Covid Move Prompts Family Rebuild.

This thread is going to be a catch up for the last 2 years of our lives and then lead into current events (boss 302, autocrossing etc.) 

It will likely take me a while to catch up so bare with me. It ends up with me finally getting to buy one of these and starting using it properly two years later. 

Thread will be a LOT of house renovations etc to start with.  

To start the story, in 2011 the wife and I moved to Greenville SC from Texas.  We had grown up in SC and had finally managed to land jobs 1.5 hours from family so we could start our own family.  We purchased a house that was a builder foreclosure and did a TON of projects with it.  UnderGrosh Thunderbird.  In 2020 my boss called me out of the blue, two weeks after COVID lockdowns and told me our company was going to open an office in Charlotte NC (90 miles away) and i was expected to move to participate or "be forgotten where I am".   WE had a newborn third kid, were struggling to keep things afloat and it had not been in any of our plans.  The positives included the fact that we could now live a mile from family and when I traveled I was next to the airport and not having to commute 90 miles for every flight.  The wife now had much closer support for thosetimes I did travel. 

I spent the next two months waiting for the final "you need to move by x date" . An aunt used to stage houses in California and did a walk through on facetime with me of our house.   We repainted the entire house, rented a storage unit and moved nearly 50% of our furniture into it.  At the same time, our dog got sick and had to be put down after 9 years.  He followed his "brother" with liver cancer 2 years after with exactly the same symptoms.  It was a very very hard time for us emotionally.  I was working every night until 10 pm and leaving all the child care to my wife while I prepped the house. 

I built this deck myself, including all of the pavers. 

Before

After

Our realtor had viewed the house pre any staging/paint work and had picked a number based on how the house looked.  She came back after staging and literally tore her new appraisal up.  "I had requoted/rerun the numbers based on what you'd argued before. But seeing the hosue now, you directly compete with brand new homes. this house will sell, it will sell quickly and we can get more than what you asked me to get for sure now."  

The worst part was when done, the house looked exactly how we always dreamed it would look.  We took a family vacation and the next week listed the house.  It sold in 6 weeks for asking price and had viewings nearly every day.  (To give you an idea how anal i was, i puttied every dent in the trim and touched up the paint on every single one.  Trim is the one thing people ignore and it's the one thing that shows without people paying attention to it how old a house is.).  

When we listed the house, we moved in with my parents.  The relocation agreement had included housing for the family in an apartment complex but the day we were supposed to move in, the complex called the relocation company and told them they had no units and had rented it out from under the relocation company.  I was able to negotiate them to pay my parents for us.  Dad lives on 10 acres, 30 minutes from the new office location.  In a house I helped him design.   It feels like a 5 star resort.  Except it was built for retirement and all our kids (6,4, and newborn) were all in one room.  Which meant a lot of lost sleep instead of sleep training the infant to sleep through the night.  

At the same time as we were staging the house, my wife's company furloughed her and many of the other engineers as they did not have the work.  She was devastated and mentally it really pushed her limits.  She's never done well as a stay at home mom mentally.  For her sanity she needs the "break" that a job gives you. her words "STAHM is the hardest job there is".   It was not all bad though, she got a lot of good bonding time with the boys during the summer. 

I had to setup an office for myself in the same house in my parents bedroom (dad works from home as well.)  because that was the only way we had neough doors between us and the kids to keep working without interrupting each other.  

3 years of working from home had taught me that family time was all important. So I pushed us HARD to buy a house as close as possible to the office location.  The first house we loved was huge, would allow us to park the boat in the back yard and was in our price range.  We negotiated a lower price and waited on inspections.  During inspection the inspector found rot in the structural beams under the house, and in the rimjoist. (he was able to put his finger through what was supposedly holding teh floor up.). The well was contaminated with ecoli.  The owners refused to negotiate, waiting within 30 minutes of the end of 'response' period to email us a note that flat out said "no repairs or funds will be provided, we expect to continue"  we had to get a lawyer involved who informed their snake of a realtor that no, that's not how things work.  You cant do that and lock us into the house.  It took 6 months for us to get our $5k earnest money back. 

Two months of living with my parents later we were still looking for a house (after endless tours) when one popped up as coming soon.  It was a walkout basement on a cul-de-sac just like our old house. 30 years old, half the distance to the office the other house had been.  I sent it to the wife, then mapped it.  It turns out, it's 6 house down in a side cul-de-sac from the hosue I grew up in.  My wife flat out laughed.   If you know anything about the market in late 2020 it was going nuts.  The area we moved to never saw a drop in house prices for 2009.  And in 2020 houses were going for 20k over listing within ours of listing.  We called our agent and demanded to be the first to see the house.  We toured the house at 8 am, and by 10 am had an offer in of 5k over asking.  The house had NEVER EVER had any renovations, or work done in it.  Maybe paint 10 years ago.  Original owners.  ETC.  Our offer was accepted by noon.  a week later we found out that we wre the first of at least 17 offers.  The owners had picked ours because they recognized the name and had seen on my mother's facebook profile that we had three kids like they had raised in the house and she felt we were the best to buy the house. 

We moved in late in october.  To a house we thought we could slowly update to what we'd like.  Then my wife went to open a drawer in the kitchen to put things away and it literally fell otu of the cabinet.  We realized that it needed a completely new kitchen.  My wife refused to even empty a box into a cabinet. 

She also got a job about the same time as we found the house.  35 minutes commute AWAY from town.  My commute was 12 miles into the city.  her's nearly 40 minutes.  If i had known she was going to get a job that way, i'd have been looking at acreage and sucked up the drive. 

Endless planning later:

Some tree work. 

new dorkbutts

Sold the wife's Mini (at 100k miles i just did nto feel like it would last another 100k)

(2018 Focus ST2)

Our kitchen we had planned arrived: (mostly, IKEA was already having huge supply issues.)

Before I started on the kitchen, I flew out to Arizona and purchased a 2013 Boss 302 with Full Cortex suspension. Dad and I road tripped it back over the next 4 days. 

new lights: 

we added a pantry to add storage space.

Pulled out the old: 

Moved teh fridge, added a new water line, moved power etc. 

Thought that the house was about to be washed away:

(all the tree work i'd had done, i'd had them pile the brush up at the end of the yard.  It slowed the river and backed it up. )

Added outlets, fixed drywall: 

Cut down Christmas Trees

Cut the basement roof to get the power routed etc.

[edit: i fell through the ceiling running lights... whoopsy]

Two months for the stove to arrive:

Family time at the farm:

I bought the older boys Razor ATVS for them to play with. 

Plywood counters:

Final counters:

And because i'm ridiculous and the wife could not pick a backsplash. I paused to build a sand pit for the boys.  They had been begging me for one.  The last house had a 8'x8' rectangle.  I decided to go even more crazy this time.

Then we found the tile we wanted at lowes.

Our hood finally arrived:

A family friend raises bison for Ecotourism.  He has a yearly roundup and this is his bull. Big Boy. 

(me on the right.) 

Rented an Excavator to clear the brush once the water drained away and then burnt it all.

We ripped out everything in the front yard except the original Japanese Maple. 

Some boating:

Mom had a scare with Colon Cancer:

This brings me to the scariest day of my life.

Those ATV's I mentioned earlier?  Wife was at Yoga and I was in the front yard with all the kids.  

Granny had bought them a ninja course and I'd set it up in the trees. 

Some neighbors came out and we were all standing around talking while the kids played around us. (across the street are enighbors with kids our kids age and it's been fantastic).

Oliver (middle kid) decides to go get his ATV out to show everyone how he rides it on two wheels. (helmet on at all times and they kids follow htis).  Henry runs out to see his brother.  Oliver then proceeds to play CHICKEN with Henry.  I'm watching and screaming at Oliver to stop driving and to put it away.  and Oliver goes right, henry runs the same direction and Oliver rides over him, then pegs the gas and drags henry down the concrete.  

I wont share the wound pictures of that day.  But this was at 8 pm.  I'm holding henry with blood pouring down my arms, he's screaming bloody murder.  A neighbor grabs the kids and takes them inside to watch a movie.  Another neighbor calls 911 for me. I'm trying to call my wife who is not answering, i'm calling my sister who is not answering.  I then text my sister "911 emergency I NEED YOU NOW" she's 1/2 mile from me.   Ambulance asseses him and says we need to go to the Hospital.  My wife is not answering the phone and she hsould have been home 30 minutes prior.  I go to the hospital by myself with my littlest kid and hope the neighbors have the other two.  Halfway there my sister finally answers the phone and imediately organizes to bring my wife up for us.  

He had 6 stitches pulling what I thought was a completely un closable wound shut.  golf ball diameter,  to the bone no meat left.  

He will need to have surgery in a few years to see if they can remove the scar tissue and get the hair to grown in the area.  He also wears a hat at all times outside because the doctors say he should not get a sunburn on it.  

The pics didn't load for me but you paint good word pictures.  Kind of glad I'm not seeing this wound to the bone but wow, that would be scary to see that accident happen

So random, photos worked an hour ago? Right click open works? 

Yep, pictures do not work for me either.

Looking forward to following along.

Mad_Ratel said:

So random, photos worked an hour ago? Right click open works? 

Some have shown up the whole time, but most haven't for me either. 

We recently moved to Mooresville (well, almost three years ago now) to be closer to my family, too. Having family nearby has made these last couple years far more manageable than I could imagine when we were in DC. 

Ok, so photos somehow are using my google photos not the grm upload.  Working on fixing it now.  (but it's going to take time to download, then upload again since apparently I cannot mass upload and  have to do it image by image). 

You clearly don't sleep, and you have the energy of a thousand men.  Hat's off to you!

Yeah kid getting hurt means the parent hurts 10x as much.  Glad he's ok.

Oh my gosh that breaks my heart.  Glad things are looking ok now though.  But as a parent, that's the worst.

cyow5 said:

Mad_Ratel said:

So random, photos worked an hour ago? Right click open works? 

Some have shown up the whole time, but most haven't for me either. 

We recently moved to Mooresville (well, almost three years ago now) to be closer to my family, too. Having family nearby has made these last couple years far more manageable than I could imagine when we were in DC. 

 

You need to come autocross with us! Mad and his dad, stu Lasswell, myself, and stafford1500 are all running with ccrscca.

And this is an amazing recap, sir. Thanks for sharing. 

And my prayers are with yall and the kids. I know how scary that is. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

You need to come autocross with us! Mad and his dad, stu Lasswell, myself, and stafford1500 are all running with ccrscca.

 

And this is an amazing recap, sir. Thanks for sharing. 

 

And my prayers are with yall and the kids. I know how scary that is. 

Ditto about the kids. My 3yo and 1yo have given me some good scares but nothing like that. Close though, like when the 1yo decided she didn't want to be in a moving powerwheels car anymore...

I've been toying with making it out to some autocrosses. I far prefer track driving, but I need to finish my track car first, haha. There's no denying the merits of autocross and the convenience over a track day hours away though. 

In reply to cyow5 :

And i generally bring free sammiches for everyone. So, consider it a bribe!

At 3 months old my daughter was staring down brain surgery. We got helmets and divine intervention instead. I get it.

hey prayers for yu/momma and the chillrenz sent yu a PM

759NRNG I sent you a response the next morning, let me know if you got it. 

I started posting the next update to cover the next three months but the need to input every image one at a time really puts a hamper on my forum updates. 

I'll start with a quick jump to the future WEEKEND OF APRIL 10TH.  Took the boss to it's second autocross this weekend with Duster.  Mike's always a hoot to hang out with. Unfortunately i did not get as much time as i'd like with him due to a three group event and him being on a different group.  Mike slayed it out there and looked to be improving at every run. 

In the first event, i was using the car as it arrived to me. Nitto 555 G2's, 305/35/19 rear, 285/35/19 front.  I was told it had 19x9.5 and 19x11 wheels on it.   I am running in the Novice group for this region (CCR)  so we get 5 runs and an instructor with us every run. 

The car would not grip at all, extremely disappointing.  Instructors had some comments but when they drove it they mentioned that they were having problems with the tires too. 

In between events I had found someone moving out of CAMS because he bought a tesla and sold his S550 mustang and selling his wheels. 

With 19x11 wheels and a full set of RT660 305/30/19 (one season of runs on them).  

Even better, the gentleman brought them to our event from 5 hours away each way in his Tesla 3.  In case you were curious, four 19x11 with 305's mounted fits INSIDE a Tesla. 

When installing the tires at the event I found out that the PO had purchased 19x10's to throw on the rear "for traction" when he had 19x9.5 square already.  Then he SQUEEZED a 305/35/19 onto the rim.  To be honest, my track wheels are now much much nicer than my daily driver wheels.  

I also found a local shop to do the custom alignment.  Now sporting 2.9° of camber.  (the closest we could get with the camber plates from cortex and the current ride height.) 

I went out using lines similar to what I'd used the event prior.   The car stuck amazingly well.  My instructor turned to me "i bet you can take a Miata route." which is not I had walked the course for. 

Sure enough, each run I tightened up every cone and the car just STUCK.  time improvements below.  I do think i'm having an issue in placing the car as tight to the cones as I'd like.  I just dont have a feel for the width of it and i'm worried to hit cones.  

My slalom for sure could use some work. 

The instructor took over on Dad's 3rd run and managed a 61.255 time.  This helped dad immensely to improve after seeing how much more aggressive he could be. 

Dad got better every time and his instructor (runs a ND miata) reached out to the C Spec Facebook group on advice for the car.  

Current plan is for NC3club springs (if we can find them). (Dad's is a 2006 base model on the original 60k mile suspension) and for Koni Yellows.  Plus a big progress front sway bar.  May have found a contact with NC2 springs in Texas to help the effort. 

My Boss had a broken feed line from the diff breather when I bought it and I got the cortex replacement line.  However during the time the catch can was off we can no longer find it.  At the event this became an issue as officials were contemplating stopping me from running due to seeing the liquid dripping after the run in the grid.  Since I was last run group and had one last novice run (which is at the end of the day) they let me finish.   I've got to find that little can and get it put back on.  (and top up the diff apparently).  

I had planned on pulling the JRI's and sending them in to be rebuilt but with spring here and the weather being great, I think I will keep driving and send them in this fall.  My times were not amazing. (FTD was in teh 45.3 second range on a Kart and 48.845 from a GT3 on slicks. as to CAM where i'd be running next year a same year boss on similar tires was running within a tenth of my time.  I do not know what suspension modifications he has though.  (57.203 for him, Fastest in class was a 99 camaro at 51.503. notable was a 2016 GT350R at 53.46).  The other boss has 3.53 gears in it and he said for the course it made a large difference because i "felt" that I was about to hit redline in several spots and if I'd been able to find a bit more speed in the corners or shorter distance i'm sure i'd have been nailing redline at least twice during teh event. (second gear tops out at 66 mph/7500 rpm with a 3.73).   I spent good money on getting the factory "track" key installed.  but now i'm wondering about getting a tune to up the rev limiter to 8k.  

Lastly, only 3 of the tires will fit in my car when I pack for an autocross. I can not fit more than one in the trunk and usually that's filled with two folding chairs, jack, pressure gauges, and the cooler.  Dad luckily is riding with me in the Miata so I filled his passenger seat with the fourth.  I did some sleuthing about a tire trailer, but blowfish racing is no longer in business and they were the only truly "hidden" hitch that I could find for the S197.  I know Curt etc are the easy button, but all the sample pictures show the reciever quite proudly sticking out and low enough to be an issue on any driveways.  Since these are used Rt660's i'd like them to last as long as possible and i have a 30 to 40 mile drive to get to the events at Zmax so i feel that driving the car there will wear them too quickly.  

Video of my fastest run.  More than happy to hear any comments.  I think i tap the brakes a few times where I dont need to.

Also interested in some kind of software that would let me get datafrom the car (rpm/speed) to use/overlay. Any hints? 

https://youtu.be/NramzSOcNnI