Stetsonham
AH enthusiast
Summer Progress Update
As summer moves along, so does my trophy room and the rest of this massive construction project. Things are moving slower than I’d like, but as we all know, you usually get to pick two out of three: cheap, fast, or good. I hire most of my guys/trades individually by the hour, and I don’t run large crews, so things take time. The trade-off is that it stays affordable, and as long as I’ve got good people (which I do right now), the quality stays where it needs to be.
The new gravel road was finished up a couple weeks back, and so far it’s working really well. I’ll probably add a little more gravel to widen things out, but I’m happy with it. Demo is about 100% complete across the property, aside from a few small odds and ends. To date, I’ve hauled out 10 roll-off dumpsters between the house and the trophy room. This place has a lot of square footage, so it adds up fast.
Framing, Electrical, and Plumbing
Framing is nearly complete all that’s left is finishing up the overhead above the duplex doors.
The house framing is also done (there wasn’t much to change there). Electrical and plumbing have begun in both the duplex and trophy room and should be wrapped up early next week.
Trophy Room Progress
The trophy room is now fully sealed up framing wise, which feels like a huge step forward. I added a 60-inch double door for easy access, especially when moving in large mounts.
On one end, I framed in a bathroom, and just to the left of that (as you can see in the photo), I’ll be adding a row of base cabinets with countertops. Sitting directly on those counters will be 42-inch glass wall cabinets, which will have LED strips inside for display lighting. My plan is to showcase skulls in those cabinets and build a small mountain scene above to incorporate the Tiny 10 and other small mammals into a creative display. Once the electrical is complete, I’ll re-insulate the trophy room walls and move on to adding blocking before sheathing everything in ¾-inch OSB. While OSB is strong, it won’t hold heavy mounts on its own. Without studs being easy to find behind it later, my plan is to install 10-foot-tall 2x10 blocking every 10 feet down the walls. This way, all I’ll need to do in the future is measure from the corner to know exactly where I can hang mounts.
This extra blocking is critical especially for heavy pieces like the massive eland I took with Jaco at NKWE. (Spoiler I still need to do my hunt report)
The last thing I want is for a mount like that to end up crashing to the floor.
Lighting Plans
Lighting has been a big topic of discussion with my electrician. My simple solution? The more, the merrier. I’m planning three rows of recessed can lights running the length of the room. The two outer rows will be spaced every 60 inches and set 4 feet off each wall, and then a center row will balance everything out. (Nearly 45 cans) I went with recessed lighting to help reduce glare while viewing the room from different angles as well as their adjustability with light color and brightness
At the end of the day too if I don’t feel like that is enough lighting I can always just add more cans.
It feels like I’ve finally hit a turning point progress is steady, and things are starting to come together. Can’t wait to keep pushing forward and sharing the next phase of this build. Main part of this is I’ve told myself I cannot put a deposit down on another hunt till this project is finished and the 2 Units are rented out….so time is of the essence.
As summer moves along, so does my trophy room and the rest of this massive construction project. Things are moving slower than I’d like, but as we all know, you usually get to pick two out of three: cheap, fast, or good. I hire most of my guys/trades individually by the hour, and I don’t run large crews, so things take time. The trade-off is that it stays affordable, and as long as I’ve got good people (which I do right now), the quality stays where it needs to be.
The new gravel road was finished up a couple weeks back, and so far it’s working really well. I’ll probably add a little more gravel to widen things out, but I’m happy with it. Demo is about 100% complete across the property, aside from a few small odds and ends. To date, I’ve hauled out 10 roll-off dumpsters between the house and the trophy room. This place has a lot of square footage, so it adds up fast.
Framing, Electrical, and Plumbing
Framing is nearly complete all that’s left is finishing up the overhead above the duplex doors.
Trophy Room Progress
The trophy room is now fully sealed up framing wise, which feels like a huge step forward. I added a 60-inch double door for easy access, especially when moving in large mounts.
This extra blocking is critical especially for heavy pieces like the massive eland I took with Jaco at NKWE. (Spoiler I still need to do my hunt report)
Lighting Plans
Lighting has been a big topic of discussion with my electrician. My simple solution? The more, the merrier. I’m planning three rows of recessed can lights running the length of the room. The two outer rows will be spaced every 60 inches and set 4 feet off each wall, and then a center row will balance everything out. (Nearly 45 cans) I went with recessed lighting to help reduce glare while viewing the room from different angles as well as their adjustability with light color and brightness
At the end of the day too if I don’t feel like that is enough lighting I can always just add more cans.
It feels like I’ve finally hit a turning point progress is steady, and things are starting to come together. Can’t wait to keep pushing forward and sharing the next phase of this build. Main part of this is I’ve told myself I cannot put a deposit down on another hunt till this project is finished and the 2 Units are rented out….so time is of the essence.
