I'm Calling it Done

 I wasn't at the club last week so nothing to report wargame wise, apart from having cleaned and primed some early war Germans which I probably do not need but decided that I might at some time. As readers will know ever since I retired I had plans to convert the Post Office, a very large room in my house, something the council could not get their head around until I had spent a load of money unnecessarily to convince them, into my wargame room/study.

The work was started during the last week of January and this was the beginning of a big headache for us, all my wargaming paraphernalia including all the troops had to be found space in our living quarters, under beds, in cupboards and along walls. Then from first thing in the morning the builders appeared to destroy the Post Office, build a new ceiling, new floor and new walls along with a shower room and toilet in the old store cupboard. They managed all this through the front of the old shop and even built the new outer wall inside before taking the horrible shop front away. The worst thing to remove was the now redundant safe, this weighed a ton and they impressed me by getting the thing outside where a tractor borrowed from a local farmer had to be used to get it on the back of a scrap wagon. They did manage to drop it once and the pavement will forever have a large scar on it.

As the build progressed and the new outer wall was finished the old shop front was taken down and then the plumber, electrician and joiner had to use our front door, this meant I had to be up, booted and spurred by 0800 hrs to let them in. The front now has to be rough casted and a stone wall built along the pavement in line with next door so that I can reclaim my long lost garden, or rather the wife's. This is supposed to happen next week.

Also with the inside sorted it was now the painter took who took over, I was continuously asked which colours I wanted and continuously ignored so I got Cornforth White! Bookcases would be required and a couple of small tables so Ikea got the order, I even had to go there, several hours I will never get back at this stage, the troops etc. would go on garage shelving, I got some excellent stuff from Rhino Racking. I had thought of getting a wargame table built for me, about 15ft in length but after some serious thought and the price tag I decided to stick with my trusty 9'x5' ping pong table. I had to move this outside during the build and although I tried to protect it the surface has taken some water damage, nothing which will effect the playing surface but annoying. I still have a portable 6'x4' table so if I did want to stick it on the end I could have a length of 13ft which realisticly I should hardly ever require. I saved some dosh on my desk as well, I varnished the wood a medium grey (blue the missus says), I did this as a new one was in the £600 bracket. Some folding chairs were also got along with my new luxury office chair, you know I am worth it.

With everything now sorted inside it was time to repopulate the place, I was very pleased to get all my prints back up on the walls, some I had forgotten I had, I also managed to get a few of my sketches from 34 years ago up. I had a Eureka moment and from out of the blue decided on two replica helmets for the large, bare window sills, I chose a Roman Gallic helmet with crest and a Gothic Sallet, one to honour the XII Legion and one for the beginning of the Italian Wars. I had been generously given some money for my 70th birthday and had wondered what to use it for, it now came in very handy as replicas are not cheap. All that is left apart from the outside, which has nothing relating to wargaming so my interest on that is waning, is a new step from the living room into the new room which will then allow me to finish my last bookcase.

I am extremely happy with the work which has been carried out and all my purchases which have given life to my new wargaming space. Friends have all volunteered names for my new empire but the missus and I cannot stop calling it 'the shop' after 23 years of it being so, and why not, it was actually very good to us, so 'The Shop' it is.