My collection boxed up and home construction photos

[Morgbug]

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



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.     Oh, and a windup R2 and the R2 from the Droid Factory playset.



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.



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?)



Last little bit of stuff is the three modern figures up there: the Georgetrooper Rob sent me that only took four months to arrive , 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



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

[JesseVader08]

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?

[Morgbug]

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. 

[Morgbug]

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. 

[Morgbug]

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.

[JesseVader08]

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.

[Darth_Anton]

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.

[Morgbug]

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.

[Rob]

I just hope you're able to get some pictures up for us before that new Guns 'N Roses album comes out.   

[ruiner]

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.

[Morgbug]

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. 



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.



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:



After that we just kept right on going, walling in the stairwell per code requirements. 






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. 

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. 

[Mikey D]

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. 

[Morgbug]

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   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. 

[Morgbug]

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. 



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. 



If you're really curious, the color is "Winter Lake"    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.

[JesseVader08]

Nice to see things coming together.

anyone know the length of the box that the Detolf and Bertby shelves are packed in?

Detolf

Article number:10011055
Width:41 cm
Height:9 cm
Length:164 cm
Weight:40.4 kg - [88 lbs?  are they really that heavy?]

Bertby

Article number:00093136
Width:43 cm
Height:4 cm
Length:194 cm
Weight:19.5 kg