2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE

2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE

I bought this Pathfinder in late 2003 just out of curiosity. This is one of those cars that I barely consider having actually owned because it wasn’t around long and I didn’t drive it much when it was. It was a decent truck – they were quite popular at the time – but I had another SUV and this one just kind of sat around.

It had around 80K and was in fairly clean condition. It wasn’t a loaded up version and the color wasn’t my favorite, but all in all it was a solid and comfortable truck. An ex-girlfriend of mine needed an SUV and she liked this one so I sold it to her (the ex-girlfriend discount – basically what I paid for it). Sadly, within a year of owning it she got t-boned and it was totaled. I helped her find a replacement SUV but this Nissan headed to the scrapyard.

These older Pathfinders don't cost much today and are pretty reliable. As a cheap driver or car for a teen it would make sense I suppose.

Let's Build A Pool! Part 10: Odds & Ends

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 10:  Odds & Ends

At this point in the build, we were kind of in a holding period because the dedicated electrical service from the guesthouse wasn't hooked up yet. The pool company did a pretty good job of addressing some finishing touches before they could "start" the pool. Here's a run down. You won't see any finished product pictures here because...I haven't taken any. I'll get some this week and show you what we ended up with in the final post.

The Dry Spa

The dry spa (as it has been called for some reason) still had some issues. The steps had ended up too steep for one thing so the pool company re-poured them and added a step. Another issue was the sump. The dry spa has a sump pump in the bottom of it to pump water out constantly when needed (think of it like a float on your toilet - when it goes up the pump comes on). It was a real chore getting it to work right. This problem continued well after the pool was finished, but the pool guys stuck with it and eventually got it functioning correctly. 

The stone guys came out and finished putting the travertine on the steps. The umbrella set up worked out great. We bought one and then had the base tube mounted when the concrete was poured. The umbrella is lighted as well and it's out of the way when not in use. We had some issues with the lights in the steps as well, but those are all in and working now too. 

The Pavilion

We had a couple of raised sections around the pool to add depth and to sort of define areas. We decided to put up a pergola on this section on the side. The quotes we got from pergola companies were crazy so we saw this really nice pavilion with a solid roof that we liked at Sam's and bought it.

Sadly, it sat around for months before we were ready for it in our construction zone and it just got neglected. Fortunately it was just the boxes. My buddy Barry came over and helped me with all the the lifting part of the assembly. We put it together in two days.

Here are the two large roof sections assembled and ready to be hoisted up. Barry helped me put up the posts one day and then left me to do the ground work myself. He came back the next day and helped me put the roof on. 

We got it up and then drilled the anchor bolts into the concrete. I'm happy to say that it survived Hurricane Harvey without a scratch. We've added some really cool lighting to it and I think it looks great.

Gutters

Not sexy, but really important. As I mentioned last time, we were having issues with the water flow on the patios. We had some gutter guys come out and put the big six inch suckers all over the guesthouse and main house - anywhere that water would flow onto the patio. It works great now and we have no drainage issues.

Outdoor Kitchen

One thing I would do differently if I could is the outdoor kitchen. We kind of got excited and bought one of these big setups from Paradise Grills (this exact one to be precise) probably six months before we were ready for it. It's fine, but for the money we could have gotten our pool company to build us one that was much cooler and matched everything in our pool. We asked about backing out, but Paradise is not about to give you your money back.

When we were ready for it they dropped it off. We had gas and electricity run to it and the thing is crazy heavy so it's not moving once you put it down. Unfortunately, the slate just didn't look good at all - it didn't match anything we had in our pool area. 

I talked to the guys doing all the stone work for the pool about refinishing it. We had all of this leftover travertine from the guesthouse porch and they said they could remove the slate and replace it with travertine. They came out on a Sunday and did the whole thing in a day.

Here it is after they finished. I've painted it to match the color on the patio since this picture and I think it turned out pretty good. 

Trees - Trees - Trees

One of my favorite things we've done is plant a bunch of mature trees in the backyard - 15 to be precise. Big trees are pricey, but I want shade before I die. Mickey's crew came out with tree after tree and got them all in the ground.

Mickey guarantees all his trees. It's fortunate because a couple just didn't make it. This elm died for some reason, but he's already replaced it.

The other part of adding trees was to run individual sprinklers to each one. Every tree has its own private little trickle sprinkler head. It's important because I don't think I have a water hose that will reach most of these guys. 

So we eventually got the pool plastered (we were out of town so no pictures of that) and filled up. I'll take some finished product pictures this week and finally complete the 'Let's Build A Pool' series. Samantha loves it - she's a waterbug for sure!

Let's Build A Pool! Part 9: Landscaping...Part 1

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 9:  Landscaping....Part 1

I know, I know... It's been a year. I've been yelled at by more than a few people for not completing this series and our Guest House Build series. I just dropped the ball - sorry. Everything is done, and has been for some time, so I'll go through the pool real quick in a few posts and then maybe just some finished product posts for the guest house.

When I last left the pool build a year ago, we had just gotten our spraydeck on and colored and were getting close on being ready to fill the pool. The guest house was coming along nicely as well and I figured it was time to get rolling on the landscaping. 

I'm going to say two things right here real quick: 

1. When you're planning any kind of project, don't forget about or skimp on landscaping. It will make or break the look and feel of your house/pool/whatever. 
2. I used and continue to use Mickey's Houston Water Works for all of our landscaping and highly recommend him. His crew is great, he has stuck with me (he was the only contractor to call after Harvey to see if he needed to address anything) and his prices are unbeatable.

Mickey's guys had prepped the beds already before bringing plants out. What you're NOT seeing here is all of the underground stuff they did. We added a complete sprinkler system for all the beds and areas around the pool and also ran lighting wire. The biggest addition though was probably drainage. When you build, you have to think about the drainage plan. Water has to go somewhere, and as flat as it is here you kind of have to help it. We put underground drains all over the place around this pool and all the beds - more on that later.

The first thing they did is lay out all of the plants and make sure we liked it. We added a few trees right behind the pool just to frame it in a little. When they got the OK, they put everything in the ground.

If you look carefully here you'll see Mickey's crew taking refuge under the guesthouse porch. We learned (better now than when the pool was finished) that our drainage plan wasn't working. All the black stuff you see is mulch just flowing into the pool.

We made some adjustments to the drainage plan - basically adding drains and extending the 4" pipe that carries most of the water away - and then remulched all the beds.

The following pics show sort of where we were at this point - notice I said "were".

It was looking pretty nice but then we had a solid thunderstorm again and realized that we still had issues with the drainage plan.

Here we go again!

Clearly we weren't moving enough water away fast enough. Fortunately, again, we hadn't finished and filled the pool yet so no real damage.

The answer to the drainage problems ended up being two fold. First, we just added gutters - big ones - everywhere! We basically just controlled where all of the roofline water was going to go. Secondly we extended our drains all the way to the runoff area at the street. It was a big job but now we don't really get any water backup and our mulch stays where it is supposed to. 

That said, Hurricane Harvey and the unusual freezes we had this winter did a number on our landscaping. We've had everything replanted and it looks good so the finished product pics will show that. 

1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SL

1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SL

This 450 SL was a gorgeous driver-condition convertible. I bought this car in 2004 and kept it for a few seasons. It didn't cost much at the time - they weren't really considered collectible yet. I really liked it but I didn't drive it as much as I would have liked because I didn't have as much space back then and really didn't have a good place to store the hardtop.

Red on red is something you see a lot in Corvettes, not so much in Mercedes. It was in great shape though and everything worked well. 

Here I am trying to figure out how to open the hood. Some aspects of this cars condition were near perfect. All in all though I would classify it as a very original driver with some minor restoration work like the paint. If you could get past a few flaws (like the faulty hood latch) it was a magnificent example of a classic German convertible. 

The originality and condition of this car would make it pretty valuable today. This is certainly one that I wish I still had. 

Sadly, this is how it spent much of its time - right here with some of my other albatrosses. I was thrilled with the car, other than not using it enough. These have become quite collectible in the last few years. They're great driver-collectors because you can actually use them. They're mechanically sound and very comfortable. The interesting thing is, you may not have missed the boat on getting a cheap one. I see these R107 cars sell for crazy money but I still see them offered cheap as well. That's primarily because they built so many and a large percentage of them survive.

1996 Dodge Intrepid

1996 Dodge Intrepid

So the random generator program has given me something sort of amusing tonight. I believe this is actually the first car I ever bought at an auction. I remember it was in January of 1999 and the place was called Houston Auto Auction I believe. It was a public auction with a lot of junk to be honest.

Why did I buy it? - No idea.
What was I planning on doing with it? - No idea.

I think I was just there out of curiosity and determined to buy something. It was actually a pretty nice car. It was a company fleet car that was being liquidated. It was black with gray cloth interior and had the larger of two options 3.5-liter V6.

I was pleasantly surprised with how it drove. Not fast, but enough motor for normal driving. For the money it wasn't a bad car. It had all the power options you could get and was perfect on the inside. 

I drove this car on occasion for a few months and then realized it was just pointless to keep around. I love to buy cars but hate to sell them! It's annoying and you have to deal with all kinds of flakes. I think I actually listed this car in the local newspaper and finally got a legitimate buyer. He didn't speak a word of English and paid me with a shoebox full of cash - no bills larger than $20 - in a gas station parking lot late at night. 

There's certainly no reason to buy one of these Intrepids today so I won't even waste time telling you not to.