NOVA UPDATE

About a year ago, I posted on the blog about my Nova and since then much has be done in it’s restoration.  I’ve posted updates on facebook, but nothing on the blog.  So if you’re not on facebook you’ve been missing all the work that has been done.  Not going to rehash everything here, but here is the current update.

It’s been awhile since I posted a “More Progress” update on the Nova.  Because of the silence, people keep asking me, “What’s up?”  So here’s what happened.  Motor complete, in the car, rebuild the carburetor, and troubleshoot some minor wiring issues.  The car starts right up, but runs a little rough.  Not an issue, right?  More troubleshooting. We, mostly my car garu Bill, take the temperature of the exhaust manifold and one side runs hot and the other runs cool.  This was the same issue we had when we ran the motor in an engine stand.  We figured we had solved the problem with the carb re-build.  Well, that wasn’t the case.

So we ran a compression check, and the hot side was normal, but the cool side had NO COMPRESSION.  Valves not closing, holes in the pistons, broken piston rings, what was it?  We had completely gone through the engine, new pistons, rings, valve job, new cam, polished the crank, all new bearings, what the hell was wrong?

Bill feeling responsible, said if it was something he did wrong, he would fix it.  So one again the car is transported on a tow truck, this time to Bill’s shop.  Now with me having moved to Arizona, it was problematic for me to get to San Diego every time Bill wanted to work on the motor.  Not to worry, said Bill, he would handle it.

So off come the head on the cool side, the one with no compression.  Happy to report that there were no holes in the pistons, which was a great relief.  With the head off, Bill was able to determine that some of the intake valves weren’t closing properly.  So, it seems that the machine shop who did the valve job screwed up.  This was good news as we are pretty sure this was the only problem and Bill is relieved that it wasn’t his fault.

So true to form, Bill will follow up with the machine shop, get the valve issue taken care of and put the car back together.  Boy I’m I glad I know Bill.  He’s been a lifesaver with his knowledge and willingness to hold my hand, as I am in over my head when it comes to engine re-building.

Once the car becomes drivable again, a decision will be made as to where the upholstery gets done, Arizona or California.  The seat covers are completed in the original fabric and need to be put on.  The door panels are at a shop in Oregon waiting to be completed.  Hopefully in a few months we’ll be cruzin the the streets of Prescott in my Nova.

El Nuevo Rancho Poco a Poco, Our New Home

I must admit that I have been neglecting the blog, but with the move to Arizona we haven't been sitting on our hands.  We're getting settled in and learning how to navigate our new town.  Our house had no major issues with the exception to a damaged roof and air-conditioners due to a massive hail storm which passed through the neighborhood.  Many of the homes nearby also received extensive hail damage.  Luckily this all occurred before we bought the house and the old owner's insurance paid for a new roof on the house, a new metal roof on the garage, a new roof on the storage shed, and two new rooftop air-conditioners/heating units.  The home inspection showed no major problems and the well inspection indicates that we have a good well.

NEW ROOF FOR THE GARAGE

The biggest hassle was the move it's self.  Although we did get rid of some stuff, we still moved a huge amount of furniture and just stuff you don't want to throw away.  It was a logistical nightmare.  Our son Gary and I packed up and moved all my shop tools and stuff and put in in storage in Prescott. We were lucky enough to find a moving guy who specializes in moving people from California to Arizona.  He's been busy.  So he did all the heavy lifting, but we, Cathie mostly, boxed up all the small stuff and wrapping breakables in bubble wrap.  We used a whole lot of bubble wrap.  Should have bought stock. So on the appointed day and time (8 am), the moving guy, Tab, shows up with two big trucks and 4 guys and begins loading.  They finish loading about 9pm and head out to Arizona.   We take one last look around the house that we had lived in for 47 years. Our home that we raised our family and had many good times and family celebrations and walked away.

The next morning we met up with Tab and his crew at the storage facility we had rented and somehow he got everything into our unit.  We had a smaller storage unit that we filled with fragile things we brought over ourselves.  Now it was time to find a new home.  While searching, we stayed in the RV at a local RV park which was filled to capacity with mostly Californians looking for a new home or waiting for theirs to get built.  There were so many people moving to the Prescott area, that it was difficult to find temporary housing or places to park your RV.  With storage units you had to get on a waiting list before you could snag one.  But, we managed and after about 5 weeks we found our home.  Once escrow closed, the second move began.  We called Tab, but he we too busy moving more Californians and couldn't help us.  But we did manage to find a local guy and crew who moved everything into the house and placed the furniture were we directed.  I must say that I don't ever want to do that again.  Selling of the house, moving all our belongings, finding a new house and moving everything for a second time, was one of, if not, the most stressful things I ever did.  The last time we moved in 1975 it took two pick-up trucks and a couple of friends.

MOVERS MOVING

CARPET LAYERS LAYING

PAINTERS PAINTING

There are a whole lot of pluses in our new home and the surrounding area.  First is the house doesn't need anything fixed.  Everything works (so far) and is in good to excellent condition.  Except for replacing carpet and paint in two of the bathrooms, we just had to unpack and hang pictures.  We've got an acre of land, so our neighbors aren't on top of us.  Speaking of neighbors, so far of the ones we met, seem like nice folks with the same conservative views as us.  One standout is Dan and Martha, who after meeting us gave us a house warming gift of a bottle of Irish Cream, which I love, and  got hooked again.  Of all the neighbors we've met, they seem to be grateful that we're the ones that bought this house.  It seems that the previous owner was, shall we say to put it mildly, a bit different.  Another plus to our new home is the view of Granite Mountain from the front porch.  A great place to enjoy lunch or happy hour.

I've been exploring some of the hiking trails around here and there are many.  The Prescott Parks Department maintains numerous walking paths a trails all over the city.  The main focus is around the Prescott Lakes, Willow and Watson.  With marked trails around the lakes and in the Granite Dells, a huge jumble for granite consisting of  huge boulders and rock formations, there are ample of places to enjoy the scenery.  In addition to the City Parks, Prescott is surrounded by the Prescott National Forest, with hiking and camping opportunities galore.  In fact a stones throw from out house is a National Forest Trailhead leading to protected wilderness.  I've been hiking there and exploring different trails.

GRANITE MOUNTAIN

WATCH YOUR STEP

IN THE GRANITE DELLS

WILLOW LAKE

MY MORNING WALK

There are many great restaurants in the area, especially in the old part of the city.  I don't know if we're gonna be able to visit all of them, but we're trying.  There's also plenty other things to enjoy in Prescott.  In the summer time weekly concerts at the Courthouse Square, the old historic Elks Theater where one can see old movies and plays.  The local collage Yavapai Collage Performing Arts Theater with plays and music.  Several museums in the area.  Anyway you get the picture, there's plenty to do.  On top of that, there's the whole state  of Arizona to explore.  Of course we've been to Arizona many times, but we've only scratched the surface.  There's a whole lot to see in our new state.

PRESCOTT NATIONAL FOREST

ROUTE 66

Before I close this entry, I wanted to thank several people who moved to Prescott before us and who gave us a wealth of information about our new hometown.  Craig and Shelley, Vern and Sonia, Jane and John.  We made advance trips to Prescott and meet with these friends who provided us with some local knowledge about Prescott.  I also wanted to acknowledge new friends we met in the RV park.  Everyone in the picture has moved from somewhere else an plane to make Prescott their new home. 

Happy Hour

So, if you're in the neighborhood, stop in and stay a while.  We've got extra bedrooms and a small studio apartment attached to the garage.  If you really can't wait to see us, we're having an open on December 4th, drop me a line and I'll give you the details.

WE FOUND A HOUSE

 Yes, we found a house, made and offer which was accepted and we are now in escrow.  Although not a done deal at this time as there has been no home inspection, but it looks promising.  Getting to this point has meant traipsing through numerous homes and ruling them out for one reason or another.  Actually the one we chose we had ruled out about a month ago because it only had a two car garage and no shop space.  We came close to making an offer when we first saw it, but after sleeping on it we initially ruled it  out.  But Marianna, our realtor never gave up and found numerous houses for us to look at.  We were pretty interested in the Williamson Valley area, north of the city a few miles.  Rural with most properties an acre or more it became our favorite area, so Marianna focused our search there.

We put an offer on one house that had everything we wanted including a RV garage.  The problem was that, because properties sell so fast, that it was felt we had to move fast.  We offered more than the asking price and gave the seller till noon the next day to accept.  That night I had second thoughts, I just don't like being under the gun like that, especially with such a momentous decision.  In the morning I was hoping the seller would reject our offer or let it expire.  They did let our offer expire and we were off the hook

We kept coming back to the one we saw a month before.  The seller, who showed us the home told us at the time he would lower the price $50,000 for each week it was on the market, so the price had dropped $205,000 since we first looked at it.  One issue with the property was, although the house sat on 1 acre, there was an adjoining .8 acre that had to be included in the sale.  That made the property out of reach for us.

We were saved by our son Eric, who always looking for investment property, decided to buy the adjoining lot.  He says he just might build a house on it so he can keep and eye on us. So, next week a building and well inspection will be done and if there are no major problems, we should be ending our homeless situation.

There is still the issue of not enough garage space and no shop, but with the lower price we should be able to remedy that with a new building in the back yard.  So here's a little information about the home:

3 bedrooms with bath

Office

Huge Laundry

Studio Apartment in Garage Building

Patio BBQ kitchen w/fireplace

Gated entry

and much more

Plenty of room for visitors, so if you're in the neighborhood be sure to look us up.  Now for the photos

A DIFFERENT KIND OF ADVENTURE

 

We've talked about it off and on for a long time, but we're moving.  Actually we already have.  So let's get you up to speed.

There have been discussions between us about selling our house and moving somewhere out of California.  We' checked out the area around Carson City, Nevada, but on a trip there in the winter the temperature was 7 degrees so we crossed it off our list.  We were considering Nevada because  there is no income tax, but we ruled out Las Vegas because of the summer heat.

We wanted somewhere that was in a day's drive of San Diego because that's where family is.  So the next best was Arizona.  Not Phoenix, for the same reason as Las Vegas, so we chose Prescott.  Located about 1-1/2 hours north of Phoenix is sits at 5400 feet, is big enough with a population 0f 43,000.  With the addition of neighboring Prescott Valley and Chino Valley, the tri-city area has a tad over 100,000, big enough to offer all the necessary services, like a medical center, recreational opportunities, and Trader Joe's.  We made several trips to check out the neighborhoods and get the lay of the land.  We got a little concerned one trip when it snowed about a foot overnight.  All the locals told us that was unusual.  We really liked what we saw in Prescott (pronounced Preskit), so Prescott was it.  We were lucky in that we know some ex-Californians who live in Prescott and their input was essential in helping us choose our new home town.  To top it off, Prescott's motto is, Everybody's Home Town.

THE COURTHOUSE

DOWNTOWN

THE LAKES

We were still waffling, but with Covid we couldn't do anything else, so it became a good time to move.  What really made us take the leap was the amount of money we could get for our home.  It became a no brainer.  So the house went on the market and within two weeks we had a buyer.

 I've been asked by friends how will I feel about leaving a house I built with my own hands and lived in for the past 47 year.  On top of that, I've lived on the same property almost my entire life, having been in the family since the late 1930's.  It turned out not to be a problem.  Before making the decision I felt there might be some emotional attachment, but I haven't experienced that.  The house was old and needed work, the private road to access the house is in bad shape and was about to cost a bunch of money.  Cathie also was ready to move.

 But the main motivation for moving was, it's California.  Oh sure, nice weather, great beaches, but the nut cases in the State Capitol and elsewhere in government have made living there much more expensive.  High personal income tax, gas tax, regulations that only add to the cost of living, failure to arrest and prosecute criminals, homeless population out of control, making the state a Sanctuary State and protection of illegal aliens,  the list goes on and on.  So we took advantage of the high costs and sold our house for and inflated price.  Of course California still has us in it's grip as we have to pay Capitol Gain Tax on the profit from the house, which is a sizeable amount given that in 1975 the house only cost $28,000 to build.  It wasn't so much that we wanted to move to Arizona with it's 4.5% income tax, soon to be 2.5%, but that we wanted out of The People's Republic of California.  So now, we are homeless.  Living in the RV till such time as we find a home we can both agree upon and that we can afford.

That's what we're doing now, looking for a home.  Marianna, our realtor and a long time resident of Prescott, has been looking for our forever home and has been finding possibilities.  Currently the available for sale home inventory is low and most homes sell very quickly.  I have noticed, that in the past month houses are taking a little longer to sell, which is good for us.

 So we will continue our search and when we are not looking a houses we will explore Prescott and the surrounding area.

WE BOUGHT AN OFF ROAD TRAILER

 

   As some of you may remember, we've been trying out our iKamper Roof Top Tent and our first trip didn't go so well.  Just not enough room for all the stuff we take in just the 4-runner.  So to solve the problem and to let Cathie bring whatever she want's, we decided to buy a small off road trailer.  We picked it up in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago and it was time for it's maiden voyage.  It's mostly just to carry stuff and doesn't have any amenities like some if the high end trailers out there.  But with the tent of top of the trail and not the car, it allows us to set up came and go exploring in the car.

So for the first test run we headed to Arizona and the Kofa Wildlife Refuge.  This allows us to get off the pavement for some easy 4-WD and to see how the trailer behaves in rough terrain.  It did just fine and followed along nicely.  The roof top tent comes with a room addition of sorts that encloses the tent opening making a large area to get out of the elements.

After a good nights sleep we headed back into California and traversed the Bradshaw Trail, a old wagon freight road from the Colorado River to the Salton Sea.  70 miles in length on a mostly good dirt road.  We set up camp at the mouth of Red Canyon and explored from there.  Red Canyon is really beautiful and made the trip.  Most of the rest of the scenery on the Trail was nothing to write home about.  Anyway it was a successful trial run, with the exception of a flat tire on the 4-runner.  Check out the YouTube video.