Arches

My wife decided that she wanted to have an access into the living room from the kitchen area. Everyone told her she was crazy for wanting to put an arch in because it would make a circle route for the kids to run.

She proved everyone wrong by helping dad tear out the wall. My woman with a sawzall and a hammer! After the dust settled, everyone who told her it wouldn't look right complimented the arch and liked it very much. Ah..vision!

Top pick is me, George, my dive buddy and sister-in-law Ruth's boyfriend and Patrick. These photos were taken from two different sides of the wall. The first is from the kitchen and the second is from inside the living room.

Sports Fan

Yea, Ohio State lost the national championship but I'm still a true Buckeye fan. I know Darrel Gators rule, yea, yea...I'm corrupting the boy with Jeff Gordon, 4x Champion! But lately he has this Kasey Kahne kick.

Whats The Problem with this Guy?

Whatever his problem is he knows who will win the SuperBowl! Da Bears!!!!!

Truckin' on Down the Road

On the left is my old truck, of all the vehicles I've had, this one is my favorite. It was a 1992 Chevy Sport. 2wd, regular cab, short bed with a 305 V8 and a 5 speed manual transmission. I had alot of good years and memories in that truck. A sports car with a six foot bed. I had to sell it because I couldn't drive a standard anymore. On the Right is my current truck, a 2002 extra cab, short bed Chevy with a 5.3 L V8 and auto transmission. I drive it with a pair of portable handcontrols, never had fixed controls installed. I have 150,000 miles on it and it's going strong. In the foreground is a 2002 Honda Rubicon 500. I have quite a few miles on it too.

Toys

Wanted to share some pictures of my toys to demonstrate that my wheels are truely on fire. Well, smokin' anyways..The day I picked up my 2002 Corvette at home and at the dealership. Bottom picture is of the 22' Wellcraft Scarab that I had for a few years before the stringers and transom got rotten. It had a single 350 V8 in her and she would do just under sixty. It would tow a tuber if you don't crank the wheel over to hard and try to throw everyone out of the boat.
I miss my Water Therapy.

ATV Gang

More fun in West Virginia. In the top photo from the left is myself, Brian Law, Tom Law, Mike Sissler and Corey Anderson. In the bottom photo Tom caught us at rest on top of a moutain. Brian later rolled that green ATV down two hills and busted it up pretty bed. He stayed at the top and had some sore ribs and hurt his hand. He walked away. Corey also rolled his ATV over on top of him on a hill climb. He was unhurt, he is a paraplegic also.

My Naval Past

Yeap, that's me, styling and profiling with the AN-AQS14A or Q14, in sunny Bahrain. My Hooligan brothers will remember this little island in the Persian Gulf with great fondness, what we can remember after all those pitchers of kamakazis.

That's me and my mom in front of the MH-53E Sea Dragon, the mightiest of all helicopters. I'm six three and my mom is six foot so you can see how big these pigs are. I had to learn to love these greasy, oily beasts and when you move to AMCM side, you love them even more, cause you don't have to work on them!

That's the beast at hover.

West Virginia Mud Runner

Several times a year we venture to Oak Hill, West Virginia to the home of Tom and Kathy Law and spend time riding on the many trails around the New River Gorge, Beckley and Oak Hill. We get pretty dirty but have alot of fun. Richie lost the exhaust off the Warrior, silly Yamahas, doing jumps and wheelies. We hit a big mud hole together and both of us got soaked.

Me and Patrick

This is my son Patrick. We're clowning around as usual. He likes to wrestle and try to beat up dad. We have puching contest to see who can hit the hardest in the leg. He hasn't figured out that I don't have any feeling in the legs......

We put cement board on the walls behind the counter top for installation of tile and moved outlets before starting to hang the cabinets back on the wall. We reused the old cabinets and replaced the original hinges with inset hinges that are hidden from view and brushed nickle door handles and drawer pulls.
The island was made of some of the floor cabinets and some of the wall cabinets. The tall cabinet is an old double oven cabinet that was cut and fitted for doors to make a china cabinet out of it. We also enlarged the window.
The kitchen is done except for the flooring but I dont have any current pictures of it. I will post some when I get them.

As you can see, we gutted the kitchen all the way to the sub-floor. We saved all the cabinets for later use. The guy who built the house did some strange things like running a lot of wire up through one part of the wall. We didn't move any of the wires and left all of that in place.

In the last picture, you can see we removed that small wall in the dining room and opened up the kitchen to the dining room so the place isn't a cave.

We laid new sub-flooring and then used ten bags of floor leveler to get the floor straight and then laid 1/4" louwan (sp) plywood as a suitable substrate for hardwood flooring. We found out later that we can't lay tile over the plywood because the plywood absorbs the glue and delaminates.

The Kitchen

The first thing we started with was the kitchen. It was like a bear den in there with all the dark cabinets andlow wattage bulbs. There was a six inch step into the kitchen so that had to come out so I could easily access the kitchen.
In the top photo from the left is Jonathon, my brother-in-law, Tom, father-in-law, and Ruth, sister-in-law.
In the bottom photo, there was a small wall froming a hallway in the dining room. It had to go too.

The Ranch

This is one of the reasons I started this blog; my house. It was bought in February 2006 and has undergone alot of improvements. It is 2000 sq feet with a fully furnished walk-out basement. There are five bedrooms, three and 1/2 bathrroms, an office with a beautiful built in walnut gun cabinet. The basement has a full bar and plenty of room to roam. The house sits on 10 1/2 acres divided by Wolf Creek and I mow about half of that.
I am a veteran who was injured while on active duty and applied for an adaptive housing grant through the VA. If it weren't for getting $50,000 to remodel the house I wouldn't go through that hassel again.
The grant came through in September of 2006 and we finally got the contractor there full time in late November. So I haven't been living there because I can't use the bathrooms. Here it is January 2007 and we're still remodeling. Things always move slower than you think they will and then we change things or things can't be built as designed and changes are made. I will post a bunch pics to get up-to-date and then I will post as we get through the process.

The Ranch

The Richie Factor

If Weebles wobble and they don't fall down, then gumbies bend and they don't break. Put Richie in that catagorie. He could be gumbie but he's smokin' on a bike. They don't call us hooligans for nothing. Third pic down is Mike "Pimp Daddy" Sissler and his Bandit. The last pic is me getting smoked by the man at a drag strip in North Carolina. Yamahas still suck!

Breakin' Out

I present proof of the broken chair! A sickening crunch followed by an aahhh crap!

New Wheels

My wheels. So I've been in a chair for almost six years and in this picture, I'm on my fifth wheelchair. The one pictured is an Invacare A6S which they don' make anymore and I retired mine with a cracked frame. Broke in in half. Guess I shouldn't have been jumping off the front porch!

How to Look Fast

This pic was taken in March 2001 less than a week later I found out all about wheelchairs. What a sweet bike, I loved every ride. On March 23, 2001, I was with my buddies south of Norfolk, VA on Head of River Road and met an oncoming semi on my side of the road in a blind corner. I dont remember much about that day but a broken back, pinched spinal cord, busted shoulder and a cracked skull later, you find out how good your helmet, your riding gear, your friends and your faith really are. Thanks Hooligans!