I'm back well sort of?

[azracer]

Ive been away for some time but not without a valid reason. I have been busy first with my wife's injury at work that forced her early retirement. She fell exiting the rear door of her city bus to help a wheel chair passenger up the ramp in front. She lost her footing and ran head long into the fence just past the sidewalk and broke her shoulder socket in four places necessitating a full shoulder replacement. Lets just cut to the chase she was debilitated and needed my help for everything including bathroom duties. After a year off work she was forced to retire at age 64 after 29 years of service. Well she made a reasonably good recovery and started to hound me to retire as well. I finally did and we decided to sell our home in town and move to our retirement home in progress since it was at a point we could move into it. While just doing what we call Glamping. I still have my 2009 PW but it has been a little dinged up over the years However it will be resurrected to like new shortly. So in an attempt to gain forgiveness for my absence I will share a Home Build Montage video that I can only hope will explain my distraction from the PW fun. We started in late 2007 but were hit with the financial collapse in early 2008 that negated our home build loan due to the fact that the bank we used being foreclosed on by the FED. So no more home construction loan. Getting any loans at that point was impossible. We decided we were too far along in this project to give up all our hard work and investment. So we set about to do what ever was necessary to keep our dream alive. We sold our Paid for Motor home RV and refinanced our then paid for home in town. We were also forced to pull our 401k's. Long story short we had a livable but unfinished home in 2021 and sold our home in town. After paying of the note we had about $124,000 in equity. We are now transitioning from a job site toilet and showers in our 28 ft 1975 Avion travel trailer to a septic and full plumbing in the home. We are fully off grid solar on a system I designed and built myself for the home and home build process back in 2007. Some may ask how can you live in an unfinished home without a certificate of occupancy. Well the rub is we have no loans and we are not connected to any public utility's so there is nothing they can do to prevent us from living here! So here is the video I talked about... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnaxmZ0X1X8 You can also use my YouTube ID to see my other videos if you like but I have not kept up with posting any new updates since we have been so busy working to make progress on the build. More build video progress of our home build soon however.

[RustyPW]

Welcome back. Thought that you fell off the face of the earth. Need "packraft" to come back. I no longer have my PW, but still hang out here. Now have a diesel Gladiator Rubicon.

[Bill2014]

Don't we all have too many toys -too little time...

[azracer]

Don't we all have too many toys -too little time...

Please don't forget too little money. We just got our septic done $44,680.00 because we built our home on a rock so it had to be an alternative system that is ultimately regulated by the state just like our well was. We love living up here and at this point wouldn't have it any other way. We are still technically debt free but do have a 2020 Subaru outback payment for 4 more months at 0% like our our Power Wagon was @0% for 60 months in 2009.We are definitely getting a bit slower with age but do our best to earn our keep. The house with no heating or cooling stays below 78 degrees in 109 summer heat and above 63 in winter with 30 degrees or less overnight. We did however get a floor standing window exhaust AC for monsoon humidity issues. We also got a Wave 8 catalytic heater for the wife as her shoulder doesn't like the cold anymore. We only use them in the master bedroom but with no drywall yet it really does the entire house to some extent. We have been paying Home Depot $600.00 a month since 2017 for all our 24 month 0% purchases Like windows, Door and lumber plumbing and electrical. We have leveraged all the 0% buys we made with free upgrades and 10% off with the Veterans discount. Still none of it is what we consider cheap. That is until a 9' wide X 5' tall window that had a small 2' X 3' fixed Pane get broken by a rock from a weed eater. That single fixed glass pane was 85% of the cost of the entire window assembly when purchased new back in 2017 now being repaired in 2024 buy us. Still no home loan or electric bill at all.

[RustyPW]

Don't we all have too many toys -too little time...

Please don't forget too little money. We just got our septic done $44,680.00 because we built our home on a rock so it had to be an alternative system that is ultimately regulated by the state just like our well was. We love living up here and at this point wouldn't have it any other way. We are still technically debt free but do have a 2020 Subaru outback payment for 4 more months at 0% like our our Power Wagon was @0% for 60 months in 2009.We are definitely getting a bit slower with age but do our best to earn our keep. The house with no heating or cooling stays below 78 degrees in 109 summer heat and above 63 in winter with 30 degrees or less overnight. We did however get a floor standing window exhaust AC for monsoon humidity issues. We also got a Wave 8 catalytic heater for the wife as her shoulder doesn't like the cold anymore. We only use them in the master bedroom but with no drywall yet it really does the entire house to some extent. We have been paying Home Depot $600.00 a month since 2017 for all our 24 month 0% purchases Like windows, Door and lumber plumbing and electrical. We have leveraged all the 0% buys we made with free upgrades and 10% off with the Veterans discount. Still none of it is what we consider cheap. That is until a 9' wide X 5' tall window that had a small 2' X 3' fixed Pane get broken by a rock from a weed eater. That single fixed glass pane was 85% of the cost of the entire window assembly when purchased new back in 2017 now being repaired in 2024 buy us. Still no home loan or electric bill at all.

I remember you building your house on top of that hill, and using your PW to help pull the concrete trucks up the hill years ago.

You ever hear from "packraft"?

[Mule007]

Congratulations, sounds like you have been living your dream! Joined in 2016,,,stalked the forum for a year or so b4 joining but have always enjoyed the old time members discussions, comments, expertise, and builds, and PW stories,,,Welcome back & May your trails be kind & your dreams continue!