Halifax trip update, alternator pulley and new bus barn...

[bevans6]

Some of you might have read that I and my wife are on a trip to Nova Scotia, camping just outside of Halifax, looking for a retirement home that we can move to in two or three years.  The idea was to find a place, fix it up with whatever it needed, gradually move down from Ontario, then sell the current place to pay the new one off and add to the retirement stash (homes in Ontario currently costing roughly three times what an equivalent Nova Scotia home costs).

So on the way down the alternator pulley got loose, the nut fell off and the splined hub that the pulley mounts to seemed to be unobtainuim.  Luke worked it out that the splined hub from the air cooled DN50 matched the one I needed for my oil cooled DN50, and sent it to me - it arrived today.  I'll throw that on tomorrow and be a chargin' fool again!

In the mean time we put over 1,000 miles on the car driving all over Nova Scotia, looking for places and houses.  What a nice place this is.  It's a lot like a combination of Maine, Cape Cod, Northern Ontario, parts of England, Scotland...  Ocean and fishing villages every where you turn, small communities, a couple of cities that I would call mid size towns, most communities are under a thousand souls.  But with excellent facilities and resources.  For example, the Provincial government has mandated that you can get reasonably price ($50 per month) high speed internet either wireless or cable TV, anywhere in the province.  And they made it happen.  Anywhere you plant a house, you can get high speed internet.  That is just plain cool.

So we went up to see a place we found in a town of 600 called Tatamagouche.  Has just under three acres, a third of that treed, backs on to a river.  Nice house in great condition, 160 years old, giant maple and oak trees, quiet and private, big garage and...

A boat building shed!  55 feet by 65 feet, 30 foot ceilings at least, big lean-to on the side, all steel, only about 35 years old and in very good condition!  Heated, insulated, powered.  And right next to it...

Another boat building building!  This one was the work shop, just the same size but three doors each roughly 15' wide and 15' tall, and concrete floor, heated and insulated!  I can not only park my bus inside it, I could probably do a three point turn inside it!

We made an offer, they accepted, I now own two bus barns and a nice house in Nova Scotia!

Fix bus  tomorrow and head home Wed, stopping by to stay the night in the yard of the new place!

[bevans6]

And the house...

[fe2_o3]

Very, Very nice. I envy you. All my bus repairs are done out side in the dirt. And you got a house...Cable

[Len Silva]

That was awfully nice of you to buy the wife a house too.

[lostagain]

Who cares about the house! The shop (s) is what matters Nice find. Start thinking about an annual rally there...

JC

[pabusnut]

Very nice!

Back in 2006, I spent two weeks up in Nova Scotia at the Canadian Forces Base at Greenwood/Kingston area.  It was very nice, and I even saw a couple of converted coaches. 
I was surprised that the climate supported vineyards.  They also have a very nice air museum there if you get the chance to visit.

Someday, I'd like to take the wife and kids up there in the bus, which I'm sure will be much more expensive than my previous trip(funded entirely by the US Gov't)!

Steve Toomey
PAbusnut

[eddiepotts]

That is awesome. Now all you need is a roll up door to the dinning room of that house so your wife can park her car in side. Tell her you will have a recliner in your shop you will be eating at. I can only dream

[longjohn]

Wow!,
Brian, congrats on such a beautiful place. the house is nice too

[buswarrior]

Great find!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Timkar]

Great find and nice looking place. Had a look on MLS and the house looks good inside.
Can't believe the prices there compared to British Columbia !!!

[letz4wheel]

I had a  small case of  Tatamagouche once but they now have a cream for it 

Looks like a GREAT place. I know you will enjoy it!

[Tenor]

Congratulations!  In bad weather, you can move the house into the barn for extra heat...

Glenn

[bevans6]

Thanks, guys, still getting used to this new idea!  Meeting tomorrow with the father of the vendor, who actually owned the place for about 30 years, renovated the house and built the boat sheds to run his boat building business in.  He built fiberglass hull boats of some sort, ocean going.  He is going to give me the full rundown on the property, how everything works, what switches work what.

The house is kind of interesting, supposed to be 160 years old but now on a full poured concrete foundation with 8 foot clearance in the basement, heat is wood and oil in the same furnace, plumbing  is all PEX and ABS drains, newish septic, electric has all been changed to 14/2 with ground.  All the windows are double glazed, new siding and trim.  He sold it to his son two years ago, for their family, but that lasted a year and now it's mine!

Alternator is now fixed, for bus content!  Moral of the story - never assume the guy in there before you  knew what he was doing.  I found the tensioning link had bolts loose on both ends, and that the alternator was mounted cocked to the engine so the belts were unevenly tensioned.  Fixed that, put it all together and  28 volts charging once again!

Brian

[FloridaCliff]

Brian,

You know things are going well when you can find a place like this on your first look.

Great Find....

Enjoy!

Cliff

[Mex-Busnut]

Slick!! Congratulations! Now I need to come visit you with my metal detector...