Problems with benchwork

I got one wall painted and part of another one. Couldn't do any more so I stopped.

Painter's tape in hand I decided to check on how the benchwork would fit in the room and I found a few things that I didn't consider before. That's OK because I was going to test out the benchwork plan in any case before ordering te modules and appropriate stands.

The first problem is that I have a 96 year-old mother-in-law that lives with us and she needs a good amount of room to walk in. It's not because she's fat because she isn't. She just needs to hold on to the walls or anything else she can grab a hold of. She does laundry for us and to get to the laundry room she needs to go through the train room. The doorway at the foot of the basement steps goes into the train room and she likes to use that route to go through the other doorway to the laundry room. That's one of the reasons I can't use all of the space in the train room. So I have to leave a generous aisle for her.

So while laying out what 12 feet along the right side of the room would loook like, I found two things. The aisle at the bottom of that 12 foot by 7 1/2 foot section wouldn't be as wide as I had thought. The second problem is that the door wouldn't close because it would need a 32" clearance to do it. So now I have to revise that 12 foot section to be an 11 foot section. It's not a problem but in order to get the 3 foot long sections of the Woodland scenics stands to feet I would have to add two 1 foot by a 18 inch free standing modules between the 3 sections. It can be done but I am not sure how they are going to be supported since ther isn't that much of lip on the stands. Of course I could add some plywood supports to those lips and screw them into the upper joists. That'll probably be what I'll do because i will have some extra plywood after cutting the shelves for the lower joists of the stands.

My only problem here is that I am going to lose some running lengths and that los of 1 foot will obviously affect the length of my central penninsula. I'll have to deal with it somehow so it's back to the planning section of the Woodland Scenics website. I am sure glad I didn't invest in all of the benchwork just yet. At some poit I'll post the revised benchwork plan.

Irv