My garage build: 70x30 detached

[Dave_Car_Guy]

beautiful! Love the flow of your space. Very impressive car collection. Do you have a favourite if you could pick only one?

Tough question! Like: which is your favorite child? (answer; you love them all for different reasons). Like a first child or a first love, the Datsun was my first car. I love it maybe most of all.

But I usually answer that question by saying that if I went back to ONE car, it would be the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. It isn't the best at any one thing, but it does everything very, very well. And it is one of my favorite designs of all time. Oh, and the sound is glorious (see Youtube video below for a set of video/sound clips). As I've said to others, if the first bellow of that V8 doesn't get you excited, then you just don't like internal combustion engines!

 

[HRJoe]

Very nice place! Looks like it was well thought out, even the landscaping!

 

[Robey5]

That garage is beautiful, as is the house and property. Wow.

The car collection: I would be a liar if I said that I wasn't dealing with a little jaw jack--- I've never actually seen a McLaren in real life, and here you've built a garage to put one in!

If you don't mind me asking: what do you do for a living? (...because I am thinking about a next career that would support my dreams of such a beautiful set up).

More pictures, please!!

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

That garage is beautiful, as is the house and property. Wow. The car collection: I would be a liar if I said that I wasn't dealing with a little jaw jack--- I've never actually seen a McLaren in real life, and here you've built a garage to put one in!

If you don't mind me asking: what do you do for a living? (...because I am thinking about a next career that would support my dreams of such a beautiful set up).

Hi Robey, I certainly don't mind you asking that, as long as you don't mind if I take a bit of artistic license with my answer and get a tad philosophical with you. Stop reading now if that doesn't sound like proper GJ banter. The short answer is that I am retired now but for the last 15 years of my career I was an investment research analyst. I studied a particular industry to understand trends, and spent years trying to figure out the companies that were most likely to benefit from those trends or that could create new opportunities and profit the most. Then I invested money in those ideas as a partner in an investment fund.

Another way to say it... I got lucky. Just ask any of my friends.

When I started Junior college, my high school friends all said "I'm starting with a construction firm making $20 an hour (in 1980), so I'll be making bucks while you're in school, dummy". They said I was stupid for wasting my time.

When I left JuCo to transfer to Sacramento State University, my JuCo friends were starting to get jobs in firefighting and paramedics. They said I was crazy to waste my time with a college degree when so much money could be made in these other trades.

When I graduated with my accounting degree, I was interested in the oil business, and all my classmates said I was nuts not to take the public accounting job and go the CPA route. They said I made a bad decision going to work for an oil company.

5 years into the oil company, I was offered a field job in Oklahoma. The corporate head office guys said I’d get stuck there. But I wanted to learn the business out in the field and from the oil well level on up. They shook their heads.

8 years into my oil work, I realized I was going to top out there as a finance guy in an engineering-dominated company. With a wife, a kid on the way, a house and mortgage, I quit my 6-figure job (1993) to go back to get my MBA. My coworkers truly though I’d gone bananas leaving behind a fantastic career. So did my wife (but she supported me in my choice).

When I got my MBA in 1995, I was in the middle of dot-com heaven in Northern California, but I wanted to get into investing in oil. My tech buddies from Grad school knew I had gone mad. Who the hell goes into oil in 1995 when oil prices were $18 a barrel?

When I joined a two-man shop with under $100 million total assets as their oil analyst, my friends said that I had wasted my 2 years getting an MBA from a top-5 school. My job was small potatoes compared to the internet companies they were joining.

When I convinced my boss to invest heavily in oil and gas in 2000 because my research suggested we were about to see a ten-year boom in oil, all our clients thought I was crazy, too.

Ten years later, after seeing oil go well over $100, and growing that small two- man shop into a 30-person company with over $1.7 BILLION dollars, I sold out in 2010 and retired at age 48 because I saw the oil sector was going to have issues.

Do you know what all those people in my life say now?

“Boy, Dave sure got lucky!

So, I'm not sure I can give you much advice, because everyone's story is different. But as long as you are asking questions about how to better yourself, you're on the right track my friend!

 

[matt_i]

Great stuff! I admire the vision to bring that kind of life to the old hillside lot.

Kudos to being retired, not in the sense of "stopping work" but more like being able to work on *whatever* interests you.

I'm curious how you keep all the vehicles "ready to run"...do you have sort of a rotation?

 

[trashmanssd]

You have a beautiful house and an amazing garage. Your car collection is outstanding, you have great taste all around.

I will freely admit I am jealous as hell of you. That doesn't make me think you have to much or that the government needs to come steal all your stuff and give it to others. It makes me want to keep working hard and keep on my path (probably 1/10th to 1/40th the scale you achieved, but still a very nice life and within my abilities) and be the best me I can be. We all have choices in life people just need to make the ones that make them happy and learn to live with them. Money isn't a guarantee of happiness and being poor doesn't mean you have to be miserable, there are a lot of other factors that go into having a happy fulfilling life.

I don't know about you but when I hear people saying I am lucky I get pretty irritated. Most luck involved is in stuff you cant control and that same luck is given to almost everyone else that grows up in this country. Only thinks I feel lucky for is being born in this country, having good parents and for my health. Most everything else is a byproduct of hard work, sacrifice and perseverance.

 

[anuccite]

Stunning!

I can see what you mean about the floor trapping items.....

I've never been a big Car buff..... but that is an impressive collection sir.....

 

[sbosecker]

Another way to say it... I got lucky. Just ask any of my friends.

Do you know what all those people in my life say now?

“Boy, Dave sure got lucky!

So, I'm not sure I can give you much advice, because everyone's story is different. But as long as you are asking questions about how to better yourself, you're on the right track my friend!

I don't know about you but when I hear people saying I am lucky I get pretty irritated. Most luck involved is in stuff you cant control and that same luck is given to almost everyone else that grows up in this country. Only thinks I feel lucky for is being born in this country, having good parents and for my health. Most everything else is a byproduct of hard work, sacrifice and perseverance.

Gentlemen:

I've found that "Luck" often equals "Timing". Either calculated or a random event, timing things correctly in one's life will change everything.

Example:

When I was a Flight Controls Engineer at Boeing back in the late 70's, working on the 767-200, the company had just made the transition from mainframe computers to mini-computers. No, not the things that made Bill Gates a gazillionaire in the 90's but the refrigerator sized devices that briefly stood astride the transition from mainframes to MICRO computers.

We engineers used these machines as tools. The computer would be in a side room and there would be 3 or 4 workstations for us engineers to manipulate wind tunnel data. In the vicinity of this machine there were also Boeing computer guys that maintained it.

Well, a couple of these computer guys left Boeing in 1978 to make their fortune in Micro Computers ...they were back at Boeing about a year later.

Why? They were bang-on right but they were too early! One can make the argument that until the advent of the IBM PC (late 1981) that micro computers were in the realm of hobbyist devices.

Over the years I imagined what probably happened to them in the 80's. I could envision them watching Microsoft grow like a weed a few miles away from Boeing. So they probably approached their spouses - again - with their "hair brained" idea about "the future".

Likely spousal response (not unreasonable under the circumstances):
"Are you nuts!" "You nearly bankrupted us last time you tried this!" "Stay at Boeing where you have a steady paycheck and a pension!"

Ha!

Best regards,

Scott

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

I've found that "Luck" often equals "Timing". Either calculated or a random event, timing things correctly in one's life will change everything.

You are absolutely correct, Scott. If i had done what I did 10 years earlier, I'd be broke. And my genius computer brother started an app in 2005 that would allow people to share rides using their phones, called RideGrid. He was too early and lost lots of money trying to get it off the ground. In 2008, Uber did much the same thing and... well, we know how that's going.

I'm curious how you keep all the vehicles "ready to run"...do you have sort of a rotation?

Thanks for bringing us back on topic, Matt!

I rotate through all and generally drive each one at least one week.
The Datsun gets driven as a primary car in April-May and Sep-Oct when the weather isn't too hot or cold.
The Karma does daily duty for all local activities and going places where I get a parking advantage by plugging in.
The Aston gets most date nights and many road trips.
The McLaren is hard not to drive for anything but frankly is the slowest car (I'll explain below).
The Cayman is my track car, and
The 930 Turbo and Latigo get the least daily use so I take them out for something each week, whether it is a grocery run, a night out, or just a fun drive on a good road.
Apologies to the Chevy lovers, but I just sold the '67 Corvette. I found that when I wanted a convertible, I preferred the Datsun.

I said the McLaren is slow, but that comes from my wife, who thinks it is slow because when I go out and say "I'll be back in 30 minutes", it often ends up being and hour or more ;-). Either because I get in conversations with it or because I just keep driving! Also, I let lots of people drive it. Probably have had 15-20 car enthusiasts I've met through time that I've tossed the keys to and said: "You try it out!". It gives me great pleasure to share great cars with people who love cars. So If you're ever in Danville, CA...

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

I can see what you mean about the floor trapping items.....

And anyone who has a floor like this will be honest and tell you that sweeping is more of a challenge due to the chip texture. A smooth floor would have been better for cleaning but I like the texture that brings more visual warmth to the floor. Twice a year I clear everything out, wash it down and squeegee it like I did when I worked at a gas station in the late 70's.

 

[-Brent-]

Hi Robey, I certainly don't mind you asking that, as long as you don't mind if I take a bit of artistic license with my answer and get a tad philosophical with you. Stop reading now if that doesn't sound like proper GJ banter. The short answer is that I am retired now but for the last 15 years of my career I was an investment research analyst. I studied a particular industry to understand trends, and spent years trying to figure out the companies that were most likely to benefit from those trends or that could create new opportunities and profit the most. Then I invested money in those ideas as a partner in an investment fund.

Another way to say it... I got lucky. Just ask any of my friends.

When I started Junior college, my high school friends all said "I'm starting with a construction firm making $20 an hour (in 1980), so I'll be making bucks while you're in school, dummy". They said I was stupid for wasting my time.

When I left JuCo to transfer to Sacramento State University, my JuCo friends were starting to get jobs in firefighting and paramedics. They said I was crazy to waste my time with a college degree when so much money could be made in these other trades.

When I graduated with my accounting degree, I was interested in the oil business, and all my classmates said I was nuts not to take the public accounting job and go the CPA route. They said I made a bad decision going to work for an oil company.

5 years into the oil company, I was offered a field job in Oklahoma. The corporate head office guys said I’d get stuck there. But I wanted to learn the business out in the field and from the oil well level on up. They shook their heads.

8 years into my oil work, I realized I was going to top out there as a finance guy in an engineering-dominated company. With a wife, a kid on the way, a house and mortgage, I quit my 6-figure job (1993) to go back to get my MBA. My coworkers truly though I’d gone bananas leaving behind a fantastic career. So did my wife (but she supported me in my choice).

When I got my MBA in 1995, I was in the middle of dot-com heaven in Northern California, but I wanted to get into investing in oil. My tech buddies from Grad school knew I had gone mad. Who the hell goes into oil in 1995 when oil prices were $18 a barrel?

When I joined a two-man shop with under $100 million total assets as their oil analyst, my friends said that I had wasted my 2 years getting an MBA from a top-5 school. My job was small potatoes compared to the internet companies they were joining.

When I convinced my boss to invest heavily in oil and gas in 2000 because my research suggested we were about to see a ten-year boom in oil, all our clients thought I was crazy, too.

Ten years later, after seeing oil go well over $100, and growing that small two- man shop into a 30-person company with over $1.7 BILLION dollars, I sold out in 2010 and retired at age 48 because I saw the oil sector was going to have issues.

Do you know what all those people in my life say now?

“Boy, Dave sure got lucky!

So, I'm not sure I can give you much advice, because everyone's story is different. But as long as you are asking questions about how to better yourself, you're on the right track my friend!

I needed to read this. I have been feeling stuck for a while. My 40th birthday is coming up in weeks and I feel like I want to reinvent myself. I envy guys that know what they want and go after it. For some reason, I don't know what I want, professionally. After moving out here (what was to be a temporary 1-year stay but now is nearing a decade) I have become like those friends you had. That wasn't me. So, I have some choices to make.

Thanks for taking the time to write the above. I needed to read that.

-Brent

 

[drivesitfar]

Dave: i might have missed your thread, but saw you posted on Mick's cool cuda garage. then i see your story that Brent commented on and enjoyed the read.

i have to run now and get a project done, but wanted to thank you for posting that story that i'm going to show my 26 year old son who's been working his way through school to better his life. he's broke (or close to it) now, but some day he'll be smiling big time like i'm guessing you are.

your garage sounds nice too so I'll check back. if you need any advice on old vises or maybe some old tools feel free to PM me.

cheers

 

[amalik]

Dave, I love the garage and the porsche/mclaren.

Do you feel you may have made a mistake not doing a lift during construction? I figure it'd be the easiest time.

Do you even wrench on these pearls, or just minor stuff?

I'd also like to say I hate when people ask what person X does for a living... ESP when the time has passed and it was in investment XYZ.

There's a guy on Supraforums that rocks a huge house and 2 lambos. He's a physician. Knowing he's a physician doesn't mean you can become one too at age 35 or 50, dear forum reader =)

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Do you feel you may have made a mistake not doing a lift during construction? I figure it'd be the easiest time.

Do you even wrench on these pearls, or just minor stuff?

Thanks, I did consider a lift, but still haven't pulled the trigger. Doing it after the fact isn't too difficult, as the place is wired and has plenty of room for a two-post. I'll likely just do more like a small scissor lift, because as far as wrenching, I do suspension, brakes, tune ups, oil changes, but not really into massive rebuilds or electronics or engine work any more (I worked my way through college as a mechanic, so I'm traumatized, and my skill sets haven't kept up with modern tech). I may do a rebuild on a Datsun roadster or Z some day, but if I do I'm more likely to want a rotisserie and an engine hoist and stand more than a lift.

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Dave, I love the garage and the porsche/mclaren.

I love them, too! I should have also noted that the McLaren gets to go on lots of road trips. If you want to see an "exotic" car used regularly, see a couple of my blog posts for trips all around the west coast. No garage queens here, and I may own the highest mileage McLaren on the west coast at 50,000 miles and trips to Mammoth, Mendocino, Wine Country, Pismo Beach, Palm Springs:

http://davecarguy.blogspot.com/2016/05/daves-drives-central-california-coast.html

http://davecarguy.blogspot.com/2016/09/davess-drives-mammoth-lakes-ca-via.html

http://davecarguy.blogspot.com/2015/08/daves-drives-northern-california-coast.html

 

[JordonMusser]

Great setup!

 

[Mason007]

Very well done! One of the nicest garages and homes I've seen. And your choices of vehicles for your collection are absolutely stunning! You must be proud of all you've accomplished. Cheers


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Boosted1]

Cool story Dave. Thanks for sharing it.
You mention a possible Z in the future. Judging from the Datsun roadster I guess you are referring to a first gen Z?

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Dave:
i have to run now and get a project done, but wanted to thank you for posting that story that i'm going to show my 26 year old son who's been working his way through school to better his life. he's broke (or close to it) now, but some day he'll be smiling big time like i'm guessing you are.

your garage sounds nice too so I'll check back. if you need any advice on old vises or maybe some old tools feel free to PM me.

Thanks for the offer on the tools, I will definitely let you know, as I have enjoyed many of your posts on tool subjects!

And for your son, I wish him good fortune! I've been broke a couple times during my life and can offer encouragement that with luck and some planning and action, it can get better. I used my literal last dime to go back to graduate school and reinvent myself at age 30, and doubted myself many times. But the best luck I've ever had is the love and support of a good woman, who believed in me even when I did not.

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Cool story Dave. Thanks for sharing it.
You mention a possible Z in the future. Judging from the Datsun roadster I guess you are referring to a first gen Z?

Yes, Gen 1 240Z would be the preference. My brother had two when we were teens, and he had a 1600 pickup, and I had a '72 510 then a '69 Roadster in my teens. I learned to wrench on Datsuns and I still love the simplicity, power, and design of the Datsuns of that era. I watched races at Laguna Seca in the early 70's and BRE and John Morton were my heroes.

 

[Repsolracer22]

If you ever need anything powder coated .... let me know. I do high end stuff

 

[onemanarmy]

Hi Robey, I certainly don't mind you asking that, as long as you don't mind if I take a bit of artistic license with my answer and get a tad philosophical with you. Stop reading now if that doesn't sound like proper GJ banter. The short answer is that I am retired now but for the last 15 years of my career I was an investment research analyst. I studied a particular industry to understand trends, and spent years trying to figure out the companies that were most likely to benefit from those trends or that could create new opportunities and profit the most. Then I invested money in those ideas as a partner in an investment fund.

Another way to say it... I got lucky. Just ask any of my friends.

When I started Junior college, my high school friends all said "I'm starting with a construction firm making $20 an hour (in 1980), so I'll be making bucks while you're in school, dummy". They said I was stupid for wasting my time.

When I left JuCo to transfer to Sacramento State University, my JuCo friends were starting to get jobs in firefighting and paramedics. They said I was crazy to waste my time with a college degree when so much money could be made in these other trades.

When I graduated with my accounting degree, I was interested in the oil business, and all my classmates said I was nuts not to take the public accounting job and go the CPA route. They said I made a bad decision going to work for an oil company.

5 years into the oil company, I was offered a field job in Oklahoma. The corporate head office guys said I’d get stuck there. But I wanted to learn the business out in the field and from the oil well level on up. They shook their heads.

8 years into my oil work, I realized I was going to top out there as a finance guy in an engineering-dominated company. With a wife, a kid on the way, a house and mortgage, I quit my 6-figure job (1993) to go back to get my MBA. My coworkers truly though I’d gone bananas leaving behind a fantastic career. So did my wife (but she supported me in my choice).

When I got my MBA in 1995, I was in the middle of dot-com heaven in Northern California, but I wanted to get into investing in oil. My tech buddies from Grad school knew I had gone mad. Who the hell goes into oil in 1995 when oil prices were $18 a barrel?

When I joined a two-man shop with under $100 million total assets as their oil analyst, my friends said that I had wasted my 2 years getting an MBA from a top-5 school. My job was small potatoes compared to the internet companies they were joining.

When I convinced my boss to invest heavily in oil and gas in 2000 because my research suggested we were about to see a ten-year boom in oil, all our clients thought I was crazy, too.

Ten years later, after seeing oil go well over $100, and growing that small two- man shop into a 30-person company with over $1.7 BILLION dollars, I sold out in 2010 and retired at age 48 because I saw the oil sector was going to have issues.

Do you know what all those people in my life say now?

“Boy, Dave sure got lucky!

So, I'm not sure I can give you much advice, because everyone's story is different. But as long as you are asking questions about how to better yourself, you're on the right track my friend!

Thanks for posting that. You're the real life example of the old "Justification for higher education" posters that we all had.

Not to get back off topic and personal, but it sounds like you bought into the 2 man oil shop, and just weren't their accountant?...or did they just reward you handsomely for the amazing work?

 

[Robey5]

...I am familiar with the idea of higher education and managing a tight budget to afford it, and (moreover) I really appreciate you posting the background.

When I met my wife, I was in graduate school for my MBA, even though many of my friends said that I was wasting my time and money. Now, looking back (...I will be crossing the big 40 milestone in 5 weeks) I am happy I had the will to force myself to see it through to the finish line. I have not really realized any real ROI from my investment in time and money, but my initial justification was that there was not any way that someone can take away education. My wife watched me put in long hours at the end of that MBA - where two consecutive semesters I took 9 and 12 credit hours so that we could get to planning our wedding. Fast forwarding some years and realizing that the education was a solid investment for me to understand decisions in business more clearly.

I am not a subscriber to 'luck' --- except for to say that the word luck should start with a W. You may say that you were lucky, but you worked hard at what you did, that I am sure.

Back on-topic; can we see more pictures of the other cars? Enjoy the blog!

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Thanks for posting that. You're the real life example of the old "Justification for higher education" posters that we all had.

Not to get back off topic and personal, but it sounds like you bought into the 2 man oil shop, and just weren't their accountant?...or did they just reward you handsomely for the amazing work?

ITs ok, maybe I wasn't clear enough... at the start of the post I said : "I was an investment research analyst. I studied a particular industry to understand trends, and spent years trying to figure out the companies that were most likely to benefit from those trends or that could create new opportunities and profit the most. Then I invested money in those ideas as a partner in an investment fund."

I stopped being an accountant when I left the big oil company after 8 years. After grad school, I was an investment banker for 5 years, then hired by that 2-man investment shop to start an energy investment practice (at the time they were only investing in tech and health care).

As i've told others, being compensated highly requires that you get paid for ideas and creations, not by the hour or the job. I realized at some point that to be valuable (and therefore not laid off, which was my biggest concern back in my 20's), I had to be the guy driving revenue, not the guy recording it. Also, you can be a great electrician, but you are limited by the amount people will pay by hour and the number of hours you can work. Same for my brother the veterinarian and the other brother the programer. Same for lawyers and many tradesmen. I didn't want to be in a job that limited my compensation based on time. But once you get paid for the value of an idea, you break from the how-many-hours-can-I-work? (my veterinarian brother works 7 days a week). My job at the investment firm was to research stocks, then invest our fund's money in them. I was an analyst and a portfolio manager. The way a hedge fund works is that we keep 20% of any profits we make for the fund and its investors. So if my idea makes $100, our partnership keeps $20, if it makes $1,000,000, we keep $200,000, and if it makes $40,000,000, we keep $8 million. It takes months to come up with a good idea whether you are investing $200,000 or $40 million. It occurred to me at some point that although I wasn't an engineer that would make a great product, I might be a finance guy that could make a great investment. Then I had to learn where the best place was to get paid for that effort, and I learned late in life about hedge funds and then targeted that as my career goal. I was working as a banker and getting paid well, But I got seriously lucky when that two-man shop called me up, and yet luck wasn't the only player. I had made that luck happen. Five years prior, in 1995 I was the one who introduced those two guys. I told one friend that he should meet this other guy who might have a job for him at a shop that was too small for me at the time. I did it solely because I liked them both, and kept in touch with them both, but never imagined it would then turn into a job offer 5 years later. Its the old "cast your bread upon the waters" theme. You never know when a good deed will be repaid. Do good deeds.

 

[onemanarmy]

Awesome. It all makes sense now. Didn't realize the two man shop was an startup investment company. Very well put.

 

[-Brent-]

You should be writing a book and coaching now! I get so much from your business posts. I NEED A MENTOR! HAHA.

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Fast forwarding some years and realizing that the education was a solid investment for me to understand decisions in business more clearly.

Back on-topic; can we see more pictures of the other cars? Enjoy the blog!

You hit the nail on the head: a good education will benefit you in ways you will never expect and can't count on, but generally nobody was ever hurt by being more educated. I found that the network effect of meeting great people is a benefit of a great school that I had not considered before I went to Berkeley. There I met people who went on to invent, create, build, and brand some amazing companies and products. Many of those women and men run companies or were founders of organizations that are household names today. My MBA from the Haas School of Business - U.C. Berkeley changed my life, no doubt.

Back on topic: since you asked! Here is a video from a prior year walking around inside the garage when the Datsun was acting as my Santa sleigh hiding gifts for the family:

And if you want to see a gathering "Good Karma", when I got together with other Karma enthusiasts, here is a short video in downtown Los Gatos, CA.

 

[Farmall450]

Wow, amazing. As much of a house as a garage.

 

[Boosted1]

Cool. Hope you find a good 240Z.
I have an John Morton autographed scale model of the #46 240Z.
I met him in 2010 at the Nashville Z Convention (along with Steve Millen).

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Cool. Hope you find a good 240Z.
I have an John Morton autographed scale model of the #46 240Z.
I met him in 2010 at the Nashville Z Convention (along with Steve Millen).

That's cool, I'd love that scale model car! I got to meet John Morton once, along with Pete Brock. Later I got this BRE Champions poster signed by both of them. Alas, no Frank Monise signature.

 

[west_perf]

Dave, I just wanted to say "thank you" for your well-thought out response to the question of your career. I'm always interested in these kind of things and felt your response was right on. I'm not at the situation where I've done as well as you have yet but there is always something to be learned. Very much appreciated the "ideas vs. time" discussion as well.

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Dave, I just wanted to say "thank you" for your well-thought out response to the question of your career. I'm always interested in these kind of things and felt your response was right on. I'm not at the situation where I've done as well as you have yet but there is always something to be learned. Very much appreciated the "ideas vs. time" discussion as well.

Thanks, I hope I didn't sound too preachy or like I was avoiding the question. I guess the thing I didn't say specifically, but you all picked up on just fine, was that everything I had done up to the year 2000 (age 38 when I took that job as a research analyst for an investment firm) had led me to that one place in time - that point where energy was about to become "important" again. Every step along the way seemed crazy or irrelevant in isolation or in the context of that one step, but looking back, it was clear that every "tool" I added to my toolbag, every skill set I learned along the way, and every person I met, had now put me in a unique position to do something not many people could do: to correctly assess the oil market, to properly evaluate management teams, and to effectively analyze the operations and financials of the companies I was about to invest in. As Darius Rucker sings in a lyric: "...it led me here to this".

My point is that nobody could have necessarily set out that path at the front end. Even I could not have anticipated the twists and turns. So when people ask what I do or how I got there, I don't say "it's not relevant because it can't be repeated", but I try to point out the relevant factors in my own story: Taking risk, learning, expanding your horizon, helping others, never settling for "good enough", and avoiding those pathway choices in life that lead to a dead end (I tell my kids: "always choose the next step in your path that leads to more pathways"). And yet doing all of that STILL doesn't guarantee a dang thing. But without those, miracles don't just happen to your career and you won't be in a position to "get lucky". My luck came along at close to age 40 after 20 years of preparation.

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

In another thread I noticed someone with high garage windows that might make it difficult to open or access window shades. I mentioned that we installed these battery-powered Somfy automated shades. They are programmable to stop at different spots and I am happy with their convenience. I thought I'd share this video showing the remote control in action...

https://vimeo.com/195498243

 

[drivesitfar]

DAVE: i'm loving all your stories about how you GOT LUCKY so to speak. isn't it so true that if you PAY ATTENTION and just think and take a left instead of right (simplified here) how things end up so much better in the long run. also doing the RIGHT THING or what feel right without thinking of what it did for you at that instance can help you later in life 10 or 1000 times as much.

i've taken a few mis steps in my life, but still kicking and learning so hopefully will keep trying for many many years to come.

you have some great cars and stuff so keep posting pictures while some of us slobber on our key boards.

cheers

 

[Stretch-22]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful story and wonderful garage build. I think it is great to hear career stories from successful people. It can be inspiring and help to look back at your own personal goals and potential opportunities from a new perspective. I hope to tell my own version of a successful career journey one of these days

 

[Slim38]

Awesome home and garage, but story is even better. Thanks for sharing, truly inspiring.

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

I'm looking for some ideas for "jackable ramps", in order to do service on a car by driving up on ramps without having to jack at any points on the frame. I've searched for ideas on the forum and generally on the web without a perfect solution. Ideally, I'd love to avoid an entire entire drive-up set of rails, and instead have a system where I drive up on front ramps, then engage flat jackable/scissor lifts under the rear tires? Or maybe drive up on forward ramps, then use a floor jack to bring the rear up onto jack stands? I've seen the scissor lifts and looked at every 2 and 4-post lift from various vendors. But I want something that is easy, small, and lifts the car while sitting on its tires (as opposed to doing any jacking of the frame or suspension). Something like what is shown in the first photo below, but that I can drive onto (those particular ones do not jack up, you first jack the car up then place them under the tires). The idea: place one square low-profile tire stand in front of each of the four tires, drive forward onto the four platforms, then lift them all at the same time, or the front then the back. Or something that would work like the second photo below, but without having to have the full length of steel ramp (don't want to store it and take up space). So, drive up onto the front tires, then have something that lifts the rear. Like I said, the second one below is great, but too bulky. The first one is compact, but I still have to jack up the proper spots on the frame, which I'd rather not do if there is no reason to get the car off it's wheels. Bottom line: I want to drive the car up and easily get under it without jacking the frame. Any ideas or links to prior threads?

 

[upndown]

Awesome hacienda as well as collection! I want your "B"

 

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Today I added something I always dreamed of: a 1969 E Type roadster. I got it at the Barrett-Jackson auction, and she is a decent driver-quality car, certainly no concours contender! But I have tons of work to do on it for my preferences, starting with changing anything thats a fluid. I'm going to be looking for some new garage tools! (this is why I asked about the jackable ramps ideas above).

She fits right in, but I realize the garage is now 3/8 British. I think I am, too... And I also realize I now have an abundance of red cars with black interiors. I guess i am a creature of habit!

 

[sids04]

Today I added something I always dreamed of: a 1969 E Type roadster. I got it at the Barrett-Jackson auction, and she is a decent driver-quality car, certainly no concours contender! But I have tons of work to do on it for my preferences, starting with changing anything thats a fluid. I'm going to be looking for some new garage tools! (this is why I asked about the jackable ramps ideas above).

She fits right in, but I realize the garage is now 3/8 British. I think I am, too... And I also realize I now have an abundance of red cars with black interiors. I guess i am a creature of habit!

Love the Jag !