school and had to drop out of gaming for a while. But I never had games in there again. Now it sits mostly as storage for all my wargaming stuff :( |
Rrobbyrobot | 16 Sep 2014 7:39 a.m. PST |
My wife was kind enough to concede our house' formal dining room to me as my den when we bought it. It's got most of my gaming stuff in it. This includes a 4'x8' table, storage for my miniatures and scenic accessories, more storage for painting stuff, plus materials for scratch building. Then there's also a fair sized TV and most of my war, western movie collection. And let's not forget my many books. Of course, some of my stuff has spilled over into other rooms. Some of my figures are on display in the living room. And some of my movies reside in the not so formal dining room. That's just fine with my better half, though. Her action figures and space ships occupy plenty of shelf space in the rest of the house. |
coryfromMissoula | 16 Sep 2014 9:33 a.m. PST |
This year I built 2 560 sq ft spec homes. Plenty of space for one or two people to live, where most Americans get hung up is the lack of storage space – a basement or garage is helpful. Depending on your lifestyle and climate the garage can be great for gaming, but I would go a tad over the 12x27 garage if there is room – the cost won't change much to make it 22x27 as the labor is about the same and the materials other than concrete aren't as big a part as most would expect. |
Cerdic | 16 Sep 2014 11:14 a.m. PST |
My house is full of wife and kids and associated clobber. No room for wargame stuff! We have a fair sized garden but a lot of that is taken up by my other hobby: rusty old cars….. |
Tekawiz | 16 Sep 2014 5:55 p.m. PST |
Extra Crispy, A couple years back I recall you posting a nice photo of your proposed new gaming room in a new house. You're not there any more? |
Grimmnar | 16 Sep 2014 9:53 p.m. PST |
Also dont forget about shipping containers as the main source of your outside structures. You can get them for a song nowadays and people are doing wonders with them. Do a Google search and see what you come up with. Anywhere from offices, to small shops to houses to large modular houses. :-) Grimm |
capncarp | 17 Sep 2014 6:33 a.m. PST |
Room? Pah! Floor? Hmph. House? Call me when you get serious. Building? "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." We are currently entertaining bids from the Secretary of State of Nigeria and from the most recently not-yet-executed Minister of Commerce of Bongolesia to have their entire nations converted to wargaming space. Negotiations have been fruitful, when not interrupted by, shall we say, changes in local management. |
Porkmann | 17 Sep 2014 2:24 p.m. PST |
When I move I will use a converted barn. |
Old Contemptibles | 17 Sep 2014 3:24 p.m. PST |
It's not just gaming space but storage space. I have a double car garage that we game in. I have a spare bedroom for my hobby room. I use the closet just for miniature and terrain storage. But it wasn't close to being enough. So I went to Home Depot and bought all the heavy duty 4-Tier wire shelving I could find and put them along one side of my garage and I filled them with unpainted lead in plastic tubs and painted 25mm in special containers. Buildings, trees etc. Painted 15mm figs are stored in the closet. I can still fit two cars in the garage. I pull out folding tales and set the game mats on it and that is where we game. I would like to make terrain boards for specific battles but where the heck am I going to store them all? Hard enough to find space for the hills I make. Particularly hills for 28mm games. So I use Geo-Hex but Geo-hex takes up a lot of room too. I also find Geo-Hex more suited to 15mm. link |