Back in July 2025 I started looking for builders for a garage. Eventually I went with Battery Operated Builders operating out of Kamloops.
Construction started on early November 2025.
Here are a few photos of the build.
Started foundation work around Nov. 7
Nov. 20 they brought out the big equipment to do the footings.
Around November 29 they did the foundation walls and started to backfill a few days after that.
Framing started around Dec. 9 and progressed quickly over about 4 days.
I have no idea how to play Cribbage, but in 2026 I plan to produce 100 boards for chartiy.
I’m keeping notes here, specifically where I can find cool designs.
Ebonwood makes some interesting epoxy / wood boards.
TheKnottyContessa has a very patriotic board.
Considering a new garage, address is 4202 20 St. Vernon
I have done a building location survey, which shows there is 6.99m (22.93ft) on the side of the house.
I think this gives about 18ft outside width of garage space, given the setback from the side property line of 1.5m
I’m looking to go from 6 ft in front of the existing building and 12 ft into the back yard. That would give outside measurements of the garage to be about 18 x 48 ft.
* No plumbing
* No insulation
* No drywall
* Concrete is slab on grade
* Two human doors (36″ with no windows)
* 1 garage door, insulated – no garage door opener necessary
* 3 or 4 windows, placed up high for light
* No OSB. Plywood or ZIP only
* If possible, north & south walls framed with 2×4 to save width
* Siding to be stucco, in an attempt to make the garage look original to the building
* A small electrical room on the side of the house will need to be demolished, as electrical must be moved to the outside wall of the garage. I have an electrician available to do electrical work.
Here is a collection of useful links I have found on fixing / maintaining a JDM Suzuki Carry DA63T
Removing the front bumper (grill) and replacing the coolant tank.
Thinking of importing a Japanese Toyota Prius. All the Prius around her have TONS of miles on them and are extremely expensive.
Considering importing one from Japan… The problem is, the Interface is in Japanese and can’t be changed.
After some Google searching, I found some guys out of Ireland that claim that they can convert the language… Website here: https://simple-it.info/
Another company that claims to offer the same service is https://www.hybrids.co.nz/
TLS/SSL/Encryption Certs are a pain in the butt, when you have lots of them to manage.
Here are notes, for myself really, that go over the commands needed to update a commercially issued cert/key pair.
The cert can (must?) contain the issuing chain certs as well.
racadm -r server.fqdn -u root -p “password” sslkeyupload -t 1 -f /tmp/example.com.key
racadm -r server.fqdn -u root -p “password” sslcertupload -t 1 -f /tmp/example.com.crt
racadm -r server.fqdn -u root -p “password” racreset
After you have reset the iDrac, it comes back up in about 5 minutes with the new cert in place and you are good for another year.
Windows 11 has a nasty little requirement for a TPM chip.
A lot of old hardware does not have these, making it difficult to install Windows 11.
There are a few ways to work around the issue, I found Toms Hardware has a nice posting with the details here: https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement
Updating the SSL keys, every year 🙁 on stand alone ESXi servers is a PITA.
To make things worse, there are no EASY instructions out there how to do it. VMware wants you to create PEM files or something… just a pain in the butt.
I found a posting on Filecloud, they have easy to follow instructions on enabling SSH and installing new keys. Works, easy & quick.
Considering a new fence? Going to use wooden fence posts? You know they are going to rot right?
Consider using metal fence posts. I have found Postmaster Fence posts, which are produce a solid fence that will not rot.
Everyone knows SSD kicks the crap out of spinners.
Everyone knows RAID 5 is too slow for writing to disk, generally RAID 10 is used these days.
Lets do some comparisons, using CrystalDisk Mark 8.0.4, using default values except setting the profile to Real World Performance rather than the default.
The machine I am conducting the tests are is not super modern, the hardware is:
Dell R620
Test #1 – RAID 5 – SSD
Test #1 – RAID 5 – Spinner
