2001 Ford F250 XLT 4X4 7.3

2001 Ford F250 XLT 4X4 7.3

My program has selected this Super Duty for me tonight.  I've had, I think, eight of these things over the years - I used to keep one around all the time - so I won't write a bunch about them in general, but I will talk about lifts.

This was the 1st Super Duty I ever owned.  I bought it to tow stuff, and it was pretty basic but clean.  It was decided that it should be lifted.  Now, lifted trucks in Texas are about as common as trees.  You can't look in any direction without seeing one.  I think owning a lifted Super Duty is a requirement for living in my neighborhood.  I didn't know anything about lifts, but I had "help" in the form of my girlfriend at the time Sheri and my buddy Max.  Max was no stranger to lifting trucks, and as a matter of fact now owns a business called Maxxed Performance, which specializes in lifting trucks.  Sheri probably knew more about lifting Fords than either of us at the time.  I was basically just labor.

We did the entire job in Max's dad's driveway one evening.  It was quite a job, but certainly interesting for me.  We did it in the driveway with jacks and regular tools, but think it would be a much easier job with a lift.  We spent most of our time jacking different points on the truck.

This is what the truck looked like right before we lifted it.  You can see my new tires and boxes of parts sitting off to the right.  Yes, it looked better with the lift, but did it improve the truck?  Not really.  It certainly didn't ride as well.  I'm cool with lifting trucks, but maybe in moderation.  A little lift so you can put a little more wheel and tire on the thing is okay.  Maybe don't go so far that you need a ladder though.  

That said, if you DO want to lift your truck, or do anything else with it, go see my buddy Max at Maxxed Performance in Baytown.  He can do as little or as much as you want on just about anything you can drive.  I'm willing to bet that if he hasn't used a product you're looking at himself, he knows someone who has. He'll also tell you if something is a bad idea.  I appreciate that.    

http://www.maxxedperformance.com/

Let's Build A Pool! - Gunite

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 3:  Gunite

(bless you)

Thursday:

I knew that the pool was getting poured on Thursday or Friday, but the early morning sound of diesel engines let me know real quick which day it was going to be. (Turned out to be both though.)  There's a pump truck (the one on the left) and then gunite trucks that just back up to the pumper one after another.  They lined up down the street.  There was a delay getting started because the city inspector hadn't actually made it out on Wednesday (you can see his truck in the driveway).  He stopped by, chatted with David, and gave the thumbs up.

 
When they crank the pump up and you see the stuff come flying out you'd swear they could fill the entire pool in an hour.  It actually comes out very fine though so it takes a long time.  The pumping truck is LOUD, but the spraying is just messy.

As gunite continues to be sprayed, there are guys working behind starting to shape the edges and features of the pool.  They also do some more steel work and set things where they need to be.  You can see that they've built a steel and mesh frame for the bar top and they've set the lights for the steps to the dry seating area.

They get creative however they need to in order to give you what you designed. They're building a table for the dry seating here.  You can see a laser emitting device to the left.  It emits a perfectly level laser "ceiling" so they can make sure the pool is level.  They walk around with a stick that has an attachment on it and place it on the coping edge as they go.  It works great.  They actually had to chisel away a couple sections on day 2 because they were too high.

Here's a guy starting to shape the spa.  It seemed more like building a sand castle than working with concrete.

The stuff does fly everywhere.  The crew was really good about putting up tarps and plastic to protect stuff.  It got our aluminum fencing though.  I'm hoping we can find a solvent or something to get them clean.

In the morning I was told that these guys can sometimes do two pools a day, but ours "would probably take most of the day".  It took all of two days.  The guys worked late into the evening but still had a full second day to finish ahead.

Friday:

I wondered how they were going to build the frame for our waterfall feature. They just built themselves a form that held up the gunite as it was sprayed on. It worked well.

By Friday afternoon the crew was finished spraying gunite.  It dries quickly so you can walk around in the pool and check it out.

Here's the in-pool bar.  They used these tubes to form the gunite - simple and effective.

I noticed that they had dug out a few holes in the bottom of the pool all the way through the gunite.  I asked David and he explained that when a pool is empty, if the underground water table comes up (heavy rain or something I guess) it can actually lift a pool up and damage it.  The holes allow ground water to come up without lifting the pool.  I never would have thought of that.

When they were done with Gunite, the area was a complete mess.  I was expecting it to stay this way for a while, but on Saturday morning a crew came out and broke out the forms and completely cleaned the place up.  They even washed the patio.  It's cleaner than it was before!

Now for the next week or so I've got one job - water the pool.  It sounds weird, but to help the concrete cure stronger I spray it down a bunch of times every day.  I've been doing it about 4 or 5 times a day, so this sucker should be strong.

1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

Everybody loved this truck, and with good reason.  In what I think is a record for me, I bought four cars in one day, and this was the 4th.  It didn't cost me much because it had a ton of miles on it but you wouldn't know it from the condition.  It was damn near immaculate, and drove perfect as well.  All I really had to do was put new tires on it.  I was quite pleased with myself.

The V8 was strong, but not a monster...and it was thirsty.  Even the engine compartment looked like new on this truck.

The gray leather interior was in great shape and very comfortable.  It had a lot of options and they were all well thought out.  

The 3rd-row seating was a little weird on this one.  They folded up to the sides. It didn't make a lot of sense because you were still lacking space unless you took them out.

You can buy this vehicle as a Lexus LX as well.  Is there a difference?  I've owned both and I'm not sure there is.  The ride quality on this Land Cruiser is so good that I would say you could drive one today as a daily driver and you wouldn't be giving up much of anything to newer, more expensive luxury SUVs. I would definitely recommend getting one of these if it fits a need.  It would make a fantastic "extra" vehicle because it can tow or haul if needed, it's reliable, and you could drive it everyday if you needed to.

Let's Build A Pool! - Excavation

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 2:  Excavation 

Monday:

The first scoop!

After we selected Preferred Pool of Houston as our builder, we finalized the design and then signed a contract.  Shortly after, a guy came out and staked out our pool.  It's a little more involved than you think.  My job was to tell him exactly where I wanted the pool and then he went to work with tape measures, sticks, and strings and got it laid out perfectly.  Then we waited.  The majority of a pool build happens in the 1st week, so you need good weather.  We had to wait a few weeks to get a favorable forecast, but during that time the pool company was working on permits and HOA approval.  When we finally did have a clear forecast, Monday morning got off to an early start with the excavation crew.

They come and basically stake the perimeter out again and then go to work.  It's a one day step - which is impressive.  In our case it was one Bobcat, a few other guys, and a constant flow of dump trucks.

It's messy, and loud, but the guys just keep digging deeper and deeper.  They only stopped on the rare occasion that there wasn't a dump truck backed up the driveway....and once when they ran out of diesel.  I helped them syphon some out of one of the trucks.

When they started getting a little deeper they added forms to the top.  I loved seeing the definition start to take shape.

Samantha is also quite excited about what she calls "my pool".  We're obviously going to have to explain things to the child.

They made quite a mess, but they cleaned everything up amazingly well.  The excavation crew worked until after dark but finished up with the entire dig by the end of Monday.

Tuesday:

Tuesday it was the steel guys turn.  It's a completely different crew, because it's a completely different skill set.  These guys showed up a 6:30 Tuesday morning and worked like a well-oiled machine.  They had the pool shaped with rebar in a day.  It's really fascinating to watch them work.

It was a big crew, but they all seemed to be always busy.  This is the one crew that didn't really talk to me.  They never asked me anything and sort of just pretended I wasn't there when I walked outside.  

By the end of the day, the pool was completely formed with rebar and ready for inspection and gunite.

Wednesday:

The city was supposed to inspect the pool on Wednesday (which didn't happen) but the plumbers got to work.  They "stubbed" in all the plumbing.  Basically they just stuck the pipes through the walls wherever they need to be so the pool can be poured.  These are the three LED bubblers that are in the tanning ledge.

This is the spa.  Since it's raised, it's one of the few areas that has pipes actually in the walls.

It didn't take the plumbers too terribly long.  By Wednesday night the pool was ready for gunite - pending inspection.  That's already happened - like I said, a lot happens in the 1st week - but I'll save that for the next post.

Another thing that happened early in the week was we got all of the pool equipment delivered.  It was just stacked up in the driveway.  We live in a gated neighborhood with basically zero crime, but it was bothering me so after a couple days I couldn't take it any longer and moved it to the back.

Turns out we probably could have saved a lot of money and just made the back patio a mud pit.  Samantha was somewhat sad to find that the guys did a phenomenal job of cleaning up at the end of the week.

Standing In The Hall of Fame....

...and the world's gonna know your name.

The inductees at the ceremony.

Today is my wife's birthday so I'm going to brag on her a bit.  In 2015, She informed me that she was being inducted into the Brainerd Public Schools Hall of Fame.  Now, I'll be honest - when she first told me I made fun of her a bit.  It's not because I didn't think it was cool, it's just how we are.  I find it important to make sure she never starts to think she can do better than me (so if you see her around help me out by asking her if she's gained a few pounds or tell her that her hair smells funny or something).  I loaded up The Scripts song "Hall of Fame" on my phone and every time she walked into the room I'd hit it.

  
In truth, it's a very big honor to be inducted.  Brainerd, in Minnesota where Branelle grew up, has been doing this for a handful of people since 1999.  It's a small club, and the inductees faces line a special hallway at the main high school in town.  She was very honored and I was very proud.  Even more impressive is that she was the youngest member ever inducted....by about 10 years!

She refused to allow me to "help" with her speech, so it wasn't as good as it could have been.  But still, she did a great job.  ;-)

Here are all of Branelle's family members that were able to make it - with the exception of her uncle Paul.  I think he was helping some folks with something during this picture.

The inductees congratulating each other.

Branelle with her proud mother.

The HoF induction coincides with Homecoming.  Branelle spoke at the high school on Friday morning and ran in a 10K on Saturday.  There was also a parade.

The newly inducted HoFers getting ready to take a lap through town.

There'll be no living with her after this.

She's got her "parade wave" down.

Yes, my wife is awesome.  There's really no denying that at this point.  The only real question might be - Was she awesome before she met me or is this a recent trend?  I'm not saying I'm completely responsible for her brilliant rise to awesomeness (I'm not saying it out loud anyway), but when we met she drove a Jetta and dressed like this:

You be the judge.

Happy Birthday B-Nelly!!!!

Let's Build A Pool!: Design

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 1:  Design

We're currently building a guest house / garage / man cave addition to our casa - and since that wasn't complicated enough we've decided to build a pool too! Being from Texas, I've lived the majority of my life in a home with a pool, but I've never actually built one.  Think of this as sort of an ignorant man's account of the process.

I'm calling the first step "Design", but what it really should be called is "Picking a pool company".  I wasn't sure what I was doing, so I contacted eight different local companies about doing our pool and actually got proposals from six of them.  I'm not going to name any of them except the one we ultimately chose out of respect for the companies and the individuals.  Ditto on showing any of the designs except our final one.  I'll just call them A..B..C..etc.

• A note on a mistake that I made during this process:  We didn't have a specific design in mind, and that was fine.  We told everyone what we thought we liked and let them come up with something cool.  The mistake we made was not giving anyone a budget.  I told everyone I wanted something really cool and wanted a lot of bang for the buck. They all came back with some awesome and pricey stuff, which was also fine, but not having a number to stick to made it difficult to compare designs and really wasn't fair to the pool companies.

I called or filled out online inquiries (sometimes both) for each company at about the same time one night.  

Company A:  This is a very large national company with a local office.  I had actually gone into their office a month or so prior to starting and talked to a salesman.  He gave me his card and I emailed him directly and sent him my survey.  He responded, but his response was simply to "let him know if I wanted to lock in end-of-year pricing".  He didn't offer a proposal or a meeting of any kind so I just never called him back.  

Company B:  I just never heard a thing from these guys.  Maybe it was a technical glitch, but I filled out the form on their website and never heard a thing.

Company C:  This is a small family run company.  They responded quickly and came out to meet a few days later.  I really liked the girl who was my point of contact.  She told me it would be about a week or so before we got a design back, but it actually took about two + weeks.  After that she was very responsive and quick with turn arounds.  We loved her design initially, but it was extremely expensive.  She used the Pool Studio software that provides a 3D model of the design.  I was a little concerned that maybe they were just really good with the program and it wouldn't end up looking like the design.  We asked her to scale it back a bit to get in line with other bids and she did that.  It was a finalist, but we ultimately went with another plan.

Company D:  This is a very well respected and known pool builder.  They were quick and professional, and they got a design back to us quickly using the 3D modeling software.  The problem was that it wasn't at all what I was looking for. They were the only one's that seemed like they didn't listen to what I asked for at all.  I have since heard from some neighbors that they did the same thing to them.  We didn't ask them to redesign anything and just kind of eliminated them from consideration quickly. 

Company E:  Local company with some really cool pools on their resume.  The owner was extremely interested.  He came out the next day and brought a proposal by two days later.  The pool was really cool, but he didn't use the 3D modeling and it was a disadvantage for me.  He gave us a large poster with a drawing of the pool and it was great, but I really like the 3D look.  It allows you to imagine what your yard will look like when you're done.  I never asked him to redesign anything because of this and that was probably my mistake.  I'm sure they would have built us a fantastic pool.

Company F:  This is a local company and they had two issues really.  One was that they were the other company that didn't use 3D software, and the other was that they got a late start.  I didn't hear from them for a couple weeks and then everything took a while to get.  E-mails, phone calls, etc..  It just all took too long.  They were the last to give us a proposal and we needed changes and that took a long time too.

Company G:  Another local company.  They built my neighbors pool and it looks great.  He also said he'd use them again.  The problem was communication.  It took me weeks to get a call back and a meeting.  I really liked the guy, and he listened to what we wanted.  He gave us a great design and then made changes to it that I liked as well.  He was also the cheapest bid.  We chose another builder over this one and it was really based on the design and the fact that I had trouble getting ahold of him from time to time.  My concerns were validated when he was the only one who didn't call me back after I let everyone know we had picked another builder.

Company H:  The winner!!  This is a large company that have an office near us. It took us a little while to get rolling with them, but once the salesman came out everything went pretty smoothly.  The initial design wasn't really what we were looking for at all, but they kept working on it and asking questions and sending back designs.  Finally, on about the 4th attempt, we got something really cool that we just couldn't say no to.  It wasn't the cheapest, but it has a lot of cool features that will tie our back yard together.  I really like our salesman and the owner and we are excited about getting our feet wet....literally.  

Our pool builder.......

We're already underway, so more posts to come soon on this one, but here are a few images of the final design.

 
My wife really wanted a large tanning ledge.  It's a good idea for our two year old to have a great place to play, but make no mistake - Branelle plans to plant her butt right there for extended periods of time.
                 

I wanted lots of lights and fire.  We have four different fire features and tons of all those cool new LED lights that are programmable (like red white and blue for July 4th or red and green for Christmas, etc.).  

The dry seating area was perhaps the biggest selling point.  I thought it was kind of cool, but everyone else thought it was awesome!  What it does is allow people who don't want to get in still interact with people in the pool.

If it turns out looking anything close to the design I'll be very happy. Landscaping may take a while to grow in, but we have some decent sized palms already.