Midas Has Lost Their Touch

Today's post is all about a weekend spent doing brakes on K'Lack, and me left wondering if they needed to be touched at all. To my fellow Oregonians, if you have not received your November ballot yet, it ought to be arriving very soon. To everyone/anyone living in a representative democracy, I hope you exercise the right from which all other rights spring: your right to vote.

 

K'Lack Background

oh, the irony

In my last post, I said that I was waiting for parts to arrive for me to to K'Lack's brakes. For some brief backstory on K'Lack, it is a 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon (BEW engine) previously owned by our son Kai. He drove it for years, put a lot of miles on it and when the transmission started acting funny (the auto is notoriously bad) he wanted to unload it. Well, no car lot would give him more than a few hundred dollars for it because the transmission was going bad. So, me and Ang stepped in, bought it for Kelly BlueBook value and sent it into a transmission shop. They spent 3 months rebuilding it (got the wrong kit the 1st time) and we had it back for a couple of weeks before Krista needed a replacement car. At the time, we had a couple of extra cars, but they were all manual transmissions (she can't drive stick). So, we sold her K'Lack for what we paid Kai plus I think about half the cost of the transmission rebuild. That was before CoViD, so K'Lack has really served her well.

 

Oh, we named it "K'Lack" because it has that annoying issue in the turn stalk where it makes a nearly constant "clack-clack-clack" noise. Eventually, it gets to where you don't notice it anymore, but that's where the name came from.

 

K'Lack Brakes

I did the brakes on K'Lack not too long ago. I looked back into the blog history, but I can't find a reference to it other than saying I was going to do it in April (See Building a Shop - Doors). Regardless, at the time, the brakes were making noise. I determined at the time that the right-side rear caliper was leaking. So, I replaced it, but did the pads and rotors. I believe that at the time I also replaced the front pads, but I didn't document it anywhere so maybe I didn't. Well, a summer later, when it spent at least a month sitting under a tree waiting for it to get fixed and through smog testing, Krista grew concerned about the brakes making noise. I suggested that she take it to Midas and get a professional opinion, but recognize they are all liars and thieves, so anything they say we'll take with a grain of salt. Or a 5 pound bag of it.

 

Midas

So, Krista took K'Lack to Midas and told them the brakes were making a funny squeal/squeak noise. They gave her a listing of things that needed to be done, including replacing the rear left caliper (said it was sticking) and replacing all pads and rotors. Their price? $1200US. They also said a bunch of other stuff needed replacing that was not showing any reason for concern. New steering pump $1700US. I stopped reading then, but it was a laundry list that totaled over $5kUS. I don't know if they had her pegged as a mark or what. I told her that we would ignore everything except the part that she went there to talk to them about: brakes.

 

K'Lack Rear Left Brake 

there be meat on that inner pad

I knew that I had done the rear rotors and pads a few months back. So, when Midas said all of them needed to be replaced, I wanted to see what they saw. I took the right rear tire off and sure enough the pads have almost all of their meat still on them. Then, I shifted over to the left rear. Those pads and the rotor were so new-ish that the part number printed on the top of the pads was still visible. The brakes had not been used enough to produce enough dust to cover / fill in the part numbers. Still, I had the replacement caliper, so I separated the caliper from the bracket (13mm socket, IIRC) and looked at the caliper. The seal around piston did look mis-shaped. Perhaps I was too aggressive when I set the piston back into the caliper when I did the brakes in April and messed it up.

  

Regardless, I got after replacing the caliper. I started by pouring some brake fluid into the fluid-line hole in the new caliper. While this doesn't eliminate all of the air, it does eliminate a lot of it, making the bleed a little bit faster. Then, I removed the emergency/parking brake cable with a slotted screwdriver and then the brake line with a 14mm spanner from the old caliper. Fluid immediately started leaking out of the line, so I quickly set the old caliper down and threaded the line into the new one. I put the emergency brake cable on, and then set the caliper on top of the still-in-place pads. After sending the slides back on, I tested the brake pedal, noticed a small leak at the hose-caliper junction and tightened it. The next test of the brake pedal cause the brake line to rupture, shooting brake fluid straight up right next to the top slide. Great, hose failed.

 

The rear brake lines, at least on this make/model/year are a combination hard line rubber line where they are fused together. So, when one part fails, you need to replace the whole line. Neat. We got very lucky in that a friendly local auto parts store (FLAPS) had one in stock on a Saturday. The hardline end joins another rubber line on top of the rear axle and can be loosened with a flare wrench. Then, the line can be popped free from the 3 plastic holders. I held the replacement next to the original, and the bends were in exactly the right spots. You would think that's not newsworthy, but nowadays it is.

 

The other end of the new brake line is the same banjo fitting as the old one had, but there was one major difference: the through-bolt was held captive in the fitting. The old brake line ended with a hole through which a separate banjo bolt would pass. To me, this creates greater flexibility during install and allows you to replace the bolt (usually a wear-part) independently. Enter another banjo-bolt nightmare that was not nearly as awful as the banjo bolt in the steering in Flash, but still frustrating. I can't believe I didn't blog on that. I spent literally 2 days of a Christmas break trying to get a power steering banjo bolt to align on Flash. Anyway, this was more like 15 minutes, but 15 minutes can feel really long. I believe the captured bolt makes this 100 times harder.

 

With the brake line attached, I re-tested the brakes and there were no leaks. I realized that lots of fluid made it onto the shop floor so I went to engine bay to add brake fluid... and... discovered that Midas had barely set the brake fluid reservoir cap on. It was not secured at all; it was just sitting on top of the reservoir. What a bunch of hacks!

 

K'Lack Front Brakes

front meat too

After seeing the state of the brake reservoir, I had to take a break. I returned a few hours later to look at the front brakes. These also looked barely used. I replaced the pads and rotors anyway. Why? I could not remember if I had done them last Spring, and while Midas is a den of liars and thieves, maybe they saw something I didn't. At least that was how I felt on Saturday. Today, maybe not so much. Regardless, I saved the old rotors and pads in case this set gives up at a time when Krista doesnt have money for new ones. Looking at them in the image on the right, they do not appear to be wearing evenly. That may be a case of the slides not greased sufficiently which I will take to heart on my next brake job.

 

The pads on the front right wheel had what looked like a small chip chunked out of them. Like what would have happened had a rock gotten in there, which is what I concluded happened, and was the source of the noise: a rock got in there, screamed a bunch and then shook loose, but not before Krista got worried about it. 

 

Replacing the front brakes was relatively uneventful. One wheel and rotor did not want to come off, so I needed to use a sledge-hammer blunted with a wooden 2x4. This looks much worse than it really is. Sometimes, a wheel will surface-rust to the rotor. That's totally normal. I set a 2x4 against the wheel where the rubber tire meets the alloy rim and then swing the long-handled sledge from about a meter away straight into that piece of lumber. The wheel usually pops off after a smack or 2. To reduce the recurrence, I will usually put some anti-seize on the backside of the rim before I put it back on. Since I had to get physical with the rim, clearly Midas did not remove it for their "inspection".

 

Once the rim is off, remove the T-45 slides. Yes, the fronts use one kind of fastener-type for the slide and rears use something completely different. VW engineers are a sadistic bunch. With the slides removed, the caliper comes right off. I set it up above the wheel so no tension is placed on the rubber brake hose. I have seen some folks recommend suspending the caliper with a bungy cord.

 

Next, I remove the old pads, and clean the caliper with brake cleaner. Next, with the correct brake tool, send the piston back into the caliper. Take care not to force anything. Before I put in the new pads, I give them a slight scuff with a flat file and then shoot them with brake cleaner. The slight scuff is something I picked up from an old car guy who said the pads break-in much faster when you do that. With the pads in, I set the loaded caliper back up out the way.

 

Then, I remove the rotor, which is held in place with a small Phillips bolt. For install, I first shoot both sides of the rotor with brake cleaner to get the shipping coating off. I then hang the rotor with a couple of the rim bolts so it is aligned and then send the Phillips bolt in. When the rotor is on, I grab the caliper from above and fit it into place. It is important to put a little bit of brake grease on the slides to they do not hang up in anyway. Then, set them in place with the T-45.

 

Bleeding Brakes By Yourself

I have tried and failed to effectively bleed brakes by myself... until this time. I am not 100% sure what I did wrong in the past, but I'll detail what I did this time. To do this by yourself, you need a MityVac or similar hand-held vacuum pump with a brake-bleeder attachment kit. I assembled and confirmed solid vacuum from pump through the canister to the fitting. Next, I set the flare wrench onto the bleeder first and in the right position to have full range of travel for loosen/tighten. Then, I set the end of the vacuum contraption onto the bleeder and applied 10 to 15 Hg of vacuum. With the vacuum holding, I loosened the valve just enough for some fluid to pass, and watched the vacuum dial. As it got below 5Hg, I closed the bleeder, applied more vacuum (up to 10-15Hg) and repeated. On the right rear, it did not take long to get steady fluid with very few bubbles. The left rear, because of the replaced hard line, took considerably longer. Still, once I was finished, the brakes felt much more firm than they were before I bled. Now that I have had success once, I will try again with Oliver's brakes. Hit spongey brakes have been the reason we have not driven him for literally years, but I think Oliver has a small leak or loose connection somewhere causing his issues.

 

Wrap Up

I test drove K'Lack up and down the lane-way to confirm they were decent. Then, I ran the car back over to Krista, collecting Frankie (2009 Saturn/Vauxhall Astra). K'Lack ran great, stopped very well and for the first time that I can remember, it didn't "clack-clack-clack" once the whole drive. Color me stunned.

 

Well, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along. I'll update on the farmhouse progress next time. It's been busy around here, but I hope to get after either Oliver's brakes or Hapy's clutch before we are talking about US Thanksgiving-

Plumbed

Continuing where my last post left off, today's post is about getting that additional bathroom rough plumbing done.

 

Rough Plan

under sink piping

I haven't really described this bathroom thing much other than where it would roughly go and what we demolished to make room for it. Ang and I intend to age-in-place in this house. That means, as we touch things, we consider how an old person might need things, and make plans accordingly. For example, I have heard that most home injuries happen in the bathroom. This is probably because you have wet tile, many obstacles and hard surfaces. To address all of this, we are pursuing a "wet room" concept that does not have a tub nor even walls around the shower. This means fewer obstacles and nothing to step over. To keep water from going everywhere, we will have a curtain, but there will be a floor drain and a hand-held nozzle too. In this way, if one of us is wheelchair-bound, the bathroom is ready. Otherwise, it is a simple lavatory with a toilet and sink, with a sink vanity that has more counter than sink. When the shower is not in use, the curtain will be pulled all the way to one end of the rod, leaving a large(-ish) open floor space. With that concept, we started demo, and then some construction and now the plumbing.

 

The Dig

toilet, floor drain

I spent 3 days digging my third trench this year, with this last one in the crap space. The others were the grey-water from the shop and the electricity/internet hookup from the house to the shop. Still, when the plumbers arrived, they needed to go to a different part of he crawl and expose the sewer. I knew that, and while I could have probably guessed where to dig and such, I also knew that it was highly probable that I would guess wrong and they would have to dig under there anyway. So, the first few hours on the first day, one of them was on his belly, digging out the original sewer line. At the end of the work, the spill went back into the cleared out space so for the most part, it looks the same as it did before they started. I think. I really don't like going under there, so I haven't checked. Yet.

 

The trench that I dug, however, ended up working out great for them. The photo on the bottom shows the waste pipe in the trench as do some of the others. Because of how little the pipes need to slope, however, I clearly over-dug. The flooring was still gone so they were able to do almost all of the work without having to get under the house, too. That last bit of sewer line and the hot/cold water feeds needed to be tied in, though.

 

Plumbed

routing under floor

The original plumbing estimate was for 3 days, and they were done in 2. They indicated that the trench plus all the flooring being gone made the work considerably faster. At this point, the rough-in plumbing is complete, supporting a toilet, a sink and a shower, with a floor drain. We had concerns that the main water feed would need to be upgraded. It was not needed, at least not yet. There was a concern that some of the original galvanized pipe might need to be replaced, leading to a much larger re-pipe effort. Similarly, that was not needed. In fact, because this galvanized pipe is from the late 1940's rather than the cheaper stuff from the 1960's and 1970's, it is holding up to time very well. The exterior of all of the pipe is rust-free and that pipe they needed to cut for tying in the new plastic to the new bathroom had no rust inside either. So, we will not need to do a full re-pipe for a long time. Honestly, since the kitchen and laundry behind it were re-piped a few years ago when we did those room upgrades, the only pipe remaining are the main feeds and the original bathroom. So, the scope of a re-pipe may not be as bad as your typical horror story.

 

Fixture Fixation 

shower, floor drain, toilet

Ang and I had been focusing on the foundation and wall locating and not on fixtures and such. So, when the plumbers arrived, they logically asked "where is the sink going"? Absent clarity on what we would use for a vanity, much less where we would acquire it, we went with "probably around here?", pointing at a spot on the North wall. We explained that we planned on something about 5 feet across with a single sink in the middle. They plumbed accordingly while we went looking in craigslist, fbmarketplace and the rebuilding center for a vanity that fit what we had just said. While we could have looked at brand new stuff at the big box building centers, we were skeptical of a new glue-board vanity withstanding a wet-room style bathroom. We were not really financially ready to take on the cost of a retail-priced all-wood piece either.

 

We were unable to find anything suitable, but at the rebuilding center we did score a functioning toilet ($35US) and a shallow overhead cabinet ($25US) that could be useful. If your reaction to a used toilet is "ew gross", you are not alone. We washed it with bleach water the moment it left the bed of the pickup truck. Add in $10US for a seat and another $20US for the inner workings (not going to reuse those either) and a wax ring, we will have a functioning toilet for around $75US. The cheapest toilet at HomeDespot is $100US, and this used one is much nicer.

 

rebuilding center vanity

Still without a vanity, we looked at the limited cabinetry that we still had in the garage from when we did the kitchen. When we bought that set, the rebuilding center included a few things which were not part of the "kitchen" but they deemed were part of the set. This included a 40" wide bathroom vanity and some overhead cabinets which looked like they were from a laundry. The overheads were attached to the south wall in the tiny attached garage. We had planned to use that vanity in the shop for a kitchenette or something, but we had a definite need now, and that was a maybe later thing.

 

Car Accounting

K'Lack: I am waiting on parts to do K'Lack's brakes. I expect to chase that in the next couple of weeks.

Hapy: still broken, sitting outside my shop waiting for me to have time to work on him. Honestly, I am waiting for the weather to turn because yard cleanup is so much nicer when it's not raining.

Frankie: I just got the O2 sensor. I will be replacing that soon. We are now getting weird errors about the driver-side tail light. I think the ground is bad.

Cedar's minivan: he did the gas vapor recovery system and started replacing the thermostat. We will return to the thermostat and maybe the sparkplugs before we call it winter road-ready.

Cedar's Subbie: we got it to pass smog (replacing o2 sensors) and now it's back to being his daily driver.

 

Wrap Up

pipes in trench

With the rough-in plumbing now complete, our friend Ray will soon return to install a floor. I will be staying out of his way. With the nice weather soon coming to an end, I have to paint the south-side barn doors or that exposed wood will get soaking wet all winter. I also have to get that bathroom vanity cleared from our overloaded garage, but I think that can delay a week or so while other work completes. Regardless, we are like many others this time of year: pushed hard by the boss-man all week and then on our days off we try to get a weeks worth of personal work done. It can't be. Even working your off-hours on work days has limited returns. Ultimately, I need to start setting lower expectations.

 

That's it for this time. Thanks, as always for following along- 

Digging Again

It seems that 2026 has become the year of the shovel. At least around here, it has. The latest chapter of farmhouse renovating has turned. So, today's post is about my participation.

 

Back Story

rough as-bought floor plan

For this part of the city / county, our house is old, built in 1948 it is one of the original buildings in this area. It was one of the farmer's original houses for one of the kids, and it is the oldest remaining house from that old farm. The house next door was built a few years later for another of his kids, but all the others, including the original house, are gone. This was a 2 bed / one bath house then. At some point in the 1960's, one of the bedrooms was blown out, making for a larger living space and 2 bedrooms and a connecting hallway were added behind it. It was in this configuration we found the house: 3 bed / one bath. That rear hallway ran from a bookshelf in the eastern wall west to a door into one of the bedrooms. Early in the house improvements, we removed that bookshelf on the east wall and put in a back door. Ang and I sleep in the original bedroom and our respective offices / guest sleeping are in the additions. After living in this formation for a few years, and completing lots of other things, we decided that getting a bathroom added would be a good idea. As the economy continues to erode, this looks more and more like a dicey idea, but we are in it now.

 

Demo

before the demo started

Once we got the doors on the shop, and I moved everything car-related out there, that created space in the garage for.... all the stuff that was in our offices to be stored. Yeah, that's not what I thought was going to happen either. Once we got most of the stuff out of the respective spaces, we covered what remained with sheets. The biggest areas to vacate were the closets which were pretty full. The actual demolition of the north-side walls of those 2 offices came next, and then we learned what old-skool wall work was like. They double-dry walled everything, but with thinner sheets. So, like today, the drywall is maybe almost a half an inch thick. This stuff was more like 3/8" thick, but double sheeted. The inner sheet is more like today's gypsum drywall. The outer sheet is more like a sheet of plaster that then has a light skin of plaster mud on top of that. The second layer is offset so the seams don't appear on top of one another. The result is why the house is so quiet and why a voice does not carry around a corner. This also makes demo more than twice as time consuming. The plaster stuff goes everywhere. There is chicken wire (or similar) in the corners and all of is is super dusty. For the actual demo plan, we eliminated both of our closets and that rear hallway.

 

Foundation Again

post-demo, walls gone

Early on in our adventure with this house, we brought in some foundation experts to stabilize the house. The main beam running under the original house had become compromised, so a new beam was put in. The 1960's addition was "bouncy", so we had them solve that too. As effective as the main solution was, the addition solution was not. That part of the house remained bouncy and having them perform a lifetime guarantee adjustment did not solve the problem either. So, since so much was getting demolished already, we took up the floor and added an access to the joists by removing some subfloor. And then removing some more. We soon realized that the "expert" work was not that great. They had added a beam right next to the original, but there was nothing wrong with the original beam. The added one was significantly smaller, however.

 

We got a few bids to resolve, but ultimately we saved literally thousands of dollars with a contractor simply firming the original beam. With the flooring removed we could also see that a couple of joists were missing and one was under-sized so it didn't even touch the beam. Once those shortcomings were resolved, the floor, even a floor that was simply plywood sitting on top of the joists, was far more stable underfoot. During this time, we all noted just how little crawlspace there was in the crawlspace. There was literally 7 inches between the vapor barrier and the bottom of the joists for most of it, and even less space over where the bathroom was going. There was barely room for a child to maneuver under there much less a grown person, and there was no way plumbing could be run. Enter me and another round of digging.

 

Dig It

A crawlspace is supposed to have at least 18 inches (half a meter) of clearance. Ideally, it is closer to 2 feet (2/3 meter). Rather than dig out over a foot of material for the entire crawlspace, I dug a 3 foot wide by 2 foot deep channel that ran from the access into the main house crawlspace southwest (diagonally) to the midpoint under the original beam, before turning straight west. I felt this would create sufficient space for the waste pipe while also creating enough room for someone to crawl around under there for maintenance.

 

My method was somewhat simple. First, I peeled back the vapor barrier and ultimately reused it. With the dirt exposed through the joists, I dug down with a post-hole digger, filling 5 gallon buckets, 2 at a time. I would then haul those buckets to the wheelbarrow sitting outside the back door (and down 3 steps). I would move 4 buckets of dirt and then take the wheelbarrow either behind the shop where the grey water pipe was done in my last post, or over to the location where we hope to grow food eventually. I lost count of how many barrows I moved, but I was able to fill a wheelbarrow in about 20 minutes and I dug hole for 3 days, at least 6 hours a day. The picture below on the right provides some perspective of how much dirt got moved: more than the height of a 5 gallon bucket.

 

Ang helped when she wasn't working, carrying the buckets and moving the barrow. When that was rolling, we were moving a barrow more often. Ultimately, we moved a great deal of dirt, digging to at least 22 inches of clearance, sometimes more, 1 meter (3 feet) across and perhaps 8 meters (25 feet) long. I took ibuprofen for 3 days, but after that, the pain subsided and I kind of enjoyed feeling my muscles to acutely. I feel reminded of when I used to go to the gym and has me thinking of going back again.

 

Wrap Up

With the access trench dug, our contractor could return and frame some walls. The inner wall of my office has been sheet-rocked so I can return to working in an office again. I had been working with my laptop wherever I could find space for a few weeks. The plumber is due in a few days to do the rough plumbing and the main contractor will return after the plumbing is in. We hope to have a usable bathroom by the end of the year, but we are at least partially managing the calendar by budget.

 

As for cars, I have found that historically October has been really hard on our cars. The first few colder days bring the barely-working things down. Case-in-point, I will be returning to K'Lack's brakes, Cedar is working on his fuel vapor system and Frankie (new Astra) needs it's bank 1 O2 sensor replaced and new wipers. None of these are blog-post worthy, but it is that time of year when things need to be looked at.

 

Thanks, as always, for following along. 

Shop Grey Water

Before I get after today's post, I would like to wish my US readers a happy belated Labor Day. I recognize the value our labor unions and those who fought for worker rights have provided those of us who came after. Ironically, I spent Labor Day and the days before shoveling dirt, but that's what today's post is all about. One last thing: Thursday is my son Cedar's 25th birthday. While most folks are looking at Friday to consider the implications of 9/11, 25 years ago, I will be considering the implications of his arrival just a few hours prior (1130PM on 9/10). Happy Birthday, C. 

 

Some History 

ready for the rains

Back when I started my concepts for this shop, I did not have much of a plan other than a spot to put and work on cars. During the initial permitting process (See Building a Shop - Permits), I did not have a plan for water use or even a plan to make a plan for water use like a bathroom or whatever. After the plans got started, and the metal building ordered, I thought about how nice it would be to wash my hands before crossing the yard into the house. And then I thought about how nice it would be to take a leak without tracking whatever was on my boots and then whatever my boots picked up in the yard into the house. I started first with looking at what was possible in terms of tying into existing sewer systems.

 

The shop is a good 35 meters from the back of the house. So, if the main sewer pipe under the house is less than a foot below ground in the crawlspace and the crawlspace is barely below grade overall, I only have less than 50 feet before I run out of elevation. I determine this using the basic formula for waste water management: a pipe must have a pitch of at least 1/4" drop per foot, or 1 inch per 4 feet. If we extrapolate that out to one foot of descent, that's 48 feet before the waste pipe is lying on the ground or being suspended above ground. So, that doesn't work.

 

2 foot deep 2 foot wide channel

Next, I looked at connecting to the sewer running along the adjacent street on the other side of my neighbors. While it is downhill, it would still be a couple hundred feet, and either through one of their yards or right on the property line. Either way, that would require an easement that one or both of them would need to approve and it would tie into the city waste system while my property is not. After all that, I was unable to determine how far underground the city sewer is. I decided it was all just too legally perilous and dropped the while thing.

 

Since these musings were taking place while the permits were getting finalized, I drew in a 2 meter square in the southwest corner where we would not put concrete, and just leave gravel. My thought was we would have a wet room or something if I could figure out the waste management side.

 

Storm Outflow to Bio Swale

trenching

As part of the excavation work for the foundation, I had the Clean Water Services -required storm outflow and a channel from the rear of the building to the outflow dug out. This cost me a few extra hundred bucks and a cherry tree. I then located and had delivered large rocks of the specified size (the finding was NOT easy). This cost me another $1000US. Ultimately, this shop cannot support rain gutters, so I spent multiple weekends last summer digging out and installing French drains to manage the rain water. That system has been working really well, by the way. Anyway, a year later, the permit has been long closed, and I still had a 2 foot deep 2 foot wide channel from the rear of the building to the hole with rocks in it. It can be seen in the foreground of the second picture from the top. When I had the trencher, I took a stab at putting a more direct trench from the hole to the backside of the building where the wet room square was located. This trench was only 4 inches wide, mostly 2 feet deep, but it did not go the full distance due to soft soil gumming up the wheels. The new plan was to put in a floor drain in the "wet room" and run that grey water into the storm outflow, and maybe, eventually, purposefully add plants designed to thrive in a bio swale.

 

More Trenching

bored through

All of this backstory leads me to the antics of this past weekend. I started with a shovel and soon had small hand tools, a post-hole digger and a hoe to work the trench. Unlike the major trench I did for the electrical feed, this 25 foot trench encountered a half dozen large roots. I was able to hand-dig around either side but to get underneath, I used a framing hammer and a steel rod to bore a hole and then used a hand digger to clear it out.

 

I knew that the foundation for the steel building included a 1-foot by 1-foot curb. The rest of the floor was reinforced 4" concrete. The 1-foot, however, set the high-point for the top of the grey water pipe at the edge of the building. Every 4 feet closer to the hole I got, the trench needed to be another inch deeper until at the end, I was 18 inches below level. To determine a consistent relative point from which to measure progress, I laid out a stretch of pipe and used a level, propping up the hole-end to get level. Then, I measured distance and depth from the pipe. It took me a day and a half, but I got the trench dug out, with large openings under the roots through which I could pass a 2" pipe.

 

Surge Tank

surge tank

With the trench set, I wanted to complete the outside steps. I figured I could leave most of the indoors work until after the rains start. Even with a system as tiny as this with such low input (a rarely-used floor drain and maybe a couple of dry sinks), it is advisable to include a surge tank. This is so when a large wave of water enters the system it does not instantly propagate down to the bio swale. This also serves as a place to clean out stuff that made it's way into the drain that you may not want further downstream. I used a 5 gallon bucket for my "tank". Oh, by "dry sink" I mean a sink that does not have any water fed to it. We do not have a county-supplied water source out there, and no plan for one. We could harvest rainwater, but anything like that would not be pressurized water, it would be pure gravity feed, so a "trickle" of water. Alternatively, we could do something with 5 gallon buckets, but, again, it would be a gravity feed trickle.

 

layin pipe

Immediately outside the foundation, I dug a hole large enough to fit the 5 gallon bucket and then realized that I can't just stop there. The pipe that feeds from the shop side needs to be in place too. So, I measured to find the spot where the pipe needed to pass and dug about 18 inches down, and about a foot across inside the shop gravel at the spot I had measured. Then, I tunneled under the foundation with the hand digger. Once I was able to pass a short stretch (about a meter) of 2" pipe between the holes, I located and drilled holes in the bucket for the 2" pipe to enter/exit the bucket. At some point, I figured I would put a bucket on the shop side similar to the surge tank, but this bucket would be intended dry. Inside, would be where I would add a pee-trap, but I'm not sure if this little system would necessarily need one. Something to think about while it's raining.

Piping and Filling

I hit the local home improvement store for a collection of 2" pipe bits, but only really needed another 10' of pipe, a butt joint, something to put on the pipe ends to fill the space between the pipe and the bucket and some pipe cement. With the goodies in hand, I joined together the pipes with cement and after they set (10 minutes), I sent the completed 25' of pipe from the hole up the trench to the bucket outside the shop. I added a collar to that pipe, with cement, and then fit it into the hole in the bucket. To test the system, I poured a gallon of water into the pipe at the bucket and quickly walked down to the other end. Most of the water had already left the pipe by the time I got there, so I took that as success.

 

draining

The rest of Sunday, and part of Monday was spent shoveling dirt from the mound at the foot of the black walnut tree into the grey water trench and the 2 foot deep 2 foot wide channel. With the trenches filled in, the rains can begin and we can feel comfortable that neither we, nor our friends nor our pets will trip and fall into one of the open trenches. We still don't know what we are going to do back there. Maybe we'll let it get overtaken by wild flowers or we'll seed it for grass or we'll put a food producing garden back there or it will just get wood chips. At this point, since it is space we have never used before, we haven't a preconceived notion.

Wrap Up 

As you can see from the image at the top, as compared to some of the others, what was once a hazardous place to walk around has become relatively flat and hazard-free. As I figure out how to make something work inside the shop in terms of a floor drain or a dry sink, I'll post on it. Long term, it would be really nice to have, like, a composting toilet and some low pressure water for washing hands out there. Even that would be pure luxury.

 

That's it for now. Thanks, as always, for following along- 

A Tale of Two Astras

In my last post, I said I had a relatively long story about a pair of Astras. Today, I'll tell that, and provide an update on K'Lack. I don't have pictures, because, honestly, most of this story isn't mine, and Ang didn't take pictures. She really does not "live thru her phone" like most people. Meaning, she doesn't take and share pictures as she trips through life. She experiences the moment at that moment and then moves on to the next one, living in the now. On to the tale-

 

Astras

I have mentioned Astra a few times. I provided some backstory to how we found her and why the Astra is so important to Ang here (See Moving into Shop). Basically, a Saturn Astra is an Opel Kadett with a new name and Ang's first car was an Opel Kadett. When we were having to use the jump box often, she started to get down on it. Then K'Lack broke and Krista needed a car, so Ang lent her Astra while Ang drove the truck (and I drove Hapy). Krista didn't like Astra very much, and Ang got to thinking about buying a new car that didn't have all of these problems. So, I dipped into craiglist and found... another Astra. This time, it was the top-of-the-line model which had been driven / cared for by someone who really loved this car. Everything worked on it. It had less than 60k miles on it, and then it was ours. I think Ang drove it for about a week before she let Krista borrow it. We had it just long enough to name it Frankie.

 

Astra Heads North

It was around this time that a friend of Angela's (they have known each other since 3rd grade) found herself in a bit of a bind. Her housing of over 25 years was being sold out from under her and she needed to solve for housing in rural western Canada without a car. And so started an odyssey. Ang resolved to getting Astra as functional as possible. That meant getting the alignment done, the tires rotated, the oil changed, filters etc. with a plan to drive to Canada to help her friend. She got a full read-out of everything that was done and every minor thing the tech's found and added that to the file she took to Canada. Soon, her plan to drive there became a plan to drive there and give Astra to her friend. So, in her limited spare time in the evenings she learned how to export a car from the US and did all that paperwork.

 

Ang finished her usual workweek on a Tuesday evening and left from there northward on I-5. Astra drove great and she landed just outside Olympia at a Super8/Motel6 for the night. The following morning, she drove up the Olympic Peninsula and hopped the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria BC. Prior to leaving, Ang had done all of the vehicle export steps and had her paperwork in order. Unfortunately, her friend had not completed the import paperwork and was not at the border to meet her with that paperwork. So, the importing would need to take place in Nanaimo. Apparently because her paperwork was not in order, Ang was waved into the deep customs inspection area where they disassembled parts of the car and re-installed things. This included, for some reason, removing the wheels and putting them back on. Undeterred, Ang drove north on the Canada1, finding a motel just outside Victoria. The next day, she completed the drive north past Nanaimo to Courtenay where her friend lives.

 

Oh Canada

Importing a vehicle into Canada requires the vehicle passes an inspection. That seems totally reasonable as it prevents Americans (and others) from using Canada as a vehicle dumping ground. During inspection, they identified 2 lugs which were striped. Since the wheels had just been rotated and the tech's found nothing interesting, we have concluded that the customs folks jacked up the lugs during re-install of the wheels. For this reason, and the horn not working (it had been temperamental) caused the car to fail inspection. Angela's friend had 30 days to get the car fixed and re-inspected in Nanaimo or the car could not be imported. Since the car was officially exported from the US, she also couldn't come home. It was get fixed or get crushed time.

 

To Vancouver

Ang helped her friend look at some places to live and then Ang needed to get home. The original plan included her friend driving Ang at least as far as Nanaimo to catch the ferry over to Vancouver where Ang would catch the Amtrak to Portland. Instead, Ang bought a flight home, flying out of Comox (neighboring town to Courtaney. At this point, we learned that the passport id card is only valid for land travel across a border. If you want to fly, you must use the booklet, which Angela left here. While they let her board the flight from Comox, her flight from Vancouver to Portland was canceled. Instead, she would have to take a bus from Vancouver to Seattle where they rebooked her to fly home to Portland.

 

This travel all happened on the Sunday that one of the larger regional Canadian airlines went on strike. So, while her flight from Comox to Vancouver was relatively calm, the scene in the Vancouver airport was bordering on chaos. And, land travel options were disappearing fast as those with canceled flights because of the strike were vying for whatever they could find. This included bus and trains into the US.

 

Angela grabbed a Lyft to the train/bus station, ticket in hand, and talked to the ticket person at the counter. The computers were down because of course but the ticket counter person said that while her in-hand ticket was for tomorrow, the driver would let her ride today. That proved incorrect as the unpleasant driver had no interest in talking to anyone about anything other than accepting a ticket for that specific bus ride. So, now Ang found herself in a not-too-safe part of Vancouver, the afternoon turning to evening, no ride across the border, no personal transportation, a dead cell phone and no housing plan. As her phone charged at the nearest bar, we talked about options. That weekend there were multiple events taking place in Vancouver (the annual Pride parade and ComiCon, eg) so options were slim and expensive. Most options were far away from where she was and where she needed to be to board the morning bus to Seattle. The place we thought we found had no front desk and everything was done virtually. As she tried to book, the price kept going up. While wrestling with their booking site, she befriended someone who walked her to a place with an actual front desk and an available room. It wasn't big. It didnt have it's own bathroom, but it was expensive and had a lock on the door. It's funny how far down the bar goes as evening turns dark.

 

Thru Seattle 

Early the next morning, Ang caught another Lyft to the train/bus station and was through customs before 7AM. She hopped the bus, driven by the same unpleasant guy who wouldn't talk to her the night before. The bus was delayed passing through northern Washington to the point where she missed her original flight. I swear, you can't make this stuff up. Ang got a hold of the folks at United before the gate closed and got moved to another flight, freeing up her seat for a stand-by person. Her later flight was 4 hours later, but that provided time to unwind, and decompress a little bit before the final legs of her journey home. Still, spending 4 hours in the busy SEA/TAC airport is not remotely 'unwindy'. It is not comfortable, nor quiet, nor without lurkers so those 4 hours felt longer than the 8 hours we were stuck at Portland International Airport (PDX) last June.

 

And Home 

Fortunately, the flight was uneventful, boarding, leaving and arriving on time. Since she was now arriving at rush hour, she insisted I not drive the 60+ minute drive to PDX and instead meet her at a Tri-Met light-rail stop. The light rail from PDX is actually very easy. The train line ends there, so there is usually a train sitting there waiting for you to get onto. She had about 15 minutes of sitting before the train pulled out and then about an hour on the train. Then, at the stop one before the one I was meeting her at, all the westbound trains were held for 20 minutes because of an issue on the line well west of where she was getting off. Seriously, you just can't make this stuff up. I literally teared up when I saw her get off the train, so grateful her perilous adventure had come to and end. We hit one of our favorite local Japanese restaurants on the way home.

 

We learned last week that Astra has passed inspection, and she is wearing new Canadian license plates.

 

K'Lack Update

Ian found the issue that was causing us continued issues. He has lots of diagnostic tools and he found that the voltage range being sent from the crank position sensor was below the minimum for the computer to have a reliable reading. The part was new, and I installed it.... lying on the ground on top of wood chips. Apparently I did not seat the sensor exactly square in the hole. So, the sensor was pointing at a slight angle. When he removed the sensor to see what was going on, he saw the o-ring was pinched more on one side than the other, adding credence to the theory. He replaced the o-ring, cleaned out the hole and the edge before re-installing the same sensor. He was able to gain a better angle on the part and was able to seat it squarely. After multiple tests runs, he handed it over to me. Ang and I drove K'Lack exclusively for a few days, putting nearly 150 miles on it. K'Lack drove great, no codes were thrown, so Ang took it through DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) / smog testing. It passed, and with new stickers applied, we traded cars with Krista, putting Frankie back in our driveway.

 

I admit that at least part of the problem with getting K'Lack running was my long-lived dislike for the car. It has been the problem-child since it first arrived from Kai. Did I rush the sensor install? I don't think so, but I was lying in wood chips in the sun on a hot day. Perhaps, if I had had room in the shop to to the work, or made the room to do the work, we could have avoided some unpleasantness this summer.

Catching Up on Cars

It has been a busy Summer of car stuff. Some wrenching, some otherwise. In today's post, I will not try to cover everything, but there has been a lot. 

 

Oliver freshly cleaned

Before I begin, you may have noticed a new sticker on the right-hand side called "Electoral-Vote". If you aren't familiar, that is a site run by 2 history professors who started a site initially, I think, to analyze polls. I have been reading their page for well over a decade; maybe 2 decades at this point. From humble beginnings that aimed to provide insights into political polls, they are a daily site that examines the (mostly) US political theater. As the national political disposition has shifted right-ward, their political position has remained around or just left of where the political middle was during the Bush years. Now, that position is left-of-center (because, again, of the national shift) in the continuum of US national politics. As the primary season has ended, they are returning to their roots, looking at polls and providing the kinds of insights only 2 life-time history and statistic's nerds could provide. If you find that stuff interesting, check them out. Neither they nor I get anything money-wise out of my putting that sticker on my blog. They get clicks, I literally get nothing. Back to cars.

 

K'Lack

P0726 re-appearing

We will start with my nemesis car: K'Lack, the 2004 Jetta TDI Wagon that previously belonged to our son K. After driving it for years and logging thousands of miles, he needed to sell it off and get something that was newer? broke down less often? I'm not really sure, but at the end he was having transmission issues. Regardless, the trade-in amount he was offered was pennies-to-dollar value. So, we bought it for Kelley Blue Book value at the time (around $4500US) and took it directly to a transmission shop who was qualified to do transmission work on these 2000's-era automatic transmissions appearing in VW's and Audi's. Through the benefits of successful aging and poor record-keeping, I don't remember how much we paid them to rebuild the transmission, but it took literally months. If I remember correctly, it went into the shop in December and we got it back in March. It was around this time that our niece (another K, so I think maybe since all these "kids" are adults now, maybe I'll just start using their names), Krista needed a car. Her former car failed in some way I don't remember. We intended to sell her Flash. Remember Flash? He was a great 2001 VW Jetta TDI sedan, but he had a manual transmission. Loved that car, but a different niece needed a car, so when Krista was unable to drive a stick, Flash went to the other niece and K'Lack went to Krista.

 

replacing K'Lack rear caliper

Now, years later, and many repairs ranging from replacing the oil pan to a timing belt and camshaft replacement, K'Lack is currently having issues I cannot track down. It is throwing a P0726 code and after tracing wires and replacing the crankshaft position sensor, the issue persists. The code means a check-engine-light is lit which means the car will not pass emissions. It is also virtually un-driveable. It barely starts and at any point during a drive the car may suddenly shift into a too-low gear, causing it to buck. It is quite alarming and dangerous. I have date with a mobile mechanic, Ian, who has helped on some of Cedar's (that's "C" in all prior posts) cars. I hope very much that we can resolve this and get Krista back on the road with K'Lack. In the meantime, it is parked under a plum tree in the back near the shop and Krista is driving Boo's (okay, her name is Angela and I'll refer to her as Ang from now on) Ang's Astra.

 

Oliver

In the interest of getting Oliver, the 1978 MGB, out of the shop so I could move things onto shelves, I got Oliver running well enough to back out and idle-drive under a tree. I say idle-drive because the throttle cable had seized. Fortunately, parts for an old MG are not nearly as expensive as parts for new cars, so a after few bucks and about 15 minutes, the throttle cable was replaced, and Oliver could start and move around. Thrilled, I drove him out to the front and gave him a long overdue bath. His brakes were still a little squishy, so I moved him to the other side of that plum tree in the back and put his cover back on. I have to do a system-wide look at the brakes. They have been acting like they needed a bleed for a long time, no matter how much I bleed them. I think I must have a loose fitting somewhere that lets air in. I still intend to get him out and around, even with squishy brakes, before the Summer is over.

  

Hapy

cursed outlet flange

Earlier this year, I got Hapy put back together. I drove him out to Sheridan where Justin could do the injection pump re-seal. On the drive home, I popped the boosted air pipe and sorta limped home. But, after that, I took him on around-town outings and he ran great. He would start right up, have lots of pep, moved through the gears well. For almost all of the month of July, he was set up festival-style in the back, providing music, a hang-out spot and a groovy vibe. This past weekend, Ang and I had 2 different events. First, we had tickets to Joe Russo's Almost Dead (JRAD) in Eugene. JRAD brings the energy of the early 1970's versions of the Grateful Dead while performing everything and anything across their song catalog. I highly recommend to my DeadHead friends. The next day, I had an early-afternoon show in Rockway Beach, playing the NCAM benefit festival. I'll post on the festival later, but our adventure started and ended Thursday night, heading south to Eugene.

 

As I've mentioned before, Ang and I like to leave for events the night before, getting as far as we can in the cool dark and then vagabonding (boon-docking to some) in a random parking lot or on the side of the road to catch a sleep before completing the journey in the morning. Hapy likes the cool air and we really like awakening that morning most, or all, of the way there. The drive was relatively uneventful until after we got south of Wilsonville. I noticed that the rear window was getting blurry, and I had just washed it when we filled up. Growing concerned, I pulled off into the Charbonneau rest area near Aurora and glided into a parking spot. I went around back, opened the rear engine hatch and could see that the coolant bottle was empty, and I could hear steam. After moving the bedding out of the way, I could get the top hatch open and could see that the coolant was escaping from the cursed coolant outlet flange. I would later discover that the c-clip or "U" clip that holds the coolant sensor in place had a broken leg (so, really a "J-clip). If you look at the picture on the right, there ought to be a little plastic tab thing sticking downward from the bottom of that dark channel on the right side of the outlet flange. That would be the end of the "U" that's not there. Our trip to Eugene was over and I called for a tow.

 

trench filled

We waited for about an hour, and the truck operator seemed fine enough. He was nice, albeit quiet. In retrospect, he seemed less comfortable with Hapy not having a parking brake but Hapy has been on a flatbed lots of times without an issue. Until this time. I believe he did not strap the wheels down as tightly as prior truck operators had. I say that because Hapy seemed to move front-to back a little bit as he backed the truck into the driveway. I had not noticed that when he was loaded onto the flat bed in the parking lot. We rolled Hapy into place, and Ang and I called it a day, returning to Hapy the next day... when we discovered that putting Hapy in gear was not enough to hold him in place. Since it was enough to hold him in place on the flatbed, at least while he was getting strapped in, and this was over an hour after we had overheated, I conclude that the tow somehow messed up the transmission-to-engine connection (read: clutch). I wanted to see if the engine was locked up, so I put a 19mm socket on the crank end-bolt and gave the engine a short turn (like 15*). The timing belt moved, the camshaft moved with it, so I concluded no major engine damage was done. Or, at least, it's not frozen in place. That's huge, but I think I will need to pull the engine and transmission apart to fix whatever went wrong in between. With this knowledge, we called it a day on Friday and spent a lovely day at the beach on Saturday.

 

trench filled

Since I still had a trench running the length of the lane-way, I spent Sunday morning filling the trench. By the end of the day, Ang and I had flat-towed Hapy back to the shop with the X-Runner and 20' of trucker's chain, parking him out front. I need to clear some space inside the shop to put him, and get him in there. Then, I have the equivalent of a clutch job ahead. The last time I had to remove, separate, re-acquaint and re-install the engine and transmission, I vowed that I would cut a rear apron into the back so I could just remove the engine. Looks like that time is now. Regardless, Hapy will probably not make it back out on the streets this summer. Could I get it done before Summer ends? Maybe, but we have lots of things going on and I don't know if I have a weekend to dedicate to that right now. Besides, if I am going to cut, I want it well planned with a means of fastening what I have removed before I pick up an angle grinder.

 

EDIT: I was trolling through some of my old posts yesterday when I came upon Front is Front which clearly describes this same coolant sensor leak recurring, until I put the clip in from below. Over 15 years later, and I'm repeating myself. Had I remembered, or read, we would not have lost coolant, broken down, etc. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

 

Wrap

With Hapy's catastrophic failure, we are down to one operable car: The Toyota X-Runner, which Ang drives to work. She has a lingering bad shoulder from a skiing crash a dozen years ago, so driving a 6-speed in rush-hour traffic is really taking a toll. If Ian and I can't get K'Lack fixed, we are going to need to re-po the Astra and have Krista solve her car need another way. Generosity reaches a limit when another's convenience is literally causing you pain.

 

Well, that's where those 3 cars are at. I have a long tale of 2 Astra's to share another time. We have lots of active construction Ang and I are doing with our friend Ray, so I'll update on that, the Astra's and whatever else happens around here as things roll. I hope the reference to the electoral vote guys doesn't cross some no-politics line for you. I generally don't bring that noise in here, but elections are coming, and we all need to be as well informed as we can be.

 

Thanks as always, for following along. Until next time-

Entrenched

It's been a couple of months, and busy ones at that, so today's post will be a bit of a mish-mash covering the highlights.

 

Farm House Fireplace

fireplace surround primed

First, I am realizing that I never posted on our idea to change a blank wall in our living room to have a fireplace. We live on a street with overhead power lines, and we lose power once or twice a winter to ice and wind. We sourced a (Valon H5) gas fireplace and had it installed against and in the middle of that wall in March or April. Being near the end of the cold season, we only fired it up a couple of times. It does not have a fan, so we will be covered in an electrical outage, but we were impressed with how much heat it produces at a low setting and how far from the unit you can feel the warmth.

 

After absorbing that cost, we got our contractor friend, Ray, to do the side job of putting some kind of built-in around it. He did that work a day here and a day there, ultimately finishing at the end of July. I spent this last weekend doing the paint prep and brushing on a coat of primer. I expect to return to that work in a couple of weeks, sanding the primer fixing all the little holes and such that I missed and then applying more paint.

 

Shop Progress

closest thing to "before" image

In an inspired moment in late-July, I emptied the black rolling tool cabinet, pulled it across my hard-as-a-rock clay backyard and into the shop. Once there, I vacuumed it out, Armor-All cleaned it, set it in place and then returned its contents. That represented the last of the things that needed to move. I since have worked through most of the heap, putting like things together on shelving.

 

Electric Hum

While Ray was working on the built in, we noticed that our main electrical panel would hum when his air compressor fired up. We thought that was probably not good and showed him. He agreed and soon we had his go-to electricians over to see what we had going on. The humming breaker ought to have flipped, not hummed. So, soon we were getting the main panel replaced and some outlets fixed and some other lighting things solved. Once we were in that deep, Boo asked them what the incremental cost would be to running electricity out to the shop. Love her. They made us a great deal ($1600US for an active circuit, 60-amp sub-panel wired from the main through conduit in the trench), but the numbers hinged on the trench being dug, and the work starting about a week later.

 

Trenching

cave-in at the turn

This is the lead-in that found me running a 24" trencher on a Monday morning. The weekend before I had cleared all the mulch and other undergrowth, shrubs, etc along the approximate 100' path. I also needed to hand-trench around the french drain I had installed around the shop last summer. Once cleared, I marked the future trench line with spray paint. I rented a trencher from HomeDespot, not because I love that store, but because they had the best-by-far price (like half what everyone else offered) and they would deliver /pick up. So, with that trencher, I dug 100' of 24" deep trench. Considering how many Holly trees, wild roses and other things we have found in this yard, I was prepared for a long difficult day.

 

The trenching started difficult enough. I thought I would do the line from the garage down to the 90* turn south first. That meant starting the trench up against the garage where I found the first foot below the surface was bricks and chunks of concrete. Fortunately, once I was able to get that cleared, the rest of that east-running line was uneventful. I got as far east as I could go, setting my back up to the neighbor's fence and then wrestled the machine to face north. These trenchers do not turn at all easily, you have to muscle them by lifting and shoving. So, once facing north, I started trenching southward, leaning and pushing west to offset the slight pitch of the yard.

 

future trench line

The next 40 or so feet (almost 15 meters) were efficient. I did not hit big roots until I got to the apple tree just outside the shop's main door. Even then, I only need the sawzall to cut a pair of thick roots. The trencher took care of the rest. Once I got to the 90* turn west to get to the shop wall, I wrestled the machine so I was facing west, moved it up to hand-trenched section and ran it east until I hit the fence. Similar to the other end of the long trench, I could not connect the big trench with the shorter sections without trenching in both directions. This meant wresting the machine over a trench at some point. Inevitably, those moves caused cave-ins. Still, the main trench work was completed, so I ran the trencher out to where it was dropped off at the start of the rental and hosed it off.

 

After work on Tuesday, I was out at the trench with a disposable plastic "go food" container, hand scooping out the cave-ins. I discovered that my last "cave in" was actually an incomplete trench where it turned 90* south near the garage (see 3rd picture from the top). I had to finish that trench by hand. It was at that point that I really appreciated the trencher. The clay soil in the backyard is as hard as a rock at this time of year. So just clearing less than a foot deep, maybe 18" long trench was a considerable effort. I was already beat-to-shit from wrestling a trencher in nearly 90*F (32*C) heat the day before and Tuesday was just as hot.

 

black "rollie" in the shop

We passed inspection for the trench this week. So, I will be filling the trench back in and then I will be able to move cars in and out of the shop again. While I did not plan to lose access to the shop this summer, I am so grateful for having electricity, even if it is just a sub-panel with no outlets nor circuits. We will be that much closer to having lights without depending on a partially buried 100 foot extension cord running from the old garage. And, once the trench is filled back in, I only would have had the path blocked for maybe a month.

 

We had a different inspector than we have had with our other inspections. This guy was a bit of a hard-ass relative to the others and inauthentic. I only bring that up because what he said to me and what he put into his report were not the same. He said everything was good except he needed some detail around a ground for the water heater (which wasn't in the scope of the work, but whatever). The report identified a bunch of other things that he never mentioned and were also outside the scope of the work performed. Needless to say, I'm unimpressed and hope he doesn't inspect anything around here again. I would have no reason to trust what he says, and expect him to add things to his report after leaving, including things which may have nothing to do with what's within the scope of the permit. Inauthentic sucks.

 

Wrap 

This got long, and I never got to any car stories. There are a few. I'll post on them, and whatever new ones happen, next time. Thanks, as always, for following along-