MrEarl

You and the “Captain” are welcome back anytime Dandy Dave, after all you’re the only visitor ever to Buick Gardens who knew what these were! A free pass to Buick Garden to the first one here who can tell me what the are.

Thanks Al, enjoyed your visit. Always fun when friends come over to play!

No problem mate. That wild eyed guy looks like a male emu I had named "Cactus Jack"! Orner'y feller who could land a backwards kick perfectly in the gonads every time. He was the first to go when the US emu breeder market started going south. I had gotten in early and wised up and got out early. Many didn't and lost thousands and millions. All the the rest of the emu I had were docile and downright sweet. Loved them prehistoric birds. Thanks for the nice comments. I can't wait to get started on the interior. Off to google up "dunny door" ....

Just wanted to invite everybody to drop in on my Buick garage build. Been building it for a few years now and finally making the time to post a thread on it down in the Buick forums. Hope to see ya there. Click on the arrow V

OK, I won't. BTW, you're talking to an old goat roper from way back here. Once had over 150 Boer and Kiko meat goats here on the farm. Goats will work you to death or the vet bills will make you wish you were dead!!! The miracle of today's medicines.... About this time my Marine Corp issued foot rot came back ferociously and I had to have double amputation and transplants of both feet. I thought they came out pretty good, no scars or nothin, wish the Doc could have found a better color match though. Next it was time to take a trip to Atlanta and visit the Cedar Store to buy some 2x Western Red Cedar for the trim. By the time I got out of there I was wishing I had used the old growth pine like I did on the back side. Spent over a grand on just enough to do the trim on the front facade, doors and window. After being use to salvage lumber prices of a couple dollars a board, that HURT. But if sealed and resealed every 4-5 years, it should outlast me. Gotta say though, the quality of the cedar was nowhere near as good as it was 30 years ago when we built the house of cedar. Full of knots!!! Some loose. Ran the Cedar trim up both ends. Then using 3.5" nails and timberlock screws, hung and an old growth pine 2x10 across the front middle where the brow/awning will attach. Ran a cedar 2x12 across the top of each step, glued and screwed to the top plate. Chamfered the end overhangs. The scaffolding height was running out. Height of the front is right at 25 ft. Worked off the roof on the back side on the long top most piece. Me and the Swede. The Swede was a computer hot shot, wrote computer programs so worked at that at night and on the garage during the day. Was a hell of a good worker and could put away some food. Just ask Rita. On second thought, don't!

Love puttin up sheathing. At the end of the day it's like "Wow, GOT somethin done TODAY...!! Only took me and the Swede about a day and a half to put all the sheathing up. As the building faces pretty much south, the winter evening sun reflecting off the sheathing will almost blind you. As Randall mentioned earlier, at this point of time it was REALLY starting to take shape I was beginning to see my dreams materialize for sure.

Good question Gary. I think we started demoing the fences and buildings sometime in late 2012 with the fill and grading coming in '13. The site sat for several months and started the building in early '14. The work you see going on here was in the mild winter of '15. I pretty much had the doors and windows on it and it was considered dried in for insurance purposes in March of '16. At that point I had some health problems and most heavy work ceased. But that has given me some time to continue gathering materials for the interior and also to raise some funds to purchase materials such as electrical, insulation etc when I get started back shortly. As far as pictures I started out taking them all with a camera. After grading was complete I have been using the cell phone and taking most myself with Rita taking some. Re Elvis, he's my main man. Smart dog. Can't imagine being here without him and my cat Kowpi. Thanks for the compliment and thank you for following my posts, it means a lot. Ahhh, thanks for posting those Randall. I've not thought to compare them like that. Show's somebody is really paying attention too, making the effort of posting worth the time. Thanks!!! Just call me honest Abe then. I do love my dog. Had dogs all my life but this guy is different. Usually dogs don't like to be looked at in their eyes. This guy looks up at me and almost talks to me through his eyes. I can read him and his thoughts and I know he reads me.

OK, enough playing on the tractor and back to the build. After the lower wall was up, it was time for the part I have been looking forward to since breaking ground. Building the stepped upper false wall. Luckily I had a friend from Sweden visiting for a few weeks whom I had been storing some cars for and had came over to help load them into containers for shipping back over the big pond. He ended up staying several weeks. His help was a true blessing. Couldn't find anything by Chet related to Sweden but guess Norway is close enough. After ensuring the first truss was perfectly plumb, and any deviations were worked out of the bracing, the first thing to do was to run additional bracing and support to the trusses that would give more meat to the structure and allow the wall to be tied into it with nails and timberlock screws. Then bring in more scaffolding and ladders As with the bottom, the top wall was built in sections. The sections were then winched to the top center with a comalong (you can see the comalong at the top center of the truss) then slid along the top plate of the bottom wall to their respective places starting on each side. And then it was ready for the last section. Olof and the wench winch. Poor guy wasn't use to the Georgia sun and humidity. Yayyyyy, it fit. Like a glove...

After the initial grading was completed, I was never happy with the "knot" that was left in the front lower end of the site. The slope was just too steep and didn't look natural. I knew it wasn't right before the grader left and even had him go on the back pasture and dig out some more material and track it over one loader bucket at a time but it was never "just right". So at this point I decided to have 3 more loads brought in and create a terrace for a small drive along the front of the building. Rita said something about it looked fine to her and I just wanted to play on the tractor more. I mowed the grass as low as the mower deck would go and pretty much just climbed over the three dump piles with the 2000 and blade and shaped it into the shape I wanted. Left the red clay for later covering with stone and the side slope with top soil so centipede grass seed could be planted in the spring. See the knot I'm talking about... Note the deer in the distance, feasting on my figs!!! Elvis getting "excited" about something Elvis even more "excited" I think this'll do

OK, enough about grass and fire ants. Time to get some walls up on the front. Although it is a "pole barn" I am building the front walls in more or less conventional stick build construction with 2x6 studs 24" OC and window and door headers etc. to set the tone of the day..... Started by building a 6X post onto the existing two front side treated posts. Love them 12 and 14 ft wood step ladders I scored at Habitat for Humanity for $30 each. First "post" up.... Second post up.... Built the front in three sections on the concrete floor in the garage. Some friends came over to help lift the wall sections. Each individual section was brought out and laid on leveled up 2x's. The bottom plate was butted up to iron pins to prevent it from skidding while being lifted up into place. It was then lifted up and over the pins onto adhesive on the concrete and lined up with the popped chalk line. Section one, west side with barn door opening Section 2, east side, with triple window opening MamaRita directing placement of bottom of wall with pins... and the middle section. Built it 1/8" shy of actual plan width to ensure it would fit with no hanging up while lifting. IT FIT and with a 1/16" to spare. I can paint over that.... OK for a "pole barn". The treated base plate was glued using PL3X and nailed with a Hilti gun. The single top plate was nailed to center of the bottom truss chord with 3 1/4 in nails and bolted with 6" Timberlocks every 24 inches. All sections were nailed together with each nail strategically placed and as directed by MamaRita Had to sit a window sash in the rough opening just to get an idea of how it will look looking out from the Buick show room. I think it will look OK. Man I could get spoilt to having all that great help. TIME FOR A YUENGLING or 6 or 7

Back to the part "Because I was "PLANNING" to lay sod(more about that later ), I raked smooth and cleaned the whole area of rocks" For the last two years I have been keeping about an acre of pasture mowed to about 3 inches high in anticipation of using the grass sod around my new building. It was some pasture that I had once grazed goats on and was some pretty fertile ground. Some Centipede grass had someway found it's way there and become beautifully established. After selling off the goats, I had let it grow up for 3-4 years so there was lot of brush and tree saplings starting to take over and I had bush hogged it a couple times. After finish grading and raking the ground around the garage I rented a sod cutter and commenced to trying to cut the sod and load onto my trailer and move to the build site. Because the ground was so hard from no rain for 5-6 weeks the cutter would not cut the depth I needed unless I literally laid over on top of the machine which literally rattled my teeth and brains. Although I had spray painted all the sapling stumps I could find I inadvertently hit a couple and apparently caused the belt on the machine to break. I loaded it up on the trailer to carry back to the rental store but decided I better go ahead and load up what sod I had cut and and wet down and get in the shade. It was after all 97* and noon sun. As I started rolling the sod up and carrying to the trailer, I got an all to familiar stinging sensation on my stomach and legs. I looked down and my shirtless stomach and legs were covered with fire ants. I threw the sod down, dropped my shorts right out in the middle of the pasture and tried to get all the little red sons of b****** off me. I then headed to the house for a shower then back to the rental house to return the broken down cutter. As bad as I hated to give up on the two year old plan, what with the heat, the problems I expected to continue having with the cutter and stumps and the fact there were fire ant mounds all over the pasture, I decided to give up and just plant Bermuda, the only thing that could "possibly" be planted that late in the summer. I got half decent coverage but since it was so late in the summer, the roots didn't get established deep enough and I lost more than 80% of the grass to a couple of 12-15* freezes. I ended up just spraying out the little bit of remaining Bermuda and planting Centipede seed the next spring. Centipede being my first choice of grass anyway. Yep, just call me Mr Lucky.

Wow, all that diggin and heat from that last project posted almost gave me a heat stroke in February and got my back achin... But lets march on... With the plumbing and drain system in and summer coming to an end it was past time to do some landscaping in way of fine grading and grassing. Before I started the cut and fill for the building, I had the grade man push all the good topsoil up into two big piles. Using the ol Ford 2000 and a 5-6 cu ft scoop I backed into those two piles 280 times and carried loads of soil and dumped all around the garage. Not shown in the pictures but I then took a smoothing disc harrow and knocked down and leveled the piles before going over it several time again with the 5 ft blade. A slow and tiresome process. By the time I finished my left knee was swelling from clutching and I had a crick in my neck from looking back over my shoulder while backing into the piles. Not to mention the 98* high humidity days. Not to mention the stings from the yellow jackets who had made a home in one of the piles. Pile #1 Pile #2 For those who don't know how a scoop works, you may can see the rope hanging from the roll bar that is used to trip the bucket. Once tripped a good operator can lower it while moving forward and spread the pile somewhat. But since I'm not a good operator I just dump in piles and knock them down with the blade ooops, backed into the pile a bit too hard one time, hit a big rock and broke one of the 3 point hitch control arms. A trip to Tractor Supply and back up and running in a couple hours. Because I was "PLANNING" to lay sod(more about that later ), I raked smooth and cleaned the whole area of rocks. By 7:30 it's time for a wheelbarrow recliner and a cold Budweiser delivered by a very pretty waitress tellin me it's quitin time. Life don't get much betta!!!

Darn, forgot to ask about the Olds ....

Sent him a message, we'll see.

Items considered and noted Sir Al, not that I'll remember them the next time I see a '53 Special with clear plastic tubes in the rear tray mind ya. Thanks for your always expert advice Al. I am tempted to email and ask for pictures of the engine just to possibly see the mounting of the compressor on a straight eight. I'm bettin Ben would like to see THAT too.

Thank you so much for sharing Bill, I have always heard about but never seen this car. A bit sad to hear you sold it too, didn't know that. Is this your 9.9 video. AWESOME !!!

Normally I would have moved technical/mechanical related threads to their respective forum (Post or Pre-war) however given the more "general interest" nature of the subject ie experience with warranty work I am leaving it here in General. Thanks and carry on Dave, I anxiously await the next installment.

Well I'll be dang . I'm posting to ask why aren't your pictures showing up and here they appear. I like that stamp! Some of my stamps have rough and irregular sides also.

Knotty pine was the in thing back in the early 50's and through the 60's. I see it advertised on CL ever once in awhile and is typically from houses of that era that are getting deconstructed or remodeled. BTW I'd say that little jade green lamp up on the shelf and possibly the stool is from that mid century period also. Nothin wrong with dreamin, I'd be nothing without it.

Are these your rims JD?

then it was time to lay some waterline and run the drain pipe down the hill from the garage. Hotter than 400 hell and the fan was blowing hot air. Hand dug an 18 inch deep trench for both the lines. Not shown here but I also tied into a water line to an outside spigot I ran before the concrete slab was poured. Inspector Kowpi approved the ditch. The drain line from the subsurface drainage and heading back to the gray water tank . Also in the ditch but not seen here was a 3/4 inch water line. While I was good and warmed up from digging the trenches thought I'd go ahead and dig the pit for the gray water disposal system. I had ran a couple of perc test and luckily the clay soil I had hauled in drained at about an inch per hour which while not great would typically pass for a septic tank drain field. Plus I would only be running small amounts of water from a sink periodically. Used the Ford 2000 to auger up the ground then dug down with hole diggers and shovel. 'bout this time for some unknown reason this song came to mind plus I actually ended up digging down to the bottom of the fill material and into the topsoil so I am sure that will drain well. Drilled some holes in a 55 gallon black plastic drum. Note the two big holes toward the top. The top one is for the waste water pipe coming in, the bottom one is for overflow, it connects to the perimeter drain that goes down the hill and empties out to daylight. Filled the bottom foot of the hole with 57 stone, set the barrel in level and filled in around it to the top. covered over it with a 4'x4' 1/4 inch steel plate and black plastic and filled in over the top which left it about 6 inches beneath the top of ground, enough to grow grass.

I was needing to get some permanent grassing done but before I did that I knew I needed to run some subsurface drainage, a gray water drainage system and a water line. This time I wasn't so lucky as the daily temperatures were hitting in the mid to upper 90's. But I couldn't put it off or I would miss my window for grassing. As I had chose not to install gutters on the building and was not wanting to take a chance on the roof waters migrating back under the slab, I decided to run a subsurface drain down both sides of the building. So I pulled some of the stone I had put down earlie back off and proceeded to dig a trench for a subsurface drainage. Basically an in ground gutter.

Thanks guys. The doors are even more amazing in person. How did they ever go this many years without somebody painting them? And are in such good condition. Not sure how exactly I will use them as paneling in the office area. Considering cutting them horizontally in between the top and bottom panels and using the top (tallest) panel as wainscoting then the rest of the way up with the unpainted bead board. The bottom shorter panels could then be cut in half vertically for use on some built in cabinets. I just don't know if I can bring myself to cut them up though. Guess we'll see when the time comes.

Some more architectural pieces I've picked up lately, not from the same old house but likely the same period. Check the rings in these bulls eyes. They will go over the interior side of the front door man door, the door leading back into the the shop and the window in the office area. And some painted bead board. I used a good bit of this type bead board when we built the house. Best way to get the look I liked was to leave it lay out in the rain and sun a few days, all the paint will start to peel. Then just scrape the paint off until the patina gets to the point you want, lightly sand it then apply a clear sealer. And some wooden cabinets to go above the lab cabinets. These were free for taking them down off the wall of a house that was being renovated. Old knotty pine. I'll use the main frames of them and make new doors out of some of the bead board. An old tanker desk and file cabinets from a local newspaper office. An "All-Steel" storage cabinet from the University of Georgia that ended up at the local Potters House. Very heavy duty. And a late 1940's Norge refrigerator. A local appliance shop put a new compressor in it but the lines are stopped up. He tried running a piano wire through the lines to clean them out but did not meet with success. I have a couple more of the same vintage that work great so will likely keep this for paint storage.

'bout this time I had me some good luck and fell into some good deals on some materials for the inside of the garage. I was sho nuff feelin like ol Mr Lucky Mr John Lee Hooker Called about an ad in CL and talked to the great grand daughter of a lady who she and her husband had built this house back in the late 1800's and it had been in the family since. The roof had developed leaks several years ago and had been going down hill since. So the grand daughter decided to deconstruct and sell the material. Luckily I got in on the front end and was able to buy some beautiful old doors, bead board and flooring. Met the grand mother of the lady I bought the materials from and enjoyed hearing about when she grew up in the house and boy was she proud of the old Rhododendron outside the kitchen window. The yard was full of rhodos, azaleas and camellias. Here is the back yard of the house Some breathtakingly beautiful doors. These and the unpainted bead board will be used for paneling and walls in the Sales Room/Front office area. And the beadboard of which I will use some to build the barn type doors of the main building. This is all I could afford at the time but luckily was able to go back for more later. and some of the flooring on the right and this was actually the front door to the house.