Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Picture Of The Day & Scammers

While waiting for the train early this morning I saw a beautiful sunrise so I took a picture of it with my Thunderbolt phone.

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Scammers, you have to wonder what goes through their little brains. Instead of getting a real job to earn honest money they try to scam you out of yours.

I have gotten one real response out of all of the ads I put in Craigslist and she was a nice lady who just wanted a real hardwood hutch for a non-hardwood price. Can’t blame her for trying. Smile with tongue out

Every single other response has been this Thank you for your prompt response to all my question, I am interested in buying the above item for sale asap. So let me know the actual price? And also I'll be mailing out the payment to you inform of the Certified Check drawn out from Bank of America and its gonna be sent to you via Fedex Courier Service.I will handle the shipment myself by hire one of my private shipping company to come for the pick up as soon as you have your cash in hand.So i want you to include information on where the the payment can be made out to..

Name.......

Address..........

City........

Zip Code.........

Phone Number........

I will be awaiting your response”

I have a problem understanding what they get out of this scam, maybe somebody can explain it to me. Maybe people ship the item when they get the check, I made it clear in my ads I don’t ship anything until money is in my bank, yet I get these scams anyway. As Big Matt predicted, it’s going to take awhile to sell this stuff but I’m not giving it away, the prices I’m asking for everything is well under value so they will sell.

I’m going to email the lady about the hutch though, she is newly married and I may cut her a deal because this hutch would make a great deal for newlyweds and she was genuinely nice.

We’ll see, anyway that’s all for now have a great day everybody!  

Monday, August 29, 2011

Introducing The House We Are Down-sizing

We bought this house hoping to start a family. Since that wasn’t possible (a whole other post) we decided that we want to sell it when the market starts to rebound. We are hoping that after the 2012 election the market picks up. Our house was seeing 15% gains per year from 1999 to 2006 so if we sold during the peak in 2006 we could have sold it for a $138,000 profit. As it is now we owe more than it’s worth so all I can do is improve it a bit and then leave it alone for awhile and pray.

I am rebuilding a spare bathroom from the walls out and have about 50% of the work to go yet. I’ll post pictures of that work soon. Until then here is our house from the outside on a half cul-de-sac with the smallest front yard you could imagine. 

I have spent more money on Scotts Plus 2 this year than any year previously so of course this year I have more weeds than ever. Disappointed smile Don’t ask me why but we have the lawn that refuses to let weeds die. I can’t fertilize anymore until the Fall because of how much I put down this year. I also fertilized the abandoned house next door, all of the weeds disappeared after one treatment, go figure. 

There is a lack of plants in the rock beds and we are contemplating what we want to do with them now that we cleared them up. As you can see, we have no driveway for a 36ft RV.

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I replaced the ugly pea gravel that surrounded our house with river rock but still have two beds in front to complete. Plus I have A LOT OF TRIMMING to do in front of the house, they got way toooooo big!

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   A weed snuck in behind the AC unit, arrrrgh!! I yanked it after taking the pic.

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              I have some brick to pick up yet. I have to find a place to put it!

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Our fire pit goes on top of those 2 square patio blocks so it’s not entirely on the patio.

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                               More patio pavers to pick up! Damn weeds!

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I still have to order the river rock for the front, it still has lava rock. Slowly but surely it’s getting there. One more load of rock to go! We are having the roof replaced next year and maybe the siding as well.

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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Busy Day Listing Stuff On eBay & Craigslist

Want to see time fly by like it’s nothing? Put stuff on eBay and Craigslist! Wow today went fast!

I listed the 1938 Zenith 12S267, Icom Radio station, Pump Organ, Farmers Hutch, 1917 RCA Victrola and Hamilton Collection Telescope. If all of these items sell, our rainy day fund will be on it’s way. Or if this year is any indication of last year, it will go towards our taxes. Disappointed smile

If any of you wonderful people are interested in these items let me know and you’ll have first dibs.

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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Bye Bye HAM Radio, Victrola & Pump Organ…

Well, our decision to scale back on our “stuff” has to start somewhere. My Icom 746Pro, 1917 RCA Victrola and early 1900 Pump Organ is going up on Craigslist and eBay tomorrow. I have not been able to sell any radios, hopefully I have better luck with these three.

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Merikay & Craig Buy An Alpha!!

Merikay and Craig are buying a beautiful Alpha diesel pusher RV. Head over to her blog and check it out! Congrats Merikay and Craig!! Open-mouthed smile

Friday, August 26, 2011

RV Learnin, RV Dealer Rant & Links To Resources

The wife and I got into the RV lifestyle to lower stress and because we love RV's, what I have found is if issues arise and are not handled properly it can raise stress levels to heights unknown before buying an RV! Of course part of the problem early on was my expectation level, I fully expected the dealer to do their job, how silly is that?   After all, we all are expected to do our jobs where we work and we hear about it when we make a mistake, at least we should if we expect to grow from it and do better next time.

I learned that the dealer we bought from has low expectations from their staff, the owner said he was proud of them in their work and when shown a bad mistake he would say he was proud of the job done anyway which makes you feel like an idiot he doesn’t deem worthy of listening to. As a business owner, when a customer brings an issue to my attention it’s my job to assure him/her that the issue will be resolved and the person who screwed up dealt with. You always assume the customer is right and if you find out the customer lied or what have you then you deal with it professionally but you do not praise the employee who screwed up right after being told they screwed up! This dealer really opened my eyes to how most RV dealers operate.

One other thing I have learned is the average consumer in the RV space anyway HAS lowered their expectations because I saw people at this dealership picking up their filthy rigs and saying thank you. Disappointed smile

I even talked to one gentleman and asked him why he told the owner he was satisfied when it was obvious his coach wasn’t detailed and items from his repair list ignored. His response “I don’t want them mad at me, they might not fix my problems”. I kept in contact with him and he no longer deals with the dealer anymore either but he said what many people think, they are afraid to piss off the dealer because they’re not like car dealers, you have to actually travel a bit to find another one so bend over and take it. I know not all people are like this but enough are to make the RV dealers believe they can do as they please.

I always treat people with respect but when they screw up I let them know I’m not happy and expect something to be done about it. Well, this doesn’t work, todays mentality is the customer is not always right, they are mistaken fools that the dealer must put up with until they have left the building. Knowing this I now praise them in some way prior to letting them know a mistake has been made. I then walk them through what I “think” is a mistake and let them tell me I’m right or not. If they tell me I’m not right then I expect a good reason why.

Not being a very patient person and not one very good at dealing with bullshit I expect service techs to listen, take down the information and then tell me they will make it right. Most get defensive and you can see them clam up and go into how long is this going to take not really listening to you, I have coffee waiting mode so I am very careful with my words and that is not easy for me. When I screw up, tell me I screwed up and I’ll make it right, every time without fail.

Now when an issue arises I take a step back, take a breath and take it as a learning experience. I may gripe a bit but my attitude is much better about it now than when we started. Anyway enough on this, point made and I digress.

Here are a list of some sites that I’ll also put on the side that I have found helpful in diagnosing the various maladies I have had to re-fix after the dealer failed to do so. For the forums, if you’re new to RV’ing visit the beginner section of the forums, they are a great way to discuss this lifestyle!

- http://www.rvdoctor.com a great resource site and he has videos that explain many fixes for free.

- http://blog.drainmaster.com/ I have learned a lot about drains and RV tank venting from this site. When I need to do some upgrades it looks like they have some great products to do the job. Not sure about how to properly dump your tanks? They have a great article about that right here.

                  - http://www.rv-links.com/ The title says it all!

RV Advice Links - http://www.rvadvice.com/rvlinks.html, there are a lot of links on this site for many things that concern RV’ers.

- http://www.irv2.com A great forum for help!

- http://www.rv.net/forum/ A forum resource that gets a lot of traffic.

- http://www.rvthereyet.cc/ This is a campground, Dump Station etc… resource site. You can also add your blog there.

- http://www.blogger.com/home Here is one of the best ideas yet. Create your own blog! Share your passion for RV’s with everybody! You’ll be glad you did. Family can see what you’re up to and where you’re at and so can friends and other RV’ers!

The best part of this lifestyle is even on the worst day, which was probably our first one in the RV where we started the pizza on fire, the AC roof unit was leaking into the coach and our rig was leaking from the rain. We had more FUN than you can imagine. We hiked, visited places you typically don’t think of unless you’re out there in an RV and even with the stress of having to fix things some times, it’s not the same kind of stress you feel during a bad day at work.

Plus, should something break you have now learned something and most times you’re capable of fixing the problem. You might even impress your spouse, when was the last time that happened?

Have a great weekend everybody! We are staying home to catch up on some chores but next weekend we will be out for 5 days, Friday through Tuesday! We can’t wait! Smile with tongue out

Monday, August 22, 2011

Ah Ha! I Think I Know What Softened The Floor!!

Our toilet has a spray rinse hose similar to what kitchen sinks have in a home. I have noticed it has sprayed water when you flush the toilet so I make sure everybody who uses the lav remembers to be sure that sucker isn’t spraying when they’re done. I put down a towel under this sprayer to catch anything that might drip.

This is great for us and all but judging by how well, errr scratch that, how poorly the previous owner took care of things that sprayer may have been leaking for a long time prior to us buying this rig. The tile under the sprayer looks to be fine, no cracks in the grout that I am aware of (I’ll of course have to check next time we are in the rig) so I think water ran to where the cracks in the grout formed which is in front of the toilet and settled there to slowly rot out that small section of floor.

I could be wrong, God knows it could be a leaking toilet seal as well but if it were a leaking toilet seal I think there would be a stinky smell as well and the smell we get in that room is something like a stale smell which when mixed with the past methane odors was masked. Now that we are free from the tank odors we notice this lingering staleness.

I’m of course grasping and won’t know until I check it out but I’m going to buy a replacement sprayer, an upgraded one if possible and then remove the bathroom tiles and see what I can see. I’ll take pictures as well of course.

Till then, have a great week! Thumbs up

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Pictures From Paul Wolff & I Meet Blog Followers!

I was at the dump station  when I saw a man on his bike coming up to me. I knew right away it was Mr. Anonymous Bruce. I apologize Bruce, I’m sitting here trying like crazy to remember your wife's name and I think it’s Gail but I am so bad at names I’m not completely sure. Embarrassed smile

Bruce and his wife are such nice people and they are dealing with some of the same issues we have had with our rig. They are very patient personable people and I hope to meet up with them again soon. Bruce, if you’re reading this give Collier a call and ask them about SealTech (http://www.rvleaks.com), it’s amazing how fast it can find water leaks, even where you didn’t think it might be leaking!

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Here are the pictures of the old Cyclone install versus the new install. Night and day difference for sure.

     Poorly installed Cyclone vent                Properly installed Cyclone vent!

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Amazing how something done properly can not only look good but work so well. It takes almost no breeze to turn the vent, great job Collier!

Here are a couple of interesting RV’s I saw at Paul Wolff. I was working when I took most of these shots so they were taken from inside my coach. I love the style of the older coaches. Put a super slide and bedroom slide into some of the older coaches and I’d be a happy camper owning them!

          Here is “The Executive”                           An early 90’s Pace Arrow

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      Nice travel trailer / pop out               Large tear drop with a slide, very cool!

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Working until 9:45pm then I put in “Flags of our Fathers” Awesome movie! The new camera makes the interior seem so small, I need a wide angle or fish eye lens. There is no flash here so I think the pictures turned out pretty good.

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Here is how Saturday looked… I was going to buy some wood, it rained that night as well so I just stayed in and worked and watched movies.

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I also cooked my first breakfast in 12 years. Lets just say there is no way in hell my wife would have eaten what I cooked. Here is what I was going for, 2 eggs over medium, bacon and diced potatoes. Here is what actually happened, the eggs were over cooked, the bacons was perfect, so she would have eaten the bacon but the potatoes were over cooked so I mashed it all together and it was more edible at that point.

I think my wife is going to continue doing breakfast and I’ll stick to the grill, unless I go solo again in which case I need to step up my breakfast game or I’m going to starve!

Oh, almost went the entire weekend before discovering we have a soft spot in the bathroom floor. I don’t think this is a new leak, I think it’s the result of an old one so next time we take the rig out I’m going to remove the ceramic tiles in the bathroom and see what’s going on. I’ll update about that when we get a chance to work on it.

Positive note, we averaged 8mpg on the last tank. Considering we have a 36ft wide body with a super slide and the rig weighs in at 22,000lbs being run by a 275hp V10 I can’t complain.

Driving the rig home today in 78f temps and no wind was a dream, I drove one handed most of the way and it was so smooth and quiet I honestly could drive this thing cross country on days like this.

Have a great week everybody and thanks for stopping by!

Erik