Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT My Mini Garagemahal

[fouckhest]

I get it, for almost 15 years we had neighbors that we called “The Friendlies” cuz they were anything but! Called the county code inforcement on me over 20 times. It only stopped when during the last call the county guy explained to them that in all those calls I’d never been cited for a single violation and that they could call again, but if I wasn’t cited, they were going to be charged with harassment! No more calls after that, gratefully the county sent the right guy that time!

I am remaining in the "ignore it" frame of mind right now, if this keeps up, I'll make it a mission to make their lives difficult. Also helps that my wife is a pretty good internet sleuth, she already found out that neighbor woman/wife got a restraining order put on her from the woman they bought their house from, so I am highly confident if I started pursuing action on my side, its going to look very bad on here as soon as anyone does a background check.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Well at least it sounds like if push comes to shove that it should be an easy win. Hopefully that doesn't happen for you though.

 

[fouckhest]

Well at least it sounds like if push comes to shove that it should be an easy win. Hopefully that doesn't happen for you though.

Appreciate that, I don't want it to come to anything like that, but its not in my personality to back down. If the fence wasn't enough of a signal, maybe a little piece of paper will hold more weight?

 

[zanyad]

If the fence wasn't enough of a signal, maybe a little piece of paper will hold more weight?

Gary Larsen had a classic...

 

[SilverJimmy]

I’m a fan of a metal-halide light for “security“ reasons that is able to light up the whole back of your house (and theirs) while emitting that wonderful low frequency buzz just to let you (and them) know that it’s still turning night into day! Hopefully your bedroom doesn’t face theirs…

 

[jonshonda]

Don't go down the ****** neighbor battle rabbit hole, it's just not worth any of your time. Our first house had crappy neighbors, and it was like walking on egg shells on our own property sometimes. I really wish we had the money to find a nice place on a big lot, but they start at $500k and go up. haha

 

[fouckhest]

I’m a fan of a metal-halide light for “security“ reasons that is able to light up the whole back of your house (and theirs) while emitting that wonderful low frequency buzz just to let you (and them) know that it’s still turning night into day! Hopefully your bedroom doesn’t face theirs…

I wont go that crazy, but on the side of the laundry room we built I certainly put lights at the top corner of the front/back....SO....there is power there, now they are just motion lights, but dont threaten me with a good time!! (also, no our bedroom is on the opposite end of the house as them/their bedroom)

Don't go down the ****** neighbor battle rabbit hole, it's just not worth any of your time. Our first house had crappy neighbors, and it was like walking on egg shells on our own property sometimes. I really wish we had the money to find a nice place on a big lot, but they start at $500k and go up. haha

I certainly wont get into a battle, I'm at the point now where if its anything it will be all done legally and they wont have a choice other than conform or leave at the risk of more legal problems. Still don't want it to come to that, unfortunately, it sounds like we are in the same boat as you for relocation....either leave this house that we owe <$75k, or find something else, which what fits my needs/wants starts in the $750k range...I dont really want to be house poor after being on the other end at this point

 

[SilverJimmy]

Hopefully soon your neighbors will self-identify as “Was/Were”!

 

[fouckhest]

Hopefully soon your neighbors will self-identify as “Was/Were”!

That is the ideal situation!

 

[zmotorsports]

That is the ideal situation!

That would be nice Mike, but trust me, it seldom works out that way. I found it the exact opposite in fact, the problem neighbors stayed put and we ended up leaving. Then several other of our neighbors followed suit and the problem ones are still there flourishing in the old neighborhood as they fit right in with every other problem neighbor. It's like they multiplied.

 

[Xti04]

That would be nice Mike, but trust me, it seldom works out that way. I found it the exact opposite in fact, the problem neighbors stayed put and we ended up leaving. Then several other of our neighbors followed suit and the problem ones are still there flourishing in the old neighborhood as they fit right in with every other problem neighbor. It's like they multiplied.

Did you feed them after midnight?

 

[fouckhest]

That would be nice Mike, but trust me, it seldom works out that way. I found it the exact opposite in fact, the problem neighbors stayed put and we ended up leaving. Then several other of our neighbors followed suit and the problem ones are still there flourishing in the old neighborhood as they fit right in with every other problem neighbor. It's like they multiplied.

I know Mike, just have to try and remain calm and collected at this point. I really don't to move right now, maybe in a few years, but home prices in this area are just silly these days.

 

[jonshonda]

I know it might be a difficult discussion to have and I may have missed that you've already tried this, but have you thought about simply going over and having a conversation with your neighbor?

As the old saying goes.......(insert relevant old saying here as needed).

 

[Xti04]

I know it might be a difficult discussion to have and I may have missed that you've already tried this, but have you thought about simply going over and having a conversation with your neighbor?

As the old saying goes.......(insert relevant old saying here as needed).

( it takes money to make money)
Is that the saying you were lookin for ?

 

[Swanny1953]

How about "The answer's always no unless you ask!"

 

[Bob Heine]

Finally grabbed a photo of our fence lights last night, have to say, overall I am pleased! I do need to figure out why the beam isn't projecting the same on all of them.....but thats a problem for future me! LOL (...I think it has to do with the boards bowing out a little bit and blocking some of beam)

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Mike, I may be biased but I really like down lighting on fences. I ended up replacing the solar ones because they were motion activated. It was a cool thing for a while but I ended up adding wired low voltage lights around the back yard. Once I had three transformers controlled by seasonal switches, I was happy. I may have overdone the yard lighting a bit. I even lit up the triangle palm on the verge that's actually city property (but I have to maintain).

 

[fouckhest]

Mike, I may be biased but I really like down lighting on fences. I ended up replacing the solar ones because they were motion activated. It was a cool thing for a while but I ended up adding wired low voltage lights around the back yard. Once I had three transformers controlled by seasonal switches, I was happy. I may have overdone the yard lighting a bit. I even lit up the triangle palm on the verge that's actually city property (but I have to maintain).

Bob, those all look great!! These were cheap so easy for proof of concept, while they are just on/off triggered by darkness, I am confident lighting like this will stick around for the long term in one way or another. I would be tricky right now to get power over to that fence, but I have an idea up my sleeve for my gate that very well might make it simple!

Glad to see you back posting regularly! Thanks for checking in and posting!

 

[fouckhest]

I know it might be a difficult discussion to have and I may have missed that you've already tried this, but have you thought about simply going over and having a conversation with your neighbor?

As the old saying goes.......(insert relevant old saying here as needed).

( it takes money to make money)
Is that the saying you were lookin for ?

How about "The answer's always no unless you ask!"

Lets just say that I think both of them may have a chemical imbalance that leads you to never know who you are going to talk to, Dr Jekyll or Mr Hide...at this point I've renounced to staying in my lane, there is no talking to crazy people.

Point in hand, last weekend was an annual VW/Audi show down in Georgia, unfortunately the car I took decided that the alternator had enough, so rode home with the wife/dog, got my truck, drove 2hrs back south, loaded up my car, 2hrs back home....womp womp. However during this time, the neighbor wife came over to talk to my wife, lets just say telling false truths about things (inclusive of calling the fire dept. on us), only to be topped by trying to tell us that the "little box" in the widow is a "bark box" for the dogs.....SO, how would she know we thought it was a camera.....

Just too much for me, work and life are just too busy, I want to get back to building things out of joy, not neccessity.

 

[fouckhest]

In a quick recap of my last couple weeks....well, wife was traveling for work last week, so I was managing hounds, the house and getting cars ready to drive down to aforementioned car show. Buddy flew down from NY and took my white car, after all the prep, this was Thursday morning about to head out

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Fast forward, after the drive home, trusty Colorado did better than expected with just the trailer, then back down in Georgia with the silver car loaded up
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

2+ hrs later, we were home, completely exhausted and ready to sit in the back yard to relax. I have to admit, the Colorado (i5 3.5L), did MUCH better than expected, especially towing an ~3500lb car on a steel trailer!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


After a very slow moving and busy work catch up Monday, I dropped my car off at a buddies shop, trailer back to its owner. Last night got back regularly scheduled lawn care routine....front lawn is looking okay this year if I do say so myself
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[Xti04]

***** about the car.... and the neighbor. Nothing like mechanical failure to ruin a weekend.

 

[MrPink]

Nice,

One of these days I'm going to make it to Helen...

 

[fouckhest]

***** about the car.... and the neighbor. Nothing like mechanical failure to ruin a weekend.

Well, I'll say if I'm going to have a failure, an alternator isn't the worst, just stinks b/c I have actually driven the car a fair amount of the past couple months between PDR and Detailing. It drove itself on/off the trailer, I'll take that knowing what issues I've had and I've seen!

Nice,

One of these days I'm going to make it to Helen...

You should, the organizer continues to try and keep the event going by making it hard to get info and trying to keep it VERY VAG focused. Fingers crossed it keeps going!

 

[gearhead1960]

...mechanical failure fun! Reminds me of the time I blasted down to Daytona for the 24 hours when I was still young and dumb (SWMBO says I'm still the latter....). Driving what we now call an old skool Toyota (78 Corolla Wagon), running a massaged/ported 1.6 liter hemi head 2TC motor with twin 40DCOE Weber side-draft carbs. Car was lowered, sporting Koni Yellows and 13x6 American Racing Libres with 205/60-13 Gatorbacks. It might have been a little over carbureted, but it was fun and handled like a go-cart. I was cruising down I-95 with many liked minded motorist and it was not unusual to see us doing 95-100mph for long stretches. Needless to say, I had my Passport working.... Anyway, half way down, the clutch stopped working due the the slave cylinder failing. These old 'yotas had a hydraulic clutch system. I replaced it in the auto parts parking lot by myself and fortunately, it was able to gravity bleed it. Enjoyed the racing and weekend....fast forward to the trip back. Car started to overheat on the way back. Figure out that the coolant was leaking from the intake manifold. It would get me about an hour's drive until I had to fill it back up again. Talk about a long trip. After I got back, got the intake off and found out the the manifold had been improperly welded and had cracked at the weld. The manifold was trash! Replaced it with an Eldebrock downdraft manifold with a Weber 32/36dgv that made it run great. Later, I spun a bearing on the engine and replaced the engine with what we now call a JDM engine, the 2TG. This was the same block as the 2TC, but with twin Mikuni Solexes, twin cams and eight valves! This engine is the basis for all of Toyota's 4 cylinder racing engines in the 70's and 80's. You can see a picture of it in my Avatar. I always planned to put it in some sort of Kit car like a Lotus 7 but needed the money and sold it for what I paid for it....one of my few regrets....

 

[MrPink]

You should, the organizer continues to try and keep the event going by making it hard to get info and trying to keep it VERY VAG focused. Fingers crossed it keeps going!

That's what i have seen. My MK4 is nothing special though lol, I do have a 3.6L/DSG swap on my radar however.

 

[fouckhest]

That's what i have seen. My MK4 is nothing special though lol, I do have a 3.6L/DSG swap on my radar however.

You don't need a special car to come hang out and get motivated!!

 

[MrPink]

You don't need a special car to come hang out and get motivated!!

A lowered, loud, almost stock mk4 is all it is.

 

[fouckhest]

A lowered, loud, almost stock mk4 is all it is.

I get it, but its fun to come look at all the wild over the top cars!

 

[zmotorsports]

***** about having to **** the car after a mechanical failure Mike, but at least it isn't anything too serious to repair.

Lawn is looking great by the way..

 

[fouckhest]

***** about having to **** the car after a mechanical failure Mike, but at least it isn't anything too serious to repair.

Lawn is looking great by the way..

Totally agree, Mike, but glad it wasn't serious! Thanks on the lawn, just got home from a week away and it needed cut BAD!

Hopefully I can get my head above water in the next couple days and give an update on my trip, I know many here will like, appreciate and/or a little more! Stay tuned.....for now, back to playing catch up at work

 

[fouckhest]

Finally have my head above water at work enough that I no longer need a snorkel.....so here is a bit of a photo dump as they say.

One of my bucket list trips has always been to go to the see the Isle of Man TT, I looked into this back in 2019 for the 2020 running, but then, yeah....we know what happened that year....So, fast forward, after getting married, doing some other big trips, the group that I went to Europe with last year got talking about the "next big trip," so the guys started discussing at boys night out (wing night), the wives overheard and while they didn't care to go to the UK and watch motorcycles, they were all over going to see all the sights in Ireland...WIN WIN!

So plan set out, we would all take the same flight to Dublin, leaving the US Saturday afternoon, arrive in Dublin 5am Sunday morning, spend a day'ish, the part ways, guys went to the Isle on Monday, the girls would pick up their rental car and set out on their adventure, and we would meet back up in Dublin on Friday and then fly back to the US on Saturday!

So here we go! Meet up in the CLT airport, when you have lounge access, flex that to get the group in to enjoy some free snacks and cheap beverages!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Fast forward ~7hrs, land in Dublin at 5am, get to the hotel, leave backs with the concierge, wonder around town a bit to be sure not to miss the 10am Guinness tour, because, when in Dublin!

This was our motley crew! 5 of 7 are who did the Euro Trip last year...
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

The rest of the day was spent wondering around town, finding pubs that were recommended by many before the trip, and some by folks we met along the way....this one was pretty cool, just because of the age

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Its gotta be true...right?
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Cool spot for sure, I think this is the place the bartenders was kind of a d*ck...but the beers were still tasty!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Fast forward to the next morning, we all took the bus to the airport, the girls got their rental car, and the boys jumped on this bird....been a long time since I've been on a turboprop!

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


Not long after landing the "Duke Travel" folks picked us up, took us to the TT village and we arrived at our accommodations for the rest of the week....Fun fact, these are used for many motorsports events just like this, as well as being temporary jail facilities when they are over crowded! LOL

All-in-all, I cant complain, they legit were a cot, shower and toilet...BUT, there was a heated towel rack, LUXURY, thats whats on the bathroom wall!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

We arrived to an unfortunately expected rainy UK day, practice was cancelled for that day....but worked out so we could explore and get our bearings about us.

Wet grandstand and start/finish line
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Podium at start/finish
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

While exploring we found the beer tent! Super cool wall timeline off all the history of the TT

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

It was cool in the tent, they were always playing video of past races when they weren't on track
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

.....more to come of day 2 on the Isle

 

[fouckhest]

Day 2 started off looking promising!

We got up had breakfast, nothing to write home about but it was convenient and we had to be ready for what ended up being one of the most fun parts of the entire trip. Part of our package included a full lap around the course in a tour bus that unknown to us was narrated by James Hillier, made the experience much better than every expected, he gave the entire play by play of the entire 37.75mi course!

Loaded up and ready to start the tour at the grandstand
Bus ride Mtn course by fouckhest, on Flickr

Couple hours later we were back....unfortunately no photos during, I was too busy geeking out!
End of bus ride by fouckhest, on Flickr

Despite the weather early in the day being touch and go, it cleared up and they were going to run! We had grandstand passes, so we wanted to check it out, just wish we would have walked down the road a bit to Brey Hill, would have been way cooler to see them come over the hill lifting the front wheel, oh well, we got to see them run!
Day 2 - grandstand by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 2 - grandstand by fouckhest, on Flickr

And they were showing clips from other vantage points, which was just a tease for day 3
Day 2 - grandstand by fouckhest, on Flickr

Day 2 - grandstand by fouckhest, on Flickr


.....more to come of day 3

 

[fouckhest]

Day 3 - we woke to clear blue skies and kept our fingers crossed that it was going to stay that way because we were headed to a place called Black Dub, which was a very cool viewing point that we had heard a LOT about and many spoke highly of it....but in the meantime, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and do some exploring. First we went up to the Grandstand in hopes of catching the bus down to explore around the Douglas area...group photo, unfortunately we were a man down, he caught a nasty cold and was sleeping it off...

Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr

Then utilized our bus passes that came with our tour group package and went exploring....I like all the cool buildings, architecture, whatever you want to call it!

Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr

Fast forward to the bus ride down to the viewing area for the day....this is one of the "tent cities," funny, when we were on the tour, James Hillier said that even on the bike when you pass these areas you can smell BBQ and Cannabis
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr

Then we arrived at Black Dub, quite a cool spot for viewing! Also, very cool how many bikes are EVERYWHERE
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr


FINALLY we got to see some bikes up close! I have more video than stills, but you can kind of get the idea...In general, riders were coming up the hill out of that right hander at ~125mph +/-, top speed we saw out of that was 137mph (yes, they had a radar gun there, so naturally we decided that was our spot to watch!)
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

by fouckhest, on Flickr
by fouckhest, on Flickr

You can see this guy coming out of the turn, front tire off the ground!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Then they laid the bike back the other way to an immediate left
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 3 - black dub by fouckhest, on Flickr


While we were there playing with the radar guy we met this nice British feller who had a cool tattoo that happened to be a chiropractor for a bunch of the riders....told us he knew the only two riders from the US, took us to their tent after we got back too the TT village!

Said cool tattoo LOL
Day 3 - black dub to Pete Murray pit by fouckhest, on Flickr

He made good on his promise and we got to meet Pete Murray, the only US based bike rider, his teammate, a woman was a pilot of a side car!

Day 3 - black dub to Pete Murray pit by fouckhest, on Flickr

Petes actual race bike
Day 3 - black dub to Pete Murray pit by fouckhest, on Flickr

Crew with Pete! Super nice guy for sure!
Day 3 - black dub to Pete Murray pit by fouckhest, on Flickr

That was the end of day 3.....

...more to come of day 4

 

[fouckhest]

Day 4 the weather was sketchy all day, we kept our hopes up b/c we were going to go to an area called Milntown, we knew there was a big straight away there!

During the day we wondered around the paddock and snapped lots of photos in the pits, crazy how much the bikes get torn down after each session!

Paddock photo dump....no particular order, flickr has a mind of its own at times....
Day 4 by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 4 by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 4 by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 4 by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 4 by fouckhest, on Flickr
Day 4 by fouckhest, on Flickr


With our 430p bus ride quickly approaching, we headed down to load up, only to find out the called it due to weather, we later found out that the mountain was a mess all day and didnt have time to dry out and the wind was nasty up there...but since dinner and a couple beers was included with that viewing point, we headed down anyway, grabbed our dinner and a beer, then ventured out to see what was around, found a cool little pub call the "The Swan" would have been a CRAZY spot to watch! We also found out from some guys we flew back to Dublin with that where the stands were located in Milntown, the bikes came past you at ~190mph

While at The Swan, this was posted, kind of crazy, but interesting "law" on the Isle of Man!
Swan pub by fouckhest, on Flickr

That was where out day ended, we had a nice ride back on a bid double decker bus, some super cool sites to see! I would HIGHLY recommend checking it out if you are any kind of motorhead, the Duke Travel folks are AMAZING! They make it super easy to enjoy as a first timer, get you immerced enough that after being there, a second trip would look different, certainly do rental via "homeaway" (UK AirBnB), but I definitely think its on my 5yr plan to go back for race week.

We finished up Thursday night hanging out in the hospitality tent with some Aussies that we met on the shuttle to the village, constantly ran into them around the village, all our viewing spots and even at the airport leaving IoM going back to DUB, so we had to snap one group photo for the memories sake, always cool meeting folks from other walks of life that share a common passion (kinda like here!)

by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[gearhead1960]

@fouckhest Isle of Man is also on my bucket list. Those riders have the biggest balls of any racer in the world in IMO. I’m surprised they can walk sometimes….

 

[Xti04]

What a cool trip! I always like to imagine myself as some kind of TT badass when I would ride the dragon on my sportbike back in the day.

 

[Fast_Ed]

Awesome trip, thanks for sharing!

 

[zanyad]

What a trip!

 

[fouckhest]

@fouckhest Isle of Man is also on my bucket list. Those riders have the biggest balls of any racer in the world in IMO. I’m surprised they can walk sometimes….

Mark, it is certainly worth looking into! You and add that to the list of thing to discuss at some point! BTW - poster showed up yesterday, I haven't had a chance to open it yet, but can't thank you enough! Look forward to meeting in person at some point and discussing all things over a cold beer!!

What a cool trip! I always like to imagine myself as some kind of TT badass when I would ride the dragon on my sportbike back in the day.

ToD is all I could think about as to how to relate how crazy it is....the level of knowledge, and it is knowledge of the road is exactly like the locals up there, except these guys have a closed course and use ALL the road!!

Awesome trip, thanks for sharing!

What a trip!

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed!

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

What an awesome trip. Looks like you guys had a great time despite some weather issues.

 

[fouckhest]

What an awesome trip. Looks like you guys had a great time despite some weather issues.

We certainly made the best of it!