Trans Am Revival

This is gonna be a long post.  Fair warning.  Yes, it's about my car.  

This meme pretty much sums up how I feel about my car.  Keri doesn't get it.  I don't expect her to anymore - but my Trans Am means a lot to me for a lot of reasons.

This whole thing goes a long way back into my childhood.  I've always loved cars and motorcycles - period.  When I came to the US at age 10, and saw and heard the Iroc Camaros and Z28's on the roads, I was hooked.  We had a game on the school bus where we would spot cool cars and claim them.  Most of them were Camaros and Trans Ams.  I loved Knight Rider on TV and I fell in love with american muscle v8 cars.

Fast forward to high school and my best friend owned a 1969 Pontiac LeMans - basically a lower model of the GTO.  We raised hell in that car (too many stories to tell) and I always wanted me own.  Around 1995 when I graduated from high school, one of my sisters friends was enlisted and he had just bought a white 1995 Z28 Camaro.  He took me for a ride and put that thing sideways pulling out on to the main drag outside the air force base and I was completely obsessed from that moment forward.  I had to get one of these things one day.  And that was "just" an LT1 back in those days which would be underpowered by todays standards.

When we moved to Spokane in 1995 was when I started seeing the LT1 Firebird Trans Am's on the streets and it was like no other car I'd ever seen.  I wanted one sooo bad.  I was determined to own one by my 25th birthday which would have been 2000.  It snows in Spokane, and I was broke as joke back then, so I couldn't afford a truck or another vehicle to drive in the winter, and Firebirds are awful in the snow so practicality won out.  I bought a brand new Z24 Cavalier in 1997 but it just didn't measure up.  I wanted my TA!  I kept my Cavalier for about a year and a half and just had to have a Firebird.  I didn't care about the damn snow anymore!  So I made what was probably a terrible decision and got rid of what was almost a brand new car with low mileage and bought a 1996 Trans Am with 62k on it.  It had problems from the get go but it was a Trans Am!  I'd accomplished my goal. 

Lots of things transpired pretty quickly over that period of time, and I did a short stint in Seattle for a job and the practicality of things got to me again and I traded it in on an Acura 2.2 CL. BORING! Of course, I quickly grew tired of it and still wanted a muscle car.

During that period of time the 1998+ series of LS1 Trans Ams had hit the market and my obsession was even worse.  The styling just absolutely had me and it was instantly my "attainable dream car."  I had to have one.

Long story short, I came across an ad in the local paper one day for a 1998 Firebird Trans Am WS6 for $16,995.  That was doable!  I got down there as fast as I could. It was at the George Gee dealership in the Spokane Valley.  When I got to the lot, I couldn't find it.  I looked all through the used car lot and no WS6.  I was bummed.  It must have already been gone.  I'd called ahead and they said they still had it so I would doubly pissed off.  Then I happened to drive around to the back of the dealership.  There was a dirt lot in the back and there sat the TA.  It almost looked like an abandoned car. It was covered in dirt and looked pretty terrible, but I knew what I had.  I think it only had 26k miles on it, maybe it was 40k, I can't remember, but I knew what it could be. Every item both inside and out that could be easily removed and but back on was painted bright neon green.  The vents on the outside, the Trans Am lettering on the sides, the speaker grills, the dash surround, the stereo surround - all neon green.  It was appalling on the inside.  I looked past all of it.  I knew what it was.  I think they story they told me was that a young kid of some wealthy parents owned it and one of his friends had joy ridden it to Portland or something.  They finally got it back and the parents forced him to trade it in on something else.  I negotiated a fair trade and some fixes for the car (fix the non working AC and detail it) and it was mine.  They never did detail it.  They washed it and said "good enough."  I didn't care.  I had an LS1 WS6!

I drove it as my primary, daily driver for about three years.  I think I bought it in 2001-ish.  I got a job in Seattle in 2003 and I was driving it back and forth to Spokane and racked up a lot of miles.  I got a crappy truck back then too and the TA was mostly "retired".  After that, life kind of got in the way.  We bought our first house in 2005 and the TA developed a couple of small problems and it mostly sat in the driveway. It developed a rain leak and the floor plans filled up with water, and after that it was hardly driven.  Then a little oil pressure issue got me spooked and I totally stopped driving it.  The kids, the house and the family are always my #1 priority. I would NEVER get rid of the TA, so my in-laws are kind enough to let me build a 20x20 shop on their property so the TA would have a home.  There she has sat for a couple of years.  The years just keep adding up.

I had grand intentions of fixing it myself, but other priorities always come first. I bought a bunch of performance parts and amassed most of the things I needed to get her back together better than ever.  I have finally admitted that I can't do it on my own.  I could, but it would be really hard.  I found an awesome LS specialist in the Yakima area, Valencia Motorsports, owned by Jose Valencia. Jose drove all the way to Sequim and picked up the car a few weeks ago. She's under the knife so to speak at his shop.  I am beyond excited for it to be fixed and driveable. There will still be a lot for me to do to make her road worthy.  The brakes and tires are shot.  The suspension and all the bushing are shot.  It needs a lot of wear items and fluids replaced, but they are all things I can do on my own and on my own time.  I have had a vision for the car for almost two decades that I must fulfill. Then I will enjoy it and hopefully one day pass it down to my kids.  That's the plan.  I have been through a lot with that car and it was/is an achievement for me. It continues to be.  It was a struggle for me to even own it.  It has been a struggle to keep it.  And now it is a struggle to getting to where I've always wanted it to be w/o having the time or money to do it.  Now is the time.  I'm getting old so I need to enjoy it.  If anything is my mid life crisis - this is it!

Look at my big deck!

 It has finally started!  After more than a year of focusing on the inside, we're finally giving the outside some much needed attention.  Our deck was in a really bad state. One side of it was literally slapped together and not built property so I had to tear that down and rebuild it.  We're adding a 16x16 covered portion as well which will be awesome because the deck is almost unusable at the height of summer as it is south facing.  Can't wait to see this project come together!

Blackberries Be Gone!

 We have a LOT going on at the CamFam Casa these days!  The deck project is well under way and we just had the nasty blackberries on our side property absolutely demolished this past weekend.  It was amazing to watch!  A skid steer with a 6' wide brush cutter made short work of it.  We're so glad to have this done.  No more ER visits for Mason we hope!  

 

Lawn Tractor Hell

 I finally made a decision on a lawn tractor and am getting one of these bad boys next week!  Husqvarna TS348XD.

The family is SUPER HAPPY that I finally got this over with.  I've been debating for months and going back and forth with decisions.  First it was this Husqvarna, then a Kubota to the tune of $24k that I just couldn't do, then a Cub Cadet, then a more expensive Cub Cadet, then back around to a Husky.  It just goes to show that your first decision is usually the right one.  

I can't wait to get this bad boy, throw on my wife beater and a straw hat, grab a Coors Light (can only), and hit the grass!

Kiddo's Bathroom - Almost Done!

It's almost done! Still waiting on the mirror as the final touch. Should be here Monday, March 1.  It really looks incredible. Everything is new except for the shower/tub surround.  The kiddos wanted a "Beyonce toilet" with the push buttons.  Mason REALLY wanted the fancy faucets.  They were both excellent choices.  I didn't get a pick of the cool new double arched shower curtain rod because the shower is too dirty for pics.  I'll post final pics when the mirror is up.  

Wall Tile

Good progress last night.  The wall tile is proving to be much easier.  Either because its easier than flooring or because my skills have improved.  Probably combo of both.  The long wall is bowed almost 1/2" in the middle like a dish.  Excellent framing and drywall work by our builder.  Par for the course in most homes these days sadly enough.

 

So this is happening at our house right now.  Appears to be an annual occurrence.  A Northern Flicker likes to use our house as his "ohhhh sexy girlfriend...." drum. 

1) Drumming: A flicker drums to communicate with a mate or to proclaim its territory and attract a mate. This typically happens during the breeding season (mid March to June), but may continue into July. For reasons that are not fully understood, drumming may also occur for a short time in the fall. Drumming is the most common reason for flickers to use buildings, and while it may be annoying, the bird’s activity usually does not penetrate completely through wood siding.

Flickers will return year after year to the same house because it works for them; they attract a mate this way. Thus, a flicker that has been using the same location for several years will be hard to move.

Heavy Vanity Adventure

First off, my wife is awesome! I call her my "ride or die chick".  Whatever I get myself into, she's always right there with me.  This time it was moving a vanity we purchased all the way from Sequim to Snohomish and then figuring out how to get it up our weird split stairs. This thing is a beast and weighs 250lbs!

We rented a Uhaul with a loading ramp to transport the vanity.  Getting it in the truck was relatively easy with carpet dollies and the ramp.  The ride home was smooth sailing too.

Getting it up the stairs was the adventure.  I rented an appliance dolly to use. Once we got it off the truck we decided to tip it on it's end and get it on the dolly.  That part was pretty easy, so I got confident and figured "we can get this in the house." We made it into the house after tackling a few outside stairs on our walkway.

Once inside, breathing a bit heavily but with more confidence, we both thought we could make it up stairs to the second floor.  Our stairs go up half way to a landing that then turns 180 degrees to go up the rest of the way. This means we have to have a tall item on it's end and shimmy it "around the corner" to make it up the next flight.  Often there's not quite enough room to make a complete turn.  There's also a large mirror on the wall facing you.  For once in my life, I was smart enough to take down the mirror.  Thank God I did.  

With me at the top pulling, and Keri below pushing, we huffed the 250lb vanity up the first flight.  When we got to the top stair, there wasn't enough room for me to pull it up without getting smooshed between the vanity and the wall.  I made myself skinny enough to get it done, but not without a lot of fear that I was going to lose my grip and crush Keri underneath the vanity at the bottom of the stairs.  Thankfully that didn't happen.

The next challenge was to spin it around the corner to get the dolly against the next flight of stairs to lug it up. One small problem - it was too wide to make the turn.  We had to tip the vanity and lift the dolly at the same time in order to get one wheel of the dolly on the first stair.  This made it unstable when we tried to muscle both wheels up onto that first stair and BAM it smacked against the wall. Right where the mirror would have been!

One it was on that first stair, the rest was muscling up the last flight.  We managed and got it up there all by ourselves - "as usual."  I'm always so proud of my wife when she steps up and helps out like this.  She can do more work than most men I know.  Sure, there's limitations - we all have them.  But Keri is like my Mum and sisters.  They are all strong women who step up and just get the job done :)

Kids' Bathroom Progress

I've been bad about posting progress.  Here's some pics and a quick update.  This has been a slow moving project but it's nice not to be in a hurry; although it will be really nice to get the bathroom back.

I have new respect for tilers.  It's a craft and an art form - much like laying carpet.  I really struggled and got quite frustrated.  Lippage is where you have one tile sticking up higher or lower than the tile next to it.  The technique for spreading and troweling thin set takes practice. The tile isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good for my first time laying tile this way.  The walls are the next challenge.  I learned a lot about mixing thin set properly (follow the instructions on the bag and measure the water vs. powder). 

I also used a product called Ditra for the uncoupling membrane.  It's also a learning curve to lay it down properly as it is also put down with thin set.  Having an even floor before laying it on top is a must!

Kiddos Bathroom Renovation

 We started on this project this past weekend.  Almost a complete gut job of the kid's bathroom.  New vanity, tile, toilet and fixtures coming soon.  As Ri would say "It's gonna be bougie!" Also added a can light above the shower that made a HUGE difference.  

Listing photo: it didn't look this good when I tore it out!

Before:

Current Status:

I'm back! Did you miss me?

The last post on this blog was almost 9 years ago.  Wow, how time flies!  In a moment of nostalgia, Keri dug up this blog last week and read most of the posts.  Riley also read all the posts and we realize how awesome this written record was of that period of our life.  The memories it invoked are priceless.  I'm reviving this as a journal and plan to post here as regularly as I can muster.

Another influence is that I quit Facebook.  I was a very late adopter of Facebook and I only joined because I felt I was missing out on a party.  Well, that party is awful so I left and I don't plan on going back.  If I get that feeling again, I will come back here to remind myself it's a bad idea.  The negativity and absolute idiocy of so many people added too much stress to my life.  I don't need that drama.  The one thing I miss are the "memories" that it presents to you every now and then.  I intend to recreate that single piece here so that I can capture those moments.

Here it goes!