Weekend Of 8/16/08 Update

August 18, 2008 – 1:14 pm

As you can see from my Ditching The Old Boats post, we chopped up a boat Saturday. We’re waiting for the letter of abandonment for the other boat. The dumpster got delivered Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, before Uncle George came up, Stacy, Brian, and I did a few things around the house. We took off all the outlet and light switch plates as well as anything else that would get in the way of spackling/painting. Stacy cleaned all of them with bleech.

Brian and I went to Home Depot to pick up some items we’ll need for the house. We picked up extra plate covers and spackle. We also investigated the wood we will need for Dad’s trim for his bedroom door.

Brian and I also measured the guns Dad has so we can register them.

On Sunday, Brian and I got right to work filling the dumpster with the trash we accumulated in the little garage. We also put the trash that we got from the side of the hill in there.

As we were filling the dumpster, we went through more of the little garage. Later on in the day Uncle George, Brian, and Nick removed the farm equipment.

We also decided it was time to break up Dad’s stairs he customarily made for the boat. He really put his heart, time, and effort into everything he did. Those stairs were built to last.

We put all the wood in the dumpster.

Progress on Dumpster III:

Date Started: August 16, 2008
Estimated Time: 4 days
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Uncle George, me, Brian, Stacy, Nick
Status Of This Project: In Progress (we’re going to put some more trash and perhaps some of the play set in there since there’s so much room)

We also got a game plan for next weekend. Uncle George isn’t going to be in town Labor Day weekend so we needed things to do. We decided to spackle and get the inside of the house ready to paint. Uncle George will show us a good way to spackle next weekend. Also, since Brian tried to get the Pace Car down and had difficulties, we’re going to get the other vehicles down since we have a lot of room in the garage.

After Uncle George left, Brian, Stacy, and I did more of the inside of the house. I rearranged the exercise room and took pictures of the equipment.

Try to make it look nice for when I put the equipment on Craigslist.

Progress on exercise equipment:

Date Started: August 17, 2008
Estimated Time: 1 month
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: me, Stacy
Status Of This Project: In Progress (took pictures, going to get more details from Stacy, put the stuff on Craigslist, Stacy wants the elliptical)

Stacy went through some of the records Dad has. Brian moved stuff around in the pool room to get ready for the flea market guy.

Our plans next weekend:

• work on the inside mostly, Uncle George won’t be here Saturday so we’ll do stuff inside
• Uncle George teach us to spackle the good way
• get the cars down off the lifts in the garage
• maybe dismantle some of the club house

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Ditching The Old Boats

August 18, 2008 – 9:34 am

We were left with two abandoned boats. One could be in fair shape, the other just plain trash. We contacted the person who owned them but he wanted nothing to do with them anymore, apparently. So it’s our job to get rid of them.

We asked the lawyer for a letter of abandonment for the one boat we think we can salvage. The trashy boat we originally wanted to commence “operation get rid of boat” in which we were going to drive the boat somewhere late at night and leave it on the side of the road. The police would find the owner of the boat and charge them for towing and storage. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that because the wheels on the trailer were locked.

Our other option, chop the boat up and put it in a dumpster. Brian got the largest dumpster he could rent. 30 yards. We brought the boat over to where the dumpster was. This event was quite a chore since we wanted to avoid hitting Dad’s little pine tree. When around the dumpster, Uncle George and the tractor tore it apart.

Of course we’re going to scrap the engine and all metal that we were able to get from the boat, including the trailer. The gas tank was a problem. It seemed it had quite a bit of gas in it. Unfortunately, there’s no place to recycle old dirty gas, so we let it drain on the aspault and let dirt absorb it.

Progress on ditching the old boats:

Date Started: Aug 16, 2008
Estimated Time: 6 weeks
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Uncle George, me, Stacy, Patrick, James
Status Of This Project: In Progress (done with the trashed boat, just need letter of abandonment for the other one)

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Weekend Of 8/9/08 Update

August 15, 2008 – 6:11 pm

We did the boat guy on Saturday. He met us at 11AM at Dad’s house. We proceeded to the eastern shore to pick up the boat. All went well.

Over the last week, Uncle George hauled dirt to Dad’s house.

Uncle George had to get the engine out of the shack for his boss. It was a deal we made for the dirt. He cleaned the shack out a little.

Progress on dirt/yard filling:

Date Started: July 20, 2008
Estimated Time: 4 weeks
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Uncle George, Brian, Curtis, Alan, Loriel, me, Dimitri, Kim
Status Of This Project: In Progress (we need to get some top soil to plant grass, other than that, almost done)

Progress on shed:

Date Started: Aug 9, 2008
Estimated Time: 2 days
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Uncle George, Curtis
Status Of This Project: In Progress (got some metal out and the T bird engine)

Dimitri and Kim came over Saturday also to help us out. We cleaned up trash while Uncle George worked the bob cat to do the dirt.

We also cleaned out some trash from the garage, took down some license plates, and cleaned some around outside.

On Sunday, Alan and Loriel came and helped us around Dad’s house. We cleaned up more trash outside. Uncle George still worked the bob cat to do the dirt.

Stacy and I also went through the pool room a little.

Also, we found someone’s tree stand where they hunt deer back in our woods. We removed it. Uncle George is going to try to sell it or something. No one should be hunting deer. Especially not on our property.

We have a list ready for this weekend:

• dumpster on Saturday
• we’re going to break up the one boat and put it in the dumpster
• test the street lights, if they don’t work, take them down
• remove signs from the property
• finish cleaning out the shed
• make a list of light and socket covers we need
• clean socket covers
• the trim around Dad’s door should be measured to see if we can match it
• measure the guns so we can start registering them
• take old guns away, Bri’s co worker is interested in buying them
• clean exercise room, take pictures of equipment to put on craigslist

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Selling Dad’s Boat

August 10, 2008 – 10:41 pm

As most of you know, we’ve had a hell of a time trying to unload Dad’s boat! It’s a really really nice boat but no one seemed to want it.

We called up a boat broker in May when the summer months were around. He took pictures and posted it on their website but no real interest. They said that it would take about a month to get interest then we could move the boat to their place so people can actively look at it. Well, they only generated two buyers that we know of with interest. None came to see the boat.

I got very frusterated and started listing it on Craigslist starting at $100,000 and going down.

After three to four weeks of relisting and relisting, we finally got some serious people. I got a lot of responses, none of what I was looking for in price but since it was then August, yeah, it was about time I got rid of it. I took it for a lot lower than what it’s worth but I think the guy will treat it right.

Dad loved his boat. In the end, since it wasn’t driven in so long, the gas had gone bad. It needed $3,000 worth of repairs but she should be back and able to sail again!

Progress on boat sale:

Date Started: May 2008
Estimated Time: 5 months
Actual Time: 3 months
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer, Sonic Dealership, Uncle George, Ryan, guy who bought it
Status Of This Project: Complete (he picked up his boat from the boat dealer where we fixed it on August 9, 2008)

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Weekend Of 8/02/08 Update

August 4, 2008 – 9:53 pm

We didn’t get much done this weekend.

On Saturday we had a little crisis with a guy who wanted to come down from New York to look at the boat. Turns out I had forgotten about Uncle George’s previous engagement, so he wasn’t available to take the boat out. Luckally (I guess) it was supposed to be real bad thunderstorms later that day.

Uncle George and Brian hooked the boat up to the Ram to pull it out to give it a good wash.

Dave came by to get Mom’s old Camero. That’s gone now, officially. All the cars are ours.

Progress on junk yard:

Date Started: Mar 2008
Estimated Time: 6-12 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Curtis, me, Uncle George, people who have cars up here, neighborhood kids
Status Of This Project: In Progress (almost complete, only 7 cars left!)

Also Saturday I spent a good part of the day cleaning Dad’s bathroom. It’s bleechy clean now. Brian went over to the rental property to see what was the matter with the gutters. Stacy also got a lot accomplished on her room.

Sunday was pretty hectic. Uncle George found a guy who wanted to buy the old Ford Mach 1 Mustang. We dug that out. Very luckally, it was in pretty decent shape (as compared to the other Camero’s we dug out of there).

The guy took that and will tell us if he wants the small block engine we have for a Ford in the garage.

Ryan also came over that day to help with the boat. We got her started but she kept studdering and stalling and the engines weren’t working properly.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the engines to work correctly for the guy coming down from New York. He showed up around 2 PM. Uncle George and Ryan worked on it for a long time trying to get it to run.

After hours of testing, they gave up because they were out of ideas. We think it’s a minor problem. We’re going to take it to the boat dealer over the week but, the guy still wants the boat. He already has a contract and deposit ready for it. It’s amazing.

So over the week, hopefully, the Sonic dealer can get the boat fixed and he can take it away hopefully Friday or Saturday.

Progress on boat sale:

Date Started: May 2008
Estimated Time: 5 months
Actual Time: 3 months
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer, Sonic Dealership, Uncle George, Ryan
Status Of This Project: Near Complete (just need to fix it and the guy will pick it up!)

Not sure what the agenda is next weekend but we’ll figure out something, we always do. Brian and his Dad will go over to the rental to fix the roof.

Fun stuff that happened this weekend was that my sister, Brian, and I fired a gun for the very first time! What fun stuff we get to do.

This week I got the boat numbers off of the boat that can be salvaged (at least we think). I’m going to give them to the lawyer to get a certificate of abandonment.

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