New England B.S. Thread

Mine's older so it's all lathe and plaster, which is why the stud spacing wasn't important when it was built. They just put on the strapping and plastered over it all. I've removed as little of that crap as I could because it makes a horrible mess. The studs are true 2x4's, rough cut.

 

Just an excuse to make a new bigger saw

 

Leave it to the people of Nippon to build an island...
to put up a sculpture of a very NON Nippon style saw...
Where the screw heads are mis-aligned...

 

The screw heads...good...it's not just me

 

Leave it to you to assume a sculptor knows a single thing about hand saws.

 

Aligned...as they should be

Edit: that was my Dad's saw before it was mine...so yeah...along with his hypertension I inherited "attention to detail" as I like to call it

 

I SAW what you did there

Just fulfilling my daily dad job obligations

Edit: dad joke, not job

 

That is old. I don't know when they stopped using dimensional lumber, but I think that it was well before I was born.

 

Without knowing how old you are, I can still confidently say my house is older than you. It was built in 1906 and had an addition put on at some point. Based on the crap we found in the walls of the addition, we're guessing the addition was built in the 40's and is still mostly rough cut lumber.

 

When did she buy in Austin? Hope she nailed the timing. We were looking in early 2020 and the prices were strong but doable. Now the same houses that were doable are over a mil. Anywhere worth being in Austin without needing to drive an hour to get to somewhere worth being is over a mil last I looked about a month ago. If not even more. It's bananas down there.

 

Ah I'm going Saturday the 10th for a day trip, coming back home the same day (as long as I go, if I wake up and the weather is crap then I won't go).

It's a great time to go though. Same great weather for about a month after labor day. Shorter days a bit but can only win so much.

 

She brought in April. Within five years someone will buy the building and she'll cash out. At which point she'll have to find a place outside the city.

Austin used to be very affordable, but life kept my wife and i fro moving there. Then again by now we'd have cashed out and moved out of their. It's no where near as nice as it was even ten years ago.

 

Both anecdotally and statistically the city is not what it used to be.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-falls-from-top-10-of-best-places-to-live-rankings/amp/

I still have thoughts about it, and moving south in general. I think this winter has to be my decision maker. Last year we had a blizzard and in all memories of the winter in general - it was pretty mild. But that was also thinking "were leaving". This year it's a "should we stay or go" approach. I'm thinking we'll be good to stay. I we were still in maine/NH it wouldn't be the same - would be a goner for sure.

 

My wife and I have been having the same conversation. Several times in fact. I have the feelings about winter as you.

We've been going to Austin since the mid '80s. It was alot smaller, nicer, and less expensive back then.

 

Man, ever have one of those runs when you just seem to keep getting knocked back again and again (nothing Earth shattering, just a side annoyance?)

As many/most of you know I'm a somewhat avid diecast collector. I've more or less considered my collection finished save a very small handful of cars they either don't make yet or are stupid money. I had one car left for my collection, I wanted a Bugeye era WRX. I think I've touched on this before, but the saga continues.

I found a cheap on on eBay in white. Not my favorite color but the price was very right at a minimum as a placeholder. Threw in a bid and I won. Turns out it was a 1/43 scale car incorrectly listed as a 1/18 car. I shipped it back as the seller was very sweet. The second one was a black car missing a side view mirror. I put in a reasonable bid and won it. I ordered the spare mirror from AA spares in Germany, great. It showed up as if it was dropped in a box. Arguing with the seller go me nowhere until I threatened to involve eBay, he claimed a child with cancer, etc. His profile shows he's still buying parts. I decide I'm done buying used cars, I'm only going for new in box. I found a silver wagon which was way cool and it had all the original straps, etc. I threw in a stupid high bid and got it from Germany. It arrived today. I didn't notice in the ad with the way the photos were taken it's missing the passenger side headlight! I looked back in the ad and sure enough it's not there, but it's somewhat cleverly photographed to hide it. Ad says good condition.

I ordered spare chrome sedan headlights so I'll try and paint up / fit them to work, but I'm not exactly amused by this. It's one of those, the only other option out there to replace it is $300+ and I'm tapped out in the play fund already, so I'll live with it. When I display it you don't see it the way my case is oriented, but man if I'm not grumpy.

Obligatory humblebrag.
IMG_1885 by Mike M, on Flickr

EDIT, full collection is here if anyone is interested.

 

I did some wicked New England shit this weekend
Went lobstering for the first time!

 

Very shitty that they hid those things, but good you at least got the last piece.

Nice collection man.

 

I own a duplex built in the 80’s. Some of the lumber used was rough cut and exactly 2 in. thick. The story goes that before it was a duplex it was a furniture making shop……until a bad accident shut the place down and it was turned into a duplex. I hope they were better furniture makers then apartment builders.

 

Winter is one of the reasons I never want to leave New England, especially living up north!

That's an awesome collection sir! Bummer about the shitty sellers though!