Skirt Chaser!

I’ve mentioned more than a few times – but very randomly, such as in the video here – that one of the small things I’ve been wanting to do for a while was neaten up the look of my racing track table by covering up some of the open area around the perimeter of it with what amounts to a skirt, like curtains for a table. Ever since the beginning, I’d had it in my mind what I wanted it to look like. On a few occasions I’d found fabric at various stores that seemed to come close to what I was looking for, but was never quite right. That changed about a month ago when, while shopping for a new method of storage for my Hot Wheels, I discovered that Hobby Lobby was stocking something that looked like exactly what I was after! Last week, I decided to pull the trigger on that!

As I pointed out in various posts, in many ways, the times, they sure are a-changin’. One of the things that has changed is my ever-handy construction-minded friend Patrick: he and I have always lived over 200 miles apart, but we used to see each other fairly often, as I frequently traveled across the state to rural environs for work, and was often able to squeeze in a visit to him in his neck of the woods, which had the added benefit of saving my employers on the cost of lodging. With my promotion last year, however, I’m on the road a lot less and in the office a lot more. And Patrick himself has had a lot changes in his life: he moved from his “ski condo” to a more rural area significantly farther away from me, and has faced a lot of challenges of his own. All these events have made our visits very few and far between, so when (the previous weekend) he told me he would be in town for a while doing some work for various customers of his around in the Denver metro area, I jumped at the opportunity to offer him some work of my own. I even got a bonus out of it, since he brought his two “weiner dogs” Stitch and Misty with him, so for a week I had the fun of dogs in the house for the first time in years! Some of that work we did wound up revealing bigger problems that mean bigger work (old houses and old cars are like that!), but one of the things that went really well was his prodding to proceed with the fabric purchase I mentioned, which gave me a second pair of hands to help install it!

As you can see from these pictures, this little project went very well indeed!

Its kind of amazing how big the effect is on the “vibe” in the room from such a small thing! The table skirt gives the whole area a cleaner, more professional look! Seeing it now, it’s a wonder I waited so long to do this! I should have found the right fabric and made this addition over 4 years ago! Regardless, its done now, and I think you’ll agree that the results are quite impressive!

The “racer’s side” of the table where I and my challenger (when there is one) sit was left open intentionally to get to the things that are always needed on an almost constant basis: the power supply, some tools, and of course we have to have an off-table place to stage our cars during the really big tournaments, since there isn’t always enough space to line them up in front of the track!

I’m not sure when Patrick and I will have a chance to get together again, but I’m already planning another project that I can’t do alone, but can do with his skilled help, which is the next big change that needs to be made for the track environment: finally doing something about the lighting! I’m planning to install ceiling mounted track lighting, and all I have to do is figure out what type of lighting is going to work best. There’s no doubt that doing that project will cause some “trauma” to the diorama and result in several things having to be repaired or redone completely, but at some point, it has to happen, as this is another long-neglected element of the environment which I’m quite sure will make a dramatic difference in the enjoyment of my track; thus part of the challenge is to figure out a way to make it happen while keeping the damage to a minimum! And for my next addition, I’m headed back to IKEA to get a second copy of that little stool that wound up being a better choice for new seating than I was expecting!

That might be a project for the end of the summer, and if we can pull it off, you know you’ll read all about right here at Drag City!