Excavator search continues...

Jim thought he found two good mini-excavators lately - one was in Virginia and one was on eBay, located in Georgia. Unfortunately, even though Jim had been communicating with the owner in Virginia about the excavator, someone had contacted the guy first and ended up putting money down before Jim could. So we lost that one. Then the one on eBay came due and we bid with 20 seconds left but we were outbid.

So...the search goes on. We leave this morning to go look at a box truck in Kentucky and then back to the equipment place we went to a couple weeks ago in New Carlisle - the guy got another one in that Jim wants to look at. Hopefully we'll have time to see my mom in between too.

First up was the box truck in Kentucky - I was really surprised at how nice it was!  It was in really good shape - well, except that it doesn't run.  Which explains the really good deal that Jim is getting on it.  Small detail.  It apparently needs a new turbo - so Jim is going to buy one and replace it.  The question will be whether he will have the truck towed up here and do the work here or take the turbo down there and fix it there.  Option 2 doesn't sound as good to me - it would be much nicer if Jim could work on it here with all his tools and equipment available.  So we'll see.  Just one of the many, many decisions Jim is working on at the moment.

 

 

 

Next stop was a very brief visit to my mom before heading to Jim's Equipment.  I knew this was good karma...this is the dealer that is literally around the corner from where Jim built his first house.  And it's named Jim so it has to be the right place to buy!  Equipment Jim had gotten this midi-excavator in and hadn't taken it in for service so the price was lower than the first one we looked at.  But as Jim was trying it out, he noticed that one of the rods was bent and causing some issues.  Equipment Jim agreed and is supposed to be calling the Bobcat dealer to see how much it would cost to repair.  Jim wants to negotiate on price and he will fix it himself.  He's supposed to call once he figures that out and they'll talk.  But this appears to be the one!  I like the 1-800-NO SWEAT sticker on it too.   





 

 

So it was a very productive day and we appear to have found 2 big pieces of equipment to check off our list!  Plus these two pieces need to be in place when Jim heads up to the land this fall to get things started.  Of course, in the meantime, he has to finish the outside things here like painting and the chimney work, get the truck running, get the equipment up to the land, design the pole barn he'd like to put up while he's there...my brain hurts just thinking about all of that.  But Jim's still smiling!