"There comes a point where you no longer care if there's a light at the end of the tunnel. You're just sick of the tunnel."

Not a whole lot to report yet. The car is covered in a fine coating of drywall dust and surrounded by all manner of garage contents while the main garage is finished. The only movement with the car is in and out of the garage to simplify the relocation of something that is hindered by the presence of the car.

The weather, while wildly inconsistent, is steadily growing colder. I have no interest in wrenching on a cantankerous old car while the weather is unfriendly. I will have the space, tools, and most likely, the time. What I lack is interest. I always find something else to consume that time. Right now, it's the house but the largest project undertaken is slowly wrapping up and I will be far more likely to farm out future work.

Almost ironic that I finally have a house with a 3-car garage and I haven't done anything with the car whatsoever since moving into this place. In previous circumstances, I'd create a checklist of things to get done so I could go back to working on the car. I haven't made that list and am unlikely to do so any time soon.

I've briefly entertained the idea of going through the parts and listing up anything I know I don't need or want, although I've always found something else to do with that time. And I have no clue where half of the parts are actually located with the current state of the garage.

I have this internally driven sense that I'm running out of time to start anything with this car beyond where it is right now. I don't know where this originated but it's very much a 'fight or flight' type of feeling. I've been ignoring it for several months while I try to finish other house-related tasks.

I'm not sure where this is going - if anywhere - but I do know that nothing is going to happen for several months. And then I'll have a decision to make - continue on this journey or end it. 

I have yet to write that chapter.

"You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind"

 As far as the car goes - no progress to report. I have done absolutely nothing to it since we moved into the house nearly a year ago. It has been moved between garage spaces as we have gutted, insulated, and drywalled each space.

This is the 1 car garage where the car will ultimately wind up - this picture shows the day after the drywall went up. It now has primer on the walls and the lights are mounted. We bought the paint for the walls and it should be going up tomorrow. A new garage door and opener will be installed near the end of the month. We're installing a new door at the back and I need to frame out the openings and window.

The 2-car garage needs some more work before it'll be considered 'finished' but it's close. We'd be a lot further along if not for having to replace the entire driveway. In a month or so - we should have the entire garage space fully gutted, cleaned out, re-insulated, and closed up. It's going to be a nice space when it's done.

As of right now - the car will have to wait until next Spring. I'll hand-turn the engine to keep the lubrication going inside and make sure I don't have any issues with the seals/rings. It'll need tires to be roadworthy as they're coming up on 10 years old. 

"Maybe next year" is the motto for this car.

"You are free and that is why you are lost."

First things first: I have zero idea what happened to the month of February.  It was cold, we tore some shit up in the house and nothing happened in the garage (or with the Volkswagen).

Projects in the house that were initially intended to be contained to specific rooms have essentially crept into several other rooms...so we're doing a lot more early on than we planned.  It's eating up a lot of time/money but I guess the bright side is that we should be done sooner?  

I pulled open the South wall in the Volkswagen garage to figure out some dryer vent issues - and I found a giant mouse piss scented tunnel system in what was left of the insulation. Spent the better part of three hours tearing that all out and fixing the dryer vent so that it'd exhaust properly.  It's a temporary fix but I did rid the garage of a rather large mouse nest and some stench.  There's a dumpster coming where the nasty wood and the mouse shit insulation will be disposed of.  I've already purchased new LED lighting and plan on replacing the thin wood paneling with drywall and proper insulation. I have to relocate the attic hatch because it's currently located exactly where the garage door opener will be mounted.  Attic insulation, fix the lighting up there and it should be a much nicer place.  These are tentative Summer projects - as long as the rest of the shit we have torn up goes back together in a respectable amount of time.  That garage will get a lot of love.  And, hopefully, so will the car.  This is also the year I plan to fire up the welder and figure it out.  Seat belts for the back seat, brackets for the rear brake lines...loads of practice!  I've got lots of random metal to start with.

I was given a recommendation for a body shop that's semi-local so I plan to go check that out as well.  I'd really like to get this car painted.  

First things first - clean up the garage and get the car running.

"Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed"

 I'm a week late on my 4-week update, so here we go.

The car was moved via flatbed tow truck from the old house to the new house without much fanfare.  The driver was familiar with these cars and knew we had to turn it around in the garage to get it on the truck - there's really nothing to grab on the back end to haul it up on the bed.

30 minutes later, the car was in the new garage with a little help from the tow truck driver and my plumber to push it into the garage where it now sits.

The first couple of weeks with the car in the new house have been uneventful - I haven't had time to do anything with the car - other than walk around it.  I did replace most of the previous owner's rickety shelving with properly mounted shelving.  It's tight in there now but will open up quite a bit once I have more time to dedicate to organizing the garage.  There's a lot to get rid of in the coming weeks.

For the first month - I've replaced two garage door openers, replaced 7 exterior locksets, removed the coax cable in the house, started installing ethernet cable, torn down LOTS of cobbled together shelving, removed several old fluorescent light fixtures, and replaced them with LED light fixtures, replaced five ceiling fans, replaced the kitchen sink faucet, installed a Nest doorbell, replaced the doorbell chime (which is no longer working due to old wires in the walls).  We had an electrician replace incorrectly installed 3-way switches, fix ceiling fan boxes (not wired correctly), install lights in the living room, and install hard-wired and interconnected smoke/CO detectors.  The plumber removed the RO water filter under the kitchen sink and replaced the water heater.  He's due to return to remove the water softener (not in use) and a bunch of gas line that isn't in use.  I'm about nine projects deep right now with an estimated completion date sometime out in late February.

When I do get back to working on the car - it'll be nice to have a place where I can dig into it without anything else getting in the way or having it be in the way.  Both of the daily drivers fit in the other garage - the first house we've owned where all of the cars (and our stuff) fit in the garage.  It's been a nice change.

It'll be quiet around here, minus the random updates, for a while.  I will have this car running/driving this year.