Building and operating the Atlantic Inland

 It’s been too long since we last spoke. I’ve been very busy with train room prep. The floor for the entry and crew lounge has been painted. The walls for the entry and crew lounge have been built, drywalled, and painted. I’ve been to IKEA and the book cases for the entry have been assembled, installed, and the books have been unpacked and placed on these shelves. There is a LOT of room left, I overestimated my book collection, but this leaves room for Bric-a-brack. I hung a TV in the crew lounge and installed a Firestick so I can listen to TV while working. The massive collection of pictures and wall art is going up. The stair well is not finished, but will be soon, and this will have a great deal more space for wall art and railroadiana. I didn’t know I had so many oil cans. Finally I’m painting about a 1/3 of the floor of the layout space today, and I start benchwork next week. That’s a milestone. Benchwork.

 I’m painting the floor of the basement. The walls of the crew lounge are in, drywalled and painted. The floors are being painted “New Concrete”, that’s the color of the concrete paint I bought from Home Depot. It’s a two part process, a sealer/primer and then the paint. I was told I could go with just the sealer. It drys clear. But after reading the can, it’s sealing property’s disappear after 30 days. So foot traffic will, apparently, just wear it away. So I’m going to seal it one day, then come back with the color coat the next. It’s twice as expensive that way too! The process is like Chinese checkers, I can paint over here, then move a pile of boxes, and paint over there, and so on.  I am focusing on the crew lounge right now. Painting the floors, then I’ll install the base and case, and finally the book cases are on order from IKEA. Once those are installed I’m going to empty all the boxes of books and train room bric-a-brac I have. That will empty about twenty boxes, wh...