No Richard it just seems to get tripped every now and then, actually living alone is peaceful and relaxing. Not to mention I now magically seem to have money!Quote:
Originally Posted by techinspector1
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No Richard it just seems to get tripped every now and then, actually living alone is peaceful and relaxing. Not to mention I now magically seem to have money!Quote:
Originally Posted by techinspector1
Those are the same things I have noticed about living alone, especially the peaceful and relaxing parts. :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
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And suddenly everything is EXACTLY how you left it.
Wes,
Hope that your barn/shop gets done to support getting the VR out of the RV captivity, repairs done and into paint! Looking forward to seeing a picture of it sitting on the circle drive out front, shining like a new dollar.
I spent today pulling the VR out of storage, charging the battery and repairing the broken front bonnet hinge with my son. I little grinding, welding and painting and she's good as new. I will attempt to refit the bonnet tomorrow and she'll be road worthy again. Repairing the fiberglass nose damage is next.
Waiting on the engineering plans for the her permanent home. Once they're done, I can submit them, along with the architectural drawings, to the county building department for approval
Good to see you back on here Wes.
Well it's been six months and the county still hasn't approved my shop project. The plans sailed through five different departments with minor revisions. Then in January, the planning dept. decided that I need a grading permit for the building pad that already exists. That required a civil engineer to draw up a storm water drainage plan, a grading plan and a geotechnical report. They also advised that my neighbors parking area (which is 300 feet from the proposed building and was constructed by the builders of both houses) encroached on my property and I would need to apply for a change to the property line or rip out the paved and fenced improvements.
I was advised, by my architect, that a geotechnical report alone usually runs about $4000. Lucky for me, I was able to get a copy of the report used for the homes' construction from the builder... for nothing. And my neighbor provided me with a copy of the easement granted for the parking area. The grading and drainage plans came to a total of $3500. Everything was submitted two months ago and all the permits have been approved. But planning still has my project marked as "revisions needed." Waiting to find out why. :( Sucks!!!!
Now... a little about the car.
The steering is stock Z... and manual. I've been looking for an inexpensive way to convert to power steering... and I think I've found it. The electric power steering from an '05-'07 Saturn Vue or Chevy Equinox. I stumbled over this video last night.
https://youtu.be/uKzCaEjvJeM
I was so intrigued, I pulled a unit today at my local Pick N Pull. Unlike the Cobra in the video, I don't have any room in the engine compartment, so I'll mount it under dash. I'm planning on a custom interior, so I'll remove the original Z dash, get the unit mounted and adjusted, then build a one off dash around it.
Probably get it all done before the shop project finally gets approved. :LOL:
I feel for you, but one word sums it all up, california.
Yup so much fun dealing with self funded government agencies. Nothing like padding their own wallets and future! Sorry your getting the run around Wes. What planning departments don't get is when they make the process too hard, people stop going to them and take the penalty cost for no permit, usually cgheaper than the process us law abiding folks follow with infinate frustration! Glad the project is still alive!
I just my try to adapt that steering setup into my uncles 48 F-1, he's always wanted to get the steering to be easier, this might be the ticket!
Thanks Wes!!
And here's hoping the gubermint pulls their proverbial heads out of... well, you know!
If you guys want a few more electric steering options to explore, this guy covers a lot of bases....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4TYQ_KJSpc
Thanks R2!
I'd bet you could use one of these in your 38 chebby! :HMMM::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Sorry to hear about this Wes, here is something pertinent to your present situation that I wrote a couple of years back. It would seem that things are the same the whole world over! Read it and weep:Quote:
Originally Posted by Fauxre
"But with this particular job I was stymied by bureaucracy; the condom on the penis of vision, passion, and dedication.
With a condom, no seeds are allowed to flourish, to reach their potential.
Small people with small minds, in a position of minor authority, can bring the good and great low, just to satiate their own selfish interests and desires, thereby stifling any entrepreneur with vision and passion from achievement.
Nil bastardo carborundum.
Don't let them grind you down.
And I didn't.
Some will say I'm dedicated, some will say I'm obstinate, and some will say I'm bloody-minded and pig-headed.
Their choice.
I just do things my way.
Always have, and always will.
(Rant over. Steps off soapbox and exits stage left, shaking its head, dribbling and muttering to itself.) "
Oh, I forgot; thanks too Wes and Randy for posting those links.
Very informative.
Just got time to watch video, Thanks Wes very cool!
34/40 If you do adapt it to the 48 F1, take pictures and make a post, this might be my next project on my 48!
OK, Steve..Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
Thanks, with all the new house fixing, I have had little time for my truck other than taking it out of the garage and running it for a few minutes once a month! Life after divorce! The house I bought has a sizeable yard for a 1960's track home, all of which was sorely neglected, so I've spent most of my time and resources getting a mini orchard planted as a priority, and doing more of drought tolerant planting and soil augmentation. The reason this takes priority over the truck is it'll take 3-6 years for my fruit trees to begin producing fruit without having to buy apples for hard cider, and Perry. Since I love making and drinking the stuff, once the yard gets to maintenance stage, I can then divert back to truck. (which should be this month actually.) I want to get all the truck parts back on the truck which will give me more garage space to get around the truck making it easier to work on the truck!
Sorry Wes for the highjack. You Guys all inspire me to persevere!. Around Christmas I thought of selling the truck to pad my savings as I have had a series of vet bills for my #1 pal, but tax man was nice, so now I don't have to worry as long as I stick to the budget!
Heck with dealing with government depts. and vet bills, life certainly does throw some curve balls at us. I too have been going through hell in the last 12 months but it is all the little positives I find in living each day that helps me through the dark times. Hang in there guys, there is light at the end of the tunnel, we just have to work our way towards it.
Sorry Wes to hear of your issues getting your new building up. I have had many issues in the county I used to live in with their wait, persistent inconsistency to follow their own codes and knowing their own laws. The county I live in now is so much more laid back and easy to deal with. The first time I filed for a permit here, I thought they were joking when they approved it within 3 days. :LOL:
Picked up permits yesterday
!!!!YeeeHaaww!!!!
Now to see if any of the contractors I've previously contacted are available to do the work.:rolleyes:
Good luck with it! A friend of mine that lives in Missouri is having a really hard time finding a contractor to build them a house. I was really surprised by that.
I though I was being flippant with that last remark.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fauxre
As it turned out only one of the concrete contractors, that had previously bid the project, even bothered to respond with their availability. One out of eight!
I am however, very pleased with who I ended up using. Instead of questioning the over engineered nature of my plans (like most of the others did), he and his two sons simply built a massively strong foundation.
Attachment 68711Attachment 68710Attachment 68709
Waiting now for our nephew, who's a general contractor, to create a materials list from my plans, so I can price the lumber.
Hey Wes hope you guys didn't have to evacuate during the fires.
Tried to view attachment links and got this error message
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Glad to hear you got the slab done and to your specs!
Not sure why my pics won’t upload like they used to. Photobucket charges now for hosting images, so I won’t be going that route. I’ll work on it.
We’re a couple of ridges away from the fires. No evacuations here, but we did get a lot of smoke and ash blowing around like snow though. How about you?
Same here ash, smoke and threats of evacuation, but the weather gods spared us too!
I have been looking at external hard drives and found amazon has seagate 8 tb back up plus desk top drices for 180.00 8 terabites will hold a lot pics I don't know how many but I have been using idrive back up for yers at 70.00 per year and I think I will pull the triger on one of these soon anybody have any feed back on this idea
Quote:
Originally Posted by ted dehaan
My main computer has a 1tb hard drive and I use a Toshiba 1tb external for a back up. The back up is barely 1/3 full and I have a ton of pictures and some 2000 songs on the hard drive. IMHO, 8tb is extreme overkill though you'll never run out of space, 2tb is more than enough. And FWIW, I've never had any good luck with Seagate hard drives. Most of mine are WD's.
Staples sells a bunch of TB backup hard drives that are small and yet hold a ton of information. I've been using a 70 dollar one for the last 5 years or so. Well worth it as we recently found out with threats of mandatory evacuations for the fires, very simple small one wire to unplug power, one usb port and you have a small backup of everything on your pc ready to go in seconds, vs. pulling apart and trying to disconnect everything from the desk top. Plus if you get hacked, you don't have to pay ransonm to get your stuff unlocked just use the back up drive!
Ok... images in prior post should be working now.
We did have an evacuation about a month before the Napa fires. We had three separate fires in our neighborhood this summer. One burned two houses to the ground across the road from us. I was in Washington watching on the news. There was a fire engine parked in our driveway waiting for the tall grass directly across from our property to catch. The fireman said that if it caught, there would be no saving that house. He said we weren't in much danger because I keep everything cut short at our place. Our PVC fence might melt though.:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
Nice slab. After living on the East side of Petaluma I realize what soil can do! I'm envious of your work space!
Yeah, we're all cursed with the same expansive clay soil. The floor is actually floating, not dowelled into the stem walls, to allow for all the soil movement. Hence it was almost twice as expensive as a monolithic slab foundation.
Yikes , but worth it!
This is what I've been working on while I've been waiting for the lumber delivery.
https://youtu.be/OOmGLdq2Nr8
Way cool!!! My sister sets out a small village this time of year, but nothing to that extent.
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That is very awesome! So much detail in there. Nice work.
Man oh Man.. you put the fan in fanatic!
That is fantastic. NICE!
Five years ago I made landscaping for the first time. There were 10 t 15 buildings. Every year since, I’ve built entirely new landscapes to accommodate my wife’s new acquisitions. Last year the trolly was new. This year we added the train. There are now over 60 lighted buildings, not including the little kiosks, huts and boats. And who knows how many figurines.
We’re already making changes for next year.��
How do you store it? Or is Xmas a 365 day a year event at your house?
Wow so many hours to build such a huge city with motorized animations and incredible detail. Nicely done
When we were kids, my Dad got into HO trains. That was some pretty cool fun but I didn't realize the costs involved at the time. Ours was nothing as clean and crisp as yours but it was still cool to have a river coming off a mountain and a tunnel through that mountain. I also wondered how you stored all that without it getting messed up somehow.
