KesterHouse
Active member
Hi ho,
I've made a few posts already over the Vises of GJ thread, and just noticed this intro thread so this is me, introducing myself...
I'm Jeff K., born and raised in Lansing, MI a few miles from the old Diamond Reo truck plant. College was Michigan State University (go Spartans!), where I paid for school repairing German cars and doing some occasional construction work (there weren't a lot of shops to repair VWs and BMWs in the heart of Oldsmobile land, but I had a good customer base with all the students and staff of MSU). I also got into home repair and renovation at a young age, rebuilding the rental house and shop I lived in during college in exchange for very cheap rent. Of course all this tinkering started the tool pile growing.
After college, my older brother was going to grad school in Boston at the time, and thought I'd like New England. I followed him out here and moved to a little place near the coast, north of Boston about 25 years ago and found out he was right - been very happy with this part of the world and have no plans to leave. I spent a few years working at an independent repair shop that specialized in VWs as their fuel injection and electronics specialist, as well as performing a handful of full restorations on old Beetles. I then moved on to a BMW motorcycle shop for a couple years, but got tired of pouring the benefits of my love of tinkering with old stuff into the pockets of the shop owner, so in the early 90s I opened my own shop to convert old VWs to electric vehicles. Seems I was about 10 years too early on that prospect, and while we enjoyed some success, we had to eventually close the business after 3 years. My deal with the partners was that I would take no pay, however any tools that were purchased or that I brought to the business would be mine regardless of the outcome. The tool pile was getting bigger.
Somehow while making an attempt at the electric vehicle business, I met a wonderful woman that didn't think I was a complete nut case - not being an idiot I of course asked her to marry me, and 20 years later I still refer to her as The Lovely Bride (TLB). After the business closed, I moved into systems administration work for Osram Sylvania for a few years, then went from that to more sys admin and data center work as a contractor (and all the tools went into storage). We managed to save enough money to purchase the house I'd been renting since I moved here, however the thing was a total basket case at the time of purchase. We decided the best course of action would be for me to rebuild the place myself, rather than go find another computer job and pay a general contractor to work on the house. 5 years later and I'm still at it, but the results have been good so far. The garage will likely happen in 2013 (there isn't one now), and I'll finally be able to get the tools out of storage.
I recently needed to replace a bench vise with something from the storage locker, and while trying to figure out what I had I ended up here. How I've missed this wonderful resource all these years I'll never know - glad I found it, and I'm still digging through all the fantastic information you folks have all shared.
To keep track of the renovation project and let the in-laws know the latest status, I created a website a couple years ago with all the details at KesterHouse.com It's also got a few pages regarding hand planes and lots of power tool stuff in the Specification sections, that may be of some interest to folks here.
Thanks for such a wonderfully active and informative resource - looking forward to learning more and contributing what I can!
-JeffK.
I've made a few posts already over the Vises of GJ thread, and just noticed this intro thread so this is me, introducing myself...
I'm Jeff K., born and raised in Lansing, MI a few miles from the old Diamond Reo truck plant. College was Michigan State University (go Spartans!), where I paid for school repairing German cars and doing some occasional construction work (there weren't a lot of shops to repair VWs and BMWs in the heart of Oldsmobile land, but I had a good customer base with all the students and staff of MSU). I also got into home repair and renovation at a young age, rebuilding the rental house and shop I lived in during college in exchange for very cheap rent. Of course all this tinkering started the tool pile growing.
After college, my older brother was going to grad school in Boston at the time, and thought I'd like New England. I followed him out here and moved to a little place near the coast, north of Boston about 25 years ago and found out he was right - been very happy with this part of the world and have no plans to leave. I spent a few years working at an independent repair shop that specialized in VWs as their fuel injection and electronics specialist, as well as performing a handful of full restorations on old Beetles. I then moved on to a BMW motorcycle shop for a couple years, but got tired of pouring the benefits of my love of tinkering with old stuff into the pockets of the shop owner, so in the early 90s I opened my own shop to convert old VWs to electric vehicles. Seems I was about 10 years too early on that prospect, and while we enjoyed some success, we had to eventually close the business after 3 years. My deal with the partners was that I would take no pay, however any tools that were purchased or that I brought to the business would be mine regardless of the outcome. The tool pile was getting bigger.
Somehow while making an attempt at the electric vehicle business, I met a wonderful woman that didn't think I was a complete nut case - not being an idiot I of course asked her to marry me, and 20 years later I still refer to her as The Lovely Bride (TLB). After the business closed, I moved into systems administration work for Osram Sylvania for a few years, then went from that to more sys admin and data center work as a contractor (and all the tools went into storage). We managed to save enough money to purchase the house I'd been renting since I moved here, however the thing was a total basket case at the time of purchase. We decided the best course of action would be for me to rebuild the place myself, rather than go find another computer job and pay a general contractor to work on the house. 5 years later and I'm still at it, but the results have been good so far. The garage will likely happen in 2013 (there isn't one now), and I'll finally be able to get the tools out of storage.
I recently needed to replace a bench vise with something from the storage locker, and while trying to figure out what I had I ended up here. How I've missed this wonderful resource all these years I'll never know - glad I found it, and I'm still digging through all the fantastic information you folks have all shared.
To keep track of the renovation project and let the in-laws know the latest status, I created a website a couple years ago with all the details at KesterHouse.com It's also got a few pages regarding hand planes and lots of power tool stuff in the Specification sections, that may be of some interest to folks here.
Thanks for such a wonderfully active and informative resource - looking forward to learning more and contributing what I can!
-JeffK.