2017 Keels & Wheels

2017 Keels & Wheels

Concours d' Elegance

I've been going to the annual Keels & Wheels event for nearly two decades.  It's right here in Seabrook and it attracts some world class cars and boats every year.  This year, on a whim, I decided to try to actually take part in the event with some of my own cars.  I don't ever show cars, but I just thought it might be neat to sort of be involved from "inside the ropes", so to speak. Concours d' elegance translates to "contest of elegance".  I told Branelle "If that's not me, I don't know what is?"

The event is held in early May, but the application process starts around the 1st of the year.  I submitted our 1977 Porsche 924 Championship Edition and our 1964 Buick Riviera to the committee for consideration.  I thought the Porsche had a shot because I've never seen a 924 in the show before, but to my surprise, both cars were accepted! 

This is just a little pictorial of our experience on the weekend.  It was a lot of fun!

The show is on Saturday and Sunday, but you set the cars up on Friday.  They have a pretty good system.  When you pull up to the gate they assign a golf cart for you to follow to your area where there are more people to help you get the car into its spot. 

Although the cars seem sporadically placed all over the yacht club, they actually have a very detailed map with spaces for each of the 200 cars in the show. They are grouped by category - Porsches, Ferraris, Pre-War European, etc.  

At the end of the day, all the cars are in their spots and tucked in for the night. The first car here is our Riviera with some of the other 60's American Class behind it.  

In addition to the show, there are a few parties that occur over the weekend. We decided to attend the "Yachta Yachta" party on Friday night. It was fun. Basically it was food, music, and a bunch of really big yachts you could hang out on with the owners.  

 This engine room was cleaner than my kitchen.

 I kinda want a boat now.

The food was surprisingly good and we had fun.  It was a good way to meet some new people....with yachts.

Saturday morning is when all the cars are judged.  They do the judging before the event is opened to the public so you have to go out there and uncover your cars and sort of shine them up and make sure they're presentable.  We took Samantha with us in the morning.  She loves to "help" with anything you're doing.

She really likes to clean, but in a very focused area.  I can pretty much guarantee that the left rear reflector on our Porsche did not cost us any points in the judging.  

Here is the panel judging our 924.  Since we had two cars in the show, but nowhere near each other, I had Nel hang out by the Buick and I stayed with the Porsche.  Now, I knew that we weren't going to win anything - this show is for the big boys.  The '73 911 Targa parked right next to me had just undergone a $100K + restoration - the paint job was over $30K - and the restoration company was there setting up the car......and it didn't even win!  Still, it was very interesting for me to go through the process.  The judges spent some time going over my little car and asked me lots of questions.  It was a neat experience.

After the judging we just became spectators and walked around checking out the show.  This Lotus Elan won its class and I was a big fan.  You don't see these in good shape often.

This Mustang didn't win anything, and it wasn't the most valuable or rare Mustang here, but I loved it.  Sometimes cars just look right.  I would love to own this one.

Our little Porsche showed well I think.  It certainly didn't look out of place.

This 1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal was one of my favorite cars at the show.  It was awarded 2nd in its class but I think it should have won easily.

On Sunday afternoon they hold the awards ceremony.  We went, of course, since we were allowed as exhibitors but certainly didn't expect to win anything.  

The Master of Ceremonies was Keith Martin of "What's My Car Worth" fame, and many other automotive related credentials.  He was entertaining and knowledgeable.  

If they want your car to drive across the lawn - if you've won "Best in Show" or something like the "Chairman's Award" - then you know ahead of time because they line up the cars.  Otherwise, you have no idea if you've won anything or not. 

I was beyond surprised when they announced that our Riviera had been selected for a Silver Award for 2nd in Class in the American 60's category.  I looked at Nel in shock and then made her come up with me to accept the award - which is why I don't have any pictures of the acceptance.  They took some so when they publish them I'll add one. 

I didn't carry the trophy around for the rest of the afternoon or anything like that.

My trophy wife driving my trophy winning car!

On Sunday evening, after the show is closed to the public, you come pick up your car and that's it.  We got a ride and drove both home together.  I let Nel pimp the Rivi.  After dropping the Porsche off at our storage, we even hit the grocery store.  This thing can bring home trophies and milk on the same trip.

Branelle asked me if I'd like to do it again.  I told her that right that second I would say no - it's a lot of work.  Honestly though, I kind of enjoyed the show more being part of it so if I have a car (or cars) that they want next year I'm in.  

After all, it's a "contest of elegance" - that's me!  

Guest House Construction: Part 24

Guest House Construction: Part 24

We had a big week around here construction wise.  For the first time since......ever, each thing I hoped would get completed this week actually did. Monday was a complete washout as it rained all day long, but the sun came out Tuesday and so did the crews.  It was busy, and not without setbacks, but we made a lot of progress in some key areas.

The guys finished up doing the cornice work on the porch extension as well as the guest house porch and all the columns.  It took them a couple days, but they did a really good job considering they had no plans to work from and some of the angles were a bit odd.

They managed to work with the brick guys to make all the seams look good.  Obviously, paint is still to come on this part of the build, but it's up.

This house was built without enough outdoor space considering the yard we have.  We are correcting that in a big way and adding shade is key to being able to enjoy your exterior spaces on the Texas coast.

The guys also prepped all the posts for brick by wrapping them and trimming them with Hardi-board.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do with these but the type of posts that were ordered kind of meant that they were going to have to be painted instead of stained so this is the only real option.

The brick guys came back on Tuesday and got back to work.  It took them a couple more days....and raiding my garage for leftover bricks from the original home build....and a small delivery of bricks from my builder at the last minute, but they got it done.

At times it looks more like we're working door to door sweeps in Fallujah than building a guesthouse, but the crews clean up pretty well - when they're done.

Grandma checking out the front of the house.  The brick matched up pretty well.  

The guys did all the columns too.  There are seven of them but it took a lot longer to do these than I thought it would.  They look good though and I'm glad we went with the brick instead of the stone we originally picked.  I also had the brick guys build me a brick mailbox out front.  They're basically all done.  They need to finish up cleaning the last of the new brick, but that's basically a one man in one day job.

Cabinets turned out to be a bit tricky this week.  The original plan was for the same guy who did all the trim work (slowly) to put all the cabinets in this week. He came out to the house and said it would take him about three days but that he couldn't start until Friday.  We need this done so the granite guys can get started.  My builder actually hired the guys who framed up the new porch to do it and they started, but it wasn't looking good if I'm being honest.  I don't think it was their specialty.  We paid them and thanked them for what they had done and then called the company that made the cabinets to come out and do the install.

This one guy came out on Saturday and installed every cabinet in the house, including fixing the ones that had been installed poorly before he got there.  He did a great job and it was the right call to have him do it.  

A bonus this week is that he electricians kind of proactively got started installing everything.  They called and said they could come so we went out and bought every fixture for the house before they got there.  They also installed most of the plugs and switches as well.  What we don't have yet - because they've been ordered but not delivered - are all of the recessed lights and fluorescent lights. 

Nel and I even went out and bought light bulbs.  We have 50 recessed lights in this build!  There are 10 outside spots with two bulbs each, not to mention all of the inside fixtures.  I decided to go LED on all of them.  If I hadn't, I'd just spend the next few years changing light bulbs all the time.

The only other thing of interest we did this week was try to plan out our outdoor kitchen.  We have already purchased one of those ridiculous outdoor kitchens but we need to know exactly where we're going to put it before we get it so we can run the gas and electric lines under the slab to it.  We used boards from the garage and made a sort of template so we could play with it. 

I have a feeling the coming week isn't going to be a productive one.  Memorial Day will kill Monday and it looks like it's going to rain off and on all week.  The granite guys should be able to come out and measure for the countertops, but I'm not sure what else will take place.  I'd like to see some progress on the utilities.

Let's hope I have something to report next week. 

2002 Mini Cooper

2002 Mini Cooper

I'm leading with this picture so you can get the laughing out of the way.  When Mini (or BMW actually) reintroduced the Mini Cooper in 2002 it was an immediate hit.  They were rare in Texas for a while due to a legal dispute over distribution which meant you couldn't get them at dealerships here.  I bought this in 2002 with just a couple thousand miles on it.

This one was kind of a base model with a small motor and very few options.  The checkered flag graphics on the roof were a dealer added option and kind of neat.  I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed the car.  It's a lot roomier inside that you would ever imagine and very fun to drive.

The front seats were quite comfortable, even for someone of my size.

This shows just how small the Mini really is.  There was some discussion as to whether it could fit in a long bed or not (the answer is no - width).

For some reason I bought a Cooper S while I still had this one.  It was an even more impressive car.  Another surprise to me was how much attention this thing got.  They were still rare around Houston when I had mine.  A year later these things were everywhere, but for a while I was explaining the car at gas stations and stop lights everywhere.

Guest House Construction: Part 23

Guest House Construction: Part 23

At the end of last weeks update I stated that "I'm hopeful that a brick crew will wake me up bright and early Monday morning."  Good news - that's exactly what happened!  I've been waiting for brick to go up for over a month.  It's actually an interesting process.  I guess I thought they would just start at the bottom and stack bricks until they got to the top.  There's a lot more to it than that.  They use these special poles and string to make sure that each row is going up evenly.  It's quite involved, but they do move fast.

 
They started on one side and just worked their way around the house.  When they have a larger crew, they get a lot covered.  When there's just two guys, not so much.

They got about 3/4 of the way around the house this week.  They didn't show up one day, but they told me they weren't going to so no issues.  A guy came out this weekend and did some kind of wash job on the completed sides.  I'm guessing the brick guys can finish in about two more days.  Rain has washed out Monday of this week already, so hopefully they can get back at it tomorrow.

Unfortunately, not much else happened this week on the house (which is why I'm desperate for pictures).  I helped my builder take all the cabinets in from the garage and put them where they need to be in the house.  The good news is that a guy is supposed to come install them.  That bad news is I think it's the same guy that took three weeks to do the trim work.  I'm not feeling great about it, but there's not much I can do.

Mildly exciting, but not really, are the porch lights.  It's the first thing we've built that actually has power.  Unfortunately, that's just because they are on a three-way that is drawing power from the main house.  Still, it's something.

The only other thing that happened this week is that we ran data and cable wires between the two houses.  My builder told me that he was going to have the crew come out and finish sealing up the porch and walkway on Monday, so this weekend we went and bought cable to run from the main house attic to the guest house.  It wasn't an easy job, but now that the wires are there we should be able to just run the guest house cable, internet, and security on our current set up instead of having separate services for it.  It gives us options anyway.  

That's it.  This coming week I would hope that the brick guys finish up and that the cabinets are installed.  I will also be pushing to get the electric service to the house.  It looks like we may lose power to our main house for 3-4 days while this happens (don't even get me started on that one).  We'll see.

Let's Build A Pool! Part 6: Stone Work & Decking

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 6:  Stone Work & Decking

Last we updated the pool, we had finished the tile work more or less and had a big pile of rocks in our driveway.  A lot has happened - sort of - on the pool so this will be a long one with mostly pictures.

The stone guys, who are basically the same guys that did the tile and coping, showed up and I thought there was no way they could do anything because of a lot of rain we had been getting.  The pool was full of water and the ground was way too wet for them to use machinery to haul the giant stones back behind the pool.

It didn't slow them down at all.  They just hauled everything back there by hand and worked through the mud.

It's a slow process, working with giant stones, but it started to come together.

While the stone guys were doing their thing, the deck crews started working.  These are the guys that are pouring all the new patio area we are adding.  I "helped" them by adjusting their forms to exactly where I wanted them when they weren't there.

Branelle "helped" me.....I guess.

Still "helping".

One of the things the pool company is doing for me is moving these three palms.  It hadn't been done when the deck crew needed them gone so they just dug them out.  I hope they're ok.  They're still just laying there and I water them every day.

One morning my builder calls me and says "can we make sure that there's nothing blocking the driveway so I can have the cabinets delivered?"  I went outside and this was happening.  Oh well.

The guys doing the forms also started working on the irrigation.  This is very important in our yard, as we've basically built a dam where water used to naturally run off.  We've added a bunch of drains to take the water where it needs to go.

The guys got everything formed up pretty fast.  I told them that they wouldn't be able to do this part yet because we had to run some utilities but they did it anyway.

They even had the rebar in.  I felt bad because my builder tore all of this out completely while laying some pipe.  I had told the pool guys that they couldn't pour until this was done, but I didn't realize how much of their work was going to get messed up.

The stone guys kept working and finished up all the grout work.

Another thing that the deck guys were really good about helping me with was running sleeves for things like low voltage lighting that I would need later.  All I have to do is pull wire now.

One thing that happened that I wasn't expecting was the tile guys put these squares all over the pool to mark steps.  It's pretty common, but Nel doesn't like it.  I don't really care, and the pool guys say we can easily pop them off before spraying the pool if we want.  We will see.

After my builder finished up with the utilities, the deck guys came back out and fixed everything that was torn up.  They basically got it ready for inspection.

The stone guys have more or less finished with their work.  If I'm being honest, it's the one thing on the pool so far that I'm not crazy about.  It's not bad, but it's not exactly what I was imagining.  I think they're going to add some more stone so we'll see what happens.

It took days to get our inspection, but it worked out perfectly with the porch work that was going on.  The pool guys came out and made sure that all of the drain lines and electric lines were clear of the area to be poured.  

I was wondering how they were going to pour the patios and it was really interesting.  They just had concrete trucks back up into the driveway and they had this sort of motorized wheelbarrow that would take loads back and dump them.  They had to go all the way around the guest house with each load, but this thing was surprisingly fast.

The work went pretty fast.  They did a great job.  They made all the expansion joints sort of flow with the curves of our pool.  It clearly wasn't their first rodeo.

Finishing up.  Next up for the pool is....I'm not sure.  Unfortunately we've reached a point where the pool is going to be held up by the house build.  I had a separate electrical service added to the guest house for the pool to utilize, but the guest house has no power yet.  They won't spray the pool until they can fill it with water and they won't do that until they can turn it on, so it may be a while.