JIM73240Z

there is something like that here in the phoenix area. it is like a time share condo. i think it is 8k for a 2 weeks of driving around in an exotic. 15k for 3 weeks and 20k for 4. they have ferarri, lambos, astin martins, lotus, maserati, jags, merc, ect. all of the new models jimbo

Trust NO ONE!!! Just take your best educated guess, hire inpsectors, and sue if they f-up. unfortunatly that seem to be the way it is no days. i try really hard not to throw anyone under the bus, just say it should have been done like this and try to remedy the situation. i always put it in the perspective of "if it was my _______, what would i do." but looking at things in this instance i am the bearer of bad news. i have told her what needs to happen but i think she is finally getting it. pop, unless you live in a super small town, there has got to be contractors around. check some of the local developments and look for buildings that are being built, walk them and look at the job. common sence can tell you alot about hte quality. price is another thing altogether. some contractors use only their little group of subs for concrete, framing ect. that can drive up the price. remodels usually cost around $100-$150 per square foot. 1000 sq. ft. addition = 100k. you can do some of the work yourself (paint, drywall, flooring) but the sticks, bricks, and elect should be done by someone qualified. you can save some money there. also ask around, check personal refrences of work that the contractor has done. BBB is a good place to start, but if a client hesitates to recommend a builder, more research is needed. it may not be the builder but the homeowner was a complete PITA and pissed off the contractor. jimbo

it sounds like the homeowner is going in that direction. i can only give them sugestions as to possible fixes. the final decision needs to be theirs as we are not a law firm and "cannot advise on legal matters". this has cost the homeowner $30K on top of what they have to spend to fix it. no permits were issued which i gave her an ear full on that topic. stupid owners. try to get around some thing s and it could end up costing a lot more. in this case, A LOT MORE. jimbo

Stupid contractors – rant I know there are a lot of really stupid people in the world. I think it just so happens that the majority of them work in the construction industry. I have also seen some of the most intelligent individuals in the same field; they just are not around that often. Case in point. I am a structural engineer by day and design multi-million dollar homes for people that have to much bloody money, by night. I received a phone call last week to inspect a house that someone was working on. The homeowners live in a 30 year old block home. The wife (interior designer) wants more volume in the rooms. So she hires a contractor to vault the ceilings. The contractor goes ahead and cuts the trusses apart and leaves them dangling. From the outside, you can see the roof sagging. A lot. He has removed so much structural members that I would not walk into a room with the owner. Bearing walls removed with nothing to hold up what needs to be held up. I am sure that made here feel really good about her selection of contractors. He is now pleading with me to make what he did work. All it would be is a band aid over a compound fracture. Now the owner has to replace the entire roof, trusses, decking, tile, insulation, mechanical, electrical wiring because it all ran inside of the trusses. I have to refrain from saying “fire that guy and sue him for damagesâ€. It is not my position to do so and I hate this sue crazy society that we live in, but I would if it was my call. I know this happens in other parts of the country, but here in AZ, the development had expanded so fast that there are no good contractors anymore that the average person can afford. So now we have to deal with the hacks. All I can say, for anyone who will build something to their house, get a decent set of plans, hire a competent contractor and watch the work as it progresses. You can tell if it does not look right by using something called “common senseâ€. I know, I know. That is not taught in college and I guess it is not passed down from one generation to the next. sorry, been a long day. i am sure that the saga will continue tommorrow. jimbo

and you have got to wonder what gates was like in his younger years. it tends to be that the nerds in high school that most make fun of become your boss later. the high school quarter back is lost in his hey days and at the reunion is a janitor or something in the same town. paybacks are a bitch:grin: . jimbo

at least then they learn how to click another type of mouse:wink: insert tab "A" into slot "B". jimbo

a couple of my clients came into the office yesterday and said that they were in line at midnight on the first day. i always give them a hard time about being nerds. granted they are married and have kids, but all they talk about is the new games that are coming out in 2010 and all of the new video cards and processor speeds of their computers. "i am not a nerd, but i felt kind of funny standing in line at midnight for a game with people i recongnized from camping out in front of the movie theater for star wars III." dude. you are a nerd. i got stuck on diablo II but i did not blow off girls like those guys did for a game. whatever floats your boat i guess. check out silkroadonline.com. similar to WOW but no subcriptions. been playing for a while off and on. jimbo

for a while i had a ml55 amg. i had it in the shop and was checking out some of the newer stuff and took out the same car, v12 bi turbo. the sales guy said stab it and i hit the throttle, 150 mph at the bottom of the on ramp to the interstate. woops. to rich for my blood but i think that thre are a lot of guys here that have their z's as quick or quicker for a fraction. the suede headliner was nice though:-D . jimbo

my mom got to watch an episode of cecile the sea sick sea serpant. she watched it as a kid. i did not get it. jimbo

animated cartoon - i am tied with wil-e-coyote and marvin the martian strip cartoon would be bill the cat. jimbo

check this out go figures it is in arizona. place is full of wierd anti gov groups. i went to a gun show at the fairgrounds a few years ago to find an old 19th century black powder rifle for the old man. you walk through the ticket booth and they want you to check in your firearm. i am all for the right to bear arms but dam. walking behind a guy with an ar15 strapped to his back with a for sale sign. i did not know i can get silencers and armor piercing rounds. jimbo

one time at band camp ..................... when i was in high school in casper wyoming, i was on the varsity cross country ski team. the guy that had the car to get us up the mountain decided to try and coast down the mountain without the engine on. numerous switchbacks ect. probably 30 min. of coasting as we pulled into the parking lot. i do not remember how many lights we ran, but it was alot. that was one time, another was while the car was moving one passenger got out and got into the vw beetle that was right behiond us. 30 mph on snowy mountain roads. yes, we burned cow chips in the summer and probably ate paint chips. but who cares now right? i have offspring.

congrats. i have quite a few of those things running around the house here. the first few months are not to bad. they sleep alot. you will not get "sleep". you will get lots of "naps". hopefully mom will breast feed. that will make it easier on you. push the kid onto the boob and roll over and go back to sleep. it is a total gas to watch them grow up. you may not get to work on the car as much though:( . take lots of pics. they tend to change every day. jimbo

i ran home after schol to see "Thunder Cats". snarf snarf. Liono. Chetara was hot. purrr jimbo

damn it mike. that is my color scheme. leave it alone. jk you will be done before me. i want to see it done to see how it looks. but msa zg flairs and type 3 kit. jimbo

but doesn't a block see higher temps than a powder coat can take? just curious. jimbo

i got an xbox 360 with a buch of games with the kids, $100 best buy, a turbonetics race gate, $1000 cash, "talidega nights", and other misc stuff. very profitable. i gave my mom, dad and sis a bunch of money to help them out. felt good to see their finacial worries dissapear for a little while. jimbo

i remember '82. i was still in grade school in Casper WY, (DR Hunt were you there then?) and my dad had to get up every hour to start the car so the gas would not freeze in the carbs. i remember the temps of -40 below zero for several days. they closed the schools. we had several winters like that. "The Siberian Express" coming out of Canada. brrrr jimbo

1. can some one PLEASE past in the article from JM so i can see them PLEASE. 2. those vgs on ebay are faily cheap at $20. i bought the air tabs for around $45. they are a little wider than those on ebay. jimbo

man i thought mesa az was the meth capital. even the retired people are dealing that crap. my sister-in-law is hooked. psyco. that stuff is nuts. jim

works ok. i have the 40# one and the car is on the rotiserie. takes a little time to adjust it but it works pretty dam good. have the hf blasting cabinet for the smaller things too. jimbo

i know i have mentioned it before, but there is a wing that tiger racing is using on their mustangs that make over 500# @ 100mph. (http://www.g-stream.com/ ) i know without a windtunnel that that is more tan any bre spoiler, whale tail, ect. can make. that being said, i do not know how well our cars can handle that extra weight back there. yes it would look ricey, yes i contmplated it, and yes if my car was strictly a track car it would probably make it on at one point or another. i would definatly look into it jon for your car but front end mod will need to be done like a splitter or low budget hd landscape scraper. i am with veritech-z that a whale tail is going on mine. if it works why fight it. jimbo

thanks. will try to locate some in the very near future. jimbo

yes ernie, please go on. jimbo

that looks like it is in the ideal place. not sure if it can be on top (probably not with the distributer and such in the way) on on the bottom. love it. jimbo