Ever since I was a child I wanted a dedicated wargaming shed or room. I think it goes back to seeing some of the orginal photos of the Perry twins and other OG members of the Games Workshop team with sheds in their backyards.
10 year old me grew up on the farm, and my dreams were to convert a room next to the stables in our old barn that was used for storage into my wargaming room. Sadly my father passed away when I was young (I have a very vivid memory of receiving my mail ordered copy of the 4th edition of Warhammer Magic on the day of his funeral, its strange the things you remember from childhood) and this was never to happen.
Fast forward 30 years or so and I’m now living in the United States. We rent our first place in the manor and I finally have a semi finished basement. This becomes my hobby room with a gaming table, plenty of shelving and a painting/modelling desk. It’s messy – but it does the trick.
Later we end up buying a place in the same neighborhood. Having some gaming space was a key part of the buying decision (as were our neighbors!), and this place was a bit nicer than our rental. My painting area got relegated to the unfinished part of the basement/laundry, while the gaming space was shared with my wife who uses it as a gym, and as a quasi spare room.
Once we could afford to we started doing some renovations. The first thing we built was a shed in the back corner of the yard. At 10×12 foot it isn’t huge, and was limited due to the location of a large tree. I left it unfinished for much of last year and essentally it became a dumping ground/storage for tools and the like.
Later we finished it by adding insulation, flooring and power. I now had a dedicated hobby space and I could move out of the basement, and paint using natural light (or really nice LEDs when it was dark). A portable AC or Oil heater helped with when it was too hot or to cold, and a TV + beer fridge were mounted in the corner.
Now there was enough space for 2 3D printers (one Resin and one FDM), a full length work bench and storage for all the hobby supplies we could dream of.
Later however we decided on a big move. Which meant saying goodbye to Jefferson Manor and a move to Europe, but that’s for anther post.
Leave a Reply