What did you do today not on your truck...

[Steeveedee]

Went over to the rental house and verified that the door handles are still the same. Yesterday when I went over, the front door handle was way loose; the screws were several turns out. I can't make any sense of that, beyond paranoia that someone is going to try and change the locks and squat. Escrow is supposed to close in a couple of weeks. This is nerve-wracking. I have some friends that I may have to hire to have a party in that house if squatters appear. We can make it REAL uncomfortable for some squatters...

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

Went over to the rental house and verified that the door handles are still the same. Yesterday when I went over, the front door handle was way loose; the screws were several turns out. I can't make any sense of that, beyond paranoia that someone is going to try and change the locks and squat. Escrow is supposed to close in a couple of weeks. This is nerve-wracking. I have some friends that I may have to hire to have a party in that house if squatters appear. We can make it REAL uncomfortable for some squatters...

I don't think it's paranoia Steven. Those screws didn't just loosen themselves.
Can you have someone you trust "camp out' there until escrow closes. I'm getting ready to stay at my new place because it's empty and someone has been coming around. So I'll be squatting in my own place. Just internet, a sofa and a fridge everything else has been torn out. I'll just eat at the Mexican restaurant down the block. Then I'll really be squatting in more ways than one.

Why is your escrow taking so long? Mine closed in a couple weeks from start to finish. I hate escrow. They are the reason that it's nerve wracking.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

I don't think it's paranoia Steven. Those screws didn't just loosen themselves.
Can you have someone you trust "camp out' there until escrow closes. I'm getting ready to stay at my new place because it's empty and someone has been coming around. So I'll be squatting in my own place. Just internet, a sofa and a fridge everything else has been torn out. I'll just eat at the Mexican restaurant down the block. Then I'll really be squatting in more ways than one.

Why is your escrow taking so long? Mine closed in a couple weeks from start to finish. I hate escrow. They are the reason that it's nerve wracking.

This is the third round of "buyers". This gal seems serious, but the first prospects were pretty much crooked, trying to pull things. She's at least paying for an inspector. There's paperwork that must be signed by this Wednesday or it'll fall through. I'm tempted to get out my camping gear and occupy the place myself.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

This is the third round of "buyers". This gal seems serious, but the first prospects were pretty much crooked, trying to pull things. She's at least paying for an inspector. There's paperwork that must be signed by this Wednesday or it'll fall through. I'm tempted to get out my camping gear and occupy the place myself.

Third round? Yuck. I went 3 rounds when I sold my place in Claremont. I think the "buyers' were still looking and just wanted to lock in my place in case they didn't find another. They'd write a check but it was refundable so they had nothing to lose. Just a waste of my time and patience.

When we sold our house in San Dimas my wife had inherited it. Escrow wanted the death certificate of her stepfather. And a copy of the will.(sigh)
The guy has been dead for 10 years. She’s owned it for 10 years. Paid the taxes for 10 years. It’s in her name. Are you kidding me?

Nope. They need the paperwork or the deal falls through. What a bunch of
She always makes fun of me for using my old filing cabinet when I can just file things on the computer. She calls me a dinosaur and things like that. But when she looked for the documents. Guess what? They weren’t there. Everything else was but not them.

So. This old dinosaur went to his outdated obsolete dusty file cabinet and mercy me what did I find. That’s right. Somebody with their old antiquated ways just saved the day.

That’s why I hate escrow. When she sent the documents they said that they didn’t need them after all.
Thank you sir may I have another.

Let me know if you camp out. I'll bring the marshmallows and weenies... and a couple shotguns. We can tell scary stories.

[3757chevy]

I haven't been to Burger King in years. I used to pickup breakfast croisants for the guys at work on Saturdays, I always went inside to order. The last time I walked up to the counter and the little gal standing there clocked out and went on break and the two guys at the soda machine just stood there talking and never offered to take my order after an few minutes I got mad and walked out . The other night I ordered Dominos chicken alfredo for my wife and she ended up with a marinara and cheese dipping sauce [ no chicken or pasta at all ] she says "WELL , we won't be ordering from them any time soon". Ok by me. I'll go pickup our food from the local Italian Restaurant next time.

[3757chevy]

Actually that Burger King is famous for the wrong reasons.

Ringtail cat spotted inside Canon City Burger...

[special-K]

You guys remind me of a Burger King story of mine I probably shouldn't share. I did a very cocky thing one night many years ago, like before I bought this house in '87. I used to have snow plowing contracts down in the MD suburbs, near Washington DC. We'd go down prior to the snow starting and then spend many hours clearing a handful of properties, back and forth from one to the others strung out along the northern end. It can be a long long day and staring carefully at the tip of the plow makes it very tiring.

On my weary way home I pull into a Burger King as I was hungry enough to eat about anything put in front of me. It was a right turn onto a road off the hiway, left into a shopping center, and another left where Burger King was tucked into the corner. Lights were on and people moving around inside. I walk up to the counter and see the various burgers on the slotted trays ready to serve. The man comes, what I thought was to take my order, and says "Sorry we are closed". What??? "But you have burgers ready to eat right there. "Can't you sell me one? I've been in my truck plowing snow for 12 hours straight and I really need something to eat. I'm starving". Nope, already closed the register out. What??? "But you're just going to throw those out. Here's a $10 bill. Give me a burger and stick the 10 in your pocket". Sorry sir, we are closed. You'll have to leave. Oh, I left alright. I went out, got in my truck, gathered up some snow, and pushed it up over the curb and against the doors, backed up, drove up the bank to the hiway, and hauled butt on up the road! "Have fun shoveling you dink!"

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by special-K

You guys remind me of a Burger King story of mine I probably shouldn't share. I did a very cocky thing one night many years ago, like before I bought this house in '87. I used to have snow plowing contracts down in the MD suburbs, near Washington DC. We'd go down prior to the snow starting and then spend many hours clearing a handful of properties, back and forth from one to the others strung out along the northern end. It can be a long long day and staring carefully at the tip of the plow makes it very tiring.

On my weary way home I pull into a Burger King as I was hungry enough to eat about anything put in front of me. It was a right turn onto a road off the hiway, left into a shopping center, and another left where Burger King was tucked into the corner. Lights were on and people moving around inside. I walk up to the counter and see the various burgers on the slotted trays ready to serve. The man comes, what I thought was to take my order, and says "Sorry we are closed". What??? "But you have burgers ready to eat right there. "Can't you sell me one? I've been in my truck plowing snow for 12 hours straight and I really need something to eat. I'm starving". Nope, already closed the register out. What??? "But you're just going to throw those out. Here's a $10 bill. Give me a burger and stick the 10 in your pocket". Sorry sir, we are closed. You'll have to leave. Oh, I left alright. I went out, got in my truck, gathered up some snow, and pushed it up over the curb and against the doors, backed up, drove up the bank to the hiway, and hauled butt on up the road! "Have fun shoveling you dink!"

That is funny.
I bet they remembered to lock the door at closing time after that.

[FleetsidePaul]

That's a funny story and that guy deserved it. He was probably going to take them for himself but you'd think the 10 bucks would have swayed him.

It's only 5 a.m. here so I haven't done much. Only got my little Chihuahua stoned. He's going to the vet today to get his nails trimmed and they gave us some doggie downers so he won't attack them. He's a mean little dog and growls at everything especially my big dog. But he's not growling at anything now. He's higher than a kite. Maybe he won't need the Hannibal Lecter mask this time.

[special-K]

Yeah, $10 for a Whopper, no fries or a drink, in the mid-80s was seriously generous. They would have been under $2 back then. You couldn't buy a $10 burger at the fanciest restaurant back then. Way to many for the whole crew to eat. If I were him I would have refused the money and just given him one knowing he had been out providing the service of clearing snow that everyone likes to see done like yesterday. These days he would have gotten a carefully worded statement putting him where he belongs. No need to act out like I did when young. With age comes wisdom... then it's where'd it all go??

I'm picturing just how that went with your Chihuahua

I'm Miserable - YouTube

[special-K]

Yeah, $10 for a Whopper, no fries or a drink, in the mid-80s was seriously generous. They would have been under $2 back then. You couldn't buy a $10 burger at the fanciest restaurant back then. Way to many for the whole crew to eat. If I were him I would have refused the money and just given him one knowing he had been out providing the service of clearing snow that everyone likes to see done like yesterday. These days he would have gotten a carefully worded statement putting him where he belongs. No need to act out like I did when young. With age comes wisdom... then it's where'd it all go??

I'm picturing just how that went with your Chihuahua

I'm Miserable - YouTube

[special-K]

what I did on Sunday was run out to the rural Ace Hardware for some Sakrete. Paul, a member from this site who doesn't 'attend' these days, is a manager there and was working that day. We started off catching up, him telling me plans for his '72 K/20 that has been sitting. We were rudely interrupted () my a customer who needed lumber. The guy had overheard some of our conversation and aske Paul what he had. Then he talked about the '68 he had, body-dropped patina shop truck, and showed us pictures. I said something about you get three random guys in a hardware store and they all have 67-72s to bring them together. Pretty cool!

Also, Paul is good with the things I am not, computers and dumb phones (some say smart). He helped my with a computer I had one time. I was showing him pictures of my "Barn Move" project, him holding the phone, and he saw I had no arrow to skip back out of there. I told him it's the same when I view a picture in a text, I get stuck there, have to go to my contacts, and select 'text' to get back to the message. Just last week I had T-Mobile do a factory reset and there were new things that were hanging me up. In just a few minutes he had me all fixed up so my phone is now somewhat user friendly, not as dumb as it was .

[Palf70Step]

.357 does some wall damage too, not that I would know that.

[tutone]

Got my cuts made on my "blown over oak tree" 54 feet of 22" plus logs.
3-12s a 10 and an 8. It knocked over another big red oak 22" plus. Got a 10 and an 8 out of it. We are gonna pull em out with a good size tractor if it will ever stop raining. Drove a lot of wedges and it don't take near as long to give out handling a saw as it used to.

[LS short box]

Spent 4 hours block sanding the doors and trunk lid of a 37 Packard convertible. First skim coat. Thursday we spray "poly" filler and more more block sanding.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by tutone

Got my cuts made on my "blown over oak tree" 54 feet of 22" plus logs.
3-12s a 10 and an 8. It knocked over another big red oak 22" plus. Got a 10 and an 8 out of it. We are gonna pull em out with a good size tractor if it will ever stop raining. Drove a lot of wedges and it don't take near as long to give out handling a saw as it used to.

Mo' money

Originally Posted by LS short box

Spent 4 hours block sanding the doors and trunk lid of a 37 Packard convertible. First skim coat. Thursday we spray "poly" filler and more more block sanding.

Are you glad it's a part time job? I'm sure seeing the results will be gratifying.

I sanded a little today myself. A homeowner wanted me to make her a shelf for over the sink in her tiny under the steps bathroom. I scrounged up the materials from under a lean-to off of her barn. Rags to riches. That wood was so filthy I had to scrub it up first. I put it by a heater to get it good and dry. Got the pieces made up, filled the imperfections, sanded, and assembled it. It gets painted white, then installed tomorrow

[tutone]

Cool shelf. I used to love wood working. Back when we built houses on the side , I loved the framing and the finish work. Painting, drywall, and electrical was tedious. I worked with a guy that made wooden pen and pencil sets. I bought a couple of sets through the years. My son got a pallet in at his workplace once from India. It was some of the darkest exotic wood you have ever seen. He made us each a set out of that wood. Stuff like that interests me.

[special-K]

I never thought of how there'd be woods from around the world coming here as pallets. I am all about the reuse/salvage thing these days. I keep small pieces of the more interesting lumber to make smaller things from. Heck, I even make special mouldings out of scrap framing limber, just crappy white pine. I'll get a picture of where I dug this wood out from. The shelf itself was cut off a 16' length of window sill stock, the piece between the brackets was a primed (and weathered) piece of clear Douglas Fir true 5/4" with a beveled rip for something exterior, and the brackets came from my scrap stash, 3/4" x 3" clear cedar left over from something. No money what so ever into materials and it's all good stuff. I used the cedar for being clear and softer for ease of shaping, being so small. We figured 23"L x 4"W would do it. The sink is a tiny roundy cool porcelain cast iron wall-hanger like you'd see in a service station bathroom. She didn't want people setting things on the back ledge (for some reason). I'll get a pictures once painted and hung. Glad you liked it

[tutone]

Originally Posted by special-K

I never thought of how there'd be woods from around the world coming here as pallets. I am all about the reuse/salvage thing these days. I keep small pieces of the more interesting lumber to make smaller things from. Heck, I even make special mouldings out of scrap framing limber, just crappy white pine. I'll get a picture of where I dug this wood out from. The shelf itself was cut off a 16' length of window sill stock, the piece between the brackets was a primed (and weathered) piece of clear Douglas Fir true 5/4" with a beveled rip for something exterior, and the brackets came from my scrap stash, 3/4" x 3" clear cedar left over from something. No money what so ever into materials and it's all good stuff. I used the cedar for being clear and softer for ease of shaping, being so small. We figured 23"L x 4"W would do it. The sink is a tiny roundy cool porcelain cast iron wall-hanger like you'd see in a service station bathroom. She didn't want people setting things on the back ledge (for some reason). I'll get a pictures once painted and hung. Glad you liked it

Yeah, I got in the habit of looking for wood sources 30 years ago at the paper mill. We would get parts from all over the world. I had a boss that was a guitar builder, so we were always on the lookout for spruce. I would come up with some of that and lots of maple. Here are the pens made from the wood from India. I cant get the camera to really focus on the grain.

[Steeveedee]

Went over to the rental house for a daily check. Turns out that the prospective buyer was there with a contractor, taking measurements. The realtor left (which I understand is allowed) them alone with the house, but didn't close the lock box back up, so the keys were available to them. They had enough time to make copies if they so desired, since I didn't think at that time to close the box back up. The realtor was supposed to come back and lock up. The only reason I can think of for the realtor to come back is because the keys shouldn't be available to prospective buyers. I'll have to ask my wife and our realtor that question. I went back over and the place was locked up, but that doesn't mean that the keys haven't been copied. Given that it took us 9 months to evict the non-paying tenants, I'm concerned. I may just go over and change the locks tomorrow, just to be less concerned. $40 well spent, and I can use new locks over here when it's all said and done.

One of my concerns is that when I went into the back yard ( the first time) to go into the garage, the prospective buyer was all smiles, but the contractor looked like someone who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was also keeping his face turned to the side while the prospective buyer and I were taking. Not a good sign.

[kwmech]

Woke up to a project this morning on my driveway leading to the highway, almost took out the mailboxes. boxes just got brushed by light branches. Pics were taken about an hour after starting a brush pile

[tutone]

Glad nobody was hurt. That is a "Mossy Oak"

[kwmech]

Originally Posted by tutone

Glad nobody was hurt. That is a "Mossy Oak"

Yeah, sits in the shade quite a bit on the north side of the hill. Some of it is about 2'' thick. Gotta brush the chain saw blade back and forth a couple of times to find the trunk. What was kinda funny is that there were tire tracks in the snow under the tree. So it fell sometime in the early morning after somebody in the neighborhood went to work. Couple pics after about 5-6 hours of work

[kwmech]

So I think I'll take my mini Excavator and grab part of the arch so I can get more of the tree down. If you look where the cone is...that is where all the pressure is holding it up at the moment.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by kwmech

Yeah, sits in the shade quite a bit on the north side of the hill. Some of it is about 2'' thick. Gotta brush the chain saw blade back and forth a couple of times to find the trunk. What was kinda funny is that there were tire tracks in the snow under the tree. So it fell sometime in the early morning after somebody in the neighborhood went to work. Couple pics after about 5-6 hours of work

Is that a gap in the guard rail it fell through?

When that treacherous cold blew in hard on Dec 23rd I was driving a road along a reservoir where they had planted white pines for a buffer way back when the reservoir went in. Dense tall pine forest. I noticed motion to the left in the forest and it was a big one coming down. I was actually looking for that to happen, it was so windy and the trees were swaying so bad. I stopped as the tree fell right where I would have been had I not been wary. The tree broke and I was able to drag the top out of the road enough to get through. Had it moved before the guy behind me had a chance to get there. I wasn't spending any more time there than I had to. He said, "That was close!" I agreed and hi-tailed it out of there. We could talk some other time