What interferes with your Lotus time?

[M.J.S]

We wonder why projects take an age.

I planned to spend most of Saturday tinkering with the car, but first, I was given orders to fix the dripping tap in the kitchen. That 'ten minute' job turned into four and a half hours of ripping the kitchen apart, two trips to B&Q, a ?100 bill and the day lost. Lotus hours spent - zero.

Am I the only one to experience such things? What interferes with your Lotus time? (wives not included).

[SimonH]

After starting the restoration of mine in 2006 I would say life in general has slowed mine almost to a stop.
I sometimes wonder if I will ever get on with it or should let someone else try!

[ericbushby]

What interferes? How long have you got?

Membership of the local museum support group.
Recce-ing and leading country walks for two walking groups and walking twice a week with them.
Gardening.
Membership and participation in the local branch of the U3A.
A pottery collectors club.
Occasional restoration of antique clocks. (been involved in that for forty years now)
Hospital and clinic visits. (there is more of them than there used to be)
Too many holidays and weekends away.
When you retire you will find that you have no time to spare, if you are lucky enough to be able to do it.
So far, so good.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC
.

[KevJ+2]

Yep...there's always the unexpected.Like my neighbour deciding to renew the whole length of the fence (a couple of hundred feet) Very nice and close boarded - but bare treated wood! I now have days of work staining my side
Oh...and while he started the front fence he cut through my broadband and phone cables
Hours spent on car...also zero!

[Chancer]

Not at all Lotus related but in the interests of keeping good relations with your neighbour, think about what colour and darkness of stain you are going to use and talk to your neighbour first, encourage him to do the same on his side.

Otherwise he will be left with patchy stains on his side at every overlap of the close board, if its not too dark it may eventually fade in as the bare wood darkens, he in turn may decide to stain his side in some trendy primary colour like green or worse still paint it which will look like an abortion as it bleeds through on your side.

A stain will eventually fade, a paint wont

[KevJ+2]

Not at all Lotus related but in the interests of keeping good relations with your neighbour, think about what colour and darkness of stain you are going to use and talk to your neighbour first, encourage him to do the same on his side.

Otherwise he will be left with patchy stains on his side at every overlap of the close board, if its not too dark it may eventually fade in as the bare wood darkens, he in turn may decide to stain his side in some trendy primary colour like green or worse still paint it which will look like an abortion as it bleeds through on your side.

A stain will eventually fade, a paint wont

Well, I did tell him that I intended to stain my side and asked him what he intended to do on his side to which he replied - "oh I'm just going to leave it as it is"
Its obviously cost him hundreds for materials and labour, so I was a little surprised! Maybe when he sees my stain seeping through all the cracks, he'll reconsider

[billwill]

I hope you are going to use a wood-preservative stain, not just any stuff.

[tcsoar]

After starting the restoration of mine in 2006 I would say life in general has slowed mine almost to a stop.
I sometimes wonder if I will ever get on with it or should let someone else try!

Simon, don't life win!!!

Bought mine in 1990, wife announced the imminent arrival of the first of two sons a month later, we then moved house into one of those 'money pits', car was moved from my place to the neighbours then to a friends, then back, repeat.....repeat....

Many threats to sell/burn/dump car as 'it will never get done'

Finally house finished, sort of, and boys grew up and didn't want dad hanging around anymore. Five years later, 2012, car done and loving it

Chris.

[The Veg]

No kids or wife (and my significant other lives 800 miles away) so I don't have those problems at the moment. Weather is often my big impediment. I do not have a garage at present, and I live in the region with the most oppressive combination of heat and humidity, although to be fair there are places within the region that are far worse than Atlanta. I don't know what I'd do if I lived in Miami, probably just melt into a gooey, moldy mess.

I also get slowed-down by the odd bit of travel here and there: all my relations live in other cities, and this summer I did a ten-day motorbike vacation followed closely by two weeks of biz-travel.

Then there's just all the minutiae of life itself.

[S3FHC]

We wonder why projects take an age.

I planned to spend most of Saturday tinkering with the car, but first, I was given orders to fix the dripping tap in the kitchen. That 'ten minute' job turned into four and a half hours of ripping the kitchen apart, two trips to B&Q, a ?100 bill and the day lost. Lotus hours spent - zero.

Am I the only one to experience such things? What interferes with your Lotus time? (wives not included).

I'm trying to finish the garage into which I'll place my project car but, as with everyone else, I have other jobs to do (and by coincidence I also need to replace bathroom taps next weekend, hope it won't be a 4 1/2 hour job!)

I eventually started the strip and rebuild of my car at a friend's workshop as I couldn't wait any longer for the garage to be finished.

Aside from the time taken up with the necessity of going to work, my time is spent either on the garage build, tinkering with my old Morris Mini or on one chore or another...

I had to paint/stain a substantial area of fencing and found that one of the paint sprayer was a real boon (despite using more of their product to cover the area...) it only needed an occasional brush into areas which were difficult to reach, but it was very quick and made the job far less tortuous.
However your neighbour will see plenty of stains on his side as the stain is delivered quite generously!

I take my hat off to Eric who appears to have a very busy and fulfilling retirement!

Mark

[Wickey]

Nothing would interfere with mine if I could only find one to play with............still searching but the nice ones (+2) seem to have gone up in price so much lately and the 'junky' ones hoping to get similar for theirs. Seen around 10 so far and 9 of those certainly would have taken a lot of time up sorting out so the search continues.

As for fencing treatment (off topic) hopefully the neighbour used pre tanalised wood but I certainly would not use any water based stain. Warmer conditions and the improved air quality (less smoke now from burning coal in homes I am advised) has seen a massive growth in moss build up on roofs, walls and fencing. The old creosote was a great wood treatment but now banned for home use but there is an alternative oil based treatment called CREOCOTE. 5 years on ours looks just as good apart from a bit of lightening (we used the dark choice colour) but thankfully no green moss appearing. Also as it is an oil base if the neighbour does decide to do his later any bleed through you can just wash off yours with a hose down.

[Bombay Racing Green]

This is something very close to my heart at the moment. I had some days off last month and I decided to get cracking with a few jobs on the S4. All was going well and I was looking forward to going out for a quick shakedown drive. I had clearance from "management" and was all set. I didn't have much time as we are potty training our last child. Turned the key and thunk! Stuck starter pinion. Tried rocking it backward and forwards in gear but to no avail. Later I was joking to my colleagues at work that you don't need expensive gym membership. All you need is a British classic car and a two year old undergoing potty training. No sooner had I the gloves on and on the garage floor when I hear the dreaded words "Daddy, I need go toilet". Right, up we get (work out those abs) gloves off and sprint (cardio) to the toilet. Nothing. Back to the garage, gloves on and connect the socket set. "Daddy, I need go toilet". Repeat four times and you get a fine work out. After an hour I had removed and replaced the starter motor and one happy two year old boy but didn't get for that drive.

Yes, the wife did happen to walk by as the starter motor went thunk and said "is it broken again?"

As for the fence, I too used the creocote stuff. The brother-in-law (a farmer with quite abit of experience with fencing) suggested I mix it with old engine oil. Well it certainly saved me a trip to the recycling centre!

Pete.

[ericbushby]

Mark,
Thankyou for the comments.
However, none of this could happen without the extraordinary skills of the surgeons at Blackburn hospital who saved my life two years ago.
No one gets to criticise the NHS to me!
Bathroom taps always take 4 1/2 hours, so you might as well give in now.
Eric in Burnley
Beautiful evening yesterday. Had a run through Ribblesdale and Littondale. Nothing interfered with that.