Remodeling for the Future

While my long planned site remodel is still delayed (owing to the influx of work stuff) the actual physical space of our home has changed over the last few months.

Here’s a pic of what our basement has looked like for the last sixteen years or so. Concrete floor. Waterproofed walls. A bunch of junk — although here it is looking a little more organized because we were setting up for a high school graduation party.

Months later, the same space looks much, much nicer. And this next photo was taken before the carpet went in!

I’m looking forward to using the space this winter. I can’t quite convey the pleasure I feel walking down the basement stairs. In the past, it was just a big empty space where we stored left over stuff. Now it’s an entire additional level of the house. My hope is that in the winter evenings I can be playing solitaire wargames while sitting over there on that window seat. Once I move the old kitchen table back into place I’ll have a spot where I can leave my game set up, something I don’t currently have. With a lot of these games, it’s the set up that’s time consuming, and it can be hard to stop in the midst of a mission and pack it back up. Now I won’t have to do that.

Here’s a recent pic of the contents of that game cabinet, mostly accurate, although I’ve since sold one of those off to my friend Dean and borrowed another.

Issue 3 of Tales From the Magician’s Skull is coming together. Lots of behind-the-scenes work for Perilous Worlds is taking place. And somehow I’m finding time to write and revise my own work. I’ve turned a new Hanuvar story over to some beta readers, have nearly finished revising a second, am working on outlining book 3 of the new trilogy while tweaking book 2 a bit and gearing up for promotions of book 1. Like I said at some recent point, I’m very busy but very happy.