Guest House Construction: Part 7

SLAB!!!

Branelle and I were out of the country for a couple weeks and I was sure we would come back to a completed slab.  (I was really looking forward when people asked if the slab had been poured to being able to say "Yes - They poured it while we were in Paris" in my most pretentious voice).  Alas, weather and schedule issues meant that virtually nothing happened while we were away. We got home late Friday night and at 7:00 Saturday morning I heard the familiar sounds of "beep...beep...beep", followed by Tejano music, that could mean only one thing:  stuff was about to get done.

  
The boom truck sets up first.  These things are cool.  The guy in orange has a remote control and he can drop concrete exactly where you need it without having to haul it out there.

The concrete trucks just back up one by one to feed the boom truck all day long.  

The boom getting ready to make it rain!

Finally!  They started at the back and worked their way to the front.

They were in a race against threatening skies all day long.  Rain after a slab is finished is fine, but it creates problems if it comes down before you can smooth it out.

Samantha came out to investigate.  She thought the trucks were neat.

Now pouring the front porch.  These guys are really artists.  It's not just a bunch of guys moving concrete around.  Each person has a specific job and they are like a well oiled machine.

Sam, Nel & Grandma supervised from the playhouse.

So close!  They got the living area and the front porch finished and were working on the garage when it just started pouring rain.  They waited it out a couple times but it would just start up again so they finally gave up.  If they had waited another 15 minutes it stopped and never started again.  As a result, the garage floor looks terrible.  Bill says there are options to fix it so we'll have to do something to it later.

The girls inspecting the final product the next day.  Samantha approves.

The only real casualty was the driveway.  It's not a surprise - those cement trucks weigh tons!  It's also not a big deal as we were always planning on redoing and widening the driveway anyway. There's no point in doing it until the end of the build so it will have to remain like this for the time being.

Before

After

1977 Ferrari 308 GTB

Random Vehicle Blog:

1977 Ferrari 308 GTB

If I had any idea how to insert music files you'd be listening to the Magnum PI theme song right now.  Magnum's car was the better GTS version with a targa roof but still, pretty cool.  I remember having plans to dress up for Halloween in 2005 as Magnum but the car let me down with mechanical issues and crushed my dreams of having the ultimate costume accessory (until this year...if I actually get invited to any parties).

The interior of this car was in great shape, having obviously been redone.  The paint was also new, but not a quality job and was rather sad upon close examination.  The car ran well for the most part while I owned it, which was a pleasant surprise from what I expected with a 30-year old Ferrari.

The 308 is rather common by Ferrari standards, and back when I owned this car it wasn't particularly coveted by collectors.  As a result, I got it pretty cheap.  Things have changed over the past few years and this car would easily be worth three times what I sold it for 10 years ago (actually, it would be worth three times what it was two years ago - Ferrari's have really jumped).  

While it certainly garnered a huge amount of attention, it really wasn't a good driving car.  The biggest problem with these things is the lack of power steering in my opinion.  Some old cars feel fine with a simple rack and pinion set up - even nimble.  All of my older Ferrari's have just been a chore to drive at anything under highway speeds.  

Another thing that you get a lot when you have one of these is "How fast is it?"  The truth is, not very - not by today's standards anyway.  If you could really drive, you might get to 60 in under 7 seconds.

If you're interested at all in cars, I would recommend owning some kind of exotic to everyone at least once in your life, not because it's a good idea, but because it's an experience - like skydiving or climbing Everest.  This car cost me less than a new F350, but was much more interesting and certainly one I won't forget.  

The only issue is the uneasy feeling about the mechanics of the car.  It's not so much worrying about it breaking, but what it will take to fix it when it does (and it will).  You'll find yourself hearing things all the time, whether there's anything to hear or not.

Notice the colored tape covering one of the indicator lenses?  Not exactly a 100-point show car.

1980 Jeep Cherokee Chief

1980 Jeep Cherokee Chief

There are a few cars I've owned that I never took pictures of for some reason.  I didn't include most of them in the 'Random Generator' program because who would want to read a car blog without pictures?  I made an exception for this Cherokee because it was my first ever truck.  This picture is exactly what it looked like, right down to the white wheels.  I bought it for a few thousand dollars from a Wichita Falls used car dealer because I had agreed to help my friend Andrew out by covering his lawn business while he was busy one summer.  It was an automatic 4X4 with really good working AC.  The interior was a sort of brown tweed, and it had indoor / outdoor carpeting - basically turf that you could hose down if it got dirty.  

Andrew and I were hauling an old Oldsmobile engine for his jet boat from the junkyard one day and the motor actually rolled over inside the truck when we hit the brakes too hard.  It spilled oil all over the place.  We just went to Home Depot, bought some more turf, and bolted it in.  

This thing turned out to be a great truck.  It was just ugly enough to where you didn't worry about hurting it but still worked great.  I kept it for a few years but sold it sometime while I was in college. I have actually been looking at these lately and have even tried to buy a couple. 

2000 Ducati 900SS

2000 Ducati 900SS

So, 'Random Vehicle Blog' tonight, and this one was a pretty interesting story at least.  I don't have a long history with motorcycles, but I've owned a handful.  The first one I ever bought was a '95 Ducati (http://srod23.blogspot.com/2012/06/1995-ducati-900-supersport-cr.html) that I bought from a friend of a friend.  I mention it only because that same friend of a friend was involved with this bike as well.

I came across this one in rough shape as pictured here.  It had been seized as payment for unpaid legal fees by some attorney and was just sitting in a parking lot chained up.  The rear wheel was broken and I had no idea if it would run or not.  I bought it anyway (of course) and hauled it home where it sat in my garage for a while.  

My buddy Barry wondering why I have an interest in this stupid thing.

The same guy that I had bought my '95 Ducati from heard that I had this one and came by to take a look at it.  He offered to take it and go through it for me if I wanted and I was happy to send it home with him.  Over the next few months he basically took the bike apart bolt by bolt and rebuilt it.  I paid for any parts it needed, but he just did the work because he enjoyed it.  When he was finished it looked like a new bike.  I told him to keep it as long as he wanted and ride it but he gave it back a month or so after that. 

I kept this bike for about a year after it was fixed up.  I actually had two Italian sport bikes at the same time, both yellow, but rarely rode either of them.  This one was actually a pretty pleasant cycle.  It started up easily and never overheated.  It was also a fairly comfortable bike to ride. 

I never tested the full abilities of the 900cc engine, but I'm sure it would have done more than I was willing to.  I eventually sold this one to a Harley collector in Kentucky.  He got a great deal on a great bike since I didn't have much in it and wasn't being greedy.

Heading home in a blur!

In addition to the two yellow sport bikes, I also happened to own this rare yellow Range Rover at the time.  I swear I don't have a thing for yellow - I don't even really like the color that much - but it was quite a coincidence and made for a rather subtle and understated garage.

Guest House Construction: Part 6

You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

Weather again created some delays, but as the sun came out so did the work crews.  Apparently we are ready for what my builder calls the "make-up guy".  We got a delivery of tension cables on Thursday.  I happened to be home when the guy dropped everything off and after he had dumped all of the cables from the truck I noticed that the address on the label wasn't ours.  Unfortunately, a mistake was made when the truck was loaded (the order number was one digit off) and the poor guy had to get all of the cables back on the truck.  Those things are MUCH heavier than they look.  He basically had to cut all the straps off so he could load each cable one by one.  I offered to give him a hand but he said he could do it.  I'm glad he declined my help to be honest.  It took the guy nearly an hour and he looked like he had fallen into a pool afterwards.  The company had the correct cables (they're cut specific lengths for the build via engineering drawings) delivered on another truck a few hours later, so no harm.

Post-delivery inspection:  PASS (she could have been bribed easily enough with an Elmo cookie if there were any issues)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A crew showed up Saturday morning.  They spent all day basically trenching and grading the pad.  It looked like tough work and it was really hot.  When they were done it looked like we had a giant waffle iron come down on our build.

 
Our builder came out that night to inspect the site and drop off some lumber for the next day.  He seemed happy with everything.  I have no idea what I'm looking at.  I just assume that everyone knows what they're doing.

After a full day of work Sunday, the pad was getting really close to being ready for concrete.  The tension cables are pretty standard in today's builds and have replaced the old re-bar grids you used to see all the time.  As I understand it, if your concrete starts to crack many years down the road, they can come out and apply pressure to the cables to "lift" sections back where they are supposed to be.  I hope I never get to see that in person, but that's why they do it this way.  The guys ran out of lumber so they'll be back on Monday to hopefully finish up.  Monday is Labor Day, but apparently these guys don't care.  When they're done it's another inspection and then the slab can be poured!  
 

Christmas Office Door Decorating Contest

Christmas Office Door Decorating Contest

The following conversation gets repeated in our household a few times a year:

Branelle:  "Hey, there's this contest at work...."
Me:  "No"
Branelle:  "You haven't even heard what it is yet"
Me:  "No"
Branelle:  "Well I'm going to sign up for it anyway"
Me:  "Cool, but I'm not helping"
Branelle:  "Fine!  I don't need no man's help anyway"

Okay, I made that last line up, but you get the idea.  This conversation usually takes place weeks or even a month before the contest judging date.  Inevitably, it doesn't get brought up again until about a day or two before the aforementioned date.  

What happens next is basically the same drill, just with different contests.  My wife is smart - she knows exactly what she's doing.  She'll subtly mention her plan for the contest by asking me a simple question.  "Do you think I can get a foam star to stick to a door with velcro?"  She knows my curiosity will get the best of me and I'll ask for more details.  She will then tell me a simple, almost lame plan that she knows will drive me crazy, thus forcing me to come up with an elaborate and complicated one that should take a week to complete - then she walks away while I go build it.  Brilliant!

This office door contest was back in 2012, and was actually pretty simple compared to some.  Here's what "we" did:

I decided that I wanted to cover the entire door for effect and I wanted it to be 3D.  Nel's office door at the time was metal so I figured we had to hang our design.  I went to Home Depot and bought a couple of large sheets of insulation.  They're really light weight and easy to cut.  I cut the back piece to the size of the door and mounted three wreath hangers on the top.   I also painted the front a flat black color.

I cut the other piece in the shape of a tree and painted it green.  I even used brown textured paint for the trunk.  So far so good - and pretty simple.

We then went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bunch of Styrofoam ornaments and squares.  I painted them as well as a star I cut out from leftover insulation.  

I taped the candy canes prior to painting them so they'd be striped.  

Here I'm mounting battery powered LED lights on the back.  I used the squares to make the tree float off of the back piece and poked each little light through the tree and taped everything down.

 

Nel "helping".  When I had all the lights rigged up I mounted the tree on the base.

Branelle did actually print off and cut out pictures of coworkers and projects to glue to the ornaments.

We went up late at night and set it up.  I wanted to rig it up so when anyone opened the door it would actually snow on them but Nel thought it would be too messy.  "They" actually won some award.  I told Nel "Never again".  

A few months later I was motorizing a cake.   

1999 Pontiac Trans Am 30th Anniversary Edition

Random Vehicle Blog:

1999 Pontiac Trans Am 30th Anniversary Edition

This will be a short post tonight, but not because the car isn't interesting.  It's just that for some reason, even though I had this TA for over a year and drove it quite a bit, I took almost no pictures of it (I've got like 85 pictures of my Honda Insight but only 3 of this rare Trans Am - I have no idea?).

Pontiac made 1600 of these 30th Anniversary Edition TAs, all of them white with blue accents.  A small number (535) were convertibles, but mine was an automatic coupe.  They all had blue anodized wheels which I thought were really neat.  I bought mine at an auction with almost 100K miles on it and showing signs of age.  I did what I do - poured a bunch of money into it to make it as good as it could be.  I had the rear end rebuilt, the wheels refinished, and a few other odds and ends attended to.  It was a very nice driver when I was finished with it and I really liked the car.  Others in my "posse" at the time didn't seem to share my enthusiasm for this one for some reason, and after a year of liking it more than everyone else I finally sold it.

This plate on the battery indicated that my car was #133 (out of 1600).  I sold it locally and a couple years later I came across it at a car show with a "For Sale" sign on it.  I thought about it, but ultimately let it go.

My history with Pontiac is a short one.  We have an older Trans Am in our garage right now and everyone loves it.  Truth is though, this was a MUCH better car.  It drove great, was pretty fast, didn't look like every other car on the road, never gave me any trouble, and it had style!  These final generation Firebirds aren't particularly collectible yet, but if you want a unique car that you can actually drive and certainly won't depreciate, I'd say it's a winner.  

Broomball - For the First & Last Time

Broomball

(For the First and Last Time)

Branelle and I went skiing in Winter Park in February this year.  Her brother and both sisters joined us but we were there a couple days before everyone else so we just skied and played around.  After a full day on the slopes we were hanging around in the base area having dinner and noticed that there was a broomball game on the activities schedule that evening.  I thought "Awesome!  I love new sports."

I married a northern chick (how weird is that?) and I've seen people playing broomball on visits to Minnesota but never thought I'd get the chance to try it out.  

I'm the dude in the green jacket in all these pics.

It was basically like a pickup game.  Instead of brooms they had sticks with plastic broom-like things on the end.  The color of your stick (red or blue) indicated what team you were on.

It turned out to be really fun.  I was having a blast and getting the hang of it quickly.  If I had grown up in the frozen tundra I'm sure I would have played hockey but this is as close as I am going to get.

MY FIRST GOAL!

My first goal!  The guy in blue drew the goalie out and put the ball across the crease.  All I had to do was hit an open net.

Celebrating my first goal with a dive into a snow bank....and quickly discovering that it was just pure ice.

In spite of the fact that the red team had all of the resort employees, we were just destroying them.  We decided to mix up the teams and it became a lot more interesting.

My size doesn't always work to my advantage - like when my wife makes me go jogging with her - but on the ice it really comes in handy.  I've just taken out three people by just standing there as they bounce off of me.  (Yes, it's two high school kids and a girl in a skirt, but still - what a monster!)

I was having a blast until the rather innocuous looking fall pictured above.  There was one spot on the ice that was really slick and had been getting people all game.  It finally got me.  I guess I came down on my knee pretty good and when I got up it just didn't feel right.  

MY LAST GOAL!

In true "Scott plays to win" (even when nobody else cares or is keeping score) fashion, I played on for a bit longer but in considerable and growing pain.  I scored this one last goal and just flung my "broom" into the snow and walked off.  (Everybody else kept playing but I'm calling this a walk-off).  My knee was so jacked up that I wasn't able to ski again the entire trip.  Broomball - dammit!