Mini Man-cave

One of the key benefits to the house we bought in Benson was the over-sized, two-car garage. This means that in addition to storing stuff for the kids, I can still have room to park my wife's car and continue work on my project 914. However, to continue work on any project the space needs to be managed properly. That means cabinets for all the kids boxes, and storage for all my car parts. So to reach my goal of building the "mini man-cave", I've broken it down into a few phases:

1. Wall cabinets for storage on west & south walls
2. Concrete floor sealant
3. Semi-portable car lift
4. Driveway & canopy

Phase 1
Along the west side of the garage I have nearly 24 feet of wall space, and have already designed some built-in cabinets. Here's an image from the model that I worked up for the west wall.

I left the doors off on the right side so the structure is more visible. These cabinets start one foot above the floor and extend 9-1/2 feet to the ceiling. The upper most sections will be open without doors to use for body parts like bumpers and exhaust pieces. They're 24 inches deep, so they provide a lot of storage area.

I left two sections at the ends open to the floor to allow storage of vertical items and some hand tools. These two sections and the center (open section) will get peg-board that will be used as a mounting medium for various hangers.

The south wall is a section about 11 feet wide between the front of the garage and the entry door to the house. The cabinets here are roughly the same enclosed style, without the upper open storage area.

I'm quite pleased with the design, as my goal was to provide a maximum of storage space at a more reasonable cost compared to cabinet components sold at the local home improvement stores. They build sectional units that you connect together. The drawback is all the duplicate side-walls and backs you end up with.

I eliminate all that by building then right onto the back & side walls of the garage. I begin with 2x4 stringers, screwed to the wall studs, and run horizontally at the bottom, middle, and top of the cabinets. End panels are fastened to the side walls at the studs, and are notched for the stringers. These end panels, together with the stringers, support the cabinet frame. To provide additional support, metal legs are added at the front of the cabinets and extend to the floor to alleviate side loads on the back wall.

Here's some pictures of the right side under construction. Everything is covered with primer, and once the framework is all up, it will be painted. The outer facing and doors will likely get stain.

What it took to get here . . .

Here it is May; I'm enjoying my new position with Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, I've found a decent extended stay motel where I can actually cook without the use of a microwave, I look out over the valley and the San Pedro river to mountains, clear air, clouds, and rain in the distance, and think - Wow, what a great place to be!

Unfortunately, I'm enjoying this by myself. Back in heat-quenched Phoenix, Darla, Davin, and the girls are huddled indoors to stay cool, preparing for a pending move that none are exactly sure when it will occur. At this point my plans were to just find a decent place to rent, scope the place out for a year, then finally buy. At some point I realized, duh - this isn't Phoenix; it's not going to take a year to scope out. I was also fortunate to stumble across some information about the 2008 & 2009 tax credits for first-time home buyers. Since we've been renting after we sold our last house - hoping to find something more rural and not controlled by an HOA, we would qualify for this tax credit. That's pretty good incentive. Also, my new employer will pay a good portion of the fees involved in either selling or buying as part of their relocation package. Another good incentive.

Now if only I could find some way around having to make a down payment - since almost all our savings was used up over the last four months of unemployment. Enter the USDA National Rural loan program. Since we were locating to a rural part of Arizona (tip: most of AZ is rural), the USDA provides 100% financing for families as an incentive to help grow these rural areas. It's not necessary to be a first-time buyer. One just has to be within their income range per number of household members, and the property has to be within their very generous price caps. An additional plus is that NO mortgage insurance is required, since the USDA is guaranteeing the loan. Well that was enough to convince me that I should probably be looking to buy instead of rent.

The next step was to locate a lender familiar with this loan program. It just so happens that the USDA has a list of "Approved Lenders". Its' even been revised for 2009. Use it, but don't trust it. It would be interesting to find out what it takes to be an "approved lender". I suggest one should qualify not just the lender, but the loan officer you'll be working with, to verify that they have recent experience funding one of these loans. If you don't, the mortgage road is sure to be a bumpy one - with more potholes than the dirt road to that beautiful rural oasis you find. Ask me how I know.

In that mistake I violated one of the core principles I strive to operate from - always go to the source. It turned a month to six-week process into more than double that. We also wasted time looking at properties that didn't even qualify. Not because of price, but because they were used manufactured homes. USDA only funds new manufactured homes, or used ones that it has previously funded. Out here in rural Arizona there are a lot of manufactured homes. The "approved lender" I chose didn't have clue that such a requirement existed until after the appraiser submitted their info to the underwriters. But hey - that's OK. Life's about learning, and I'm willing to give some time to allow someone else an opportunity to learn.

Suffice it to say this was not the first snag in the process. Darla and I had to backup on a couple of occasions during our four-month process and re-focus on our primary goals. Thankfully the sellers were accommodating, our realtor was pro-active, and my employer was very supportive.

The trick for us was to not get attached to a particular house or the "possibilities" that would emerge with each one we liked. We had a goal of buying before Dec. 1st, staying away from freeway traffic, being within 20 minutes of Benson, having at least an acre of usable land for horses, and using the USDA Rural financing so we didn't have to pay mortgage insurance.

Refocusing on our goal helped us realize that there was more than one house that would be a good choice, so we didn't get too hung-up on any particular one. We even had the option of buying land and either building a home or buying a new manufactured home.

That way the whole process becomes more like the ideal relocation. You're making your decisions and choices (based on your goals) and letting others do the work (their job) to bring it all together. The lesson we learned there is to try and find others who are proactive in how they do their work. If they are not, then the process can take a little longer, but it usually gets done.

At one point we asked ourselves if this particular house was worth the additional time it was taking to complete the closing. The answer was yes, but only to a point. We set that point in time, and fortunately everything came together in time. If it hadn't - no problem - we had found another house that had possibilities too.

Settled in - at home in Benson, AZ

Greetings all,

Well after more than four months in a motel, the family and I are initially settled into our new home in Benson, AZ. Since my recent hiring on at Arizona Electric Power Cooperative in May, I was doing the preliminary house hunting and then having Darla come down to help choose the most desirable. The first house we found was a very nice manufactured home with a huge RV garage in addition to a two-car garage. Unfortunately it took the mortgage company a month to determine that the loan program we were using (USDA Rural) doesn't fund used manufactured homes, only new ones.

So we changed our criteria to only site-built homes on acreage. Fortunately it didn't take too long to find this one. It was built in late 2007, and finished in 2008. It's not the typical southwestern style, which was fine with us, we've had our share of constantly cracking stucco.




One of the real pluses is porches front & back. Front faces east, and back faces west. Since we're in a flood plain, the house was built elevated nearly 3.5 ft above the natural grade. This makes for some great views.






Since its elevated, the floors are built on joists with a crawl space underneath. They used an Australian Cypress hardwood throughout the house, with tile in the bathrooms. Never seen this type of flooring before, but it sure looks great.

That means all the vents are in the floor instead of the ceiling - much like it would be in a mid-western home. They also went to the trouble of insulating the garage and finishing it.

The house is located on just one acre, but that will be enough to manage a couple of horses. With open BLM range land about 1/2 mile east and the San Pedro river about the same to the west, there's plenty of open areas for riding. That's Ashley's plan anyway - should be doable.










Darla and the girls have been watching these home design shows on HGtv during our stay in the motel. So I see some accent wall colors and creative wall designs in our near future. We'll be sure to post the progress here as well.

Now I'm just waiting for my car and engine to show up. Ooops -I better get rid of some of these boxes in the garage.

Engine Art - semi fini

Well the engine is in its final form, and a beautiful form it is. I can't wait to verify the function.


With the engine harness and intake manifold on, the remaining items are minor in comparison. However, with a pending move to southern Arizona in the next six weeks, its not likely that I will get much more done until after that.

Just as a reminder, here are a few things left to prepare for the bench run.

• Rebuild A/C compressor and mount it.
• Complete main harness and test it.
• Locate and install used exhaust system (only used for bench test)
• Fabricate engine/transaxle cradle.

The engine cradle will be another piece of form and function, as its going to serve a dual role. It will function as the cradle for the engine, transaxle, and exhaust during the bench test. It will also serve as a lifting aid to install the engine/transaxle assembly into the car, but more on that later.

Facing the Giant - Unemployment

My wife and I, and our three teenagers sat down together recently to watch "Facing the Giants." And even though our teens noticed the difference in the production level when compared to other movies they've seen, the message of the movie wasn't lost. In fact we found the "behind the Scenes" story of how the movie was made just as stirring.

As my wife and I prepared for bed that evening, my wife stated - "If only life could be that way." - referring to this movie and one we viewed earlier in the week named "Joshua".

Hearing that, some might conclude that my wife is out of touch with the "Christian" life. Quite the opposite. The context of that question involves the last several months where I have been out of work, collecting unemployment, and she is working a part-time job; both doing everything we can to keep things together while our three teens complete their school year.

I have applied for over one hundred jobs, mostly in the depressed area we currently live, but also in other adjoining states. The few responses I have received are primarily - "Thanks for applying, but". What's been even more frustrating is that the two interviews I did have, both of which went very well, didn't produce jobs because the positions were withdrawn due to economic reasons. So she has seen how diligently I have prepared my field - yet no rain.

So from that context her statement takes on deeper meaning, especially since the day prior we drove over six hours together to visit another area and I could interview for a another position. Again, the interview went well. So all we can do is wait patiently and see. And we did. I spent that Friday morning in the usual way - researching and applying for several jobs here and in adjoining states.

It wasn't until lunch time came, and my wife was overdue, that the call came. It was the company I interviewed with earlier in the week. They were calling to offer me the position. It was like I was standing on the stage of one of those games shows - having won the grand prize - because the offer just continued - "Wait, but there's more!"

After hanging up the phone, I was completely overwhelmed - even to tears. My wife finally arrived for lunch, seeing me in tears and fearing the worst, sat down next to me. I was so choked up, but managed to get out my response to the statement she had made the previous night - "Remember what you said last night? 'If only life could be that way.' Well, it is!"

Not only did they offer me the job, but the salary was ten thousand more than I was expecting. Not only did they offer me the job, but they were going to pay for all the moving expenses, including extra costs that might occur due to duplicate housing, selling and closing fees, etc.

Just your standard job offer? Not when you realize that my wife had her part-time job already approved for next year. We were expecting that I would just find an inexpensive room to live in at the new location and commute back home once or twice a month over the weekend. However, the ten thousand difference in pay will make up almost exactly what my wife was making. So now we can all move together, and stay together as a family.

And for that I thank God and all those involved with this movie for the refreshing and encouraging message I received - NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

More Engine Art - continued . . .

The engine continues to come together. I haven't had much time to spend on it due to another project I'll post about later. Here are a couple of pictures of the current status. Once I get the harness wrapped and the fuel injectors on finally it will get the intake manifold.

More Engine Art - continued . . .

A lot of time has gone by, but progress continues slowly. Here is the pre-assembly of the famous SHO Intake Manifold. I've been taking my time making sure everything is fitting together properly.

(Here are two pics. For some reason the yellow gets washed out in the sun)











It will be some time before this goes on the engine as I have to clean, lengthen & rewrap the engine wiring harness before the intake manifold can go on. The harness sits down inside the middle of the valve covers under the intake.