I bought this house (at least partly) because it had a beautiful 26 x14' basement room for my layout. I built a pretty good around-the-walls layout, which was fine until my then early teen son decided to move into the centre of the room, even though he had a perfectly good room upstairs. I endured a gradual expansion of his facilities, including a queen size bed, big screen TV and awkward girlfriend interactions for several years until he moved out. Just when I'm thinking I've finely got my room back, we decide to move...
The layout has been ripped out and plans are underway for the new one (smaller room but still pretty generous for N scale). It's interesting to me that I had no regrets or tears about the demo process. I'm looking forward to building a new layout that avoids all of the mistakes of the old one. Sounds to me like Dave is moving on to his next great layout and it can appreciate the sense of excitement and renewed enthusiasm for the hobby that he may be feeling.
Geoff