A truly amazing tale. I imagine there's 20 of us for every 1 of you that wish we were doing the exact same thing—just going for it, and then if it worked out, great, if not roll with it and make lemons into lemonade.
The level of reuse and conservation you've been able to achieve out of desire/necessity is astounding. It's that ability to create and renovate using materials that came from something else I personally identify with.
My grandfather when he was working was a mechanic on a road crew that traveled all over the western U.S. and even to Guam. He was often solely responsible for keeping all of heavy equipment running. Sometimes that meant improvising, using something that he'd kept from some other overhaul to fix whatever the new problem was. He got pretty creative.
So, I love it when I hear people being so inventive. :)
Your grandfathers story is the kind of story we love and feel inspired by.. old school resourcefulness is infinately satisfying! I bet he has some really interesting stories to tell. Thanks so much for your comment! We do like to figure out how to do sruff without a lot of money. Its pretty rewarding. Xx