PERMIT me to introduce..... (Garage Part 2) TKP

Everyone here has been telling me, "Get your building permit early - it can be really tough to get", so I have been worrying about it. Finally, I went and got the form and, sure enough, it was confusing!

Questions like, "What will the height of the building be, above grade level, at the mid-point between the ridge and the eve?" Hmmm - well the wall is 10 feet, the mid-point of the truss is another 2 feet above that but I have no idea how thick the pad will end up being! And how do you measure grade level - off of the ground around it or off of the fill gravel that surrounds it????? They also wanted the cost of the building - is that exact figures or round numbers???? Who knows??? Lots of fun stuff like that). So Sari and I basically filled it in as best we could and I thought, "Well - if we did it wrong he will call us - hopefully we have it in a week or two".

I took the form to city hall - he looked at it - asked where the windows were going to go - figured out the cost of permit and said, "You are good to go!" It took 3 minutes and he barely looked at anything!!! Now it is a straight-forward little garage, but I worried and worried and I had the permit in hand in less time than it took to enter my PIN code for my card to pay for it. :)

I just hope that he is that hard to deal with through the entire inspection process.

Let's get ready to...... Build a garage!!!! (TKP)

It is finally happening! After years of waiting ... after years of having 3409869038690 tools and no place to store them.... after too many oil changes on the vehicles out in the snowbanks in the middle of January when it is 40 below... after talking myself out of it b/c it was too expensive ..... this is the year I build a garage (28 x 24 with 10 foot walls)!!!!!

I know that is not a big deal to a lot of people - but it is a huge thing to me! I already have two project cars that I could work on. Too many times already (for Sari's liking) I have filled the house with sawdust as I built something in the small work room that I had in the basement. I am really looking forward to having space to tear things apart and leave them until I come back (right now - working outside - all the parts and tools have to be put away every night). I am even looking forward to simply having a place to goof around and to call my own (Sari and the kids are going to get a SMALL portion in which to store their stuff - but it is going to be SMALL - I am being careful here - you know the old saying "Give 'em an inch....). :)

So I am really looking forward to it and I am blogging the progress. This is an effort to....
1. Track the progress for posterity reasons - so I can look back and say "Oh remember that!"

2. Inspire you to show up and hammer some nails with me. Since I am doing this myself (with a lot of help from my friends) this is your open invitation. Wanna help? Come on down.

We started tearing things out of the yard - cleaning up and moving stuff - stage one - the other day - so I thought I would take some "Before Pics" - so here they are....... grab your hammer! :)

Such a pretty boy!!! (TKP)

Ya know - I never saw Justin's looks when I looked at Caden - ever - until this past weekend. I guess he just had to dress more like his dad so that I could see it. :)

We can fix that too.....

So I am not sure whether this entry is one of joy or sadness.... I will let you decide.

Over the last week, our less than two year old dryer has been making "granking" sounds (similar to the sounds that Sara makes when she has discovered that she has gone shopping but forgot her credit card at home) :) So we did the only logical thing we could do (logical if you read these posts very often), we tore it apart!!!!

We had that dryer spread all over the laundry room - top off - back off - drum out - everything. Start the motor - runs for 8 seconds and seizes up solid. Turn it by hand - start it - 8 seconds - dead! Just as I was about to declare that a bearing in the motor had piled up and started hauling the machine parts outside - I heard a "tick" when I turned the motor. Upon closer inspection, I saw that a draw string from a hoodie (a "Bunny hug" for you old timers) was wrapped around the motor shaft. I carefully unwound it - and "tada" - we reassembled (most of) the parts of the dryer and it is back in business. Did 5 loads today, no problem! Saved us several hundred dollars!!!!

And the best part: Sari and I did this together without fighting (much). :) That is a huge step forward!! Normally we both want to be the boss (we are both "first children" after all) and we would likely almost kill one another (Ask about putting together the "TV armoire" in our living room sometime - that was..... interesting!)

The other story has to do with my motorcycle. I got it out last week and it would not start. After 5 days, several battery re-charges, a new siphon pump to get the old stinky gas out of the thing (I learned not to siphon gas with my mouth anymore since the last time I sucked gas down my throat and it came out my nose - my nose bled a lot and I could smell gas for a week) - drained the carburetors five or six times and away it went.

So here is the quesiton: Are we cursed b/c all of our stuff is falling apart around us, or blessed b/c we have been able to fix them ourselves - and not kill one another in the process? (See other gripping stories on this blog about repairing water coolers and ovens and vacuums and......)

Happy or sad - you decide for me.

I have made my choice!