Killing time in a small "2 car" garage

[rodpoa]

I don’t know if there’s a little snitch equivalent for Windows, but try to install it in your Mac and run it while running Chrome.

It detects all remote function calls your machine is triggering without your knowledge.

If don’t get alarmed with the amount - and sort - of data Chrome reports back to the mothership, only using Facebook will. The browser sends even names from your contact list.

I really don’t appreciate it!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I don’t know if there’s a little snitch equivalent for Windows, but try to install it in your Mac and run it while running Chrome.

It detects all remote function calls your machine is triggering without your knowledge.

If don’t get alarmed with the amount - and sort - of data Chrome reports back to the mothership, only using Facebook will. The browser sends even names from your contact list.

I really don’t appreciate it!

Eh, all the browsers data mine and everything is logged. If you think anything is anonymous anymore, it's not. Even the incognito and other "stealth" browsing techniques are being logged. I'm not a fan of Big Brother, but I'm also not terribly concerned about my personal usage. The data logging on cell phones is far worse, independent of apps used.

Interestingly enough, I get far less spam now that I use Chrome than when I used Safari or the other browsers. My work email has been overrun with spam emails getting through our filters the last two weeks... really annoying.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Nothing going on in the garage the past couple weeks between my traveling for training and now getting caught back up now that I'm back.

My wife is changing schools so I've had to use my lunch breaks to go haul stuff home from her old classroom. The new school isn't open yet so the stuff has to come home for the time being. The basement is full of stuff again now between my daughter's dorm room furniture and my wife's classroom stuff.

It's been too hot and muggy to work in the garage in the evenings. Stupid hot and MUGGY. I can handle hot or muggy, but not both. I'm hoping the humidity drops a little this weekend so I can get the second of primer on the bookcase shelf. I really want it finished so I can build the next one. I want them finished. Then I have a really nice. solid bookcase from my wife's classroom that we're going to fix up and paint to match the others. It will go on a different wall in the basement. It has a lot of nail holes that need to be filled in and a few scratches that need to be filled and sanded. But it's solid wood and has a 1/4" plywood back on it.

I'm ordering the new carbs for the CX500 and the new exhaust for the KZ650 tomorrow. The new exhaust should allow the KZ650 to run properly since it will have the correct back pressure on it again. I'm crazy excited about getting to ride the KZ650!

 

[Strouty]

Sounds like the humidity will make you damp, the sawdust will essentially bread you, and then the heat will fry you. Human corn dog?

At least a nice ride will cool you off, so something to look forward to for sure!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Sounds like the humidity will make you damp, the sawdust will essentially bread you, and then the heat will fry you. Human corn dog?

At least a nice ride will cool you off, so something to look forward to for sure!

Pretty good description...

Yeah, I often jump on the CX500 for a quick scoot to cool off.

The KZ650 is going to need it's fork upgraded and rear shocks replaced soon after I get it running.

 

[Strouty]

Will you be selling the garage their bike or keeping both? Not that I ever sell anything.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Eventually I will have to sell some of the bikes, but for now I have no plans to part with any of them except the Virago which is currently for sale as is. Only the CX500 and KZ650 run. The GL1100 is close to running condition. The rest are all torn down, put up in storage, and need major work.

Long term, I only plan to keep the KZ650 and the KZ440 for me. The CB350 will be my son's bike. My wife loves the CX500 and after it's done I doubt she'll sell it since she likes it as it is now.

I'll still have 6 or 7 bikes in the garage in the future, but one will be a new Goldwing Tour model. I plan to build a hardtail board tracker with my KZ750 Twin engine and a custom CB650 Nighthawk punched out to 754cc running an Interceptor monoshock swingarm and CBR600RR F3 front end. So those are the 3 additional bikes to be added. I'm sure other bikes will come and go too, but I intend to keep the resto-mod KZ650 long term. Unless of course I'm made an offer I can't refuse for it.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Saturday my son had to work a fund raiser car wash for lacrosse. Luckily he got the early 9-11am shift. It was going to to be stupid hot... 98degF with a 104 heat index.

So what did I get to do later in the afternoon? Load and unload a vintage Art Deco bedroom set my wife scored off a Facebook ad. When did she schedule us to pick it up? 2pm. I borrowed my folks new Tacoma to haul the dresser and vanity. The headboard, footboard, and mirrors went in the Pilot. Luckily my neighbor is easy to bribe into manual labor. He helped me unload the furniture at the house and get it into our living room.

Today for Father's Day my big gift was getting to sleep in until after Noon. Yes, I can still still sleep half a day away and enjoy every minute of it.

But then we needed to get the old bedroom set out of my daughter's room and haul the new, heavy-as-hell, bedroom set upstairs. My wife has two bulged discs in her back so she has a very limited lifting ability. For most of the furniture she only had to guide me or the piece and I could do 95% of the actual lifting. The dresser was too tall for me to lift and step up the stairs so we enlisted my son to lift it a little each step so I could then push it up the rest of the step. I told him how to lift properly so he didn't hurt his back and he did great!

So much so that my wife was amazed and said he earned his new lacrosse D-pole for that help. He's been doing chores to earn half the cost of his new stick (and figured he would get a cheaper stick), but he wasn't anywhere near what he needed. So after my wife said he earned it, I quickly jumped on ****'s Sporting Goods site and ordered his new stick. They had the stick I wanted to get him for 20% off plus another $20 back as a gift card. That discount took it under $100, but then the express shipping and tax put it back over $100, but it was still a great deal for one of the top rated sticks on the market. He won't need a new stick now until he's playing high school varsity level. He has a tournament in Louisville this coming weekend so I paid a little extra to make sure it's here on Wednesday. That way he'll have a day of team practice with the new stick on Thursday before the games on Saturday.

My Father's Day gift was the new tires on my CX500. Good friends of ours invited us out for dinner and swimming so I rode the bike out to there place. It felt great riding out there, but it was even nicer riding back tonight after 9pm when it cooled off. My wife and kids insisted on following me back the long way on the way home. They got a huge kick out of a guy on a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 at a stop light. He was in the left turn lane. My wife was next to him in a straight lane and was in the RH straight lane. The guy on the GSX-R revved his bike to get my attention to nod hello. I revved my bike back and he gave a thumbs up. My wife and kids thought that was really cool. Then a bit later we went under and overpass and I got them good. Clutch in... rev it to redline... yeah, that was LOUD. And fun! When I got home they told me they had the windows down.

Hope everyone else had a great Father's Day. I got a lot of heavy lifting done, but also had a great day.

 

[jon72vega]

Saturday my son had to work a fund raiser car wash for lacrosse. Luckily he got the early 9-11am shift. It was going to to be stupid hot... 98degF with a 104 heat index.

So what did I get to do later in the afternoon? Load and unload a vintage Art Deco bedroom set my wife scored off a Facebook ad. When did she schedule us to pick it up? 2pm. I borrowed my folks new Tacoma to haul the dresser and vanity. The headboard, footboard, and mirrors went in the Pilot. Luckily my neighbor is easy to bribe into manual labor. He helped me unload the furniture at the house and get it into our living room.

Today for Father's Day my big gift was getting to sleep in until after Noon. Yes, I can still still sleep half a day away and enjoy every minute of it.

But then we needed to get the old bedroom set out of my daughter's room and haul the new, heavy-as-hell, bedroom set upstairs. My wife has two bulged discs in her back so she has a very limited lifting ability. For most of the furniture she only had to guide me or the piece and I could do 95% of the actual lifting. The dresser was too tall for me to lift and step up the stairs so we enlisted my son to lift it a little each step so I could then push it up the rest of the step. I told him how to lift properly so he didn't hurt his back and he did great!

So much so that my wife was amazed and said he earned his new lacrosse D-pole for that help. He's been doing chores to earn half the cost of his new stick (and figured he would get a cheaper stick), but he wasn't anywhere near what he needed. So after my wife said he earned it, I quickly jumped on ****'s Sporting Goods site and ordered his new stick. They had the stick I wanted to get him for 20% off plus another $20 back as a gift card. That discount took it under $100, but then the express shipping and tax put it back over $100, but it was still a great deal for one of the top rated sticks on the market. He won't need a new stick now until he's playing high school varsity level. He has a tournament in Louisville this coming weekend so I paid a little extra to make sure it's here on Wednesday. That way he'll have a day of team practice with the new stick on Thursday before the games on Saturday.

My Father's Day gift was the new tires on my CX500. Good friends of ours invited us out for dinner and swimming so I rode the bike out to there place. It felt great riding out there, but it was even nicer riding back tonight after 9pm when it cooled off. My wife and kids insisted on following me back the long way on the way home. They got a huge kick out of a guy on a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 at a stop light. He was in the left turn lane. My wife was next to him in a straight lane and was in the RH straight lane. The guy on the GSX-R revved his bike to get my attention to nod hello. I revved my bike back and he gave a thumbs up. My wife and kids thought that was really cool. Then a bit later we went under and overpass and I got them good. Clutch in... rev it to redline... yeah, that was LOUD. And fun! When I got home they told me they had the windows down.

Hope everyone else had a great Father's Day. I got a lot of heavy lifting done, but also had a great day.

BoilermakerFan,
Sounds like you had a great Father's Day!

 

[Strouty]

I too did heavy lifting, but I got to throw the furniture that I was moving off the second floor stairwell to the ground. That was really satisfying, I hate old particle board desks.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

BoilermakerFan,
Sounds like you had a great Father's Day!

I did! Today I really feeling all the heavy lifting thought. I think every muscle on my body is sore.

I too did heavy lifting, but I got to throw the furniture that I was moving off the second floor stairwell to the ground. That was really satisfying, I hate old particle board desks.

Oh yeah, I bet that was fun. I saw the pic of the pile of file cabinets in your thread.

 

[Strouty]

The wood tended to break up a bit more than the metal cabinets, so I did them separately so it would be simpler to deal with.

I think your heat is headed this way. Blah.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I think your heat is headed this way. Blah.

Ooops, that was supposed to go to Jon.


I forgot to mention that I have one of these cordless drill powdered rotary positioners on the way from CertiFlat when the first batch is run:

I don't really need it right now, but I couldn't pass up the special pricing and it will be very handy when I start welding up my own motorcycle exhausts. If anything, it will definitely make it easier so I will probably start on my own exhausts sooner than later with segmented header kits from Kinetic.

I'll need to fab a couple of standardized plates for my big SKF rotary bearing so that I can attach the rotary positioner on it and use it for other fixtures too.


Eventually when the garage is all rearranged and organized, I'll have a nice compact fab setup.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Our weather has been either stupid hot & humid like everyone else's weather, or it's been raining; so I haven't done anything out in the garage. It's been too hot to work out there when it's not raining. The weather this year has been a real PITA and really prevented any progress.

I've also been out of town for work a lot in June.

My fab positioner should be shipping next week.

We've started to redo our landscaping in the back. It's gotten way out of control and the chickens had pretty much destroyed all the mulch and weed block too. So the chickens are now locked up full time in their big pen behind the garage. I only let them out in the evenings when I'm out the yard so i can keep them out of the new landscaping.

Yesterday it was finally a nice day. Temp was 80 with relatively low humidity so I worked in the backyard in the shade while my wife went to Louisville with a friend to go shopping. My son wanted to earn some money so I put him to work pulling weeds and helping me move bags of the lava rocks.

I tackled two of the really neglected beds and made a little more progress on the main bed we've been replanting.


This bed used to be our shady herb bed, then it just got overgrown with weeds and grass. Next spring we'll divide a bunch of hostas and ferns and transplant them here. For now, it's just going to stay weed free.

This bed actually used to be my son's sand box. There is a Rose of Sharon tree in the back corner of it and 3 out of 7 hostas survived numerous "attacks" from the chickens and one of the dogs. We'll plant a few flowering bushes in the middle and more hostas next spring. Hopefully the lava rock we'll keep the dog out of it. He goes into it to bark at the neighbor's dog...

And here is the main bed that is getting the most work. It's a bit of a PITA to put down the new weed block since the old weed block is all torn up and covered in dirt and weeds thanks to the chickens so it's slow progress. It's also not in shade until late in the afternoon so we only have a couple hours a day to work on it.

So far we've used 62 bags of lava rock and 4 bags of brick nuggets. We put the brick nuggets down on the front edges and around the plants so that the water won't wash away the lava rock in a down pour and prevent the lava rock from cutting the plants. By the time we have this bed and another big bed done I bet we'll have used 400+ bags of lava rock. The front beds will probably take another 250 bags of rock. I've looked for bigger bags or bulk lava rock, but haven't found any other options.

 

[jon72vega]

BoilermakerFan,
The lava rock looks great!
Good job!

 

[Bighead38]

Yes, I only use Chrome, shared across my Mac, Android phone, and Win10Pro PC.

I had a LONG week. I was out in Littleton, CO for a product training school. Flew back Friday afternoon and didn't get home until after 11pm. Then we had to be at the sports fields before 8am for a lacrosse tournament. Out in the heat and blazing sun all day Saturday. This morning we had to be back at the fields by 9am. A weather delay until 10:30am. The boys lost the game so we were done in the tournament. Got home a little after noon.

Now I'm just chillin'. Probably go for a scoot on the CX500 later this afternoon. I don't really have motivation to do anything else yet. I think it's time for a nap!

Lacrosse is always worth it. Best sport in the world.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

BoilermakerFan,
The lava rock looks great!
Good job!

Thanks Jon. I was a little unsure at first, but once I saw it I liked it. It actually looks really good with the brick on our house too. Our house was built in '39 so it has a semi-textured brick that is dark red and a few that are more purple in tint, so the lava rock color is perfect.

I'm actually motivated to get it done for a couple reasons: First, it's going to look great; and second, once it's done, it's done. I won't have to screw with weeds and all the mulches we have tried always wash away or get blown out into the yard. We're also replacing all of the landscaping plants with perennials for the same reason; once their established, they come back every year and we don't have to replant flowers every year. Next year we should have it all done.

Lacrosse is always worth it. Best sport in the world.

I agree! I love the sport, but NASP archery is also tied as my favorite sport. I'm the head coach for my son's middle school archery team, so I am a little biased.

I never got to play lax, it didn't start growing in this area until about 5 years ago. I've now coached both girls and boys lax. Two very different forms of the same sport. I wouldn't say one is better than the other, just different variations. The latest girls rules did change the game to be a little less fun though, much harder to run a good defense so I'm glad I'm not coaching the girls anymore. I was just the defense coach for the 12U boys so it was nice not to have all the responsibilities I had when I was the head coach of the high school girls varsity team. This season was my son's first, but our feeder team's second season. This was the first season the travel team had a traveling 13U team too. Lacrosse is still growing here. It really showed when we played select teams from Indy, Louisville, and Nashville that have had programs starting in 8U or 10U.

My main focus is growing the archery programs in the public schools that feed my son's high school. Right now only one elementary school and our middle school have archery in our school district. We have 3 other elementary schools, another middle school and the high school that I need to get on board so I have a solid program from fourth grade through seniors in high school. In the school corp there are only two other public schools with teams; one elementary school and one non-traditional tech high school. All the catholic schools have teams including both high schools so they kick our butts because their kids have been shooting since 3rd or 4th grade.

 

[Strouty]

I used to be pretty good with a bow, now I probably could hit the side of the barn at 25 feet.

Looks good, this heat/humidity ***** the life out of us. I keep trying to turn the AC on, but it really doesn't seem to help when you are outside. Just think, in a few more months we will be bitching about snow.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I used to be pretty good with a bow, now I probably could hit the side of the barn at 25 feet.

Looks good, this heat/humidity ***** the life out of us. I keep trying to turn the AC on, but it really doesn't seem to help when you are outside. Just think, in a few more months we will be bitching about snow.

Coaching archery is one of those skills that just came naturally to me. I'm a better coach than shooter, but I can still hold my own with my bows.

You won't hear me ***** about snow.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

On July 10th we headed down to The Villages to visit my M-I-L. My wife had a teaching conference in Orlando over the weekend. My son and I spent Saturday in Orlando at the Fun Spot amusement park and Bass Pro Shop. Then we picked up my wife from her conference and headed to the Medieval Times in Kissimmee. Sunday my son and I were beat so we stayed home while my wife went back to Orlando for the rest of her conference.

On Friday the Thirteenth I received a job offer for a new career opportunity. We decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up so today I resigned from my current employer. My last day will be August 3rd. My boss was disappointed I'm leaving and hated to lose me, but he understands that this opportunity was too good to pass up. I resigned on a Thursday because my office manager is partially retired and only works Tues.-Thurs. and I wanted to tell her in person after telling my boss. My current company is a great company and I wouldn't ever consider working for a competitor. I love my coworkers and customers so it was a difficult decision to make, but I'm really excited about the new opportunities that will come with this new career.

The best part about the new career is we'll be able to move! We're going to stay here for two more years so my son can finish middle school, my wife can get fully vested in her retirement plan, and we can finish all the projects on the house so it will be much easier to sell. We'll probably move to the north suburbs of Indianapolis, specifically Carmel, IN so my son can attend the best public STEM high school in Indiana. I do have the option to move anywhere in my sales territory, which is basically the entire central and western US so the Holland/Grand Rapids area of MI is an option too since most of my customer base in my new job is in IN and MI. As much as I would love to move to the PNW, I'm not sure it's the best location to be from a customer base standpoint... I'm not going to worry about it for now. I have 2 years to get the house in tip top shape and we'll see what develops in that time.

Since there is a light at the end of the tunnel for us, I have to decide how much I'm going to do in the current garage now. I think I'm still going to put up the plywood to finish the walls and insulate them just to save the money on the heating bills and make it more comfortable to be in during the heat of summer. However, my plans for the spray booth and curing oven will be put on hold. The wall cabinets may or may not happen... I still need my tool chest and that will definitely move with us, but my plans for the garage are definitely changing.

If we move to Carmel, we'll be buying an existing house and live there for 4 to 8 years. I've found a couple neighborhoods I really like with houses built in the late '60s and early '70s. They all have 2 car attached garages and most have big basements and bigger lots from .35-.60 acres so there would be plenty of room for a nice sized "yard barn". I'll probably have to call it a yard barn to get around the HOA rules, though I have no idea how big I can build. It will be something that I will research between now and moving time. My plan would be to expand the attached garage to a 3 car garage and build the big barn in the back. The barn would be my actual shop and I would pour a foundation and floor for it with a motorcycle lift table set in the floor so it's flush when fully retracted. The third bay of the garage would be for the running motorcycles. The nice thing is that in these neighborhoods, the third bay expansion would add resale value so it wouldn't be "wasted" money.

I will also be doing a lot more purging of stuff through the next two years, especially in the garage. I've already been working on it, but now I'm more motivated to get rid of things that I probably won't use or really don't need to hold on to.

 

[Strouty]

Congratulations, sounds like it will be an interesting new venture. I vote to avoid an HOA if possible, they are never really friendly to our types.

 

[bj383ss]

That's great news. Congrats on the new job.

Bret

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Congratulations, sounds like it will be an interesting new venture. I vote to avoid an HOA if possible, they are never really friendly to our types.

Thanks Strouty! I agree on avoiding HOAs if possible, but that's the price I'll have to pay to be in a really cool neighborhood in the the best school district in Indiana. In this case, the PROs outweigh the CONs by a wide margin. Many of the houses already have yard barns so it's really just a matter of finding out how big I can go and if there is a process to get approval for a bigger out building. I will be contacting the neighborhood association to get all the rules before we even consider purchasing a house there. If they are stupid strict, then I will look at other areas within Carmel.

That's great news. Congrats on the new job.

Bret

Thanks Bret! I'm pretty stoked about it!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Before we left for vacation we carried the bookcase shelf down into the basement. I lightly sanded it applied lightweight filler to the dimples left from the other filler, and applied the second coat of primer.

This evening after work I flipped the bookcase over so I could apply the second coat of primer to the bottom and touch up areas that needed a third coat on the insides.

It's finally ready for paint... and my wife is out of town at another conference. So I'll be going to Home Depot to pick out a couple shades of espresso brown that I think she will like. I'll get the little trial sizes and paint the bottom with them so she can decide which one she likes the best when she's home.


Tomorrow my son and I will head to Menards to buy more red lava rock. They have 1 cubic foot bags for the same price as two 1/2 cubic foot bags from Lowes, but the 11% rebate makes it cheaper. Plus I won't have to haul as many bags so that's a bonus too. I'll have to make a couple trips since I think I can only fit 40 bags in the Pilot at one time.

 

[jon72vega]

BoilermakerFan,
Congrats on the new job!
Carmel is a nice area.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

BoilermakerFan,
Congrats on the new job!
Carmel is a nice area.

Thanks Jon! Carmel is still our top pick for now, but Grand Rapids/Forrest Hill and Grand Haven are still on the list too. Might even go crazy and move out to Eugene, OR. From a family/friends perspective it's really far away though, but I've wanted to live there for about 25 years now.

I'd prefer to be in the far west side of GR simply because we could build our little house and go grid-tied combined solar/wind very easily while shortening my commute to Holland for days when I have to be there. However, the public schools in MI are a mess thanks to that POS DeVos. That would push us more urban to East GR, but I read that Forrest Hill HS is really good too so we have an option. For now, I'm not going to stress about it. I'll continue to research things and just work on my house here in SW Indiana.

I wish Midland, MI was so far away from Holland and GR... They have so many amazing MCM houses there! There are a lot more MCMs in MI than IN too, so that is actually a factor in my decision. If we don't build, I REALLY want to buy a MCM house.

My buddy who got me the job just moved to the SE side of Grand Haven. I'll be hanging out with him when I'm in Holland for training or in MI making sales calls. That will give me a chance to explore that area too.

 

[xtremek]

Congrats on the new job, and the new adventure.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Congrats on the new job, and the new adventure.

Thanks xtremek. I'll probably be up in your neck of the woods in a few weeks for training.





I bought a few 7oz color samples for the bookcase shelf. I decided on the color last night and this morning I painted as much as I could with the remainder of the sample.

It looks even better in person. I sent the pics to my wife and she's happy with it too, so I'm off to buy a gallon of it since I'll have three more shelves and a couple tables to paint.

 

[xtremek]

Thanks xtremek. I'll probably be up in your neck of the woods in a few weeks for training.

If you're close enough and have some time to kill, feel free to drop by. The barn's always open and there's cool pop and beer in the barn fridge.

 

[driftpin]

Congratulations on the new job. Paring-down the stuff for the move will simplify your life.

You mentioned MCM homes, and Grand Rapids as a possible location. South of Grand Rapids between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo on the I-94 corridor, is Gull Lake, which has lots of those. In the Kalamazoo area you can even find actual Frank Loyd Wright homes. There were many executives for companies like Upjohn pharmaceuticals, Stryker medical products, Post and Kellogg foods, and other manufacturing businesses who commissioned some impressive MCM homes. The lakefront ones tend to be expensive.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

If you're close enough and have some time to kill, feel free to drop by. The barn's always open and there's cool pop and beer in the barn fridge.

Thanks for the invite xtremek. I'm not sure what my schedule will be for the first few weeks while I'm up in Holland for training. I know I'm supposed to meet a guy in the Flint area to trade Merc outboards at some point. I'm sure i will spend time at my buddy's place in Grand Haven helping him with his remodel. And I plan to drive out towards to GR and the surrounding areas to check them out.

Congratulations on the new job. Paring-down the stuff for the move will simplify your life.

You mentioned MCM homes, and Grand Rapids as a possible location. South of Grand Rapids between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo on the I-94 corridor, is Gull Lake, which has lots of those. In the Kalamazoo area you can even find actual Frank Loyd Wright homes. There were many executives for companies like Upjohn pharmaceuticals, Stryker medical products, Post and Kellogg foods, and other manufacturing businesses who commissioned some impressive MCM homes. The lakefront ones tend to be expensive.

Thanks drift. I'll open up my search area. I'm covering the commercial furniture industry in my new role, so I don't want to get too far from Holland/GR, but I will also have a home office and I'm used to driving 30K miles a year in a 3hr radius from my house. That opens up more options for us. I like the idea of the GH/Spring Lake area only because I could more easily have a bigger fishing boat and have easy access to lake MI. The reality is, our final location will be determined by my wife's desires and where she can find a teaching job in K-2 grades. If we decide to head to MI instead of Carmel, IN; she'll have to find a job first, then we'd move.

There is a FB page dedicated to MI MCMs. I've traded messages with the page admin several times. The MCM time capsule houses are scattered all over central and western MI. I can definitely see how many were the houses of wealthy execs. I found a couple in the $4mil-$8mil range on realtor.com's app. Many are in the $300K range. A budget stretcher for sure ATM, but I plan on saving as much money as I can so we can a healthy downpayment on our next home.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Last night I got the rest of the undersides of the shelves painted so I could flip it over today.

I found perfect little nail-in feet for the bottom too, so I put those on.

At lunch time today my daughter helped me flip the bookcase over and I painted the tops of the shelves and the top. It will need one more coat and it's finished.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

The last week and a half has been crazy busy. I've been slammed tying up loose ends at Berendsen before I leave. My boss has been stressing because a major project started with a customer of mine the day before I went on vacation for a week, then I came back and resigned... fortunately they started issuing POs yesterday, but I do feel bad for him. I've been wrapping up four systems with my biggest customer and trying to get my boss up to speed on all the open items that we were going to be doing over the next two years with this customer. I told my customer that I will continue to support my old boss while he transitions in to support them. They were adamant that he handle all of their business nationwide like I did. I've been doing this for two years so it's easy for me, but he hasn't really been involved so he feels lost.

On top of that, the engineer at my new employer realized he had two weeks to try to get as many of our loose ends ******* before I leave too. I actually called the engineer's boss, who is my buddy at the company to have him remind the engineer that I can still help him with everything once I'm on board. My boss is also relieved that I will still be able to help with it as well. So I'm literally starting next Monday for my training and being assigned to a special project to help with the design and system changes to the machines I will actually be selling.

I have about 5 more customers that I still need to visit in the next two days to tell them I'm leaving in person. There are 3 or 4 that I am just going to have to call since I don't have time to visit them in person. The rest will just have to find out from my boss after I'm gone.

On top of all my work transition stuff, my wife is in full "Back To School" mode and she changed schools this year so she has had to completely set up a new classroom again. Only the spouse of a teacher can truly understand how much work and time is involved with that. My wife's contract resumes on Monday and my son's first day back to school is next Wednesday. The week after that we move my daughter back up to Purdue.

I'm actually looking forward to September. Hopefully things will be somewhat settled by then, though I learned that I have 3-4 months of training to look forward to at my new company. And that's just learning about their data/sales/CRM systems and processes. Luckily I will get to get out and meet my existing customers in that time and start knocking on the doors of target accounts.

I'm still digesting and reading all of the new hire information that was sent to me already. And that doesn't include all of the testing standards that totals about 4GB of PDF files!

I'm not complaining, it's just been crazy. And funny enough, the title of my thread is now truly appropriate! We realized we really only have 15 months to get our punch list of things done so we can get the house on the market in April 2020. That means that I probably won't have any time to do much of anything in the garage other than use it as a shop to prep stuff for the house. I'll make time to build the cabinet that will go under my basement workbench, but I probably won't be finishing the walls or ceiling unless it's just to get the plywood out of my way. It also means that I won't be able to do much work on my motorcycles. I'm trying to decide if I will truly have the time this winter to tear down the CX500 to have the frame powdercoated and upgrade the ignition in the engine when it's pulled from the frame. I also think I'm going to sell the GL1100 and the second titled GL1100 frame as a package deal. Odds are that I won't have room for 5 (or even 3) bikes in the garage at the future house until I can build the new garage and that would be at least 2-3 years out after moving. I'd rather part with it now instead of moving it 200 miles and discovering then that I don't have room. The KZ650, CX500, and CB350 will stay. I'm on the bubble on the KZ440. I'll keep the parts I need for my mondo CB650 build, but everything else is going to be parted out or sold off.



This past weekend my wife and I had a weekend away in Michigan City, IN at the beach on Lake Michigan with two other couples. On the way home Sunday we drove through Carmel to check it out. We hadn't really ever been there before. We found the old areas built in the '50s and '60s were as cool as we hoped they would be.

We drove through the neighborhood I found that I really liked. It's even cooler in person! I saw a couple of detached garages that were clearly for RV/boat storage on a couple of the bigger houses. And the head of the HOA architectural committee got back to me. They have approved secondary detached garages that were built to mimic the style and colors of the original house. The largest structure they have approved was an addition to an existing house, the expansion of the original garage and a second detached 3-bay garage all on this same lot. They don't have a size limit, she just said that in addition to matching the style and colors of the existing house, it has to meet all of Carmel's zoning, easement, lot coverage, height restrictions, etc. So basically, as long as you play nice and don't build a garage that stands out or clashes, they approve it. Works for me! All of those restrictions apply to me here too, so I was relieved it wasn't going to be impossible or a nightmare to build a secondary detached garage there if we find a house in that neighborhood in two years.


Other than that, I've been trying to keep up with everyone else's progress and projects in their GJ threads, even if I haven't posted, I'm following along.

 

[xtremek]

So you can pretty much build anything you want, as long as it looks like it fits the style. Sounds like a win!!!!

 

[xtremek]

I totally get the August time of year for teachers. It actually makes me hate the month. My Dad was a teacher and my wife is a professor/instructor. Having to prep you r house for the market, deal with a new job, and get your place ready for the market.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

So you can pretty much build anything you want, as long as it looks like it fits the style. Sounds like a win!!!!

The only drawback is that we love MCM ranches so that would drastically limit the height of the detached garage if we buy one... I mean, I could make it work, but ideally I'd want a 10' tall ceiling with an 8/12 pitch attic trusses. The neighborhood has some nice Colonial 2-stories so I may have to go that route for the house or go with a MCM bi-level to get more height on the house to allow for the taller detached garage.

I totally get the August time of year for teachers. It actually makes me hate the month. My Dad was a teacher and my wife is a professor/instructor. Having to prep you r house for the market, deal with a new job, and get your place ready for the market.

Yeah, back to school time isn't fun for parents, but absolutely ***** for teachers. We both teach adjunct at local universities too. She teaches in the fall semester and I would teach in the spring. I won't be able to teach anymore though...

I just have to stay focused on the plan to get the house done and get a little bit done each night I'm home and more done on the weekends. I'll send my wife and son down to FL after Christmas so I can shut off the water in the house in order to replace the main water lines with PEX this year.

 

[Grumblebum]

Congrats on the new job change BMF. Sounds like you carry a great duty-of-care to your clients which makes these decisions all the more difficult.

Maybe you'll get lucky and find a place with a tripple garage and a shed all ready to go when you move.

cheers GB

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Congrats on the new job change BMF. Sounds like you carry a great duty-of-care to your clients which makes these decisions all the more difficult.

Maybe you'll get lucky and find a place with a tripple garage and a shed all ready to go when you move.

cheers GB

Thanks GB. My first week went great! I have a lot to learn, but there is only so much you can learn at a time sitting at a conference table and looking at PowerPoint presentations... I did get out with the operations manager to meet some key accounts last week too. This week I have more calls to meet accounts and I was given the backlog list of open quotes to follow up on as well. I can introduce myself when I call them.

I have to get down to the Atlanta area for more training in a month or so, and I have to figure out when I'm going to California to meet customers out there too. That will be probably be in later September.

Between now and then I have a ton of online training modules to grind through as well.


There are enough houses in Carmel that we should at least be able to find one with a lot large enough to add on to the existing garage and have a decent sized shed in the backyard if we can't find a house with a 3 car garage and a basement from the start. The yard barn is a pretty easy addition, but they are common as well. Either way, I'm not going to worry about it, I know we'll find something that works for us.

 

[rodpoa]

On July 10th we headed down to The Villages to visit my M-I-L. My wife had a teaching conference in Orlando over the weekend. My son and I spent Saturday in Orlando at the Fun Spot amusement park and Bass Pro Shop. Then we picked up my wife from her conference and headed to the Medieval Times in Kissimmee. Sunday my son and I were beat so we stayed home while my wife went back to Orlando for the rest of her conference.

On Friday the Thirteenth I received a job offer for a new career opportunity. We decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up so today I resigned from my current employer. My last day will be August 3rd. My boss was disappointed I'm leaving and hated to lose me, but he understands that this opportunity was too good to pass up. I resigned on a Thursday because my office manager is partially retired and only works Tues.-Thurs. and I wanted to tell her in person after telling my boss. My current company is a great company and I wouldn't ever consider working for a competitor. I love my coworkers and customers so it was a difficult decision to make, but I'm really excited about the new opportunities that will come with this new career.

The best part about the new career is we'll be able to move! We're going to stay here for two more years so my son can finish middle school, my wife can get fully vested in her retirement plan, and we can finish all the projects on the house so it will be much easier to sell. We'll probably move to the north suburbs of Indianapolis, specifically Carmel, IN so my son can attend the best public STEM high school in Indiana. I do have the option to move anywhere in my sales territory, which is basically the entire central and western US so the Holland/Grand Rapids area of MI is an option too since most of my customer base in my new job is in IN and MI. As much as I would love to move to the PNW, I'm not sure it's the best location to be from a customer base standpoint... I'm not going to worry about it for now. I have 2 years to get the house in tip top shape and we'll see what develops in that time.

Since there is a light at the end of the tunnel for us, I have to decide how much I'm going to do in the current garage now. I think I'm still going to put up the plywood to finish the walls and insulate them just to save the money on the heating bills and make it more comfortable to be in during the heat of summer. However, my plans for the spray booth and curing oven will be put on hold. The wall cabinets may or may not happen... I still need my tool chest and that will definitely move with us, but my plans for the garage are definitely changing.

If we move to Carmel, we'll be buying an existing house and live there for 4 to 8 years. I've found a couple neighborhoods I really like with houses built in the late '60s and early '70s. They all have 2 car attached garages and most have big basements and bigger lots from .35-.60 acres so there would be plenty of room for a nice sized "yard barn". I'll probably have to call it a yard barn to get around the HOA rules, though I have no idea how big I can build. It will be something that I will research between now and moving time. My plan would be to expand the attached garage to a 3 car garage and build the big barn in the back. The barn would be my actual shop and I would pour a foundation and floor for it with a motorcycle lift table set in the floor so it's flush when fully retracted. The third bay of the garage would be for the running motorcycles. The nice thing is that in these neighborhoods, the third bay expansion would add resale value so it wouldn't be "wasted" money.

I will also be doing a lot more purging of stuff through the next two years, especially in the garage. I've already been working on it, but now I'm more motivated to get rid of things that I probably won't use or really don't need to hold on to.

Freakin awesome! Congratulations! I hope you get to wake up in awe with your work every morning for years and years to come!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Freakin awesome! Congratulations! I hope you get to wake up in awe with your work every morning for years and years to come!

Thanks rodpoa! So far I'm loving the new job. It's a huge learning curve and my training is on going, but I'm jumping in with both feet. A lot of what I'm doing right now is just cleaning up the mess left by the previous sales guy. He left the company in July, but I'd say he probably quit working six months ago... He just kept drawing his paycheck until he found a different job. My key clients have already said they appreciate my follow through.

We moved my daughter back to Purdue last Thursday and her classes started this week.

We're in the process of searching for a nice MCM or Danish Modern style writing desk for my "home office." The desk will go in a corner of our dining room. I found an awesome desk at a local store, but it's way too big for our current house so I couldn't buy it. Right now I'm just looking for the right style top of the desk. I'll replace the legs with electric lift legs later on down the road if I need too.

I'm also looking for a cool MCM desk chair. I've found several I like, but the really cool ones don't tilt back and the ones that do tilt are too big. Oh well. I can probably mod the non-tilt one I love by replacing the bottom section so it will tilt. I have a couple spare office chairs that I can raid for parts.