Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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Well he was on a time frame with the house and had a ton of windows to do so probably busy with that. I know I have been too swamped to get on here more. Plus wiped out tired. Hope the best!
 
I'm sure he's good, people get busy with other stuff, sure he has things to take care of and he'll be back :glasses7:
 
I'm back for a brief visit on FABO. - Thanks for all the concern over my absence. I've been AWOL from all car activity while concentrating on house renovation. Despite all of our efforts the mayor & city council still are harassing us and aren't dropping their threat to have the house burnt down. I can't afford the legal bills but it looks as though we may have to get an attorney.

The weather continues to raise havoc with progress. So far we've concentrated on the exterior in hopes of having it done before the 100'+ temperatures and the mosquitoes roll in. This has been one of the rainiest years I can remember. We probably lost about 10 days of significant progress due to it.

Several of the neighbors have been very supportive of our efforts. I don't know if it benefits us in being able to keep the house but it has helped to keep us from getting completely discouraged.

We spent time doing some light landscape work. It may seem unimportant but I decided that I wanted to have the yard looking as good as possible (on the cheap) as I could.

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The brick outside basement entry had been badly damaged when vandals had beat the door in. They actually broke a lot of the brick that held the door frame when they forced entry. I think they used a sledgehammer.

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I tried to color match the brick foundation with a coat of new paint. I added the bird feeder to an old antenna mast that we cut off next to the house.

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So far I only have one of the five basement windows replaced. I still want to re-do the mortar/concrete base by each one.
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I bought a lot of colored tree bark ground covering for around the house. By purchasing torn bags from Menards I saved about 75%.

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In addition to the main roofing on the house there are roofs over the bay windows that had to be re-done. The old tin/tar was bad and I even had to rebuild some of the structural wood beneath them.
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Working with tar while on a ladder sucks.

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I need to touch up the window in the front door. I was doing a faux stained glass treatment to it but some of it didn't turn out right.

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There were several leaded glass windows in the house. I've been playing around with some of that faux stained glass color on them as well.

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We bought a living room set and area rug off of Craigslist. The room is big. - 22 foot by 14 foot. I wanted to build a custom entertainment center along one of the walls and we were having trouble laying it out. The furniture helped me to envision where I needed to build.

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John!!!!
I'm very happy your well. although you most likely fool WELL BEATEN from all the work.
I'm praying for your success in getting the place up to snuff. Looking at the pictures, it is looking really great!!!!
Keep it up and don't forget us here on FABO as we get pretty bored without your banter and quick wit. Work safe and I look forward to more progress updates and photos.
Aaron.
 
ariffle said:
John!!!!
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ariffle said:
I'm very happy your well. although you most likely fool WELL BEATEN from all the work.
I'm praying for your success in getting the place up to snuff. Looking at the pictures, it is looking really great!!!!
Keep it up and don't forget us here on FABO as we get pretty bored without your banter and quick wit. Work safe and I look forward to more progress updates and photos.
Aaron.
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Thanks ariffle. I realize that although FABO is a car site that I've had a tendency to let my Cuda resto thread turn into a BS session that's included whatever else I happened to be working on too. Without new automotive shenanigans to report on I decided to limit my posts. The house project is of major importance to me. I'm more or less putting every cent I have in it and if I don't pull it off I'll probably end up bankrupt. That'd mean I'd have to start selling off my Mopars so I could afford Ramon noodles.

When I first committed to this project I had no idea that I'd be pushed to the breaking point by the dicks in the city council. I thought I'd be able to complete the renovation as funds were available and without risk of losing everything I own. Now I'm forced to make purchases of materials that aren't on sale in order to meet 'their deadline' and spend 30-40% more than I'd originally estimated on a lot of things. I don't like whining and I really don't want to start making it sound as though I've got things any worse than anybody else out there. - But I have to admit that the stress has been pretty high. I appreciate the moral support from you guys but I'm afraid that if I posted updates every day I'd have to slap myself for all the boohooing I'd be doing.

If everything does work out (and they don't burn down the house) I should come through this ordeal in good shape.

Meanwhile here's some more house pics.

When the house was vandalized one of the things destroyed was the 'gingerbread' trim that surrounded the pocket doors on either side of the living room. I didn't have the original pattern for the trimwork so I bought some 'off the shelf' woodwork from Menards.

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Years ago I'd rented the house out to some deadbeats that never actually paid me any rent. They threatened to sue me when I told them I'd have to evict them and then they stole thousands of dollars worth of new supplies I had when they finally left. They had moved an old piano into the house and gouged the floors up pretty badly when they did. They left the piano behind. It had too many problems to be worth anything. I spent half a day trying to dismantle it so I could move it out of the house.

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The kitchen cabinets are tin. The white paint was worn and I decided to try salvaging them by painting them an almond color and adding some wood trim.

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In preparation for sheetrocking the ceilings I bought one of these panel lifts from Harbor Freight.

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They had damaged the original porcelain sink so I bought a stainless steel one as a replacement. Formica counter tops were the most economical choice with my budget.

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A buddy of mine had an attachment for his skidloader that was capable of cutting down trees. We used it to get rid of the stumps from volunteer tree growth.

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I'm still not finished with the paint on the house. I've bounced around from one project to another whenever the weather prevented me from painting. The eaves near the roof peaks are still out of my reach. If I can get as much painted as possible myself I may be able to afford having someone finish off the areas I couldn't get to.

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Glad to hear something! Was starting to get worried about you. :violent1:
Politics suck. Somebody over there at the city council is pissed at you for something.....
What did you do to them, John??? :D
 
SNKEBIT said:
Glad to hear something! Was starting to get worried about you. :violent1:
Politics suck. Somebody over there at the city council is pissed at you for something.....
What did you do to them, John??? :D
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agree w/ the last post. the house is coming along, and starting to look really good. if their still wanting to condem it there is something else wrong. maybe the deal w/ all of your cars ???
 
SNKEBIT said:
Glad to hear something! Was starting to get worried about you. :violent1:
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SNKEBIT said:
Politics suck. Somebody over there at the city council is pissed at you for something.....
What did you do to them, John??? :iconbigg:
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famous bob said:
agree w/ the last post. the house is coming along, and starting to look really good. if their still wanting to condem it there is something else wrong. maybe the deal w/ all of your cars ???
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You guys are probably right. Normally I'm about as abrasive as a roll of Charmin toilet paper but when we got the first letter saying that they were going to demolish the house I sent a reply that might have rattled their cages.

I pointed out that the mayor and council members owned properties that were in worse shape. I also listed a number of city ordinances that they themselves weren't compliant with. And to top it off I wrote about the racist threat that I had received from one of their members. Apparently it rubbed them the wrong way.

Most people have told me that the mayor is the main instigator and has been choosing which property owners to target based upon his own personal dislikes (such as old cars & hotrodding). He was a big advocate of Obama's CASH for CLUNKERS program and has voiced publicly his desire to see all 20 year old+ vehicles outlawed from the streets. He's not originally from this town. He moved in from a neighboring county and ran unopposed for mayor because no one else wanted the job. From what I've been told he's the product of rich parents and considers most of the locals here to be dumb hicks. I guess he thinks he's the 'new sheriff' in town and he's going to clean up the riffraff. HE'S A DICK. The city council is walking in lockstep with him because he's got money. What a bunch of rubes.

The easy way out would be to start kissing his keester but I'm not sure I could stomach myself if I did.

This was never a boom town. It had a reputation as an oasis for hotrodders and racers. There was never any local law enforcement so frisky car enthusiasts used to frequent it when they wanted to raise a little hell without repercussion. - Things never got out of hand. No one did anything really stupid. Heck, my great uncle used to run moonshine here during prohibition.

Maybe I'm obstinate but I wish things could change back to the way they were.
 
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I probably would have done the same thing. Don't take kindly to politicians buying their way around and forcing "their" will on others. Hypocrites al of them. :finga: :protest: :finga:
 
I NEED A BREAK!!! There was an all Mopar car show in Grand Island, Nebraska today that I skipped because I was working on the house. There's another car show just 15 miles away tomorrow in Schuyler. I think I may just say "to heck with it all", take the day off, and go to it. At least I would have a chance to post something that's actually car related on this thread. I'm already tired of hearing myself whine about the house. - I'd rather be bitching about car stuff.
 
1967 'cuda said:
I NEED A BREAK!!! There was an all Mopar car show in Grand Island, Nebraska today that I skipped because I was working on the house. There's another car show just 15 miles away tomorrow in Schuyler. I think I may just say "to heck with it all", take the day off, and go to it. At least I would have a chance to post something that's actually car related on this thread. I'm already tired of hearing myself whine about the house. - I'd rather be bitching about car stuff.
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think I`d move in that old house, good as it`s starting to look and you living there, how could they condem it??!!
 
famous bob said:
think I`d move in that old house, good as it`s starting to look and you living there, how could they condem it??!!
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You'd think it'd be unlikely that anyone would want to demolish the house after the improvements we've made but they're still not backing down from their threat.

Last Fall they required us to appear before them to temporarily forgo having the house burnt down. At the meeting they made their stance clear. They say they declared the property a nuisance and therefore have the authority to decide what will become of it. They also stated that they have the right to enter the property whenever they see fit.

Our counter-argument was that we had re-started working on the house several weeks prior to 'their declaration' and that it had been our intent to totally renovate it. We further explained the setbacks with my 2 heart attacks, thefts, vandalism, and the deaths of all 4 of Teresa & my parents. We listed the thousands of dollars worth of improvements that we'd already made during those past few years.

I never would have believed that the members of a government officiating body would have ever reacted the way they did. They openly mocked us at the meeting. It was like dealing with very badly behaving spoiled teenagers. As we left the meeting Teresa was practically in tears. They jeered at us and laughed as we walked out. I'm sure that it is hard for some of you folks to believe my description of the event but I'm truly not exaggerating any of it.

I've said before that there are a lot of nice people that do live in that town. There are. - And we've started hearing from several of them that are outraged at what's been going on. Right now local public opinion is on our side. How much weight that carries with the mayor and council is yet to be seen. I'm of the belief that they'll back down if they start to perceive this as a fight they can't win or if enough of the townspeople speak up. We're not the only property owners that have had a conflict with the mayor/city council. Others have stopped by as we've been working and related their own ordeals to us.

This particular house that we've been working on has a history that many residents are aware of. It was built in the early 1900s by an elderly banker who married late in life. He had it built for his new bride and wanted it to be a show piece home. At the time it was considered the nicest house in town. Subsequent owners made some really crappy modifications to it and the house was not properly maintained. Vandals & thieves did further damage. When I bought the house it was in sad shape but I believed that it had the potential to once again become one of the nicest houses in town.

Unfortunately the vandalism and thefts remained a persistent problem even as I worked on improvements. Despite the setbacks we've still made progress. What pisses me off is that the city officials have gone out of their way to shield the vandals from prosecution and instead consider the property owners to be at fault. In some cases we know that some of the offspring of council members were doing the vandalism.

I'm sure that if we did move in there's a good chance the vandalism would go away. - But my cars and shop are elsewhere and I am so sick and tired of the concept of having my life and lifestyle controlled by lawbreakers and arrogant government officials. I think that if I had a reputation for being one mean (don't F with me) S.O.B., I'd have a lot less problems. Maybe I should rent it out to a biker gang.
 
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Contact the state attorney and have them issue a diciest against the city.
Get the newspapers involved with every member of city counsel and mayor names out.
It took the state to get involved to make Clarksburg WV to stop their same exact BS.
 
FINALLY!! - Some car news!

There was rain in the forecast again today so I decided to take the day off from the renovation project and go to a car show. It did rain off and on during the day but most of the time it stayed nice. I loaded up the Duster and headed to Schuyler, Nebraska (15 miles away). They had 187 entrants this year. I ran into a bunch of folks I hadn't seen in ages and it was a nice break from the house work.

While I was there I had a custom t-shirt made to match the Duster. The guy making them had a cool Ford Econovan done in full 60's style.

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sireland67 said:
Contact the state attorney and have them issue a diciest against the city.
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sireland67 said:
Get the newspapers involved with every member of city counsel and mayor names out.
It took the state to get involved to make Clarksburg WV to stop their same exact BS.
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Teresa and I have discussed doing all those things you've suggested.

I suspect that if we contacted the newspaper it would then contact the city officials for their side of the story. So far they've been very dishonest and I imagine they'd concoct their own version of what's been going on. They outnumber us and it could turn into a he said/she said situation. They've already shown us that they're adept at twisting the truth. The local townspeople are most familiar with the mayor/city council and would most likely be able to see through any of the BS the officials would try to spin. People from outside that community might not know who to believe.

Teresa has been wanting to hire an attorney for some time but I've been dragging my heels because I know we can't afford it. I've been wanting to wait to see if public opinion would be enough to get them to back off.
 
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