JediDefender.com Forums
Collecting => Collections => Topic started by: Morgbug on January 1, 2005, 11:59 PM
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Just to be a little different, I'm about to start pulling stuff off shelves. We've spent the last couple of days painting and doing general fix-up stuff for our house. We've been planning on getting a different house for a while, but now that I know my job is stable (for a while, anyway), we've decided to get the house ready to sell. We likely won't list it until we buy a new one (or build, we've given ourselves a short period of time to find a house we like, otherwise we need to build).
As such, I'm about to start the packing up process. My wife thinks that a room dedicated to star wars toys is not really going to be a huge selling point. She also suggested that having stuff I don't want stolen sitting out on shelves is probably not a good idea (hello blue snaggletooth). I am rather inclined to agree with her, so instead of opening more stuff up to display, it's getting put away.
Most of my material is in tupperware tubs and there are more of those than she is aware of ;) I'm thinking this stuff will also make the same journey to plastic bins of hell, but I'm not sure some of it should be there. So I'm kind of looking for suggestions from folks as to what should be done. The vintage collection is what I am most worried about. I have piles of loose figures in ziplock bags already stored in tubs, so the modern stuff will suffer the same fate. But is that good enough for vinty stuff? I'm not inclined to bubble wrap 100+ figures, but maybe I should?
Unleashed will turn into a huge pain in the ass I believe. They're great loose, but how do you move those things in a huge group? The rest of the stuff isn't so bad, but all of a sudden I have way too much stuff :-\
Anyone ever packed up and moved an entire collection before? Love to hear some suggestions. Please.
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When I moved out of my last house and into my current apartment, I just put every loose figure into it's own plastic bag, and then laid them as flat as possible inside those large rubbermaid tubs. I would say as long as they are all individually wrapped, you should be safe. The biggest concern there would be having the figures rubbing together and having the paint peel off. How long are you expecting to have them packed up like this? Where will they be stored (temperature wise)? The only other thing you might want to think about would be getting a tackle box, or something similar, and holding all the weapons and accessories serperately from the figures, just to prevent any kind of warping and bending. Even though I wrapped mine up and placed them as flat as possible, I still ended up with several sabers, staffs, and rifles that were bent where they weren't supposed to be. It wasn't that bad, but if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely store the weapons seperately. Which can be a big pain in the ass in and of itself, just trying to remember who gets which gun ::)
I would say maybe use the bubble wrap on the more "expensive" loose vintage you've got (Blue Snag, POTF line, etc.) but I would think the bag and flat trick should be fine, depending again on how long you plan on leaving them stored this way.
Of course, you could "custom card" all of your loose vintage and then store them like your carded collection, which would prevent them from rubbing against each other and keep the weapons with the correct figures. I'm sure you can find a website that can help you out with that process :D
As for the Unleashed line, I would say similar tactics probably won't work. Suggestion? Some of the figures can be broken down, at least a little (at least some of the earlier ones could. Don't think the newer ones can at all.) - so I would take apart as many as possible. The only way I can think of to store these so that the weapons and accessories and other appendages that are flailing won't warp or bend would be to get some cardboard boxes (or rubbermaid tubs), place a few of the unleashed figures in the bottom, and then fill them with packing peanuts. You could then put a few more in upside down at the top of the box (or tub), so that the flat bottom of the base would be against the top of the box (or the lid if you go with the tubs). Should keep them stable enough not to bend and warp, again factoring in the weather factor.
Good luck :)
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One suggestion, don't use HUGE boxes of stuff, better to have easier to carry med size boxes and make a few extra trips, it's easy to "overstack" items and have stuff crumple on you.
Plus, mark all your boxes "SW", especially if you have others helping in the move, that way you know which ones to be a little more careful with.
The more expensive and breakable stuff it's better to put in one box and have that right in the front seat next to you.
When I moved, the only things to not make it were my Vader Don Post helmet(helmet cracked right up the middle) and my R2 cooler, (same, stuff shifted and the dome cracked).
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I had the fun experience of packing up everything last spring when we moved across the state, and I had a lot of the same questions. While I know I don't have nearly the collection that you do Brent (nor the more valuable pieces like Blue Snag), I was trying to be as careful as possible with each figure as well. I'll basically echo what others have said. Basically, each figure got its own ziplock bag, and they were laid side by side. The vintage figures that I have were actually packed up this way, and then put in their own seperate box (a Nike shoe box I think), and then put into a rubbermaid as well. Some of the older POTF2 figures (that I don't really even display anymore) got put in plastic bags, and then stored in the back of my loose POTF2 Falcon. You can hold quite a few in there when stacked up flat, and it was a space saver for me. Again, I didn't have as much to move as you most likely do. After being in the ziplock bags, I also put paper towels between things to help avoid rubbing and/or smashing. The vehicles I broke down as much as possible, removing wings/guns when I could. Those then got wrapped in paper towels or some sort of padding, unless I happened to still have the box to it. I used quite a bit of Wal-Mart/Target bags to cushion between things, along with paper towels and things like that. Everything made the trip just fine, so it seemed to work.
The Unleashed were the biggest pain to pack/ship. I too enjoy them loose, but they also aren't he most compact things in the world to move. Like Dave mentioned, I broke them down as far as they could be, and always took out the weapons (particularly sabers) when I could. Those got packed in a seperate bag/box. The loose figures themselves don't lend themselves to packing well, but we didn't have the space to have them each in individual boxes, so they went in rubbermaids as well. I wrapped each "piece" of them individually in paper towels, using some scotch tape to hold it on around certain areas, then wrapped each of those in Wal-Mart/Target sacks, then I strategically placed them in the rubbermaids, with lots o' padding inbetween and around them.
The little boxed stuff I had was fairly easy. Although more space consuming, you can basically just stack it and be done with it. But, then again, I can't give any advice on that because I really have very little that is still in the boxes, and what I do was fairly easy to pack up. I'd definitely say be the most careful with the Unleashed and valuable stuff. I can see why you are packing it up, I did the same thing when we started showing our house. Having all the shelves up/stuff out definitely makes a room look smaller and I didn't want to worry about missing anything either. I also, like bobafett14 mentioned, labeled my "Star Wars tubs" so I knew to be careful with them, and to have them traveling in a safe place. Best of luck with the packing, moving, house hunting, and house selling though, I hope you guys find exactly what you are looking for.
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Moved in April. Luckily, most of my stuff was still boxed from when we moved from one apartment to another approximately 4 years ago. I did buy Rubbermaid tubs for my loose figs and moved the ones boxed up in paper ream boxes to them. All loose figures were individually Ziplock and placed in Rubbermaid. I think I have five of the 12" deep ones filled.
I saved all the boxes from the vehicles knowing I wouldn't be in an apartment forever. Broke them down, put them back in their respective boxes and taped them back up.
The Unleashed were a little tough. I broke them down, all the little accessories got put in baggies and just put them in a box as best I could. I think I did ok with it. Marvel Legends were down the same way.
Lego was taken apart and put in Ziploc baggies and then put back into their boxes. The only one I didn't take apart was the UCS Yoda. Wrapped him up real good in plastic wrap and then stuck him in a paper ream box filled with packing peanuts. Nice and snug in there and he should be ready to go when I unpack him, which should be soon. Basement is almost done ;D
Good luck Brent.
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Thanks for the help here folks, I appreciate the suggestions. It would seem, as I suspected, that the darn Unleashed figures will be the biggest issue.
I think I'll also be using this thread to either chronicle the move, or as it seems ever more likely, chronicle the building of our new home. We've looked at tons of places over the past six months, while waiting to hear about the reorganization at work and haven't been impressed by too much. The area of town we want to live in is the hottest part of the city (naturally) though we prefer it more for the geography than for any other factor. It would drop off 20 minutes from my commute, each way, so putting back a considerable part of my day. Most of that part of the city is pretty full with homes, so few building lots to be found. As such, we may move a little further east, reducing the amount of time taken off my commute.
The market here is both terrible and great. Houses sell very quickly and currently at prices above what they are worth. We viewed a house Friday night. Nice, big house - about 2100 sq ft not including basement - but so much work to do :-\ Needed carpets, paint and the basement was finished, but so disjointed we'd need to gut it before refinishing it, essentially too much work. Pity too, it was nicely laid out, had a pretty big yard (this is one of the sucky parts about the lots around here, they are almost universally too small - our current home has a lot that is 60x120 ft and that is considered big) with ample room to put in a pool.
In the efforts towards getting ready to sell our own home (something we'll do only after we've purchases a new one or are done building) we did a pile of work in the last week. We repainted (ok, I tape then watch the kid while the wife paints after watching the kid while I taped) the dining room, living room, front foyer, upper stairwell, downstairs bathroom. We'd repainted my daughter's room, the master bedroom, the family room and the kitchen all within the last year. We fixed our Jenn-air that had a broken breaker causing only one element to light. We re-did the floor in the bathroom off our daughter's bedroom so of course we had to pull up the toilet and then reseat it, quite a neat thing and not nearly so difficult as one would expect. Also put in a new shower head height adjustment arm. We replaced some wiring in the basement, installed a new hood fan in the kitchen (where we also did the floor this past summer). Put in two new light fixtures in the basement and one in the sunroom off the master bedroom.
After all that, packing star wars toys seems pretty easy. If anyone has advice on building (other than "don't", which seems to be fairly consistent) feel free to chime in.
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Thought I should add some pics, since this photobucket stuff is pretty easy. Now, if only I could work on my picture taking skills ::)
Vintage stuff
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010459.jpg)
And the other half of vinty...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010458.jpg)
The great wall of crap...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010454.jpg)
Those damn Riddell things...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010455.jpg)
The only cardboard stuff I have out....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010452.jpg)
Marvel Legends, at least what fits on top of the shelving unit, lots missing :(
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010451.jpg)
Finally, a small idea of what else I have lying around. I have something like 13 of the large tubs you see in the lower left corner right now, so there's a fair bit of crap not out. Also all the busts are boxed up pretty much. For scale reference, the TV is a 32" Panasonic.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010329.jpg)
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Nice blue Snaggletooth. ;)
The bottom picture looks like my room except you can move around in yours. :-\
Very nice to see your stuff Brent. 8) Now if only Matt could do the same! ::)
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I like Yak Face better :-* At least that one I found on my own. But I guess now I need the other foot variant blue snag :o
And yes, that is quasi-shag in the bottom pic. It's the carpet we inherited when we bought the house and it'll probably still be there when we move. It is indeed hideous.
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Yeah, cool to put another collection face with a collector. :P
Nice postcards.
Even nicer Riddell Stormie... :'(
Now if only Matt could do the same! ::)
Don't hold your breath. Current ETA on a monitor: 2006 Current ETA on a digital camera: 2008
Yeah, I'm down with modern technology like that.
Come visit, if you wanna see my stuff! :-*
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Come visit, if you wanna see my stuff! :-*
It may happen! :-*
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I have something like 13 of the large tubs you see in the lower left corner right now, so there's a fair bit of crap not out.
OK, stupid question time: what have you got stored in those tubs? Do you bother keeping anything carded, or are you purley an opener? There's no particular reason I ask, just snoopy. ;)
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He's one of 'dem carded snobs, Jess. But he's got lots of other crap too, from various other toy lines. Far too many, if you asked me. I've told Brent he way overextends his collecting, and needs to narrow it down to just a nice, easy SW focus, and that's it. Foolish old man won't listen to me though. >:(
Plus, he's probably got a whole storage bin full of those freaking retarded Canadian cereal SW Rubiks Cube head thing-a-ma-bobs that he uses to piss a lot of us off with... ::)
It may happen! :-*
You serious, Dale? Or were you referring to Brent's San Diego trip next year?
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You serious, Dale? Or were you referring to Brent's San Diego trip next year?
Still have lots of Air Miles left and vacation time after C3 so anything can happen, just not sure when.
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well you sure do have the enormous amount of stuff to pack away. i remember when i moved last year, i had begun to pack things up about 4 months in advance and there still was always something i forgot to box up. but you're going about it the smart way and getitng those huge rubbermaid tubs to toss all the modern junk in. good luck!
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OK, stupid question time: what have you got stored in those tubs? Do you bother keeping anything carded, or are you purley an opener? There's no particular reason I ask, just snoopy. ;)
Not at all a stupid question, what else could I possibly own. I'm stealing my own pictures from the snowtroopers.ca collection section:
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug3.jpg)
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug4.jpg)
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug17.jpg)
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug13.jpg)
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug14.jpg)
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug5.jpg)
(http://www.snowtroopers.ca/collectionpictures/mogrbug/mbug12.jpg)
Those pics at snowtroopers were taken probably 2 years ago, so everything I've acquired since then is not in the pics - more cinema scenes, more vehicles (I think I have 6-7 Tie Fighters now), generally more crap. The nicer figures have since moved into star cases so that adds quite a bit of space as well. Lightsabers, boxed beasts, some boxed 12" figs, more basic figures, empty boxes as well. Some McFarlane stuff, Marvel Legends, just too much crap.
Lots of the single carded figures have since been opened, but I can't bring myself to open the orange carded POTF2 stuff. Yeah, it's fairly hideous in a he-man sense, but it's my "vintage" stuff, that got me hooked on this stupid habit anyway.
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Most of my Simpsons stuff, at work ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/simple1.jpg)
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Lots of the single carded figures have since been opened, but I can't bring myself to open the orange carded POTF2 stuff. Yeah, it's fairly hideous in a he-man sense, but it's my "vintage" stuff, that got me hooked on this stupid habit anyway.
You know, the orange carded figures are some of my favourites. Certainly not because of their accurate sculpts, but simply because they re-ignited the collecting passion that I had as a kid. As well, I think their He-Man likeness adds a certain uniqueness that I just can't get enough of. Even though I keep everything carded, one of these days I'm going to track down a second collection of these figures to open and show off their buffness! :)
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I think we're going to eventually reach a point where we all have at least two or three versions of the modern stuff: He-Man from the orange/green/holo/FF collection; quasi-modern with cruddy poses (Ep I, Saga) and post-modern from OTC on including VOTC.
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OK, I've pretty much lost track of everything and anything I own now. The stuff on display still (being packed up slowly) is ok, but carded stuff is just a smozzle.
Going through some cabinets here at work I've just got so much stuff. There's a couple of the ****** silver Vaders here. Would have thought I'd taken one home already, but why two here?? Extra Clone wars figures, POTF2 etc. I have a bin with trade stuff, but jeez, there's so much lying around elsewhere it's just disheartening. I may just unload all the crap in my office and find out after we move whether I actually still need it ::)
BTW, we are indeed moving. We'll be building a house over the summer and fall and move in, depending on delays, sometime between November and January. I don't think I'll have any display space for over a year, so that's going to be fairly disturbing during that time frame. Collecting just to put it away won't be much fun :-\
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I don't think I'll have any display space for over a year, so that's going to be fairly disturbing during that time frame. Collecting just to put it away won't be much fun :-\
Over a year. Ouch. I've been without display space for a couple of months and that's been killing me. Everything ROTS has gone straight into boxes - I hate it! But knowing that there's an eventual end to it and scheming up ways to display my stuff keeps me going. So hopefully that'll keep you going too.
What kind of house will you be building? Any ideas as to how much space you might have for display when it's done?
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Jesse, Here's the basic homeplan. (http://www.qualicowinnipeg.com/index.cfm?includetxt=4127santarosa.txt) We're doing a few modifications to it: fourth bedroom rather than loft; heritage pillars in the dining room and the abysmally small garage >:( will be made larger.
The two upper floors will be a total of 2400 ft2 and a full basement (which may be finished during construction, depending on cost) so a total of 3600 ft2. My room will be in the basement and should roughly correspond to the size and location of the living room on the main floor. The TV area we'll build in the basement will run under the dining room and family room. My plan is to have the tv and speakers set such that I can access the back of them from my SW room for ease of wiring. I'm hoping to have a swinging panel as a wall in the SW room that can just open up, make any adjustments to the wires, then swing the wall closed again. I'm not positive how to make that work and don't want to give up useable wall space for display, so we'll see. I may just build a closet opposite any shelving for AV equipment that may better suit the access needs. Seriously contemplating a projector for the basement rather than a DLP/Plasma/whatever since the wall should largely be flat and the room sufficiently dark to make a projector show well.
I guess that means the room will be about the same size as I currently have, maybe a bit larger. Around 12x13 +/- a bit here or there.
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Looks like it'll be a beautiful house! The projector is a great idea - a dark room in the basement should make for a nice setting for a quality picture. And 12' x 13' should be a nice amount of space for your goodies.
But why wait for a year to complete the toy room? Surely your wife will be gungho to finish that room first. :P
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Well, I think it's going to take long enough to do it that it will amount to a year :-\ Like I said, we may finish the basement while the house is under construction, but we'll see. We kind of like doing stuff ourselves and it saves cash too. Some walls and drywall plus electrical isn't all that hard.
Plus we'll be moving sometime around Christmas, either before or after, so we have to pack up here, unpack there, plus going to Vancouver for Christmas. Crazy busy.
Summer may interfere because we're fairly likely to put a pool in again. We love the one we currently have, so I doubt we can survive summers without one (though if you've seen the flooding here lately, we could probably just swim down teh street. :o)
I'm dying to have that room though. I've been muttering about moving for well over a year now and haven't really put much new out. I tend to get stuff and box up 90% of what I have anyway. It's kind of depressing really. It will be fantastic to be able to put out all the GG, MR and Kubrick stuff. Having more than just half my Marvel Legends stuff will be mighty satisfying. Just so much crap aching to see the light of day.
I've seen some really nice LCD TV's lately and really, do you need something larger than 62"? If a projector can give me a larger screen with the same resolution though, that could be mighty cool 8)
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We finalized the purchase of the home we're building just this evening. Dropped another $9000 for the remainder of the deposit and made our final selections on a lot of things like the bigger garage, additional bedroom, etc.
Sadly both the builder and the people doing our hardwood floors have suggested not finishing the basement for about a year after construction so that all the moisture can come out of the basement (not sure if this is a load of crap or not). So it looks like it will be about 18 months from now before I see the bulk of my collection again.
I packed up the good stuff - Riddell, Gentle Giant, vintage, Kubrick, Tomy and about half the marvel legends. I still have 200-300 modern figs, another half the ML stuff plus unleashed and some miscellaneous crap to box up.
Moving is stupid :-\
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LOL, boy, this process is going slow. I thought I'd pop in some pics from the construction of the house since I've had a couple of requests for them.
You can see some of the crap I had out previously, though it was never all. That's been reduced to the following:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/toysboxed1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/toysboxed2.jpg)
And nine rubbermaid tubs residing in the crawl space. Those are the 28 gallon size. There's also some stuff that didn't make it into those tubs and are in some smaller tubs (15 gallon) plus a couple of cabinets that aren't packed up. Not much left unpacked really and I should probably sell off whatever is left.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/toyscrawlspace.jpg)
Anyway if you're married and you decide to build a house, you're about to find out just how much stress you can handle. I can't tell you anything about building elsewhere, but builders here are idiots. They are represented by real estate agents and (apologies if necessary) they are on about the same level as pond scum in my view. They try to get you to sign bull**** forms that up prices and make you pay for **** you already paid for. I'll spare you the gory details unless you ask.
From the post preceding this, I see we signed the papers on July 27. Our initial possession date was November first. Suffice to say we missed that :P
Construction actually began on November 29 with the digging of the hole in the ground. The foundation was poured on November 30th with snow already on the ground.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/D-Nov-30-01-houseandlotam.jpg)
The foundation remained tarped and with heat blowing in to help the concrete set properly until December 07.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Dec-07-01-backofhouse.jpg)
Not too much happened for about a week either but we reached this point on the 23rd of December. At this point they were telling us are possession date would be February 28th.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/dec-23-03-front.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/dec-23-22-fromlivingroomlookingatst.jpg)
The above picture is the same date, December 23rd. Just going to use that shot, taken from the living room looking up the stairs from different dates to give you some idea of the progress that can be made. Take into consideration it's winter here, so progress is a wee tad slower than down south.
Four days later they had the walls up for the second floor, on December 27th, much to my surprise, but it really wasn't THAT much work.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/dec-27-03-housefront.jpg)
By the 31st of December they had the roof on, though no shingles at that point.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/dec-31-03-housefront.jpg)
I can tell you this much, before the drywall goes up, the house looks absolutely massive inside, largely because you can see "through walls" to other rooms. It's probably not a good idea to go in at this stage because once the drywall goes up, you wish your house was bigger. It's still plenty big (2400 sq ft not including basement) but it feels small.
Here's that stairway photo again.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/dec-31-09-insidelookingupstairs.jpg)
By January 16 the windows and doors are on (not the garage door though, that concrete for the floor and driveway have yet to be poured). These pictures are taken in the dark because by the time I get back into the city from work at about 5:30 or so it's already dark at this time of year. Kind of sucks but we get it back in the summer when the sun stays up until about 10:00.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Jan-16-outsidehouse.jpg)
On the same date they'd started the drywall around the stairway and into the foyer which is two stories high.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Jan-16-drywallupperhallway.jpg)
By the 20th of January most of the house had been drywalled. The homeplan is linked above and the following photos are of the kitchen (you can see the pantry in the left corner) and then the family room which are adjoining. In the kitchen shot you can see the stairways to the basement, another 1200 sq ft of space.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Jan-20-drywalllookingintokitchen.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Jan-20-drywallinfamilyroomandstubwa.jpg)
For the rest of the main floor there's a den, bathroom, foyer, laundry area, living room and dining room which are beside each other. My wife really wanted some fancy shmancy design features in the dining room and we got them. The living room has a nice bay window as well, as does the bedroom immediately above it.
Dining room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Jan-20-drywallindiningroomshowingce.jpg)
Living room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Jan-20-drywalllivingroom.jpg)
Not too much has changed since then, largely because there was no hydroelectricity on the site and generators were limited for what they can do. The house isn't yet heated, but once the hydro is in it will be and they can progress with a bunch of work that requires the house to be heated (drywall taping, painting, pouring the concrete in the basement and insulating those walls, etc.). But that's only being put in now. Remember that February 28th possession date? Yeah, not happening. We received a letter indicating we are delayed until somewhere May 15th and June 30th. ::) Thanks for being so specific. I was on site today and the hydro is progressing pretty darn quick, so I think our possession date will move again, probably mid to late April. Sadly we can't specify that date, we're sort of at their mercy (if they had any and they don't). As soon as they're done, it's ours. So we have to try and estimate the possession date of our house as well as we can so we don't get left out on the street. Whee!
As of today a little happened. There's been some detail work to the outside, the furnace is in (not yet working) and there's a massive trench out front where the hydro lines are going in. Pretty cool actually. The only other work that has gone on is some construction and drywalling for the fireplace. Those pictures are below.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Feb-08-frontofhouse.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/Feb-08-fireplacedrywalldetail.jpg)
The guys working on the house from the plumbers to the electricians to the drywall dudes to the site supervisor have been great. Answering tons of questions and being super nice and super informative. Without those dudes this would have been straight from hell. The site supervisor is the guy whose answers I believe and he gave me a different possession date than the letter, more close to the April date I listed. I have a feeling he'll be right, but we'll see.
I'll bore you to tears more later. I can't begin to explain the frustration of buying toys only to box them up though :'( I leave them out for a couple of days after opening them to look at them, then into a ziplock baggie and away they go. The Kubricks were horrible. I popped the blue Kubrick out for about five minutes to look at him and now he's in a box. Somewhere :-\ Fun stuff.
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Those are some great pics Brent. I think you'll be really glad to have those in the future to see how everything progressed.
With our move to Kelowna, we've decided building a home is a stress we're not willing to deal with (the move to a different province and different jobs is enough for now ;)), so I'll be quite content to buy an existing house. Maybe someday we'll build, but not for now.
I don't envy having to box up your goodies right after getting them. Not fun. :'(
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It's not standard practice to Tyvek the entire house and just do the openings, Brent? Around here, the entire house gets wrapped. I thought the codes in Canada were a bit stricter with regards to air and vapor barriers. Within the last couple of years, Massachusetts went to a stricter Energy code and I believe it was taken and modified from what the Canada codes say. Of course, the commercial and residential codes are completely separate animals, but seeing a house without an entire Tyvek wrap looks weird to me.
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You are right, the entire house will get Tyvek, they just haven't done so on our house yet. A few of the houses in the area have it, but most do not yet. To me it looks like they just laid the Tyvek in before doing some of the detail work to the outside. I'd have thought it would be easier to do it all, but apparently not. Considering with the windchill it's -44, they darn well better get it on there.
Talked to the site supervisor today, Hydro is in, though not hooked up to the main grid yet, may be in a week. Need to have the natural gas hooked up as well, then they'll be moving again. His guess is we'll get possession around the end of April now, perhaps a little sooner. I think he has way more of a clue than the main office.
Now I just try to nail down a date that's convenient for us to move. Later April is fine, mid-April is not.
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Keep the pics coming when you can - I'll have to live vicariously through you and get excited for you as your house nears completion. ;)
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Me too.
Someday I hope to build my own house - looks like you and your wife have great taste though!
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Looking good Brent! All of those boxes and totes look familiar, good luck moving all of that crap!!!! :P Keep the pics coming, too
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Time for an update!
Been a while, but we were rather seriously delayed first by a lack of hydro on the site, and then later by a lack of natural gas to the site (though that was mostly the lack of a meter and they can't fire up the gas without that). So the hydro has been hooked up now for about 10 days. That's allowed some portable heaters to be hooked up in the house ( and about five or six different lines to be run from our house to other houses in the neighbourhood) and some more work to progress.
The drywall was up prior to the hydro power being hooked in, but they weren't able to tape it or otherwise finish. Once those heaters went in they were able to wrap that up and the painting and trim work was possible to complete.
The paint we were allowed with our purchase price was either white, eggshell white or off white ::) Now I don't begrudge anyone wanting white walls, that's personal taste, but it just isn't for us.
Through the building process we've been told that we're not allowed to deal directly with contractors and here's a perfect example of why. To get three colours of paint in the house that are non-standard the builder would charge us anywhere from $2500-3600 :o Fortunately for us, the painter contacted us rather than vice versa and offered to do up to four colours for $1000. Now that's an awesome deal compared to the builder's prices, but additionally with that two story foyer it would be a serious bitch to paint. Both my wife and I are really comfortable doing most things, painting included, but two story work is less than appealing, so we opted in. As I said, we're happy doing just about any kind of work and we pretty much repainted the house we're in prior to selling.
For reference sake, the stairwell to the second floor after drywalling was wrapped up and actually after the paint primer was on already:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-02-stairwayprimer.jpg)
It looked pretty nice right away and once the drywall is up, it actually starts to look like a functional house. It does make a huge difference when you actually paint though and you can also see the stairway railings are in, plus the framing/moldings for the doors. My wife really wanted crown moldings on all the doors and to my dismay, I relented, to a rather kingly sum for that. ::) I will say they look really nice, but I honestly couldn't have given a **** either way. The stairway railings are in but for the wrought iron spindles (yep, extra, like anything else). Same photo again:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-10-stairwell.jpg)
A bit different perspective on the paint colour here, though taken from a similar point in the house. The front door, currently white, will become a dark blue, not dissimilar from the colour in the kitchen you'll see shortly. Not really much in place in the way of floors at this point, though the subfloors have now been screwed down and the additional flooring, where necessary, that goes under the carpet or vinyl has been laid in in some places. We'll have engineered hardwood in the dining room, main floor hallway, kitchen and eating area. The rest will be carpeted.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-10-paintmainfloor.jpg)
The fireplace went in as well, at least the gas burning unit itself. The brickwork remains to be done. They've installed the wood area around it as well for the TV and some shelves. The TV will go on the right, away from the window, in spite of the shelves currently sitting on that side. I checked the plans and they have it correct, with the shelving on the left, but we'll see if they get it right ;) You can see the blue of the kitchen/eating area on the stub wall. It appears dark in all the photos I took. It's a fairly deep blue, but not quite so harsh as it appears here.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-10-familyroom.jpg)
Looking the reverse direction you see into the kitchen and eating area with the door to the basement. Tons of work yet to be done in the kitchen but I'm digging the dark colour. The eating area has a ton of light and there's another window in the kitchen area itself that isn't readily apparent. It's also a south facing back yard, so ambient light will be pretty intense in there. So you can see pretty easily comparing the above photo with the one below the blue looks a lot darker depending on the lighting.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-10-lookingintokitchen.jpg)
We opted for a third colour and let my five year old daughter pick her colour for her room. All I can say is it's interesting. We added the fourth bedroom upstairs as an option (yep, extra ::)) and decided she could paint it whatever colour she wanted, since she's not real keen on leaving the house we're in right now. So it's kind of purply-bluish, but hey, I don't have to sleep in there. I will say it's pretty entertaining that we painted it that colour, considering it really is sort of a feature room in the house with the bay windows and all. It's also the second largest bedroom in the house. I've been gentle with the picture aspect though, you'll still get the idea of the colour ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-10-lookingintosydsroom.jpg)
Our "official" possession date is still sitting between May 15 and June 30, though in talking with the site supervisor he figures he could have us in by late April. Oddly we're a bit of an anomaly and since we haven't sold our house yet, we're asking for some time in May. I think it will work because it takes some pressure off him, since he's supposed to have 30 houses ready on the 15th of May and almost everyone else wants in sooner rather than later. He has to do a 2 hour inspection with each home owner prior to releasing possession, so we're trying to make it all work for him and make it easier to sell our house, which still isn't up for sale. The market is hot and we have no where else to live, so we're trying to time it perfectly, if that's possible.
All my toys are boxed up now, either here, or thankfully with Jim (chuckles) in Minnesota who's sitting on a pile of stuff for me. From a $$ conserving standpoint it's really helping, because buying something just to open it, ziplock it and pack it away isn't all that much fun. As mentioned previously, I probably won't see it for months, if not over a year :'( It's funny too though, I've obviously priorized some stuff based on what I've put into bulk piles and what is kept close at hand. What seems to matter most are the Kubricks and the vinty figures ;)
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Nice looking place! When you do go to unpack, it will be like the christmas that won't end. That should be a blast.
My oldest daughter is 8, and she loves making lists of the figures and organizing them for me. I don't know if your daughter is the same, but we spend hours going through boxes and have a great time.
Just a suggestion- when you do go through the boxes, even if you aren't going to display something, take it out, take a picture, and log it in a spreadsheet somewhere. I had a conversation with our insurance agent, and he said well documented collectibles are very important in case of a claim. Without a good list and pictures, you can be up a creek without a paddle should something happen.
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Looking good Brent. Can't wait to see the finished product.
My goal is to build my own home. With me being in construction and my wife on her way to being an architect, we have some serious ideas on what we both want and what we don't want. I told her let me take care of the home theater / SW room and the kitchen and she can do whatever it is she wants with the rest of the house. Seems like a fair deal to me.
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It looks like the house is coming along really well! I hope that I will be able to have a house built someday to my own specs.
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Talk about disturbing :o I was chatting with the dude who's doing the heating as we're going direct through him for the central air and the heat recovery ventilator ($5800 from the builder; $3800 direct from him) and he gave me an update on the progress of the furnace and pouring the basement - he figures the house should be finished about two weeks after the basement is poured and set, so about 3 weeks from now :o Crap in a hat, but I ain't ready for that, so rest assured I'll be making a panicky call to the site supervisor in the morning to hopefully work out a more suitable possession date. Our last letter from the builder said May 15-June30 as a range, now they're talking about first week in April with only two weeks notice? Yikes, but that doesn't seem fair. The site supervisor's a cool dude though, so we'll see what we can work out.
Lots of work going on, much to my surprise, but I guess heat makes a considerable difference in the speed of work ;) I wandered in last night not expecting much and boy was I wrong, the cabinetry was half in already and was almost finished today. I won't bore you with pictures of bathroom stuff or much detail, so just a quick shot of the kitchen. The island isn't anchored in just yet.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-14-kitchenwithcupboardsandislan.jpg)
Staircase spindles also went in today and make it look quite a bit nicer. Additionally all the plate covers for the switches and outlets went in as well. To my surprise we also have a dehumidifier going in, so a bit of a surprise bonus there. All the lighting was in the dining room boxed up today as well, so I presume that may be finished by week's end. I guess the plumbing can't be too far behind either.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-14-stairwaywithspindles.jpg)
Just a guess here, but there should be an update on Friday or Saturday as well. :o
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Looks awesome, Brent!
I'm just a bit jealous, though. It's good jealousy, though, not that bitter stuff. ;)
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Wow, your house is really looking great Brent. You've chosen some great colours for the interior too - my wife and I experimented with the paint in our current house and I've really grown to enjoy non-white walls.
Be sure you let us know when the house is done - a road trip for a house warming party may be in order. ;)
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Yeah, we're kind on not into white anymore. Most of our apartments were like that and we ended up buying a house without white walls. We got used to the non-white scheme, so now we're kinda hooked. But it's not for everyone.
Lots of work going on, but not much dramatic to show you and I'm sure everyone has little interest in all the light fixtures that went in ::)
I tell ya though, ya can't let a moment go by without checking. Not that anyone's trying to screw up on purpose, but **** happens. Our kitchen will have stainless steel appliances so we got the range hood in stainless and ordered the track lighting in stainless, but guess what, they put in white >:( They also delivered the wrong lights for the master bathroom but for the most part they've had everything correct.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-17-kitchenwithlights.jpg)
The kitchen again, obviously above, but you can see the white and stainless sort of don't mesh well. The hanging light fixtures are pewter finish, but I can live with the contrast/clash between pewter and stainless though, they're close enough for a guy ;)
Other lights in the house are basically domes in rooms where there's no room to hang, or similar to these in the eating area, foyer and dining room.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-17-secondfloorlighting.jpg)
On the outside the wrap went on, followed by tarpaper and wire for the stucco to go over. Entire house is being stucco'd pretty much.
Front:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-21-frontofhousewithstuccowire.jpg)
Back of house from the southwest corner (back facing yard ideal for swimming pool 8))
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/mar-21-southwestaspectofhousewithst.jpg)
The furnace has now been hooked up as well, so they're "cooking" the basement. In other words they're heating the basement and drying it out before pouring the concrete floor. Then they need to do the insulation and vapor barrier as well. Not sure if they do electrical outlets or not at that point - I hope they do otherwise we'll have to mess with the insulation to get them in and I won't be very happy about that. My brother-in-law is pumped about finishing the basement so we'll see what happens with that ;)
The plumbing, final electrical hookup and flooring remain to be done, but I can't imagine we're more than 2-3 weeks out, which is way sooner than the last letter they sent us ::) We'll see what happens with that. :-X
Sorry for the odd sizes here of the pics ??? but photobucket is being a little inconsistent. I usually opt for 50% size so the page width isn't screwed up, but for some reason these ended up at 25%.
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Wow, the house really is looking great Brent, I'm quite envious. It looks like it will be beautiful when its all finished up, and I'm sure you and the family are anxious to get all moved in (aside from the pain of moving anyways). I'm in the same camp as you guys with the non-white walls. The first place we lived, we had all white walls and basically didn't mess with them, but when we moved into this house a couple of years ago, we've painted every room in the house...all in different color schemes. I don't think we'd do it any other way now. Looking great Brent!
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Didn't think about them acutally pouring the floor in the house when the furnace was installed. I'd still be a little concerned with frost in the ground (could be several feet below grade...) but you should be OK. Not sure if you ever asked the builder about that.
Looks great Brent!
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Well according to the site supervisor, they'll heat the house for a week prior to pouring the floor. I was in there yesterday and it was pretty darn hot in the basement, probably around 90 F. The ducting for the most part isn't in yet, so the furnace is just cranking hot air right into the basement to warm it up, dry it out and get rid of the frost. There's also been electric heat on the two other floors for about a month now, so it's been warming inside the basement as well.
I did ask initially as well when they poured the foundation walls and they had a heater in there for a week as well. I'm still nervous about it, but not much I can do now really.
It is really weird just seeing the furnace hanging there supported from above by ducting and a few connections. My initial impression had been it had to be sitting on something, but that's clearly not the case.
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Nothing, and I mean nothing, has happened since the last update. Haven't checked since Friday and will go by today to see.
New letter stating possession date is May 15th. We'll see if that holds.
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Well whaddya know? Something happened. They've been quite busy in some respects but not so much in others.
Didn't think about them acutally pouring the floor in the house when the furnace was installed. I'd still be a little concerned with frost in the ground (could be several feet below grade...) but you should be OK. Not sure if you ever asked the builder about that.
Looks great Brent!
I think we can satisfactorily say the frost is out of the ground right now :o The basement is a frigging swamp. The image below doesn't quite convey it, but there's a lot of water in there so the basement has yet to be poured. But they've begun the work on the plumbing that goes under/in the floor. Not clear which it is; I know a good chunk will be below, but not sure if they'll pour it with channels for some of the piping and then cover that with a relatively thinner layer. Probably not since it might adversely affect the strength of the concrete. Either way, it won't get poured now until the first of May or thereabouts, so lots of time to dry out.
Our soils are very heavy clays that are truly mucky and suck your boots right off, so I wouldn't want to be the guys that were doing the work in there right now. You can see the piping for the future bathroom in the southeast corner here, beyond the suspended furnace.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/april-03-plumbinginSEcorner.jpg)
The sump pit is also being mucked around with ;D at this point. I presume the lines will all be cleaned or have been covered to keep the mud out at this point.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/april-03-sumppitinrelationtofurnace.jpg)
The only other thing of note that has happened is that the bricking has gone in for the fireplace and it looks way better than I'd expected. I thought it was going to be too gray for the wall colour but it worked out really well in my opinion. So all that's left to be done in the family room is the carpet and it's ready.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/april-03-brickinginfireplace.jpg)
I've been informed that the driveway and walkway won't be poured until after the May long weekend due to frost heaves and concerns along that line. That's cool by me and it'll probably be longer judging by the way other things have gone.
There's remarkably little to do in the house yet:
Plumbing finished and hooked in.
Dishwasher to be installed.
Sinks to be installed
Carpeting/hardwood to be installed
Baseboards to be installed
Doors put on.
Front door and garage door to be painted.
Driveway and walkway to be poured/placed.
Ducting to be finished for heating/AC system.
AC unit to be installed.
Heat Recovery Ventilator to be installed.
Basement concrete poured.
Basement walls insulated.
Hot water heater installed.
Well, ok, there's a little more than little to do yet. ::) But a ton of work for us to do after we get moved in as well:
Finish front yard/landscape (might try to go with zero grass).
Garage door opener installed.
Deck in back.
Fence.
Pool. :P (actually this won't go in prior to fall at the earliest to let the soil settle)
Basement and Star Wars room - might get started prior to the start of 2007 8).
Landscape/trees in back yard.
Shed in back for all the crap that can't go in the garage ;)
What am I missing?
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House is looking good Brent. Where are the SPs going?
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Wow, things are really shaping up nicely.
I don't envy the guys working in the basement at the moment... hopefully that's just ground seepage and not the amount of water that will end up in the basement every spring. :P
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Looking good Brent. Since those of us in MN had one of our meeting at Jeff's last year do we get to have one of our meetings at your place this year. ROAD TRIP!!!
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003CXIY.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
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July, when my wife is away? :P
Lots of rooms and I need to build a fence, deck and finish the basement. You guys up for it? ;)
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Nice shack Brent!! I can't wait to see Syndey's room when it's all done. Personally, I love the color :).
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July, when my wife is away? :P
Lots of rooms and I need to build a fence, deck and finish the basement. You guys up for it? ;)
Don't forget about us Canucks! We'll make sure you break in that house the right way. :D
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Having spared you all the annoying details in the interim, I thought I'd update just before we move in. We get possession tomorrow and will move on Thursday of this week. Things have gone ok, we did the house inspection on Thursday of last week and there were more than a few issues - some of the wood is stained wrong totally, a major flaw; the dishwasher has white trim rather than black; there's a mirrored door where there shouldn't be and a few other trivial fixing up points.
We did also manage to sell off our other house quite quickly and for a very nice price, so this move won't be too painful, at least until the bills for new appliances and the like roll in. I'm also contemplating a newer TV for the family room, something I hadn't planned on, but the current Panasonic has developed an annoying buzz, so get a "cheap" 32 flat screen (Samsung or Philips) or spring for the big bucks for an LCD or Plasma. I just don't think the latter is really necessary given we'll eventually be putting a projector in the basement. Opinions?
It will be a long time though before I have a room for all my crap. We don't have any family here in town, so everyone comes to visit and we've been wanting to have a couple of spare rooms, so now we will, but I can't make one into a toy room without affecting that. So it's about waiting until the basement is done. :'(
Still plenty of work left to do on the house exterior, we're waiting for the driveway and walkway to be paved; the stucco to go on and then get our properly colored garage and front doors installed. They also have to do a final grading of the lot before we can start on the deck, fencing and landscaping, so we'll be living in mud for probably a month or three :-\
Anyway, the finished product....
Looking in from the front door:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-hallwaytofamilyroom.jpg)
Up the stairs again (the reference photo for me):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-stairway.jpg)
Dining room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-diningroom.jpg)
Living room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-livingroom.jpg)
Living room looking back to the front foyer:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-frontfoyer.jpg)
The kitchen, soon to be home to stainless appliances:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-kitchen.jpg)
Family room, complete with surround sound hookup ;D
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-familyroom.jpg)
Speaking of which - ooooooh...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-tvstereohookups.jpg)
Main floor powder room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-mainfloorbathroom.jpg)
Looking down those stairs:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-lookingdownstairs.jpg)
No new pics of the upstairs, the bedrooms haven't changed too much, aside from having doors and closet doors. Bathrooms have been finished up, including the jetted tub in the master bath ;) Sort of hard to take pics of those rooms as well, because you don't get the same opportunity without the open spaces.
Sweet, sweet debt. Welcome home.
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I'm glad to hear you were able to sell the old house fairly quickly. I imagine that helped to take off some of the stress of the move.
I sure like that laminate (hardwood?) floor - is it really as "cherry" coloured as it looks?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/may-13-tvstereohookups.jpg)
Ooooooohhh. Me likey. Movies shall sound quite nice.
As for the TV, if you're going all out for a projector in the basement, I'd say buy something that's "middle of the road" price-wise, like a LCD- or DLP-projection. You'll spend more than on a "cheap" CRT TV, but in the long run you'll probably be happier, especially if you've got the setup for a nice sound system. Just my 2 cents.
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Flooring is real hardwood (engineered hardwood anyway) rather than laminate and it's supposedly Walnut. But we were suprised at how red it looks as well. We're happy with it though.
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Brent,
Congrats on the new home and best wishes. The place looks great. I have a Vizio 50 Plasma that they sell at Costco and Sams Club for a measely $2299. The set is an incredible value if you decide to go this route.
Read all about this set here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=647041). When you ready to hook up a wall shaking system to that projector let me know.
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That is a beautiful home Brent, congratulations to you and your family on that. I'm sure you guys are anxious to get in there, and have the big move overwith. Everything looks great, and I hope you get an area for your collection sooner than later :). Very nice, I hope we can afford something like that someday.
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Are you moved in yet? You've had all day. :P
Who wants to invade Brent's place in June? I have the whole month off for holidays. ;D
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Are you moved in yet? You've had all day. :P
Ahem. Update please. >:(
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So Brent, have you made any progress on the collection lately?
I'd be interested to see some pictures if you have them. :)
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So Brent, have you made any progress on the collection lately?
I'd be interested to see some pictures if you have them. :)
Well.......... it sort of depends what you mean by progress? I'm still collecting, yes, but it's really not terribly much fun at this point. The reason being that everything just comes home and goes into a box. Take a look at this shot in the basement:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1011039.jpg)
Now that's not all my stuff, but it's sort of representative because you can't see what goes in behind those boxes in front. I decided to do a pretty substantial reduction of stuff recently and went through all of my boxes and rubbermaid tubs. On the right side, appearing below the shuttle are my 11 long boxes of comics I'd dearly like to unload, but we all know what that market is like. They are sitting on a pallet that's about 5 feet by 5 feet. For the rest of my stuff, boxes and tubs included, there are three other pallets of the same size they are resting on and then you get the vertical component, about six feet in height. So I have about 1350 cubic feet of crap, not including the comics :-X
As mentioned, the stuff in front is just other rubbermaid tubs of stuff. I've reduced my collection a fair bit and will probably do another serious culling of the Hasbro stuff. Of late, like many others it seems, I've just sort of lost interest to a degree. I've put much of it up for sale over at snowtroopers.ca (no offense to anyone here, but I'm trying to reclaim retail pricing on a lot of it and Canadian retail is way higher than you guys would be willing to pay, even after exchange rate is factored in - you're all welcome, but your jaws would probably drop at some prices). Mostly I just decided to get rid of a lot of multiples of figures I had carded for no real reason (loose collector), cull back my armies to about the size of a single squad, unload some duplicate (triplicate) ships and the like. I still like the 3.75" scale a lot, but I don't need a lot of what I have. I'm finding it hard to swallow paying $45 CAD for a new Snowspeeder, primarily for the pack in figure, when for the same price I could pick up a decent, boxed, vintage Snowspeeder and be done with it. Granted it wouldn't be mint, but I could cease worrying about repacks.
I'm contemplating reducing the collection even further, including many of the ships/vehicles I have. I'm just not certain any longer that I need to own 4-5 different X-wings. I do have the OTC versions of Slave I, Falcon, X-wing/Tie (Costco) but skipped Vader's Tie, regretably. I may keep those, but think I may unload many of the other versions, pack in figures be damned. Similarly I have the first two (non clone wars) versions of the gunships up for sale as well at regular Canadian retail as I'm keeping the CW version alone. I'm not opposed to new stuff necessarily, but I don't feel like I want all of it right now. I'll also probably reduce the loose figures a bit and any of the remaining carded figures, save a few. Basically Hasbro just isn't holding my interest lately :-\ The other stuff may be more pricey, but in the end I spend a lot less by not army building, ordering online and not wasting gas and just by buying less stuff overall. I'll probably cull my McFarlane stuff a bit further as well, but there isn't nearly as much work to do there as one would think. Marvel Legends are for the most part fine as I've been largely selective with it anyway.
It's also been quite nice to take in money instead of pushing it out. I've sold off nearly $1000 already and estimate of what's left on the initial list is another $1500 or so. I think I could find another $1000 pretty darn quickly too and that's about half way to a Harley. My best friend and best man at my wedding (Duane, for those who've met him) rides motorcycles and is planning on getting a Harley soon. My wife would also love to have one as she grew up riding motorcycles. So I get to reduce the collection, store up some cash and maybe get a bike out of it :) That's of course if I don't go off and start spending money on silly things like a Sacul Kubrick or some boxed/carded vintage stuff :-X
The big motivations for it are two-fold: 1. you see the picture, how much fun is that? Look at the picture below, the Veers Kubrick is out because I'd already boxed up series 6 and didn't want to dig it out, so there he sits with a couple of friends. 2. we won't be finishing the basement all that quickly it seems and reasonably so. Good chunk of change to do it and to be perfectly honest, the house is big enough we don't have any real need aside from a "collection room" for me. We have two spare bedrooms, a family room, a living room and a den where we could let people sleep. The family room is wired for 5.1 and while the tv is only 32", there's not much need for more right now. I still plan on going with 6.1 and a projector in the basement when we get around to it, but there isn't much rush. My kid is way happier outdoors and I'm not going to argue that at all.
On top of that, I'm not really strongly motivated by Hasbro's SDCC announcements. There's some really cool stuff there, no doubt about it, but so many rehashes/repaints or single figures in pack sets that it's not worth the money to me. I'm more impressed by Gentle Giant these days with both busts and bust ups. Frankly the bust ups are nicer to me than the Hasbro 3.75" figures these days as is. I'm just sort of moving towards higher end stuff I guess. So it all ends with a decreased interest in Hasbro. I really enjoy looking at Scott/OCB's stuff, it's simple and not overdone. As impressive as Rob's collection is, I can't do that so I'm leaning away from hasbro basically.
As for what's currently on display, this covers it :'(
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1011036.jpg)
Pretty sad, eh? And a crappy picture to boot ::) That's sitting on top of the bookcase that holds half of our DVDs. I'm thinking of putting more stuff up there, primarily putting out the Kubricks and the vintage collection, if only to get them out of storage. But the rest of it is doomed to the basement for some time. Prior to building the room downstairs I don't have much interest in putting stuff out, only to pack it up during construction again.
Suffice to say it's not overly motivating for collecting these days.
As for the house itself, it's doing alright. We've had to wait for several things for what seems like a long time, but given what I know about some others (hey Drew) we've had a pretty short wait really. The biggest pain has been moving from a house with a pool to a house that's sitting on mud during the hottest summer in quite some time. Painful. We'll hopefully get the pool dug this year and we still have to fence, build a deck and landscape the entire yard. There are also issues within the house and related to the construction of the house that we need to deal with yet, but my wife is doing an amazing job of keeping the builder in line :) If you guys want pics of the house furnished, let me know.
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I really like how you've decorated the house - the flooring, paint, doors and trim are exactly what we would have done (well, maybe not the blue in the kitchen, we're more 'neutral' when it comes to color).
Either way, you and your wife have great taste (or maybe just your wife). ;)
The layout, from what I've seen, looks perfect too.
I'd love to see more pics (of the inside and out) whenever you get time.
Gives me inspiration to work a little harder (maybe I shouldn't be here right now)....
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Yes, I want to see pictures of the inside now. I want to see Sydney's room. And about that Harley...you won't regret it but you might need to move a little more south so that you can ride it for more than three months. ;)
PS: I assume the tubs are labeled?? You didn't do the random guess thing like some other Canadian I know???
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Thanks for the update Brent. I feel your pain about collecting too.
I also want to see some updated pics of the house. :)
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I keep trying to talk my wife into letting me get a Harley. So far, she's holding firm. Guess I have to try harder. Of course, I could have saved the money from selling my stuff instead of buying Kubricks and FX lightsabers, and use it to go towards a bike, but my collecting bug hasn't died, just my love of Hasbro stuff.
Your collection looks a lot like mine did when we first moved, Brent. Nothing but boxes upon boxes. It's still a lot of boxes and Rubbermaid bins, but slowly but surely, it's dwindling. It's somewhat therapuetic (sp?).
Good luck with everything.
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Well, I'm sitting around the house while some guys knock out a portion of the garage wall that was cracked before we ever took possession, so I guess I'll finally get a bunch of pics up.
It's been an experience and I'm not sure I'd repeat it. Just the hassle of having to be around so much for them to finish **** they should have had done before possession date has been grinding for both my wife and I. Once the year's up and the house is no longer on an absolute sort of warranty, I'll probably be happier even if something ***** up, since it'll be on my terms.
Anyway, pictures, less griping. First coupe are collection stuff, just to show how little I have out and how much is boxed up, even if the pictures probably don't represent the sheer volume of crap I own. I'm only about 10% of the way to the Harley, btw. Keep spending all the **** in paypal no matter what happens, so it's only local cash sales that help that cause.
Couple of shots of the boxes in the basement:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010963.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010962.jpg)
How little stuff I have out :'(
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010948.jpg)
We haven't been able to get much of a start on the yard, owing to delays in getting the final yard grading done by the builder. They delayed sufficiently long enough there wasn't much point. Plus the pool will go in the spring, so not much point in landscaping anything at this point. We did get started downstairs a bit by doing the electrical (yes, they insulated and poly'd the walls without doing any electrical :o ::)) so we went ahead and did that and started framing in my eventual toy/computer room. It'll be about 9'x13' or so. The plan is also for the screen for the projector in the basement to focus on the outer wall of this room, so I'm going to build in a 'closet' for the components that I can access the back of (wiring) from inside another closet in the toy room for ease of connection, etc.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010961.jpg)
The rest of the pics are just house ****. First up is main floor...
kitchen:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010952.jpg)
family room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010951.jpg)
dining room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010949.jpg)
living room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010950.jpg)
hallway to laundry area/den:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010953.jpg)
staircase up:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010960.jpg)
staircase down:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010959.jpg)
Upstairs - bedrooms:
spare
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010958.jpg)
spare 2
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010957.jpg)
Master
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010955.jpg)
Sydney's mess
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010956.jpg)
I think that covers it. Obviously we're well moved in judging by the mess, but not everything's done. Some pictures aren't up yet and other **** we just aren't motivated to do. Life just getting in the way.
A little brief (for me) on text, so if you have questions, fire away.
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Here's my question, has your wife made an issue of how much stuff you had now that you've moved and have it all sitting in the basement? I got in lots of hot water over that one when we moved :-\
Otherwise it looks great Brent, I really like your paint choices with the woodwork you have, great combos
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Kinda funny you mentioned the wood, huge bone of contention with my wife. The pillars in the dining room and the fireplace mantel were supposed to be all maple, like the stairway railing and wood in the kitchen. Oops, but just a major hassle to replace it all. She's sort of settled into the fact the west side of the house is oak and the east side is maple :-X I'm probably more annoyed by the sheer variety of mis-matached wood furniture in all shades, but I don't mention that to her because she hasn't commented on it yet and it's not practical to replace stuff to match it up. Wood's good, leave it alone.
As for the other question, yes and no. She's a bit bipolar in terms of her attitude towards the habit. Some days she hates it and asks what the hell I'm doing (and she's right) but other days she finds it pretty damn harmless. Opening stuff has helped because I went from about 13-14 of those big tubs down to about six or so. Lots and lots of boxes, but those are mostly easy to continue to sneak in and they're loose stuff.
The easiest thing to say is she's about 70% supportive most days. I think it helps that I move stuff every so often by selling it. I tend to spend some of that money on her or the kid, as it should have been in the first place, so maybe she notices I'm buying back what should have been? I dunno. A big part too is she really doesn't have a great grasp on the sheer dollar value involved. But I've been a lot better on that end of things since we moved as well. Most of my spending is via online retailers and a little bit of ebay, though nothing real expensive since we moved.
The busts and maquettes are eating up a lot of cash in one respect, but not buying up 10-12 of a particular army builder figure seems to make it feel like the busts are now actually free ;) Any figures I do actually get are pretty much from JuvyD now and we just swap US for Canadian carded stuff. It's not a great deal for me in one respect, because our stuff is more expensive, but Jim helps me get store exclusives as well in return, so I think it's totally a fair deal after factoring that in. It's also helped me reduce my dependence on you, Matt, the other Jim and some other folks that have been extremely helpful in the past so the annoyance factor from me is probably down overall. Except poor Jim in MN, who's sitting on an absolute truckload of **** that needs to come up here. But I've been helping him too by ordering some busts/maquettes for him to offset the shipping costs. I still think he's on the short end of the deal because of all the crap that shows up at his door though.
I was going to ask you how unloading your stuff was going because we'd talked about it in the past and I'm basically in that boat as well. It's tough slogging and I'm just not overly motivated to go onto ebay to sell these days. Worst part is there's a toy show coming next month, but my wife is out of town so I can't go there and tap into a much bigger market than I know personally :-\
Shipping out of Canada is too expensive as well and I don't feel like offsetting that cost, otherwise I'd put it up on the boards here or elsewhere too. And trading for most stuff is just a money losing proposition for me :-\ I guess there's a bright side to that as well as I don't go out and buy stuff just as trade bait anymore, so I don't have cash sitting around tied up in useless figures. Still a few around, like the two Canadian carded Cody's behind me, but whatever, it's limited for now.
Too freaking much stuff. :-X
By edit: yeah, overall lots of hotwater was involved. Probably will be again once I start trying to unpack all that junk.
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So back to the house - are the contractors going to 'finish' the basement or are you going to do it?
In regards to the wood trim, what excuse did they give for not having all of it match? It's probably not a big deal, but I know I'm pretty anal about things like that.
Also, does your bedroom have a master bath? My next house will have one - with two kids, I would die to have our own....
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Nope, contractors/builder won't be finishing the basement. They wanted 20 grand to do it in a very basic fashion and I think that's too much really. I figure I can do it for $6-7K and do it better than they can. We've already done the electrical, we've started doing some framing and I've insulated about 1/3 of the ceiling for soundproofing. We'll pay for someone to tape the drywall and put in the carpet after we do the subfloor. I think we can manage the rest and make it the way we want.
The excuse for the wood trim is it's not written down anywhere. According to them, the maple is the error, according to us, the oak is the error. Basically the dumbass real-estate agent that wrote everything up ****** it up somehow after we signed it all. We have a copy that says maple, but they tell us it's an upgrade and we weren't charged for it. They have two sheets, one with oak, one with maple. Basically put it's not worth it to us to go to court over. We basically settled on some minor compensatory stuff (changing a couple of doors, some insulation for the basement) to avoid all the hassle.
AS for the bathroom, yeah, there's one with the master bathroom. Nice jetted tub, shower, etc. in there. Other bathroom on second floor is a four piece and the main floor has a two piece. So my wife and daughter have bathrooms, there's the main floor general use one and I won't have one of my own until we finish the basement ;) I knew/know the teenage years will be entertaining, so I made sure there was enough.
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Love Sydney's "mess". Is that Scooby on the bedspread?? I can't tell but I do spot the Little Mermaid on the wall. I'll have to stock up on McDonalds toys for her :)
I also think the kitchen coloring is beautiful. What's the glass door by the fridge? (and your cat doesn't seem to care much about anything) ;).
Boy, I sure do have an idea how you feel about unloading all the extra stuff. I have taken pictures to put all my carded/box stuff on Ebay but just don't feel like the hassle. My Master Replica stuff will be the hardest to part with and I don't have a clue on how to group all the stuff I opened to sell. Yuck....
Anyhow-thanks for the updated photo's of the palace. Very nice indeed.
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Thanks for posting some new pics Brent, everything looks great. You sure do have a nice home there, I hope we're able to have a house like that someday. Looking forward to seeing your collection when you've got the room all finished and set up the way you want it. Its probably nice in a way to start with a blank slate, and build it just how you'd like.
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Brent - congrats on the fairly new home. How is the basement coming along? When can we expect some updated pictures of the collection if it has made it to see daylight.
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Brent - congrats on the fairly new home. How is the basement coming along? When can we expect some updated pictures of the collection if it has made it to see daylight.
Matt, thanks for the comments. At this point, nothing much is happening much to my dismay. We really need to wait through to the spring to check the walls and floors after what turned into a really cold winter. Make sure there's no cracks or leaks or other structural flaws. So to that end, there's really not that much we can do.
With respect to the eventual toy room itself, I need to finish the outer wall that will have the doorway in it. I can do that fairly easily when I get around to picking up some more lumber, something I have been putting off regularly. I can also frame in the closet for the room but we'll probably leave the drywall down for the time being. If we do drywall anything, it would only be the left wall in this picture as it's not butting up against anything structural at the moment.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010961.jpg)
The 2x4 on the left is actually the wall, the rest of the wall just runs in a straight line behind. I also need to put in the subfloor before drywalling, so that's all probably going to wait until after the spring and the one year warranty is up. (Warranty is actually five years, but the first year it's sort of a no grief warranty, after that we fight)
Other plans for the basement are getting the other walls up in frame form. It shouldn't be too bad, though I'm a little leery about the framing by the stairway, that I've never done before and is more complex than just making right angles and following chalk lines. For framing the remainder of the basement though, here's what I need to do:
Wall 1 (wall to close off my collection room): 7' 0.75" wall with door.
Wall 2 - opposite to coll. room door: 9'0" wall with door (utility room)
Wall 3 - wall along stairs on west side: 15'5" no door, but access panel to read water meter
Wall 4 - wall along stairs on east side, just to close in stairs only about 6'
Wall 5 - wall along back of utility room to 90 angle with wall 3; has door: 13'2"
Wall 6 - outer wall to bathroom in SE corner (outside walls of house form two other walls, wall 5 completes) with door: 8'0"
So basically I can do lots of framing but won't finish the bathroom wall (#6) until we have the shower/sink/toilet/subfloor in there.
Tons to do, but I know as soon as spring comes I have to finish the fence (about 100' left), build a deck and get some landscaping done so we're not living in a mud pit again. That all means my room realistically won't be done until next winter at the earliest. I do think the basement can be framed if we have rainy weekends during the summer. The subfloor and drywall can go up too.
When we get to the room, I'm thinking about putting in some built in shelves along that left wall also, from the closet to the outer wall. It's going to make the room fairly narrow probably, but should be more efficient and cheaper than buying shelving later. I saw a neat display idea at a jewelry store a while ago that looked good and had pot lights at the top. The goal is to have the room be a functional bedroom, should the use pattern change (like say a teenage daughter) but it should be mine for 10 or so years.
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teenage daughter
Only 8 more years until that becomes an unfortunate reality (for me). ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1010962.jpg)
How little stuff I have out :'(
Is all this stuff still in storage? Or were you able to bring a couple favourite pieces out?
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Still in storage. I have about 30-40 odd pieces out on display on the bookshelves in the den right now, but it's really only new stuff that ends up there for odd reasons. The recent clones are there, some Family Guy stuff, my mini holograms, Riddell Stormtrooper helmet, etc.
In that picture is the back wall, where you can see piping. That's where the bathroom will be if you're really bored curious.
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Still in storage, going to be there a long time, probably until Christmas '07 or so ::)
But I was sitting around the house today and looking at the mess atop the bookshelves so I decided to do some shuffling. It was mostly a hodge podge of whatever I buy, open and decide not to put in a box right away.
On top of that I kept thinking about my vintage figures boxed up, but also bagged and couldn't help thinking that wasn't good for them in the long run. Concerned about yellowing and general deterioration being in contact with plastic on plastic. So I decided to pull out the two boxes of vintage figures and put away most of the rest of the stuff.
Moving from the right side to the left side of the two bookshelves in the following photos:
My Ewoks and Droids stuff plus some of the last 17 vinty figures and a smattering of other crap in the back (the gray Spidey, Hulk and Cap figures were the first action figures I ever owned and were made in 1967). I am missing some of the Droids figures and Ewoks figures from the display at the moment, but only because they are residing in some as yet undetermined box in the basement ::) I know a couple of them are still on cards and I'm more reluctant to open them at the moment than I once was, especially any I have on Canadian cards :-\
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P3100039.jpg)
More of the last 17 stuff and those hideous Ewoks. Better stuff though are the two Jedi Luke figures, one with pullover cape and green saber, one with blue saber and snap cape. And yes, that is my vinyl cape Jawa. ;D Oh, and a windup R2 and the R2 from the Droid Factory playset.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P3100040.jpg)
The more generic vintage stuff, just sort of crammed into the space. I do plan on a much cleaner, more spacious display when I get these into the room down the road. You can't see much here, so it's not so appealing. :-\ Couple of Leia, Lando, Luke and Yoda variations though.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P3100041.jpg)
The first 12 vintage figures are in the next one including a couple of the Ben, Han, Chewie, Tusken and three Lukes. The third is just a place holder until I get my DT from Dale. Rebo band is in there and then some Kubes and some bustups as well. Finally is the Riddell stormtrooper helmet, to mock some guy named Colman (who?)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P3100042.jpg)
Last little bit of stuff is the three modern figures up there: the Georgetrooper Rob sent me that only took four months to arrive :P, the flip up visor Scout from the AT-AT box and the shadow trooper which you have to look really close to see in front of the Borg cube. The rest is a couple of gold titanium ships, couple of Simpsons bustups (the direction I think the SW bustups are destined for) and some Stewie's that several guys here really helped me finish off. The only Stewie I'm missing is the very first release, but it only differs from two that I already have by the eyes and mouth sculpt. If I can get one cheap, great, otherwise I don't need a third Stewie in red overalls and yellow shirt ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P3100043.jpg)
Still about 400 pounds of stuff stored away :'( including all of my Gentle Giant, Master Replicas, Code 3 and modern stuff. It took me about two hours to get all the older stuff away and the vintage stuff up on the shelf, so I can imagine what getting a whole collection out of storage will require. :-\ Ah well, I have some new variety up on the shelf and I don't have to sweat my vinty stuff sitting in storage rotting away, so it's all good :)
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Great display! Sure, it's not as spacious as you'd like, but displaying your vintage figures was a great choice.
Who is that snarling monkey(?) with the pointing figure?
Is the sword part of another collection as well?
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Great display! Sure, it's not as spacious as you'd like, but displaying your vintage figures was a great choice.
Who is that snarling monkey(?) with the pointing figure?
Is the sword part of another collection as well?
The snarling monkey is the evil monkey that lives in Chris' closet on Family Guy. I believe the action figure (rather than the bobble head you see) came with the original Chris figure and it was in either the first or second Family Guy box set, whatever one I don't own. I find the character funny so when I got a chance to get this pretty cheap, I did. It's a Con exclusive from last summer and it glows in the dark too.
The sword is part of a matched pair, but no, I only own the pair. Authentic stuff like that is astronomically expensive and these are just cheap things I've owned since I first moved out of my parents house over 20 years ago. I wanted something 'fancy' for decoration ::)
Love Sydney's "mess". Is that Scooby on the bedspread?? I can't tell but I do spot the Little Mermaid on the wall. I'll have to stock up on McDonalds toys for her :)
I also think the kitchen coloring is beautiful. What's the glass door by the fridge? (and your cat doesn't seem to care much about anything) ;).
Beth, I'm sorry, I seemed to miss your questions entirely.
Yup, Scooby on the bedspread. She prefers it to the princess bedspread she owns too. Go figure.
The glass door by the fridge is a walk in pantry. It's not huge, maybe 3' x3', but it is superbly handy and I can't imagine living without it now. It holds so much food it's scary.
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Nothing really new to add in the way of what's positive with the collection.
Over the past several weeks I've been going through my collection and thinning down what I do and do not want though and it's been a huge chore. Lots of duplication in areas so that part is fairly easy, but I'll be offloading the Hasbro ships (except the Shuttle and Sandcrawler), many of the playsets and beasts and piles of my carded figures. Still an astronomical amount of stuff left behind including a full, loose set of figures with lots of extra imperials about. Crazy stuff.
One of the most annoying aspects though is not finding stuff I know I have. Even recent stuff like the Kir Kanos 2 pack. I can find the comic, which I most assuredly did not get anywhere else but the 2 pack, but I can't find the damn figures. I have a second carded version but I'm really reluctant to open it because there's no need given I know the figures are in the house. Somewhere.
I'm hoping to get going on the room in the basement again this fall. I've made exactly zero progress since February 11th when I posted pictures last of that room's frame. I need to finish that last wall with access door; frame in a bookshelf under the window and frame in a closet. Once that's done I'll get the subfloor in, throw up some drywall and it'll be ready to paint and put in a floor. Really it's probably only about 2-3 weekends worth of work but I just can't get motivated enough to get it done.
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Finally an update, though no pics yet. My brother in law came into town for the holidays, so for the past couple of days we've been going gangbusters on the collection room. We've finished out the framing for the room, plus did some additional framing along the stairwell and utility room. I don't think we'll get all the framing done in the basement by the end of the weekend but we'll have made a serious dent.
Finished out the electrical for the room as well. I'd previously not put in the cable hookup for the computer or television so I got around to that yesterday. I couldn't find the cable splitters that I knew I had, so bought new ones. Naturally last night when cleaning up I found both that I had needed. I still need to put in a phone line but I'll get that on the other side of the room where the other side of the wall won't be finished for a while. Put in the wiring for the pot lights and a couple of extra outlets that are switched right by the door. The way we ended up putting the door for the room left basically enough room on either side for the Sideshow premium Obi and Vader I have, meaning I can switch on the sabers without turning on the room lights. The original plan had been to hook the outlets into a door switch so that when the door opened the sabers would come on first, but I felt that would burn them out sooner than I'd like. I do need to find a switch that has a simple switch for the outlets and a dimmer for the room lights. Nothing like that at the Home Depots here, so I'll probably have to make a trip to a real lighting store to locate that.
We put up the drywall and did the first round of tape/mud as well. Once that's done a few more coats we'll wait to paint. Unfortunately I have to get a building permit for this and have it inspected for construction and electrical. The electrical isn't supposed to be covered over yet, but is on two walls. I'm hoping the inspector will be fine looking at the electrical from the areas around the room and on the exposed walls/ceiling. I'm planning on hiring a certified electrician to inspect and sign off on the permit as well to hopefully ease that process. If they're not happy, a couple of walls would have to come down and that would not be a happy thing. Since I haven't yet applied for the permit, I realistically can't get the inspection done too soon either. So I probably won't be getting to painting or getting shelves up until the end of January or into February, once the inspection comes and is passed, presuming it is. But actual progress is being made.
For flooring we'll put down Dricore subfloor and then I have to decide whether I want to do carpet or laminate flooring. I'm going to see how warm the room is with just the Dricore and if it's OK, I'll go with laminate since I can lay that down easily enough myself. If I find I need a little more warmth, I'll probably go with carpet.
The rest of the basement is going along pretty well. While waiting for the drywall mud to dry, we've been working on the other bits. Framing along the stairs will be done and that drywall will be up. We moved the light at the bottom of the stairs around to where it should be and hooked up the threeway switches at top and bottom as required by code. We should hopefully get most of the rest of the framing done. I think we'll have to leave one wall, about 12-14 feet long not done, but that'll be fairly easy to do. We'll also not be touching the bathroom wall at this point. Well, that's not quite true - two of the walls are already up as they're outer walls of the house and when that other wall I just mentioned is done, three walls will be up. We'll leave the last until we get the bathroom fixtures in.
I need to get the pot lights up, or at least the boxes for them, for the rest of the basement prior to having the electrical inspection done. We have two sections in what will be an L-shaped basement, so four lights in one section and 6-8 in the other. I'll need to do lights in the bathroom and utility room as well, but that shouldn't be too bad and can probably be done later. I need to add about 3-4 more outlets and the electrical will be done.
So the room should be done probably within a month or so, depending on when the inspection is scheduled and whether we have to rip down any walls to adjust the electrical. I imagine it will take part of February to get the shelving up. After that I will start to get the stuff out of boxes, but that will take a long time to get it all on display. But finally, finally some progress.
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Great update Brent, it's gotta be a good feeling to be moving along. And to have such a helpful brother in law.
The original plan had been to hook the outlets into a door switch so that when the door opened the sabers would come on first, but I felt that would burn them out sooner than I'd like.
Door switch? How does that work? I would love to get my hands on something like that.
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Congratulations on the construction Brent. It's nice to see nice things happen to deserving people and nice to know that things are continuing to go well with your home and collection.
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Door switch? How does that work? I would love to get my hands on something like that.
Still too lazy to upload pics, but to answer this question:
Essentially the contact is in the door latch. Converse to the door, when the door is closed, the circuit is open so the power does not flow. When the door is opened, the circuit is closed and the power is on. I didn't want to wire something like that myself, as the tolerances for the door latch seemed a bit close for me to work with. On top of that you can't function really with the door closed, unless you wire in a secondary switch as well. Blech, I don't really need more three way switches around as it is. Plus if you wire it into something like an outlet for the Sideshow Vader/Obi like I wanted, you run the light up function more than you really want to. So with the outlets switched, I can turn them on or off as I like.
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I just hope you're able to get some pictures up for us before that new Guns 'N Roses album comes out. :)
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For flooring we'll put down Dricore subfloor
You won't regret that decision. I put Dricore down when I did my basement a few years back and absolutely love it - not only does it keep the floor warm but also protects against moisture - but you already know that.
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I just hope you're able to get some pictures up for us before that new Guns 'N Roses album comes out. :)
Ouch. It's not my fault I'm more interested in guitar hero and drinking beer, is it?
Anyway, pictures.
So as described above, we finished out the framing and drywall on the collection room/downstairs office/den or fifth bedroom (I have to measure the window opening to see if it complies with City regs to be called that). The room itself at the wide points is 13 x9 and where it narrows closer to the door is only 7 feet wide instead of the 9.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/PC260133.jpg)
We added the switches and a couple of outlets by the door. They aren't there for the above pic, but are visible in the picture below. The outlets are switched and I'm hoping to put my Sideshow Ben and Vader on either side of the door, so the sabers can be lit.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/PC290142.jpg)
We also popped on the door. It's 36" wide to allow for stuff to get in and out of the room more easily, but it's actually a stupid thing since the door at the top of the stairs is 34" wide so is the limiting factor. Still, if we can get it down the stairs, it can get in the room more easily.
We also walled in the utility room on the other side plus the outside wall in between the collection room and utility room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/PC270139.jpg)
After that we just kept right on going, walling in the stairwell per code requirements.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/PC290144.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/PC290146.jpg)
Now I just have to finish the lighting hookup for the room and then I can call in the inspector for approval. Of course, I have to make the application to do the building and install the electrical before that and then wait an appropriate amount of time to accomplish the work and then I can actually call in the inspector. Ahem. :-X
So it'll be about a month before that all happens. When it does, we'll prime and paint the walls then put in the subfloor/flooring. Depending on how the timing goes, we'll probably put in a drop ceiling before the collection starts migrating in just so we don't knock piles of crap over repeatedly. We aren't putting in the flooring yet simply because they could make us take down the outer walls if they want to look at the wiring. It's highly doubtful, but possible if the inspector isn't in a good mood. But there's ample space to inspect the electrical elsewhere, so I don't see it happening. Still, I've taken it as far as I want to prior to an inspection.
Assuming we pass the inspection, we'll do the stuff mentioned and then it's on to the rest of the basement, though there's no pressing need to get it done at the moment. We need to finish the backyard (deck, shed, garden, patio) this summer first, so that's where that cash will go. During the remaining winter months I'll try and get the rest of the lighting wired and in place, plus build a hefty "bookshelf" to hold DVDs/CDs/etc. along one wall and put a door around the electrical panel. I'll also putter along getting more Dricore down as we go. It's actually not too bad as temporary flooring especially since it seems to warm the room by quite a bit.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/PC290144.jpg)
I see you remembered the most important part of any home remodeling project - the beer.
What are those studs spaced at, 24" on center? Is that standard in Canada? It's acceptable here in the States but the standard and common practice is 16" oc.
Looking good.
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Yeah, 24" on center. The wall you see is actually unusual, since all the other walls we built are 16" on center. We were running out of 2x4s and didn't want to go get more, so that wall along the stairs ended up 24" instead :-X Thirty years down the road when we move out, it'll really screw with someone's mind when they're hanging stuff and everything else in the house is 16" but that one stupid wall is 24"
As for the beer, yeah, we actually went through quite a bit, but we didn't pull it out until the circular saw was done for the day. Drills and beer = ok.
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So, 4 months after I said this:
Now I just have to finish the lighting hookup for the room and then I can call in the inspector for approval. Of course, I have to make the application to do the building and install the electrical before that and then wait an appropriate amount of time to accomplish the work and then I can actually call in the inspector. Ahem.
So it'll be about a month before that all happens. When it does, we'll prime and paint the walls then put in the subfloor/flooring. Depending on how the timing goes, we'll probably put in a drop ceiling before the collection starts migrating in just so we don't knock piles of crap over repeatedly. We aren't putting in the flooring yet simply because they could make us take down the outer walls if they want to look at the wiring. It's highly doubtful, but possible if the inspector isn't in a good mood. But there's ample space to inspect the electrical elsewhere, so I don't see it happening. Still, I've taken it as far as I want to prior to an inspection.
Dragging one's ass is an artform I have mastered.
Some 2 months after that was posted I finally got downtown and applied for the building permit ($65) and the electrical permit ($65). I did wait the requisite month or so before calling in the inspector and we only had a couple of minor things to do. One was to put 40/40's around the wires as they went into the light fixtures, something very logical as the bare wire was in contact with the sharp edge of the casing of the light fixture itself. Otherwise everything was pretty cool and he actually seemed somewhat impressed. I got the go ahead to finish the room so after another delay I got aroound to doing some more stuff.
The crappiest part about doing drywall is the sanding of the tape. I had the great good fortune of having the filter blow off inside the shop-vac and blow about four pounds of drywall dust all over the room and me. I have no doubt what I'll look like with grey hair now anyway. After sanding it was on to priming and the drywall just sucked in the primer so I ended up putting two coats on the drywall and three where the drywall mud had been to hide it better. Primer was just straight white in color.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4130342.jpg)
You can see the pot lights in the room there at the ceiling also. We'll be going with a drop ceiling simply because we have so damn many pipes and wires everywhere. That'll be the last thing we do and won't be for a while. I'm ok with the pot lights, but had a heck of a time deciding what kind of lighting to put in. Incandescent bulbs are to be banned in Canada in 2012 and those are the usual fixtures for potlights. The others are the smaller halogens, but they put out more heat than I want and don't work well on dimmers, so I went with PAR20 Halogens, which are the larger bulbs with a screw in base and work with dimmer switches. There's only four there, but should be enough light since I'm hoping to light most of the cabinets I want to eventually put in.
I got around to starting painting tonight. For color, I thought about going with black, of course, like any good geek, but just too dark a room then unless I decide to go Goth at some point and that's fairly unlikely. I contemplated grey as well, but I think the carpet I put in will be grey and any shelves I put in can be painted grey as well. So I opted for a blue, which I hope turns out to be a bluish grey color, but I'm not so sure it will. Won't know fully until it's dry. But the blue is quite neutral and could be suitable for a bedroom down the road as well, eliminating the need to repaint possibly.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4130346.jpg)
If you're really curious, the color is "Winter Lake" :-X I hope to be done painting later this week and get the subfloor in as well. Then go and pick out some carpet, start getting some shelves up and the ceiling in. Hoping to make an Ikea run in May for some shelving (anyone know the length of the box that the Detolf and Bertby shelves are packed in?). Ideally I'd come home with two Bertby and three Detolf units.
So I'm guessing my entire collection won't see the light of day until fall, simply because I won't spend enough time in the basement during the summer months. Still, progress, however slow, is being made.
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Nice to see things coming together.
anyone know the length of the box that the Detolf and Bertby shelves are packed in?
Detolf (http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PackagePopUpView?productId=91074&storeId=3&langId=-15)
Article number:10011055
Width:41 cm
Height:9 cm
Length:164 cm
Weight:40.4 kg - [88 lbs? are they really that heavy?]
Bertby (http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PackagePopUpView?productId=89958&storeId=3&langId=-15)
Article number:00093136
Width:43 cm
Height:4 cm
Length:194 cm
Weight:19.5 kg
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Seeing your collection packed, house foundation layed, house completed, doing the basement..etc.
It's so interesting! ;D
Wish I could built my own house too :-[ :-[
All the best and hope to see your entire collection real soon ;)
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It's coming.....
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Tease. >:(
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This is like Chinese Democracy all over again. :'(
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This is like Chinese Democracy all over again. :'(
True dat. To wit:
I don't think I'll have any display space for over a year, so that's going to be fairly disturbing during that time frame. Collecting just to put it away won't be much fun :-\
So it looks like it will be about 18 months from now before I see the bulk of my collection again.
to box up.
It will be a long time though before I have a room for all my crap. We don't have any family here in town, so everyone comes to visit and we've been wanting to have a couple of spare rooms, so now we will, but I can't make one into a toy room without affecting that. So it's about waiting until the basement is done. :'(
Tons to do, but I know as soon as spring comes I have to finish the fence (about 100' left), build a deck and get some landscaping done so we're not living in a mud pit again. That all means my room realistically won't be done until next winter at the earliest.
Still in storage, going to be there a long time, probably until Christmas '07 or so ::)
So the room should be done probably within a month or so, depending on when the inspection is scheduled and whether we have to rip down any walls to adjust the electrical. I imagine it will take part of February to get the shelving up. After that I will start to get the stuff out of boxes, but that will take a long time to get it all on display. But finally, finally some progress.
So I'm guessing my entire collection won't see the light of day until fall, simply because I won't spend enough time in the basement during the summer months. Still, progress, however slow, is being made.
Not much I can offer more than that really. I did seriously drag my ass. Various reasons. I did finish the fence; built a shed; put in a pool; built a deck so the summers went according to plan. The last straw was the carpet, which seemed no matter where I went it was a huge wait. It finally went in today, so tomorrow I'll do the trim/baseboards and the room will be done. Pictures soon, but I will say the feeling I have now is not relief, rather I'm totally overwhelmed at how and where to put stuff out. :-\ I have three, eight foot shelves (12" deep) so I've got a bit of space, but I imagine the loose star wars will eat that up in no time. Plus I'm still trying to figure out what to use for risers to elevate figures towards the back.
So very, very much crap. If it's all on display by the end of winter I'll be impressed.
And the Chinese Democracy comment is well placed.
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Pictures soon, but I will say the feeling I have now is not relief, rather I'm totally overwhelmed at how and where to put stuff out. :-\
Boy, do I remember that feeling. When we moved to Kelowna, it took me over a year to set up my room because it was such a daunting task and I kept having to reorganize things to make them fit on various shelves and such.
I'm still trying to figure out what to use for risers to elevate figures towards the back.
Those expandable kitchen shelves / spice racks are pretty damn handy. You can find them at WalMart and Home Outfitters.
(http://www.kitchencollection.com/prodimages/lg822195.jpg)
http://www.kitchencollection.com/Temp_Products.cfm?sku=00822195&Location=RelatedProduct
Good luck Brent.
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Thanks Jesse, those do look interesting and I'll definitely look into them. Basically the shelves I have are 12" deep, so a base section, one about two inches high or so and another twice that is what I'm after. The shelves hold six figures deep with stands and about 7 rows per foot, so 42 figures per foot. Eight foot shelves should hold about 336 figures total. I figure I have well over that, but two shelves should take care of the vintage, modern and Kubricks/bustups (I hope).
Anyway, some pictures. I did finish the trim (less doing some touch up work around the nails and joints, but that can be done later. Quickly first a pair of pictures of the shed (8x10) and the deck (16x16 - still needs the railings finished):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030011.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030012.jpg)
So the room itself ended up being basically 9x13 with a slight jog near the door that eats up a couple of feet of width. Lots of bedrooms around in new houses these days are 9x9, so down the road this is good as a fifth bedroom in the house when we sell. We did the paint and the design for the most part as a bedroom with that in mind, though I'd have to add a closet.
Towards the door from inside the room:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030015.jpg)
Looking into the room from outside:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030014.jpg)
I've started putting some stuff out already and it will be slow going. First up is vinty stuff and some titaniums (and iPod). With due respect to guys that have their stuff lined up like that, I'm not a big fan, so the need for the risers to display a little better. I'm not as ambitious as Rob, but I'd like to have clearer views of things.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030016.jpg)
The other end where I'm going to display my droids in this display I absconded with from Walmart. You can see some Kuby's and other stuff in there. After the vintage stuff though, I was most anxious to get the Simpsons stuff out. I hadn't seen any of it in so long and I really missed Homer.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030017.jpg)
Some Simpsons shots, if only to taunt Scott, who I still cannot believe he parted with that stuff. I'm a bit amiss about the display of this stuff as I have a number of playsets not even up there and really no room. I'm thinking more shelves on another wall with way more clearance so I can do a bit of stacking. I'm missing a few Groundskeeper Willie figures I'll have to pick up as well.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030019.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030020.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030018.jpg)
By far the worst part is realizing I've used up about a third of the shelf space for roughly four boxes. I've got easily 40 more to go :o So more shelves or something will obviously be in order. I've moaned about Ikea stuff before, but it will be a while for that stuff, so in the interim I'll have to make due. I'm probably having the most grief from how to display my diecast stuff. A Bertby would be ideal. :-\
So I'll plug away at this stuff over the next while and update as stuff gets out.
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Looks good so far Brent...although I think Frankenberry's eyeing your beer! :D
I think we all feel your pain on the space/display issue. I'm still tweaking things here and there and now I need to find a spot for my vintage playsets and vehicles that UPS will deliver this week.
I have a feeling none of us will ever be finished with our collection displays. :)
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I have a feeling none of us will ever be finished with our collection displays. :)
My new year's resolution is to be caught up by end of Feb - we'll see how that works.
Great pics Brent - can't wait to see more!
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It must have felt good to finally break into those boxes, despite being pretty damn overwhelming at the same time.
Is that door wider than usual? It looks a lot wider than what I'm used to in our house. Or maybe my eyes are just fooling me.
BTW, look out, your daughter is growing up! She's older than my first girl, but I still didn't expect her to be that tall. ;)
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Yeah, it was fun seeing stuff. Until I sat down and figured out just how much stuff I have. Those three shelves I'm not even sure will accomodate all the SW stuff. I have seven rather large boxes of loose modern stuff, probably between 500-1000 figures :o That's ignoring Kubricks and Bustups which I thought I'd get up there too. Plus the IJ stuff. :-\ There's so much Marvel, DC, BTVS, Futurama, Simpsons (which you can see most of already), Family Guy, Sportspicks, Diecast and other crap as well. On top of that are the statues, maquettes, busts, posters. None of that counts the carded or boxed vintage and modern stuff. Honestly, I thought the room was big. Not a chance it's close to big enough.
The door is 36" wide. I think normal is 34" or even 30". I'd wanted to have no problem moving stuff around, so we planned for the extra width but the defining factor is the doorway at the top of the stairs is 34" wide, so not really much point in having the extra width. Too late now, but it is still nice for getting stuff into the room and not rapping the knuckles.
The kid is a weed that just won't stop growing. Most people think she's 10-11 years old when they see her.
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I know what you mean Brent. When we moved in a year ago, I had all my stuff in large rubbermaid totes (about two dozen total) and they were stacked floor to ceiling in my office/collection room. I had planned on putting all my carded figures on the wall along with a few shelves to display loose figures/vehicles but that idea got tossed when I wallpapered the place with figures and wasn't done! ::)
I changed focus and bought 6 bracketless shelves from Lowes to display some ships (TIE fighters and the Imperial Shuttle ended up there) and some battle scenes on and a couple of organizers which I decided to display a number of my vehicles in (mainly Jedi Starfighters and a few others...one set of organizers was designed to fit in the corner which I filled with loose figures, clones, sandtroopers, wookies etc).
I then purchased two TV tables which I put back-to-back and made the top look like a Rebel Hangar scene with all my rebel fighters (minus the snow speeders) and the BMF Falcon. The shelves are filled with various figures (Jedi, Sith, Politicians, a rogues gallery (basically all the aliens that didn't fit into my Jabba's Palace dio), a medical set-up where half is the Luke in Bacta tank scene and the other is the rebuilding of Vader scene, and an EU/concept shelf where I have my concept vehicles and a few random things that don't fit anywhere else).
Even with this new set-up I ended up putting my Star Wars Weekends beanies and LE/SE Sabers in another room! I'm sure I could've done it a different way, but I like what I have so far...and I'm not quite done yet. ;)
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No "other" space allowed for me, so some serious culling will be in order.
I went through the boxes of loose figures last night. I can't shake the feeling that I am missing a box or two (so maybe 200-300 other figures) but I actually felt better last night after getting an idea on stuff. At some point along the line I must have realized I'd actually not want one of absolutely everything. Oh there's 30 or so Luke Skywalker figures for sure, but I was quite surprised to see only 4-5 Boba Fett's. Definitely going to cull back on the armies and Jedi and the prequel stuff is likely to go down to far fewer figures. It was also interesting to see some absolute crap in there and some old stuff that actually wasn't that bad. The Luke Skywalker from the Death Star Clash cinema scene is really not that different from the Throne Room Luke minus the action feature. On quick glance last night it actually looked better and it's gotta be 7-8 years older.
I'm a little more optimistic about getting all the SW vintage/OT/PT figures and the Indy stuff onto those three shelves. Possibly the GG bustups, Kubricks and titaniums as well. If I could manage to get all that stuff up there I would be quite pleased. There also aren't as many sportspicks as I thought there'd be, so that was a plus.
On the down side I went through the Marvel/DC stuff last night too and oh how I wish that stuff was in the 3.75" scale. It is going to take up a huge amount of space. I expect a bunch of the stuff I bought for BAF parts will go by the wayside as well. The larger scale, be it Marvel, DC, BTVS, Trek, Movie maniacs or anything else is nice, but horrid for display.
I'm already making plans for downsizing on a number of items. I've set myself a space limit for the Gentle Giant stuff which is pretty substantial as the shelving units are five shelves, each 14"x36". But if I can't get all the stuff out there, it'll have to be sold off. Also contemplating moving out some of the other stuff that's higher end including some of the MR helmets. While the task is daunting, even at a fraction of what I paid I figure I can get a couple of grand back out of the extra stuff. Probably the best news I heard was from my daughter telling me that all the boys in her class are star wars nuts and want to see my room. I see a potential for a garage sale there :D
So I've got to make my risers now for the shelves and then get stuff out as I'd like. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with styrofoam and cut it to fit, glue it together and paint it. Dirt cheap as you can buy the insulation sheets for fairly cheap and easily cut them to size. That should make it pretty easy and clean looking plus easy to cut to fit if I need some larger spaces for something. I'll get on that before I put out too much more stuff as the shelves are already cluttered and stuff (like the Simpsons) will have to be taken down to allow for adjust the shelves. Need to figure out how I want to display the figures as well. Possibly chronologically by character; maybe the traditional by movie, not sure.
diecast stuff is going to be a bit of a bitch.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1030014.jpg)
Woah, is that a ghostly spirit I see there? That's some crazy ****...
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So I've got to make my risers now for the shelves and then get stuff out as I'd like. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with styrofoam and cut it to fit, glue it together and paint it.
Neat idea, I'm curious to see how that works. 8)
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Well, the risers worked out pretty well and were extremely cheap. Two sheets of 4x8 1" insulating styrofoam for $20 and the paint was already here (same color as the shelves and eventually the walls in the rest of the basement). It's not perfect and it was a bit hard to cut at times in terms of getting a really smooth edge on the cuts. The styrofoam tends to be a bit rough if the edge isn't sharp enough and starts shredding a bit. I'm not 100% convinced I love the idea, it's really solid but it does what I wanted it to do and you can stick things directly into it as well which is a plus.
So I proceeded to haul out the SW 3.75" stuff and get thoroughly depressed ::) Honestly, I thought that I'd be able to get the loose stuff all out on the three shelves - prequel, OT, vintage, bustups and Kubricks. Hah, fat chance! There's nothing in the collection I truly dislike or feel all that bad about buying (JarJar and Ewoks notwithstanding) but a big chunk of that stuff has got to go. I really am not all that keen about it, but I'm going to have to pare down a lot I think. My display style at the moment is really simple, so why I need 9 clone pilots for example is silly. If it was more diorama based or like Rob's, then sure, it makes sense but I think any and all of the armies will end up well thinned. I'm also pretty comfortable with the idea that I can get buy with a reasonable progression of a character through the trilogy (ies) without having to have one of every release of a character, so Anakin will get cut back pretty substantially too.
Still working on the one wall and no intention of doing anything else in the room until I get that portion where I want. Here's the whole view:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140020.jpg)
I think on the wall that is at the back of the room, I'll put up some more shelves in line with these to form a corner area and they'll end up about 6 feet long as well. I'll probably put the vintage boxed stuff I have there to keep the linearity of display going and keep SW all along that side.
As for the rest of the pics, just closer up views of what is out so far.
Vintage first...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140014.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140015.jpg)
So you can now see what the shelves look like on closer inspection with the risers in place. I think it does a very adequate job of raising the figures just enough that you can get a better look at them. They're not all buried in quite the same way as a single level display and I can actually access them pretty easily without knocking the rest down.
Top shelf is prequel stuff:
Episode I
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140017.jpg)
Episode II
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140018.jpg)
Episode III and clone overlap
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140019.jpg)
I'd really like to get all the prequel stuff, the EU stuff I do have and the Clone wars stuff all onto that one shelf. As it stands, I've got at least 20 figures that don't fit up there and the EU/CW stuff isn't even remotely there and that's another 100 or so figures :-\ So by my early calculation of 336 figures per shelf, I need to cull out about 100 figures to get the other stuff up there and have no room for expansion when other stuff comes out. So probably half of what is there needs to go. Ugh.
I started putting out the Kubs as well and I'm a little concerned about the room I have set aside for those too. They don't come out all that often but I plan on keeping up.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P1140016.jpg)
As I've been putting out more, I can't find my old Anakin chase Kubrick from series 7 :o :'( Talk about depressing. I'm pretty sure it's around here somewhere, but not at the moment. Anyone got a spare? :-\
So once I have the PT stuff culled, I'll get the risers on the middle shelf and see if I can't get the OT stuff up there. I'm pretty sure I won't get the vintage, Kubricks, Bustups and titaniums all on one shelf, so I expect that I'll end up with more shelving than I wanted dedicated to SW. After the SW stuff goes out (and the vinty stuff will be a huge pain to deal with, I have no idea how to go about displaying the carded stuff) I'll start working on the busts on the other side of the room and then onto the Marvel, DC, Simpsons, Movie Maniacs, Sportspicks, BTVS, etc. If I'm done by spring, I'll be amazed.
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Nice so far Brent. I also like the WIP pictures, you are definitely making good progress.
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Picked up a shelf for the Gentle Giant stuff. It's no Detolf, but I think it will be ok ($30 ok). Six feet high and shelves are 14" x 36". I'm trying to decide whether I want the shelves on the wall or these for other things like sportspicks or Marvel Legends. At that price, I might pick up another just to see how it works out. If I don't like it for the collection, I can always put it in the workshop or garage.
Full pic:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170044-1.jpg)
Top shelf with Vader stuff. Can't tell, but one of the maquettes in the background is the black and white version, the other is the regular. Really not a hole hill of beans in terms of difference. ::) Chrome and regular, first release Vader plus the two PT Vader busts (yeah, I paid full price on the revealed bust :-[) Also the super deformed Vader is up there. I think the shelf is just the tiniest bit too high, so I won't be able to get the Vader 400% Kubrick up there. I also might move the MR Vader hilt in front of the Sideshow Vader when I pull that out. Would like to get hold of the OT Obi MR hilt as well so it can sit in front of Obi in similar fashion. I may move the black and white maquettes to the top and move Vader stuff down as there is more space there, but I'll have to see.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170045-1.jpg)
OT busts. I'm missing a couple but I think I just haven't found that box. Also a couple of things still down at Jim's place in Minneapolis, so those will come around soon enough. Obviously I'd like to get the busts in the back elevated for better display, but I was just trying to get an idea of how much space I needed. I was thinking two of these racks for the busts, but one might be sufficient considering I have a fair bit of space left over and I'm by no means a completeist with this stuff.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170046-1-1.jpg)
PT stuff. Not too much missing here. Galactic Marine for sure and some stuff I don't own such as the AOTC clones (white, yellow, red, blue) as I don't see myself going after those any time soon. I think the yellow and white are possible, the other two are likely to stay out of my collection short of a lottery win. I can spend a grand on something else. I already dropped the chrome Jango bust :-X
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170047-1-1.jpg)
The black and white OT maquettes. I was really torn on keeping these and for a while if I could have got what I paid for them, I probably would have sold them. Thankfully I didn't because now that they're out of the box I really do like them a lot. I'm not at all unhappy that GG stopped making them, but I'm happy I have these. I might move the Vader back down off the top shelf to be with these. Not sure how Bobby Hull got there, but at least the black stormtrooper is guarding my beers from his azz.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170048-1-1.jpg)
Lastly the colored maquettes. Han and Luke are in Minneapolis currently and I still need to get hold of Obi and the Emperor. I sold off the colored Boba Fett because I didn't really think I needed three Fett maquettes. If I do, I'd prefer to have the b/w, cartoon and new version with Han Carbonite instead. Some of these pieces are so bloody delicate too, it'd be a nightmare to rebox them and ship them with no expectation of damage.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170049-1.jpg)
Some other crap came out of storage and is resting in a nonpermanent location on the window ledge. Lovely pink insulation backing the window which isn't really keeping the cold out so well (already!). Couple of Kubrick 400% and some deformed stuff, plus the Indy bust and three of the GG artifacts.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P2170050-1.jpg)
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Wow! Not a speck of dust, most impressive! I don't have near the stuff you do, and I'm dusting constantly. Looks Great!
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That shelf looks massive! I'm looking forward to seeing the busts displayed on risers. 8)
I think the Vader maquettes would look better displayed with the other respective maquettes. They must be kinda hidden at the back of that top shelf.
Keep the pics coming!
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Jesus! thats alot!!! ;D ::) love it!
I belive you have some of the Droids Tv Series?
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Very cool shelf. I don't collect these, but they look sweet and I like the way you have them set up with some room between them. My only reco is to tuck your power cord behind the shelf sir. Oh, and finish your beer before it gets warm or spills.
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Finally some tracks from Canadian Democracy are hitting the internet!!!!
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More stuff out now. Daunting task this is.
Indy (oh, there is a slight difference between the two pack and single pack Marion figures from the modern line if you look at the paint application at the bottom of her pant legs. Trivial, but they are different):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070083-1.jpg)
Sportspicks. I've managed to cull these over the years from having all the hockey regulars and 95% of the variants down to what I really want to keep. If you look closely at Bobby Hull, the 3" exclusive from the Coyotes game where he was a giveaway is sitting. Nice piece really and it means I have Hull in both white and blue WHA Jets Jerseys. I also have Selanne in a blue #13 Jersey which is a custom by Jomo. I expect I'll pick up the next version of Selanne they release later this year as it is supposed to be another Jets Jersey.
I've still got a few to put out including my $5 Gordie Howe, Northstars Modano and 'Fro Moss. Didn't bother with pics of the basketball but Bird, Maravich and Erving regulars and variants are there from Legends 1. Images move from right side of shelf to left.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070084-1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070085-1.jpg)
Simpsons got moved from earlier pictures, so a little different setup.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070086.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070087.jpg)
Family guy and Ash.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070088.jpg)
Futurama, Frankenberry and BTVS stuff.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070089.jpg)
DC
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070090.jpg)
FF and Xmenish stuff
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070091.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070092.jpg)
Still have way, waaaaaaaaaaay too much crap. Gotta put out Avengers, Spidey, DD and more of this and boatloads of Star Wars still around.
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Looks good Brent!
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Very nice Brent, always look forward to seeing updates to your collection pics.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P4070089.jpg)
Army of Darkness rocks. 8)
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Brent --
Wow! Everything looks fantastic! You have really made quite a bit of progress - though it seems that you are fast running out of space ;). Please update with some more photos when you get a chance!
BTW -- when does the pool open?
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It's funny, I couldn't care less about my collection right now to be completely honest. I haven't done anything with it for some time, other than to sell a bunch of the Marvel Legends figures off. Basically thinning the collection, so no new update photos to include.
But since this thread has had at least as much about the "new" house (was then, isn't now) I figured I should add a few more photos since the backyard is finally nearing completion. The backyard was pretty empty but we added the pool, that was done professionally. Following that, I built the shed at the back of the yard and then finished the deck off as well. The raised garden was installed as well, though it's pretty small for a garden (7x10) but enough to grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The last part was getting in the stone patio and whadda pain in the ass that was. 128 stones, easy enough. Three yards of gravel, one yard of sand. The bitch was the four yards of heavy, sticky clay we had to dig out to put the rest of it in, but it's done now.
So three pictures for you:
Backyard from southwest corner where you can see the deck, shed and patio on the other side of the pool.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P6030096.jpg)
Patio shot taken from the deck. Yeah, I need to plant the garden.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P6030097.jpg)
Finally the patio taken from an upstairs window.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/P6030095.jpg)
Not too much left to do in the backyard now, finally. Still have two walls to build in the basement, wire in the electrical and speakers, then get a bathroom installed, do the drywall, subfloor and ceiling. Lots of work yet.
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In a word....waterslide. :D
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Your yard looks fantastic Brent.
I like the waterslide idea too. ;)
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It's funny, once the pool was in I talked to the wife about a waterslide :D I was talking about one from the roof of the two story house but she didn't find it so funny. That said, the usual slide for a pool these days runs around $4000 installed :o Don't see it happening. Not much out there for used slides either I'm afraid because no one realizes what they're worth plus the older ones probably don't meet safety standards :-\
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No slide aside, love that pool and deck man. Very cool setup!
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So maybe I should post some pics of toys? Probably a good idea. Not much happening besides insulating the garage anyway. Aiming to get the electrical, lighting, subfloor and drywall done in the basement this winter so those can come later.
The most suitable thing to show I guess is the vintage stuff in storage, so carded and boxed stuff for the most part. I needed to see what I had and where I was so maybe I can figure out where I'm going ultimately. Vintage prices don't seem to be waning at all so I'm not sure if I even want to try and finish out some of the aspects of the collection. I'm really happy with the loose collection and am only missing a few pieces I want that way.
So, let's start with carded vintage figures. Star Wars cards first and at one time I had a goal of getting all 12 12-backs for $100 each. Not going to happen, I know, but these six I scored for under $550 total.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0008.jpg)
Obviously the more expensive ones are left and some of these (C-3PO/Leia) are not in the best of condition. I really wanted to finish out these but now not so sure.
Other SW carded figures:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0011.jpg)
The Gonk Droid is what is giving me the willies with carded stuff. I bought it sealed and the glue just dried up, as a result of time and the whole bubble, figure and all, fell off. :-\ Is that the future for all the cards? The other R2 is a 21-back without the UPC. ::) Don't ebay drunk, especially when you're eyeing up something like a 12-back R2.
Empire carded stuff:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0004-1.jpg)
The second Imperial Commander has a good tear out of the front that's just beside the glare. I got it with a lot for a good price, so didn't mind owning it but the other is much sweeter. Both are 41 backs.
ROTJ stuff:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0007.jpg)
I got a great deal on the two pack and even though the bubble is just smashed I still like it. Hey, for $10? The Vader and Obi ar emy stand ins for the 12-backs and I really dig the trilogo stuff and was making a great start on that stuff just before the market exploded. I know some stuff was going to be outrageous anyway but most of it went nuts. So I'm good for Jedi with Jedi cards or preferably trilogo cards. More of those below:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0005.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0006.jpg)
I was farting around on the mini-rigs for a while too. I was after MISB or mint with box and all inserts. Some came in lots so that explains the duplicates. The triplicates I'll blame on booze/ebay combo again.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0001.jpg)
I wanted some loose beasts and managed to score some boxes with them too. One Tauntaun has the inserts, the other doesn't but both are solid belly. The box on the Wampa is beat but the figure is nice and white. The combat glider and speeder bike are both sealed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0003.jpg)
A few odds and ends as well. The X-wing is opened but has the inserts and I think the stickers are still on the sheet. The cloud car is essentially loose. The land of the Jawas playset is complete but mostly loose and no inserts. It's pretty beat up. The Dagobah playset is still sealed, but water damaged on one side and the bottom, still in really nice shape though.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0002.jpg)
Finally a couple of loose ends. My only carded POTF figure, a B-wing pilot (I opened a damaged but complete A-Wing pilot to have a second loose one with my Droids figures). Finally a carded Sand Skimmer. I'd like to finish those out carded but I'm not sure I'm up for the $60-80 they'll command for each.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Morgbug/DSC_0012.jpg)
So some pretty glaring gaps left to fill, especially if I stick to my original release card approach (ROTJ/trilogo being interchangeable). I've got about 35 of 92 figures. Ugh. Might be time to sell or specialize.
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Some great looking stuff there Brent. I'm still amazed you paid less than $100 each for those 12-backs. Patience pays eh?
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Great collection of vintage Brent. Some of pieces are in really amazing condition. Hard to believe that stuff is 30+ years old.
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You have a pool and you didn't invite me up???? :-* I saw Frankenberry cereal the other day and thought of you - nice to see your figures finally made it out of their boxes!! :)
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You have a pool and you didn't invite me up???? :-* I saw Frankenberry cereal the other day and thought of you - nice to see your figures finally made it out of their boxes!! :)
You are officially invited up next summer. Road trip to the northwoods!
Frankenberry? Heh. I still have two boxes and they might have come from you Beth. Methinks it's time to crack one open.