Of new houses, new jobs and not enough time!

Yes, it's been a month since my last post, and similarly long for the podcast too - entirely my fault (we've two episodes recorded which I've been unable to finish editing as yet). Why is this? Well, I handed in my notice at work, and after a week was put on garden leave - you'd have thought that would mean plenty of time for model and game related activity, but it hasn't!

When we moved into our new house, we knew there were several elements that needed doing to it - the house was built sometime around 1750, and the prior owners had started renovations to the house such as damp-proofing and insulation of outer walls, plasterboarding ceilings, double-glazing windows etc. Unfortunately for them, things didn't work out for them, which meant we bought it as something of a work in progress.

In addition to the big stuff (mainly the kitchen which was about 30 years old), there's wall the usual stuff like decorating to our (and our children's) tastes. As always when you start these things, there's more work to do than you think, and it all takes time. Garden leave is ideal for this and a real bonus, but it doesn't leave much time for modelling, and that that there is, you're often too tired to start. For example - this mural my youngest daughter wanted on her wall took me a whole day!

That doesn't mean the gaming aspect has been completely neglected, but blog stuff takes time and a bit of forethought - taking pictures, editing, finding time to sit down and put it all together...which in the current environment is a less common convergence than you might expect!

So what have we done in this sphere? Well, we've managed a couple of games of Zombicide Prison Break, Oscar and I managed to convince my wife to play Cthulhu Wars (which she enjoyed - a major boon :-) ). I've been putting together and magnetising Taskforce ships, and also magnetising Planetfall bases for storage (which I will blog about separately).

The other big project I've been managing to fit in is the games room...this is a roughly 5m by 3m space at the top of the house (you can see it's little window at the front of the house above). This is now all insulated and partly kitted out - still a WiP with much to do, but it's a usable space now at least - here's a shot of it at the moment....that's a full 6' x 4' games table by the window, and the beams are the half-way split of the room

On the other side....

32" TV with DVD player and PS4, plus a large number of containers containing modelling and WWII reference books - once these are on a bookcase then a little sofa in front of the TV and it's a proper man-cave! Opposite all the gaming stuff there's still a bunch of boxes and storage things to be sorted for the house, so the space should get less cluttered over time (I hope!) - there are something like 5 containers of cuddly toys, for example!!!

So that's what the state of play is currently - sorry it's been a while but we'll be getting back into a regular rhythm soon, and there's plenty to blog about!