Time flies! Haven't updated my blog in just over four years? Yep, time flies.

With four seasons up here in the Pacific Northwest, you have to get used to three of them being wet.

We were fortunate enough to break ground on the remodel of our existing 24' X 36' garage, adding-on an additional 24' X 24' garage. The 24' X 36' garage will now serve exclusively as my shop - no car parking. Mine - all mine!

The 1/2" exterior siding on the existing garage was removed, and new sheathing, and vapor barrier wrap was installed. Hardy Plank exterior treatment installed. New roof on existing garage installed, or course, matching the new addition. All exterior walls insulated with R-24 batting. Attic insulation if piled-on deep. Propane furnace heat. Gonna be nice and cozy!

I'm betting that it'll be another four to six weeks to completion, including exterior painting. The exterior pics are from several week ago. The project is at the stage of interior finishing (drywall texturing). I'm looking froward to building cabinets, workbenches, and getting everything dialed-in for tinkering, and building model airplanes.

A ***HUGE*** thank you to my supportive wife!

EJ

We've arrived at our new home. The trip was non-eventful, and we're *really* Thankful for that!

I finally had the opportunity to open the shipping crates I made that contained my partially-built models. I really wasn't concerned because the crates made the trip just fine and had no visible damage. All the wings and fuselages were unharmed. I was most concerned about the Pica Waco YMF-3's fuselage because of the many 1/4" square balsa stringers. Not one loose attachment, not one cracked stick. All models are just fine!

I have no idea what to do with the 28 cubic feet of packing peanuts other than to bring them to a recycling depot. I have no other need for them.

So, that's that. If you find yourself needing to move your models, crating is a very good option!

EJ

My wife and shared our last outdoor campfire Sunday night in our house here in Scottsdale, Arizona. Today, I saved a container of ashes from that fire. We'll bring them up to our house in the Pacific Northwest and add them to our first campfire there. From one home to the next.

EJ

We've completed our Road Trip to deliver my woodworking and R/C hobby items to our new home in the Pacific Northwest. We left our home this morning and flew back to our house in the Valley of the Sun this afternoon. Our Valley house is no longer our home, but temporary quarters. It now has the feeling as such. This transition from this dwelling that yes, was a house when we arrived here more than twenty-five years ago, settled so solidly into our home. A house that we brought three very young children to and quickly transformed it into a home to raise them in. A home that my wife and I became Empty Nesters in. A home that we remodeled once again into a house that prospective buyers would see as such and as my wife and I did, see it as fitting to develop into a home.

Next chapter.

I snapped a few pics along the trek from the Valley to the PNW (Pacific Northwest). Enjoy.

...Continue Reading

We unloaded the last of the contents of the truck and returned it to a U-haul center in Olympia, Washington. That was a very liberating event!

All the woodworking and R/C hobby items made the trip unscathed. All the kits are in the same sound shape that they left Phoenix in, and all the plan tubes are intact. The two wooden crates that I constructed for my partially built models are undamaged, but I did not have the proper tools to open them and check their contents. If the crates were damaged, I would have made a trip into town to procure the necessary tools to open and inspect my models. I am confident that they made the trip just fine. It will be another six to eight weeks before we make our final trek from Phoenix to the new house. I'll post the condition of the crated models then.

Thanks for following along.

EJ

Put in an eleven-hour day of driving today. 714 miles. Made it to Eugene, Oregon - home of the University of Oregon Ducks. Home of Coach Bill Bowerman of Nike co-founder fame. Coach to track star Steve Prefontaine. Cool stuff.

Another four-plus hours to the house! Easy enough.

EJ

Knocked-off 530 miles today. That leaves 15-hours driving time to go. I'll put in a long day tomorrow and coast on in on Friday.

EJ

Well, here we go! Tomorrow morning I'll leave the Valley of the Sun in a 26' U-Haul van and make my way to the Pacific Northwest. I'll be bringing all of my R/C hobby "stuff" as well as a good load of nonessential household items. The remainder of our possessions will be professionally moved.

As faith would have it, The two days I was loading the van, Monday and Tuesday were two hot days - upper 90's! I must have drank a case of water each day, yet still ended-up a bit dehydrated (muscle cramps). Clothes soaked. Moving at zombie speed plus a little. Though, in hindsight, I loaded in two days what took several months to accumulate in storage. Not bad!

I'll be a three-day trip from the Valley to the new house. I'll take my time and drink-in the climatic change from hot and dry to cool and moist.

Another adventure unfolds.

EJ

We completed our home remodeling and (via realtor) put our Arizona home on the market this last Wednesday, April 9th. The house was shown the next day, April 10th. An offer to buy from this showing came to us through our realtor the next day, April 11th. WHAT? Listing-to-contract in TWO DAYS? I guess the market is back! The offer was great, and we are under contract.

Finally, I will get to chronicle the relocating of The Hobby from one residence to another in the next several weeks.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, and I'll finally be able to post progress soon.

EJ

I was crusin' the 'net and came across a cool sign merchant. I picked-out a few for my new shop/hanger.

http://www.asimplertime.com/Aviation-Signs/1204/Dept

EJ

We closed on our new house up in the Pacific Northwest this last Monday, March 3rd. Now all we need to do is move up to it!

With my and my wife's work schedule, it looks like it'll be a couple of months before we can make the move. My wife will keep her current job, but will be working from home. She'll need to have her home office set-up with the necessary "stuff" and get it up and running for her switch-over.

Now that the house is ours, I may be able to move all of my hobby "stuff" to my new shop before we send our household items up and say goodbye to the Southwest USA.

EJ

We received a message from our realtor that the owners of our soon to be new home in the Pacific Northwest won't be able to vacate the property until March 3rd. No big deal on our part - other than getting up there and settling-in. The time line works for us work schedule-wise. I plane to transport my home shop contents to our new home the last week of March anyway. I had to store a few items in our storage unit today. I was able to 'visit' my idle shop. Man, things get itchy when I do that. I miss my shop!

I added two new kits to my stash. I could't resist. Both are Old-Timers. A Playboy Sr. (80"), and a Quaker (86"). Both are vintage free-flight kits, but include mods on the plan sheets to convert them to R/C. These kits *must* be finished in the traditional covering of their time. Maybe silk or silk span derivative, finished in dope. I haven't used dope since my tissue and dope covering days some forty-five years ago. There have been some very impressive examples of dope & fabric covered models here on this forum as well as others. There has also been examples of loud = experience, where the louder you scream, the better your results in your own mind. It is entertaining. Thank goodness for the experienced builders that share their knowledge and techniques.

Cheers you-all!

Today was a good day. Today we received conformation from our realtor in Washington that all paperwork is ready for our closing on our new home. As I mentioned, paperwork *is* 10/10 parts of the transaction.

Looking ahead, I will be able to transport the contents of my workshop and R/C hobby to our new property in the later part of March.

Exciting times!

I remember buying my first home back in '81. I don't think that I signed my name in my collective life as I did during the mortgage/purchase process. I conclude when the paperwork is high enough to base-jump from, you've closed on your new property! And so has this process begun with our new home in the Pacific Northwest. While we have a sceduled closing date in late February, the paperwork process has already begun. We're getting closer to The Move, and I'm getting closer to shipping the wooden crates that contain my R/C models. I'm glad that I packed the hobby away last fall, or I'd be tinkering with this or that instead of getting our present home ready for the market. Yep, I'm battling a case of R/C Hobby Withdrawl!

When my wife and I were dating, I used to joke with her that I could live in a loft above an airplane hanger. All I needed was a shop, a bathroom, and a food room, er, kitchen. And a shower. And a dog. She used to just roll her eyes. No, the new property does not have a hanger, but a nice 24' X 36' garage/shop. My wife asked if that would be enough room for me. With that kind of support, a lawn shed would have sufficed. I'm a lucky man.

EJ

As we remodel our home and get ready for our move to the Northwest, the home itself is not the only thing we have to pack.

I have been on the water, in one form or another, since I was kid. In my teen years I rowed on the ocean in a dory. Rowing has always been a pleasurable form of exercise for me, and moving a boat under my own power is rewarding.

As the saying goes, "life happens", and I was not able to be on the water, at least rowing, for many years. When our youngest daughter was a Freshman in high school (all-girl Catholic) they went about organizing a Crew (rowing) Team. I was elated that my daughter was enthusiastic about joining. What? Rowing in Phoenix? Yes. The city of Tempe, Arizona, damed-up a 2-mile long section of the Salt River just to the north of the Arizona State University (ASU) campus. Ideal flat-water rowing conditions. The high school crew started out with two eight-place shells (boats) and one four-place shell. Man, it was a TON of fun watching the Crew develop and watching my daughter participate.

My daughter's participation in Crew got me fired-up to get my own shell. I bought an open-water shell, which in design is more broad in the beam than the longer, more narrow, flat-water racing shells. back on the water - yay!

After a couple of years of being back on the water rowing, my wife showed an interest in the sport. Up till then we had shared tennis and snow skiing together. Now she was taken by moving a boat through the water under...Continue Reading

Without knowing it, Bud Nosen was my wife's and mine Matchmaker.

When my wife and I were dating, she was curious about the "toy" airplane that hung from the ceiling in my apartment. On the condition that she provide the picnic lunch, we spent part of one afternoon at the flying field (Ft. Worth, Texas) as I put my Aeromaster bipe through the paces. She was impressed. That was in the early '80s, back when R/C impressed the chicks.

My now serious girlfriend and I had plans for a trip to the west coast. I wanted to introduce her to my mother, and unbeknownst to her I had gotten current in a Citabria at the flight school that I learned to fly at. I had an afternoon of "fun" planned. Advice: If you take a girl on a date that involves parachutes, be ready for a little pushback.

This was the first time my girlfriend had been in a light airplane, so things were pretty gentle. A couple of loops and rolls were about all I put her through. I got her to take the controls and coached her through a few stalls.

That Christmas my now serious girlfriend made me the gift of a "box-O-lumber", Bud Nosen 1/4-scale Citabria kit. I started building it immediately in my one bedroom apartment. The build continued after we were married in our first house, and progressed in our second house under the "supervision" of our first born daughter. The partially built kit survived three more career-related relocations, and the watchful eyes of two more...Continue Reading

Progress on remodeling our Scottsdale home slowed some. We had to switch our cabinet contractor and we're looking for a new interior painter. Being that my wife and I both work, this situation has pushed us back in listing our home for at least a month. No worries though. One advantage to closing on our new home in the Pacific Northwest is that we can start sending the belongings that we have in storage up to the home.

Yes, I am in hobby withdrawal! No building. No tinkering. NO SHOP!!!

Soon, I keep telling myself, soon.

EJ

My wife had never been to the Pacific Northwest, USA before, so this last summer we flew from Phoenix, Arizona, to Portland, Oregon. In Portland we rented a car and spent a full week driving around northwestern Oregon and southwestern Washington state. After more than twenty-five years in the desert, my wife now knows what *trees* are.

One day during our trip we came across a small lake community. The setting was incredible. Heavily treed, the peaks of the Olympic Mountains in the distance. Wow! I snapped the pic included in this blog thread from a property that just happened to be on the market. Curious, we contacted a realtor and arranged a showing of the property. Well, we've been together for more than thirty years, she's only had a say in one place we've lived, and only one home. This is the first time in her life that she has had the opportunity to fall in love with a property and say, "I love it, we're moving here." So, I'm game. Of course, the 24' X 36' shop has NOTHING to do with it!

We're in the midsts of remodeling our home here in Scottsdale and getting it ready for the recovering real estate market. I've already packed-up the R/C hobby and placed it all in storage. Same with my woodworking shop/garage. Arizona house sold or not, we'll be in our new home in Washington by March of 2014.

I'll be documenting the relocation of the R/C hobby here in my blog. Over the years I've moved a plane or two around the U.S., but never as much "stuff" as I've accumulated (kits, plans, engines, wood, etc.) since I've returned to the hobby in '08. I will also share arranging the new shop for the hobby.

The lake that will be my backyard is large enough to fly models off of, but I doubt that I'll be able to fly off of it. It is a self-power use only lake. No worries though. The new property is 1/4-mile from a large public lake, and there is R/C activity on it!

Exciting times ahead!

Down here in the Southwest USA (near Phoenix, AZ) it gets too hot to fly R/C about 0900 or so from about mid-June to late September. Good time to get something on the workbench, if you have an air conditioned shop...

The bummer is that ideal flying conditions overlap with ideal building conditions. I guess I'll have to adapt the ways of the snow bird.