Chevy & GMC Vans

http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd11 ... 0Addition/

I got a note From Zam, I didn't realize I'd been gone so long. I'm building an addition on the house, and sometimes don't even touch the computer for weeks at a time. My wife does the pictures.

It's about 1000 sq ft (I don't know what that is in in Canadian, lol) upstairs with three small bedrooms, 2 full baths, a hallway with a laundry area and closet, and a craft room for my wife. The downstairs is a garage/basement, also about 1000sq'. I now have two (separate) basements, and inside entrances to both. (Woah, do we have spell-check now? SWEET!!)

I had Amish build the outside structure, and I'm doing all of the inside (insulation, electric, plumbing, drywall, HVAC; everything) myself, plus working full time.

Before I could build on, I had to put a bathroom in upstairs and demo the old one down stairs since it was built out of an old porch. My house was built in the 1880's, so you can guess what kind of fun building on has been. I wish I had video, I sawzalled the bathroom loose from the house, ran a chain through it, and gave it the oil-field-yank with the 4x4 van. Then we cut it up and burned it. Great fun.

I can't wait to work on something with wheels again.

I'll try to be more social ( myself ), I didn't even realize it had been so long.

I miss you guys, sniff, sniff.

that sure explains why we haven't seen you we are doing renovations on an apartment here damn time consuming even minor one. looks like you have a hell of a project going on, are you enjoying doing it or is it a HAVE to do sortta thing

Good to hear from you Roy, glad things are going well. I can relate to the reno a bunch of years back I took my 2 bdrm bungalo and made it a 2 storey Duplex so my folks could have an affordable place to live, sure was a time consuming project and like you I was working fulltime as well. Continued success with it ,and thanks for poppin in to let us know your still breathing,lol

so THAT'S what a drywall jack looks like...sure looks easier than the 2x4 tee i always end up making and using...

it looks really good...i sure know how busy those kinds of projects get, and how they usually run over budget on both time and money (they do for me anyways)...good luck with the rest of the project...

Glad to hear from ya Roy. The remodeling thing,,,been there,,not fun but is nice to sit back after it's all over and admire your work.

great to hear from you again... quite the undertaking. looks like excellent quality workmanship!!! =D>

Thanks for the kind words, such a good bunch here.

I've wanted to build on for some time, and with 4 children, one bath, and only 2 real bedrooms, it was time.

Renting the drywall jack was the best $20 I ever spent. It made a back breaking job almost effortless. One of my Amish friends and I hung 22 12'x4'x5/8" sheets of type X wallboard on the ceiling in a day.

As for budget, I was broke when I started, not much has changed. I used equity for collateral; my house had been paid off. I've been buying fixtures and materials on clearance and getting quotes for price matching for some time. It's saved me some money. As for time, I'm about where I figured I'd be. I plan to finish it by fall, other than the 16'x50' deck on the front. That will have to wait until next year, $$$.

I'll stop back more often, I promise.

:wavey: nice to hear from you, roy!

ps. a buddy of mine bought a house last month, and i'm recruited to help remodel and renovate!

that drywall is heavy! we're hefting it up by hand.

rlsllc wrote: I got a note From Zam, I didn't realize I'd been gone so long. I'm building an addition on the house, and sometimes don't even touch the computer for weeks at a time. My wife does the pictures.

.............I'll try to be more social ( myself ), I didn't even realize it had been so long.

I miss you guys, sniff, sniff.

Uhhh, who are you, again?

Welcome back, member with ridiculous name.....

peter wrote:

Welcome back, member with ridiculous name.....

Beats a ridiculous dress/gun/bike photo another member has following him around....

Ridiculous name...OK got me there. I'd consider a new one if it could be changed. I don't know what it would be, but I'm sure I could come up with something. Maybe "The Member Formerly Known As RLSLLC, or TMFKARLSLLC".

I got to work on an Astro instead of the house this weekend. My '91 died last week, I think it jumped time, but I'm not sure. I was on the gas from a dead stop, it went to shift to second, and lost power and started missing. It went a short distance missing and jerking, low rpm, high throttle, then died and wouldn't start. I'm going to investigate it later, I used my time to get my '94 AWD up and going.
I'll have to post a new pic. I put in a spider and lines, battery, removed the blower motor and cleaned out a mouse nest (gross), took the dash apart to put the speedometer on 0 (it was buried past 100 since I jump started it), changed the oil, fixed all 3 dutch door latches and added a pop button in the top of the license plate holder, oiled all of the other latches and hinges, fixed the gas door latch and springs.
I did most of the work while I was flushing the cooling system. I'm sure that the older gentleman that I bought it from had mistakenly poured oil into the radiator. It had oil in the coolant, clean, light honey colored oil, in the radiator neck and recovery tank. The oil in the motor was very black. When drained, there was no coolant in the oil, although it was thin from the bad spider.

Time will tell.

I also switched out the tires and wheels, including a size matched spare. My 13 and 4 year olds helped. Then we washed and vacuumed it out. I found 3 new umbrellas, a glove, and newspaper ads from '03. I also put the lug wrench and ratchet away. Why is it that every freaking vehicle that I buy has the jack, lug wrench, etc laying loose instead of bolted down. Lazy people, I tell ya.

(My 4 year old selected these when I stepped away for a second)

I drove it to work today. I forgot how nice the "W" motors run, very peppy. I forgot to change the ERG when I did the spider, so I get the SES light and a code 32. Oops. This is the first AWD I've driven other than the electronic '99 of my wife's. I think I like it. I had to change the radio and 1 speaker when I got home, it only had left speakers, with the other radio, it had left and right rear, changed the other speaker, and viola...tunes.

It was a nice break from being a construction worker, I got sunburned and everything. I've got to finish this house so I can wrench again.

Take care, all.

That drywall picture makes me ache all over..........now where did I put that Advil?

Hello all!

I worked on my AWD some more. I had previously replaced the radio and right front speaker, due to no right channel, then with the new (old) radio, the right front only had a tweeter. The next day, no right rear speakers again, although I did hear a faint alternator squeal like sound from them. Hmph. A day later, I was wiring up trailer lights, listening to the left speaker, lol, and the right cracked and began to play when i moved the right dutch door. Oddly, it was the little 4" one mounted up high, not the one in the door. ???. So I (of course) wiggled the right door back and forth, the speaker going in and out, until the one in the door started playing. I found that it had to do with the position of the hold open slide thing, so I pulled the door panel. Somehow, the wire had gotten under the bolted in retainer on the inside. This had to be done at the factory, I don't know how else it could have gotten through there. The wires were really bare, so I just cut them, rerouted, soldered and taped. Finally...sound from all 4 corners of the van.

Today, to retaliate...My van blew a nice big hole in the pipe right ahead of the muffler.

On the trailer wiring, why on earth are the speaker and taillight wire colors the same, and in the same harness? :-k :-k

As far as my house, I've been through right at 3 61 lb. buckets of mud, 1000' of paper tape, and 184' of corner bead this week, and I've hung a few little finishing pieces of drywall. I'll poke at my wife to get some new pics. My goal is to get the bedrooms ready for paint, so I can at least say something is done.

A good mudding job can be painfully slowwwwww,lol BUT when you finally get the walls all painted up and everything done it sure looks good and was worth the extra time put in.

astrozam wrote:A good mudding job can be painfully slowwwwww,lol BUT when you finally get the walls all painted up and everything done it sure looks good and was worth the extra time put in.

oh heck ya!


Mudding has to be the most cruel unforgiving relentless dusty job in a reno. but spending the time to get it right sure pays off.

I had imprints in my hand of the knife every night for weeks when I was doing my old house from top to bottom.