halloween cruise/ Magic: October 28th-nov..4th 2006

[kritter]

Crash,

You are too funny,,,,

 

[misseulalie]

Hi everyone,

This is Jennifer. I haven't posted in while, too busy with the Med cruise. But...I need to know who ordered the green rubber bracelets for the this past cruise. I want to get them for the Med. cruise.

I need to know what company you used.

Thanks!!!!

Jennifer

 

[captaincrash]

Ok...

Who's hangin' out an' visitin'?

 

[kritter]

HI All,

Jennifer Heather ordered them.. Check with her....


HI Crash, How is everyone???

 

[captaincrash]

Hello...

... been busy with all kinds of things. FIL is responding to therapy... but it is not a cure, just prolongs survival. We're still waiting for the 3rd pathology report form NIH that may give us a conclusive opinion of what we're fighting.

On another note... our friend who had kidney cancer.. and last year had a kidney removed has recently had a scan where suspicious spots were discovered in her lungs. We're waiting and watching these as they may indicate te cancer has spread and the surical removal of the kidney was too late. If so then she's stage 4 and would be lucky to have half a decade. She would be survived by a 1 year old son at current age and spouse. Sad and mildly depressing to us.

Aside from that I have new ideas on how to make additons and enhancements to our home... in fact... so many new ideas I have too many good approaches too settle on any one again!

And, we did not hit the Mega Million jackpot! RATS!!! I bpught 5 picks so the net odds of a hit should have been 1 in 35,200,000 for me... and I was SOOOOoooo looking forward to winning! <chuckles> Like I need it seein' as we're already sort of semi-retired anyways. Well... we're always game for games... eh?

Oh yeah... I bought a spare HDTV a couple of days ago. Best Buy in our area had a clearnace event and I caught it as they were settin' it up. Although it was only a 30" screen... the original list price was about 899... and they last were selling it at $599. They then were clearancing this old model at $399 with a $200 Best Buy gift card. I engaged in some light negotiation and they upped the gift card to $250 making the net cost of the TV only $149. It's so cheap its' laughable. I paid for it using a $500 Best Buy gift card which Alicia's company gave us so my getting a $250 Best Buy gift card back was a non-concession. They obviously gave gift cards bundled with their deals so as to tie up more money with them. This had no effect on us though.

And is there anything new fer you and whatever is up in hour neck of the woods? Hope all is well. Are you ready to book for one of the new Disney ships? We're ready and egar for it!

Cheers...

 

[kritter]

Hello...

... been busy with all kinds of things. FIL is responding to therapy... but it is not a cure, just prolongs survival. We're still waiting for the 3rd pathology report form NIH that may give us a conclusive opinion of what we're fighting.

On another note... our friend who had kidney cancer.. and last year had a kidney removed has recently had a scan where suspicious spots were discovered in her lungs. We're waiting and watching these as they may indicate te cancer has spread and the surical removal of the kidney was too late. If so then she's stage 4 and would be lucky to have half a decade. She would be survived by a 1 year old son at current age and spouse. Sad and mildly depressing to us.

Aside from that I have new ideas on how to make additons and enhancements to our home... in fact... so many new ideas I have too many good approaches too settle on any one again!

And, we did not hit the Mega Million jackpot! RATS!!! I bpught 5 picks so the net odds of a hit should have been 1 in 35,200,000 for me... and I was SOOOOoooo looking forward to winning! <chuckles> Like I need it seein' as we're already sort of semi-retired anyways. Well... we're always game for games... eh?

Oh yeah... I bought a spare HDTV a couple of days ago. Best Buy in our area had a clearnace event and I caught it as they were settin' it up. Although it was only a 30" screen... the original list price was about 899... and they last were selling it at $599. They then were clearancing this old model at $399 with a $200 Best Buy gift card. I engaged in some light negotiation and they upped the gift card to $250 making the net cost of the TV only $149. It's so cheap its' laughable. I paid for it using a $500 Best Buy gift card which Alicia's company gave us so my getting a $250 Best Buy gift card back was a non-concession. They obviously gave gift cards bundled with their deals so as to tie up more money with them. This had no effect on us though.

And is there anything new fer you and whatever is up in hour neck of the woods? Hope all is well. Are you ready to book for one of the new Disney ships? We're ready and egar for it!

Cheers...

Tom,

Sooo sorry to hear about your friend.

Glad to hear Alicia's father is doing ok too..

I am very happy that you got the HDTV. Bruce is very happy with his home theatre room. Where did you put the TV. You always seem to find the "deals."

Have you already faxed in your request for the new ship??

Tell us more about your rennovations?

Kristin

 

[captaincrash]

Tom,

Sooo sorry to hear about your friend.

Glad to hear Alicia's father is doing ok too..

I am very happy that you got the HDTV. Bruce is very happy with his home theatre room. Where did you put the TV. You always seem to find the "deals."

Have you already faxed in your request for the new ship??

Tell us more about your rennovations?

Kristin

Naww....

We have NOT faxed in any requests for the new ship yet. I like to have some basic "value" standards. And I suspect the new ship will cost a pretty penny. As much as I enjoy and the type of crowd it attracts (folks with kids plus conservative standards and down to earth tastes for the most part) - I am "game" for a change of port rotation (we've done 5 of the last 5 plus one future planned cruises on DCL; IE 5 of 6). SO I am very interested in new port rotations - and DCL is getting pricey enough that we can begin to compare them against the like of a "value" timed Crystal Cruise... almost <chuckles>. Certainly we can sail Celebrity - which I have never done before - and as I've posted before - the readers of Conte Naste have consistently rated the Celebrity fleet ships as top notch in most catagories. Maybe this is just convenient manipulation - since the usual Disney or Carnival enthusiast does NOT read Conde Naste Travel Magazine - IE - a survey conducted by friends and past guests of Celebrity.

At any rate, we will be interested in the new ships - but I wanna see the pricing structure 1st - and I am almost CERTAIN the new ships will have pricing that results in probable sticker shock. I can retire fully right now but not if I maintain a standard of expenditure that is not too .... excessive. The more we continue to save enables greater comfort if engages in REAL retirement... plus we're thinking of buying homes for our daughters... or earmarked for them to resell some day to apply the proceeds towards purchase of their first homes. However, if they do then they will LOSE the property tax discounts secured if they do so though if they upgrade. In California we have statutes/codes (?) which lock in our original property tax purchase points close to our purchase points - as the amount of any changes in property taxes cannot increase beyond by a certain amount annually - and that amount of change is very very small compared to the changes we've historically enjoied in appreciation. So - long ago this mechanism enables greater DEMAND for housing in California which is invisible to those outside wondering why on earth anyone would pay so much. While in other parts of the country we see folks complaining about a doubling of valuations AND of their property taxes...

Besides... I wanna sail Europe - Med and Northern routes. Never been in the north before. I wanna do river cruise in Europe too. Then I wanna sail in the Middle East and Far East ... but the only "safe" choices are the pricey cruise lines like Crystal and Regent, or Silverseas for big ship... and for small ship like Seabourne or??? I simply would not consider those big enough to be "safe". Yeah... a couple hundred multimiionaires on a small ship are easy prey for a team of terrorists... but a thousand well to do folks on a 70,000 ton ship is another matter.

As for home additions... My compromise solution would be to GIVE UP my home theater and the Master bedroom sitting room and keep the Master bath expansion, the 18x9 walk in closet, and sweeten the 10x10 4th bedroom expansion to a final size of 19x13. THAT 4th bedroom could be my home theater... but that would drop our effective bedroom number to 3... leaving the 4th as a possible convertible with recessed murphy bed for guests and maybe recessed home office stations... that would make for a 19x10 walking area... sufficient for a home theater, eh? AND the living room would get a modest 5x20 "bump out" to lengthen it - and we would defer the kitchen bump out and rennovation.

BIG permited rennovations trigger one time property tax bumps. The savings on rennovating versus moving to a 1.2M home that would have a lot of these desired changes (with probably the added benefit of superior location and age - things we CANNOT CHANGE) would add an estimated $6-7,000 a year in property taxes in PERPETUITY. That could be savings of $150-200,000 over the next 20 years alone ... enough to set aside money towards purchase of another HOME from one POV! We have the power to SAVE this money if we sacrifice the age and location of the structure - and try to change our layout with restriction to our existing lot size and so on.

I figure the revised concept adds only 400-500' - depending on whether we bump out the living room - or not. This actually avoids engineering the hillside in BACK (not the tiny slope on the SIDE of the house). And this goes a long way towards preserving the appearance of the home and the size of our back yard. Plus... I was thinking I could later build a little cabanna in back this way. It would be a detatched building of about 150 sq feet that could serve as a place for a guest to stay - or a place for the girls to play in. OR even it might serve as a home office or....??? The cabanna has to be small to escape the planning department and zoning requirements which would force me to excavate the hillside AND push the cabanna to become a physical part of my home.

At any rate... nothing is being thought about for remodeling until our health crisis resolves somewhat with family members. Or until we come to firmer terms with whats' going on. PLUS... I was beginning to think we might have an easier time of it if we simply built a 2nd story over half our home. If I enclose the central atrium and put a grand staircase in part of it this would add an easy 1500-1700' to the home and still bump out a little on the side for another 100'. The existing Master bedroom would make a for nice home theater and we would have to figure out what to do with the master bath and walk in closet. That would probably OVERBUILD it for the neighborhood... but so what? The total area of our home would be 3700-3900 feet... and the new homes in this size for the area are going for more money then I would expect to get for my home if rennovated as such and resold today. HOWEVER... what the casual observer fails to realize is that I would in fact get my money out (barely) on the step up in resale value. Simply because there ARE homes in my community which are well above the value of my 3700-3900' home - however, those homes are worth every penny as they are brand new with fresh design and the matching neighbors. Who knows... the big rennovation would be the BEST approach because it would enable almost everything while preserving all of the land as open space. It would also be the cleanest appearance out front from the street. Maybe my idea of rennovation with a 1500' addition would be the wave of the future in regentrifying the neighborhood, eh? Either that or I'd be the only fool in the zip code to overbuild. And the one thing that holds me back is we don't have a prime LOCATION within the community. We just visited with neighbors who are doing a huge remodel/addition like the one I described above - but not adding as much square footage. They have a really gorgous job being done.

Anyways... that thought on a 2nd story came about from my SPOUSE! That was unexpected.

OK... gonna go now... hope all is well for you.

 

[kritter]

Crash,

I will be interested too in the pricing structure too but I am open to anything at this point...


Sounds the home improvements will make your house awesome.

What else have you been up to these days. Things are not quite the same without hearing from you...

 

[captaincrash]

Well...

... you may not like hearing this... but we are stil;l feeling kind of entrenched or threatened... because Alicia's closest cousin in Hawaii just had her Dad (our Uncle) pass. He had a brins anurism (misspelled) for no reason (no impact, no symptoms) and he just fell over and passed away. He lives alone so he had no chance for being saved. We're waiting for final arrangement info to see if we'll fly out or send one of us to attend.

Aside from that - we also just had our two mini-vacations sort of cancel out. We were gonna meet our BIL from Boston in VT at Smugglers Creek or something like that to Ski... but the season ends supossedly 2 weeks before we can get there (with our schedule). And then with the passing of our Uncle the skiing planned for Mammorth here in California with all the cousines is officially suspended. SO we are back to a year with lots of vacation time and no plans. Of course, we were planning on saving all of our vacation time to spend with her Dad if he did not respond to the medication and theraphy.

At any rate... on another note - I am installing a new mailbox out front. I am feeling somewhat "empowered" as a handy husband as a result. TOmorrow I pour this tiny little pad of cement and let it cure a couple of days - then we have a brand new - improved - more secured / locking mailbox. And... I just sold $500 in Laker tickets for $660 ... giving us a net profit of about $100... WOOoooo Hooooo.

So - it's nice of ya to suggest my conversation is missed. It makes me feel appreciated a bit. My spouse is a little bit edgy... and she gets this way when unhappy things of some significant merit occur or threaten. She was particularly edgy when we were in a state of uncertainty with her Dad.

So... what is is going on... Alicia bought 40 jars of Ragu for a $1 a jar the other day... and I am in a serious mood for going out an' gettin' a very nice meal. I need to be served and I wanna see a nice concert or play. We have Wicked coming up in about 9 weeks but it's not soon enough.

TTFN....

 

[kritter]

Well...

... you may not like hearing this... but we are stil;l feeling kind of entrenched or threatened... because Alicia's closest cousin in Hawaii just had her Dad (our Uncle) pass. He had a brins anurism (misspelled) for no reason (no impact, no symptoms) and he just fell over and passed away. He lives alone so he had no chance for being saved. We're waiting for final arrangement info to see if we'll fly out or send one of us to attend.

Aside from that - we also just had our two mini-vacations sort of cancel out. We were gonna meet our BIL from Boston in VT at Smugglers Creek or something like that to Ski... but the season ends supossedly 2 weeks before we can get there (with our schedule). And then with the passing of our Uncle the skiing planned for Mammorth here in California with all the cousines is officially suspended. SO we are back to a year with lots of vacation time and no plans. Of course, we were planning on saving all of our vacation time to spend with her Dad if he did not respond to the medication and theraphy.

At any rate... on another note - I am installing a new mailbox out front. I am feeling somewhat "empowered" as a handy husband as a result. TOmorrow I pour this tiny little pad of cement and let it cure a couple of days - then we have a brand new - improved - more secured / locking mailbox. And... I just sold $500 in Laker tickets for $660 ... giving us a net profit of about $100... WOOoooo Hooooo.

So - it's nice of ya to suggest my conversation is missed. It makes me feel appreciated a bit. My spouse is a little bit edgy... and she gets this way when unhappy things of some significant merit occur or threaten. She was particularly edgy when we were in a state of uncertainty with her Dad.

So... what is is going on... Alicia bought 40 jars of Ragu for a $1 a jar the other day... and I am in a serious mood for going out an' gettin' a very nice meal. I need to be served and I wanna see a nice concert or play. We have Wicked coming up in about 9 weeks but it's not soon enough.

TTFN....

Tom,

Well Alicia seems to have every right to be kind of out of sorts... Guess you will be eating a ton of pasta now...

Good luck with the mail box. Let me know how it comes out..Sure I can get you to take a few photos of it...LOL!!!!!!!

 

[captaincrash]

Tom,

Well Alicia seems to have every right to be kind of out of sorts... Guess you will be eating a ton of pasta now...

Good luck with the mail box. Let me know how it comes out..Sure I can get you to take a few photos of it...LOL!!!!!!!

I had an annoying computer failure. My notebook was compormised by a virus or viscious spyware program and it DIED. I then tried to get the new desktop we bought for the kids to hook up to the internet while I waited for my friend to recover some of my data before he WIPES and reimages the notebook hard drive... alas, the kids computer has an administrators password which "I" set - and "I" ... forgot! So - I have an escape route - I can reset the password on the administrators access - except I need to get a USB disc on key which I just dug up. And I am now traveling and at a hotel using my spouses' computer - and I was disrupted by a one day fever on one of the kids - AND so on. Tomorrow I hope to get around to setting up the decktop to access the wifi gateway with the antenna I have to install - once I've reset the administrators access password.

Other than that - I have not had a chance to download my mailbox photos - those shall come along shortly!

Hope all is well with your family. Had a good week - picked up an extra $12K on a personal sale. Bruce will know what I'm talking about. I should get it all on one check next week or the week after. Chuckles... with the $ on hand my friends ask me why I don't just pitch the old notebook and bu someting new and powerful. I chuckle and reaffirm that I am NOT going to relent on my frugal ways. Besides, I still hunting after another house or two to buy for my kids (even though they're only 3 and 6). I figure it'll be cheaper to preposition some real estate now then wait 15-25 years to help them with a down payment. Shoot - in 15-20 years a rental property should be paid off and throwing off cash to help with college and advanced educational expenses. Then - if necessary it can be rolled into their first home where-ever they choose to live (hopefully - not too far from Mom and Dad or a major airport with cheap airfares from LAX!).

So - I will not relent on continuing to use my old virus infected notebook computer from 2-3 years ago. I was gonna buy a new motherboard for it becaue the power plug was damaged after it was dropped - but now I may have found a technician who will change the power plug on the board for $80. Which is less then paying BEST BUYs' technician to do it for $225 or... buy a new motherboard from DeLL for $950. I could buy a motherboard on EBAY for $120-280 too - but this is a toss of the dice for a refurb board. The simplist approach is to just fix the plug at the low cost of $80. I revel in being frugal and efficient... (most of the time).... <chuckles>

 

[kritter]

Crash,

You never seem to surprise or amaze me...

Computer trouble is never fun and is a major inconvience..Hoep it gets worked out sooner than later.

Congrats on the extra 12K I will have to let Bruce know...

Hope everyone is ok health wise!!!!!

I had an annoying computer failure. My notebook was compormised by a virus or viscious spyware program and it DIED. I then tried to get the new desktop we bought for the kids to hook up to the internet while I waited for my friend to recover some of my data before he WIPES and reimages the notebook hard drive... alas, the kids computer has an administrators password which "I" set - and "I" ... forgot! So - I have an escape route - I can reset the password on the administrators access - except I need to get a USB disc on key which I just dug up. And I am now traveling and at a hotel using my spouses' computer - and I was disrupted by a one day fever on one of the kids - AND so on. Tomorrow I hope to get around to setting up the decktop to access the wifi gateway with the antenna I have to install - once I've reset the administrators access password.

Other than that - I have not had a chance to download my mailbox photos - those shall come along shortly!

Hope all is well with your family. Had a good week - picked up an extra $12K on a personal sale. Bruce will know what I'm talking about. I should get it all on one check next week or the week after. Chuckles... with the $ on hand my friends ask me why I don't just pitch the old notebook and bu someting new and powerful. I chuckle and reaffirm that I am NOT going to relent on my frugal ways. Besides, I still hunting after another house or two to buy for my kids (even though they're only 3 and 6). I figure it'll be cheaper to preposition some real estate now then wait 15-25 years to help them with a down payment. Shoot - in 15-20 years a rental property should be paid off and throwing off cash to help with college and advanced educational expenses. Then - if necessary it can be rolled into their first home where-ever they choose to live (hopefully - not too far from Mom and Dad or a major airport with cheap airfares from LAX!).

So - I will not relent on continuing to use my old virus infected notebook computer from 2-3 years ago. I was gonna buy a new motherboard for it becaue the power plug was damaged after it was dropped - but now I may have found a technician who will change the power plug on the board for $80. Which is less then paying BEST BUYs' technician to do it for $225 or... buy a new motherboard from DeLL for $950. I could buy a motherboard on EBAY for $120-280 too - but this is a toss of the dice for a refurb board. The simplist approach is to just fix the plug at the low cost of $80. I revel in being frugal and efficient... (most of the time).... <chuckles>

 

[captaincrash]

Crash,

You never seem to surprise or amaze me...

Computer trouble is never fun and is a major inconvience..Hoep it gets worked out sooner than later.

Congrats on the extra 12K I will have to let Bruce know...

Hope everyone is ok health wise!!!!!

Yeah...

It's like I write one sale every year or two - and this past transaction was maybe it - except I have a follow on referral that will generate another 2.5-4K (a relative). I guess I'll do it too.

Anyways... I don't know if I mentionede my latest hair brained whim... I was thiking of PERSONALLY building a cabana in our back yard. IF we were NOT gonna push off the back side of the house then I could build a tiny studio/play room for the kids. I'm gonna level with you because I invite any opinions from ANYONE reading this... but it has to be 100 square feet or less and be 12' high or less. I am suppposedly not to have any power/water/sewage or gas lines run out to it - but I intend to have at least power run out to it. I HAD been toying with the idea of pouring a concrete foundation that overflowed to a 50' front and rear patio which COULD be enclosed some day to provide for a little closet space and a bathroom. BUT this would have made it totally out of compliance - and I heard zoning and the city could force me to tear it down. I don't want that! But talking to the planning guys - they said if I did ust power it would skate by - so long as everything else fit size wise. What do you think?

 

[kritter]

Yeah...

It's like I write one sale every year or two - and this past transaction was maybe it - except I have a follow on referral that will generate another 2.5-4K (a relative). I guess I'll do it too.

Anyways... I don't know if I mentionede my latest hair brained whim... I was thiking of PERSONALLY building a cabana in our back yard. IF we were NOT gonna push off the back side of the house then I could build a tiny studio/play room for the kids. I'm gonna level with you because I invite any opinions from ANYONE reading this... but it has to be 100 square feet or less and be 12' high or less. I am suppposedly not to have any power/water/sewage or gas lines run out to it - but I intend to have at least power run out to it. I HAD been toying with the idea of pouring a concrete foundation that overflowed to a 50' front and rear patio which COULD be enclosed some day to provide for a little closet space and a bathroom. BUT this would have made it totally out of compliance - and I heard zoning and the city could force me to tear it down. I don't want that! But talking to the planning guys - they said if I did ust power it would skate by - so long as everything else fit size wise. What do you think?

The cabana sounds neat. Do you have a pool out back.. Well of course you do..

I am sure there is some way you could get around compliance??
Do you have the time though to take on such a large project??
Just a few thoughts/questions..Sorry...

 

[captaincrash]

Well,

Actually we don't... and that is because we have a huge pool with the Homeowners' association and... we don't want the liability or upkeep. We have had homes with a pool... and we have a rental with a pool which we actually filled in. We have however considered putting in a lap pool or maybe one of those pools with an adjustable current for working out. But that's mostly talk. The cabana is more a play house and possible pocket sized office or ??? for us. It would fit under compliance with the city at 100'. That's not very large - so I was going to have a pull out wall that took a preplanned adjoining patio and overhanging roof to expand it another 40-50'. At 140-150 this would be a nice sized play area or office.

But ya know what... I think I've been scaling thins down a bit as we are still in the "think it over" stage of what direction we'll take. The cabana would ot effect any main house additions provided we did not push straight back - which is now the plan. And - this would keep me busy.

So - can I do it? I think so. How hard could it be? <fameous last words, eh>.

OK gotta go now...

 

[kritter]

Well,

Actually we don't... and that is because we have a huge pool with the Homeowners' association and... we don't want the liability or upkeep. We have had homes with a pool... and we have a rental with a pool which we actually filled in. We have however considered putting in a lap pool or maybe one of those pools with an adjustable current for working out. But that's mostly talk. The cabana is more a play house and possible pocket sized office or ??? for us. It would fit under compliance with the city at 100'. That's not very large - so I was going to have a pull out wall that took a preplanned adjoining patio and overhanging roof to expand it another 40-50'. At 140-150 this would be a nice sized play area or office.

But ya know what... I think I've been scaling thins down a bit as we are still in the "think it over" stage of what direction we'll take. The cabana would ot effect any main house additions provided we did not push straight back - which is now the plan. And - this would keep me busy.

So - can I do it? I think so. How hard could it be? <fameous last words, eh>.

OK gotta go now...

Sounds like you have a lot to think about like always...LOL!!!
Be glad that you don't have the upkeep of a pool. It is a ton of work..

Would you do the work for the cabana yourself or what???

 

[captaincrash]

Sounds like you have a lot to think about like always...LOL!!!
Be glad that you don't have the upkeep of a pool. It is a ton of work..

Would you do the work for the cabana yourself or what???

Well...

This is how it works out... toorrow I'm gonna confirm that I can get away, er - rather comply with the CC&R for the HOA out here. I already know it's gonna be OK with the city. And if so - then I could start preparing the site on Wednesday or Thursday. I would do everything except mix and pour the concrete foundation, and run the electrical and water line.

This means I plan on doing the wiring, plumbing inside the cabana and I would build the foundation forms (molds) and set up the rebarb array for the concrete. Aside from that - the only things I am a little owrried about are how to handle some of the fine craftsman details for the stair case I want to build and the telescoping wall.

So - tonight we went out for supper and a local street fair. Along the way we stopped at a couple of businesses that sold "sheds" and playground equipment. Of particular interest were a couple of cabana type structures and fair tale like play houses. I suggested so and so a building was near the scale of what I would build and this and that had design elements that I liked. The kids loved the ideas I had - as for the next 10 years it would really be for them to play in for the most part. And after 10 years passes it would revert to our use more or less.

So - tomorrow I'll pour through the CC&R contract and by-laws in detail to see what restrictions I have on making a building. If I am forbidden to do it - then I'll do it anyway. HOWEVER... it will not involve anything near the quality, size and permanence that I am thinking of employing now. IE, if I get caught and forced to tear it down then I'll just be out a couple of K at the most. However, if I build a near permanent full sized cabana then I'll committ a lot more effort and money to the structure.

But even so ... I am thinking this will be a fun little exercise that should take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month plus a little to complete. Among the minor details I've worked out are the loft will have a kid sized 46" peak and minimum of 34" at the perimeter. The main floor will have a full interior area of just 117 square feet (less roughly 12 square feet taken by a petite stairway... unless I use a pull down stairway) and the loft would have 63 square feet plus a 36 square foot balcony. Yup... in a lot of ways it is more then enough to be kid sized. And in other ways it is barely enough to serve as a cozy little cabana.

I already have about $2000 in windows on hand to install - and if I don't use 'em for this I'll be lookin' to intergrate them into ...

... I have to pause to interject now... I am watching a show that copares what you get for various dollar levels between Austin, Baltimore, and Los Angeles with a home. For 1KK you get 4,000 square feet on 1.5 acres custom full spec built home... and in Baltimore it's less ... and in LA a little less. I pause to think about a couple of homes we looked at in our neighborhood above and below 1KK and I don't have to wonder why I am thinking of doing an expansion. Only - it is such a difficult decision as to whether we kick out on one side to just add a little under 500' or cap the house with a 2nd story and near 1600-1800'. A 2n story would force us to move out while a kick out would not. We would NOT be able to do both easily. AND - regardless of which we eventually build... my cabana would NOT interfere with the planning or zoning litimtations and rules... assuming our HOA CC&Rs are OK with my plans.

Anyways... these photos give some idea of what I wanna build...

And here's something being sold as a kit at Costco.com for $9300... it has a 64 square foot exterior dimension with a loft of some unknown size. This would be easy to buy and build but I would have little utility for this beyond it being a playhouse. On the other hand my idea of building to the limit allowed at 100 sq feet on the exterior base (81 sq foot interior area). Add to this the additional attic/loft with approximately 63 sq feet with a 34-46" cieling and a extra 36 sq foot from the secret pull out wall which matches up under the 36 sq foot balcony extending from the loft. So... what I'm building has a total exterior area of 100-140 sq feet which translates into interior floor space of 81+36 = 117 sq feet plus the 63 sq foot loft and 36 sq foot exterior balcony. That is almost like having 180 sq feet under a roof versus 64' wih the Costco playouse for $9300. And I don't expect thatt the Costco structure is going to be finished with a concrete foundation, 6" thick insulated walls, roof and 6" thick loft floor... or regular residential grade windows and front door? Not to mention in wall power, water, TV, sound, air con & heat, plus closed circuit security alarm & monitoring. But thier design sure looks pretty...

 

[kritter]

Well...

This is how it works out... toorrow I'm gonna confirm that I can get away, er - rather comply with the CC&R for the HOA out here. I already know it's gonna be OK with the city. And if so - then I could start preparing the site on Wednesday or Thursday. I would do everything except mix and pour the concrete foundation, and run the electrical and water line.

This means I plan on doing the wiring, plumbing inside the cabana and I would build the foundation forms (molds) and set up the rebarb array for the concrete. Aside from that - the only things I am a little owrried about are how to handle some of the fine craftsman details for the stair case I want to build and the telescoping wall.

So - tonight we went out for supper and a local street fair. Along the way we stopped at a couple of businesses that sold "sheds" and playground equipment. Of particular interest were a couple of cabana type structures and fair tale like play houses. I suggested so and so a building was near the scale of what I would build and this and that had design elements that I liked. The kids loved the ideas I had - as for the next 10 years it would really be for them to play in for the most part. And after 10 years passes it would revert to our use more or less.

So - tomorrow I'll pour through the CC&R contract and by-laws in detail to see what restrictions I have on making a building. If I am forbidden to do it - then I'll do it anyway. HOWEVER... it will not involve anything near the quality, size and permanence that I am thinking of employing now. IE, if I get caught and forced to tear it down then I'll just be out a couple of K at the most. However, if I build a near permanent full sized cabana then I'll committ a lot more effort and money to the structure.

But even so ... I am thinking this will be a fun little exercise that should take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month plus a little to complete. Among the minor details I've worked out are the loft will have a kid sized 46" peak and minimum of 34" at the perimeter. The main floor will have a full interior area of just 117 square feet (less roughly 12 square feet taken by a petite stairway... unless I use a pull down stairway) and the loft would have 63 square feet plus a 36 square foot balcony. Yup... in a lot of ways it is more then enough to be kid sized. And in other ways it is barely enough to serve as a cozy little cabana.

I already have about $2000 in windows on hand to install - and if I don't use 'em for this I'll be lookin' to intergrate them into ...

... I have to pause to interject now... I am watching a show that copares what you get for various dollar levels between Austin, Baltimore, and Los Angeles with a home. For 1KK you get 4,000 square feet on 1.5 acres custom full spec built home... and in Baltimore it's less ... and in LA a little less. I pause to think about a couple of homes we looked at in our neighborhood above and below 1KK and I don't have to wonder why I am thinking of doing an expansion. Only - it is such a difficult decision as to whether we kick out on one side to just add a little under 500' or cap the house with a 2nd story and near 1600-1800'. A 2n story would force us to move out while a kick out would not. We would NOT be able to do both easily. AND - regardless of which we eventually build... my cabana would NOT interfere with the planning or zoning litimtations and rules... assuming our HOA CC&Rs are OK with my plans.

Anyways... these photos give some idea of what I wanna build...

And here's something being sold as a kit at Costco.com for $9300... it has a 64 square foot exterior dimension with a loft of some unknown size. This would be easy to buy and build but I would have little utility for this beyond it being a playhouse. On the other hand my idea of building to the limit allowed at 100 sq feet on the exterior base (81 sq foot interior area). Add to this the additional attic/loft with approximately 63 sq feet with a 34-46" cieling and a extra 36 sq foot from the secret pull out wall which matches up under the 36 sq foot balcony extending from the loft. So... what I'm building has a total exterior area of 100-140 sq feet which translates into interior floor space of 81+36 = 117 sq feet plus the 63 sq foot loft and 36 sq foot exterior balcony. That is almost like having 180 sq feet under a roof versus 64' wih the Costco playouse for $9300. And I don't expect thatt the Costco structure is going to be finished with a concrete foundation, 6" thick insulated walls, roof and 6" thick loft floor... or regular residential grade windows and front door? Not to mention in wall power, water, TV, sound, air con & heat, plus closed circuit security alarm & monitoring. But thier design sure looks pretty...

LOVE IT....Love how it is going to look. THe kids will love it and so will you and Alicia...

I can not believe you have the time to take to work on such a "large" construction project. Good for you..

It will bring such value to your home and years and years of enjoyment.

Keep me updated on the progress you make...

Have you decided if you will be cruising this year or not. My TA just emailed me that my onboard credit went up again... She also was able to get me and a few others in on a "group"rate so that has brought our cruise cost down and offered us a few other perks. Such as a private cocktail reception, etc.. So she has been wonderful..

Good luck on your adventure.....Kristin

 

[captaincrash]

LOVE IT....Love how it is going to look. THe kids will love it and so will you and Alicia...

I can not believe you have the time to take to work on such a "large" construction project. Good for you..

It will bring such value to your home and years and years of enjoyment.

Keep me updated on the progress you make...

Have you decided if you will be cruising this year or not. My TA just emailed me that my onboard credit went up again... She also was able to get me and a few others in on a "group"rate so that has brought our cruise cost down and offered us a few other perks. Such as a private cocktail reception, etc.. So she has been wonderful..

Good luck on your adventure.....Kristin

Well...

... just a few quick comments (by my verbose stamdards) cuz I gotta run some errands before 9PM...

The HOA just requires we submit our design plans for approval by the archetechtural (gross misspelling) panel.... and they generally want the look to be professional and NOT rentable or usable as a bedroom - same as the city. So - it looks like we're ON! And I have a few details to review before I draw up plans and finalize the look and layout - as well as the positioning in the yard.

HOWEVER, that said... the spouse and I are getting into a snowball situation with us NOW drawing up a coplete wish list of what to rennovate or build. And we'll choose what should be first, second and so on. So - my little cabanna/play house may slip to a secondary priority.

Aside from that - we are in the middle of schsduleing a 2 or 3 week trip to Honolulu to be near her parents. They're doing sort of OK... well, Dad is doing well considering the circumstances. And we are planning for August in Honolulu now. It starts at only $2900 for 4 on United - staying at the Queen Kapiolani for 2 weeks - and this includes a rental car for a week and transfers. Of course, we're gonna step up a little in hotel - but we're not there to really vacation - but to be near the parents for a few weeks.

As for any cruises this year... I don't know. We usually do 1 or 2 every year for the last decade and a half or so... and if we don't sail in 07 then this will be the first time we've skipped in about 13-14 years! Alicia has 6 weeks of company vacation (or 5?) plus the regular national holidays and a few flex days for being sick - which she almost never uses. So - she is flush with potential time off.

But - as you know - we're hoarding vacation time for urgent travel needs.

So - we're gonna have to wait and see how health matters evolve before we committ to anything fun this year. When were you sailing? Your TA sounds pretty impressive - maybe I should try booking with him/her. I am already committed to the Panama canal with the other TA though so out of consideration I should not transfer that res.

At any rate - so much for draftin' a short reply... <chuckles>.... I gotta run now....