I Found a Room

I found a room in our house two days ago.  I know, you're thinking, "how big can this house be that entire rooms get lost?"  It's not that spectacular an answer though.   Let me start by explaining the room in which I do the 3D printing in to start.   The room is in our basement and when we were building the house it was called the mechanical room.   It was to house the HVAC system water main shutoff, water filtration system, alarm system parts of the house itself, and then the additional things we'd move in with like the network server, switch, and wiring hub for all network cable around the house.  

All those things are still in the room to this day.  There is no ceiling other than some rafters with water pipes, ventilation ducts, and electrical wiring that, in other areas,  would be covered up by drywall, trim, and paint.  We didn't have much in the mechanical room when we first moved in beyond the abovesaid items, but as is common when you live somewhere for a long time, the space filled up.

When we realized we wanted to make the room more useful, we painted the concrete walls (the room is mostly underground), added sealant and color to the floor, got a funky rug that is blacklight sensitive, and then added a few pinball machines. 

We had my old standup arcade machine alongside the pinball machines and then on the other wall, we added a nice workbench for my husband to do work upon.   The room looked very snappy at that point, especially after we covered the one studded wall in black felt.  My husband would do projects from time to time and during his off-project seasons, he would pile things on top of the workbench. 

Then I got interested in 3D printing and things have gotten busy in the mechanical room over the past few months.   Busy and full.   There wasn't much room to store things and I was starting to store filament under the pinball machines in bins with desiccant.   I was in and out of the bins I had all over the room, again and again, some days.   It was the only solution though because there just wasn't any other room in the room. 

Two nights ago I was cleaning up in the basement and I opened the closet under the stairs to shove the purple and red yoga balls my daughter pulled out on occasion.   I stood there and blinked at the room.   This was a large, walk-in closet under a flight of stairs, complete with as many shelves as I could get Wayne, our trim carpenter, to cram in.   We barely used the closet, mostly shoving things in there that needed to have a home found later. 

I looked around at the mess on the floor and the sparsely filled shelves and I had a solution—a better solution than the collection of crammed bins in the mechanical room—I was going to put the 3D printer filaments, resins and other supplies in this closet. 

There was more good news about this location, too.   I'd been keeping things in bins because filament needs to be kept reasonably dry.   I moved the dehumidifier that had been constantly running in the mechanical room into the closet, plugged it in and when I shut the door, I couldn't hear it anymore.   This was only getting better as I thought it through. 

Tonight, not only can I look at all the filament and resins at the same time and make a decision which one I want to use, the room is at a dry 35% relative humidity when the door is closed.   It's so much easier and better and I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came home to find me standing in a taco Halloween costume.   I had gotten it and said if he wanted it, he could wear it this year, otherwise, it was my costume.   I thought it was hilarious.   He thought it was silly.   He will not be dressing up as a taco. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is fine today, like the break never happened.   She has to manage having the cane, but it's not stopping her from doing what she wants to do.   She may not be indestructible, but she's definitely unstopable.