Shoestring Budget Rebuilding

Looking Down to Capitola Village

It's no wonder people hate to leave here. This picture was taken New Year's Day. The sun is out. People are walking their dogs. The temp is almost 70. The water is like glass, disappointing only the surfers. I walk my mother in her wheelchair along the cliff to enjoy the sunshine and the scenery.  We like to sit out there and drink up the sunshine, watch the people from afar, and every once in awhile see a beautiful classic car go by.

Just a few days before Christmas, the scene we came home to was this-
The workers are stripping out the asbestos before getting ready to demolish the two mobile homes across the street. The blue one on the left should have been gone a long time ago. The one on the right affected me much more than I would have figured. The family there used to bring their little kids on holidays etc. and they would at times join my kids when they were little for fireworks in the middle of the street, etc. That mobile had been passed down in the family, and now all it is is an empty lot and a memory. Mr. Reed, the park owner, had taken that mobile home by a Warehouse Lien Sale after raising the rent there by 400%. He demolished 3 mobile homes in here that week. Can everyone say "Merry Christmas"?

Empty Lots and Their Idea of a Brillo Pad

Since we quit working on our place when we realized we wouldn't be able to stay here, I figure this will be the fate of our home also.

So now we are looking frantically for a place to go. Money is short due to having to pay the increased rent all these months so we could stay here as long as we have. I'm looking for other possibilities around this area, and then have also been looking in SoCal or Vegas. Once again I turn my attention to Craig's List. LOL. Brokers have all kinds of listings on there, but more importantly to me, there are people who are trying to sell their homes themselves who are a little more open to negotiations than a broker might be. After going through all we've been through over the last 2, going on 3 yrs., for the first time in my life I am looking for something secure. I have decided we are all too old to have to be doing major moves every year. I just don't have the energy anymore, and we don't travel as light as we did when we were in our 20's. LOL.

Playdough Tools

Even though we have discontinued work on our mobile home due to the upcoming move, I am still a huge fan of Craig's List.

Here in Santa Cruz, California, the unemployment rate is 6.1% compared to the national average of 5.8%. If you ask me, both figures are low compared to actuality. There are many people that don't get counted in those statistics, such as people who have already used all their benefits, but still can't find work. People such as myself that were 'self-employed' and businesses went under or closed, so they have no benefits. I'm sure here is not any different than many other parts of the country going through the same things.

As I scroll through the "Wanted" category of Criag's List, I come upon families after families that are asking for help for Christmas. These are usually parents looking for a way to bring Christmas to their children. Of course you always run across a person or two that are putting things on their just to try their luck, but many of the requests are sincere.

When I see some of the requests, even though I can't help financially, I do respond with places people can go for help, or ideas that may help them in their requests. One such post I came across was from a father in the area who was asking for another family that he might exchange gently used toys with. As he said, "gently used to you would be new to my kids". A lot of these families have barely money to eat on, let alone by Christmas gifts for their children.

One post I came across was from a woman with 3 children who didn't know where to turn. She had been to the Salvation Army who told her they already had done their Christmas sign-ups. Another charity that is popular in this area does gifts only for foster children, so there is no "getting on the list". I suggested a few charities I know about where she may find help, and then suggested the 'toy exchange' idea in her area. She and her husband are working on it. I happen to know in her area unemployment runs rampant. Hopefully this will help families that are too late for their children "to get on the list".

Little Tyke Table

Last post I showed you the new door and window that replaced that trashy looking tarp on the front of our home office. Yesterday, Nick called me to let me know he had 3 pints of paint to finish it. Today I will be calling him to let him know the paint won't be necessary. We are losing our home and will be out of here by the end of January.  Thank goodness we didn't spend a ton of money to fix up this place!

We had a pretty good case against the park owner for denying us tenancy, but now that the City has done away with all rent control leaving the park owner to charge what ever he chooses for space rent, there is no point in even fighting any longer. He has raised our rent over 300% and according to my lawyer, could raise it again every 90 days. I'll tell you, I just want to live in peace for a change. I don't know how these people who have been fighting with him for the last decade have lasted. Many of them didn't. And it's getting worse here everyday.

We've had quite a few just walk away from their homes. A couple people have died in the past. Their surviving family members swear it was the stress from the park that finally did in their loved ones. There are a couple now that have cancer and feel they don't have the strength to fight cancer and the park owner both, so they are walking away.

I have never known the old adage "there's no justice for the poor" as it has appeared in the mobile home park. The park owner and his lawyers have and are breaking laws at every turn, but there appears to be no way to stop him. People are either too intimidated to fight, afraid they will lose their leases, or they can't afford to fight the deep pockets of the park owner. His lawyers are known for inundating their opponents in paperwork until their opponents break. They are doing it to whole cities, what chance do little, low income, elderly people have? Not much I'm afraid.

I'll still be carrying on with the blog, but maybe with a little different angle and more tips. I'm not sure. We'll just have to see what direction God takes us. LOL

Start

Replacing the Tarp

We are now walking through a front door we got from Craig's List. To the left is what we started with. Talk about looking like "trailer trash", but it had to do until it became a top priority. I think the day it became a top priority was when my neighbor said how trashy our place looked, and she hadn't even been down to see it. When I responded she said "Well, that's what everyone tells me". I had just assumed everyone would understand rebuilding this place doesn't happen over night, but evidently I was wrong. LOL. For appearances sake, the outside is more important than the inside.

It also needed to take top priority as we are still fighting the park owner for tenancy, and expect to be going to court any day now. I surely don't want him to be able to use the fact that we are an "eye-sore" to work against us.

Primered, Ready for Paint

My whole point about this blog is how you can rebuild on a shoestring budget doing it from sites like Craig's List and Freecycle. I have to say that in our journey, we have met an angel or two. One is a guy named Nick Meltzer. We originally met him when we were selling the dessert flagstone in front of the porch. Come to find out he has all kinds of salvage stuff he sells very reasonably. We've been able to call on him more than once for things we needed. We got both the door and the window from him. The door is a solid core door, (very heavy) complete with deadbolt, door knob and all. Needless to say, he also has some primer and paint, which I'm waiting to see what he has now. In the meantime, Tom found a small can of white primer, and painted that on this last  weekend. (It actually looked a lot better before the primer, aye?)

We'll be painting the fence around the porch white, but I'm thinking about possibly introducing a 3rd color around the door and the window. The mobile is a very light gray siding with white trim. I was thinking about a teal maybe, for the door and the trim around the window, or do you think we should just paint it white? I'm open to suggestions.                                                

It's been a little bit since I posted here. It's just so hard to rebuild, be a political activist, and post. LOL.

Psycho-Kitty

I'll start with the psycho kitty. I found her in our garage in the house we used to live in. The mother had abandoned her (now I find with good reason) and left her sitting on a shelf meowing. Of course I had to rescue her, so I brought her in the house and we bottle fed her "kitty formula" until she could eat and drink on her own. She had a pretty rough "kitty-hood". First she had to get all her kitty shots, which she didn't appreciate much. Then my son stepped on her little leg and she had to have a cast put on. When she was 4 months old I had her fixed, which now I'm wondering if that is part of her problem. Maybe I should have let her have a litter first. All these little trips to the vet, and I'm usually the one that takes her. Needless to say, she hated me until my kids grew up enough to leave home and I'm the only one she has left. LOL.

When we moved to the mobile, there is no way to let psycho-kitty outside. She goes completely psychotic out of her comfort zone. She needs glasses, and because she's so far sighted, she doesn't jump and stuff like other cats. When we lived in our other house, there was a fence around the yard but it was tall enough I don't think she could ever see to the top, so she never jumped and I never had to worry about her getting out. So, I decided we needed to do something so she could go outside here. Tom was very good and built a fence around the porch, which we had discussed doing anyway. It only took my black cat 2 days to teach the psycho kitty how to jump the porch, so we can't let her out anymore. She climbs the lattice. So now the plan is to put plastic or acrylic along the backside so she can't climb it like a ladder. What a pain. LOL.

As you can see from the pic above, I still don't have an office door. That green thing in the back is still the tarp that was there when I took the mobile back. Guess what? I put an ad under the "wanted" section of Craig's List for sliding doors, or exterior doors, and got a couple replies. Unfortunately, if you have sliders but don't have a frame, it's pretty tough to get the frame by itself, so that pretty much ruled that out. I had a guy willing to sell me the sliding glass doors cheap, but couldn't make it work. Then, a guy that had bought some flagstone from us and we gave an extra cast iron sink to if he would just take it, contacted me with exterior doors, window blinds, curtains, etc. I am so jazzed! He is super reasonable for pricing on his exterior doors and windows. He has the door jamb and everything!

So now that we may actually almost get this place finished, where do we stand? Well the City of Capitola reached an agreement with our park owner and amended our rent control ordinance. Talk about selling your soul to the devil! The City of Capitola signed the agreement thinking the owner would raise rents, etc. "in good faith". WRONG. He and his lawyers, Hart, King, and Coldren, aka HK&C have gone hog-wild. They handed out 252 page leases with many objectionable clauses. They are doing illegal 'Warehouse Lien Sales' or at least one that I know of (because it's me), and anything else they can do to get ahold of the mobile homes in here. They raised rents to double and quadruple what the appraiser for the City of Capitola's unbiased appraiser says they should be, and that appraisal was done based on the infrastructure being in good condition here, which it is not.

Sam Storey, Mike Termini- City Council

Mayor Norton

Needless to say, since the amendment to the rent control ordinance, while the City of Capitola may have dodged two lawsuits (that they very likely would have won) they became the subject of two more lawsuits. One they already won, although they shouldn't have, and I hope the fighting for that one isn't over yet. The other won was some of the residents in the park against the park owner. The park owner then filed a cross-complaint against the City. At the end of August, the Capitola City Council held a meeting to repeal rent control completely. That was considered the "first reading". The "second reading" and to make it into an ordinance was to happen Sept. 8th. Surprise! At the Sept. 8th meeting, the Capitola City Council voted to shelve the repeal "indefinitely". We'll see how long "indefinitely" is. The Mayor, during a break after the vote says it's only the next month or two.

We've already lost some of our neighbors who weren't able to afford the higher rents. A lot of us are still here fighting, although it's tough since most are low income seniors and lawyers cost money. Which, by the way, if you care to donate anything, anything at all to our "legal fund" please contact me at lauribeamish@gmail.com. Any amount would be appreciated. In the meantime, I've posted a couple pics below of our new neighbors. I wish I could catch some of the cubs, but haven't been successful so far. LOL.

Mama shares the catfood on the porch

She likes crackers. Drew her out for a pic

Hide-A-Bed & Cat Stand

As promised in my last post, here's a picture of our new (new to us) queen size hide-a-bed. The cushions are in great condition, and they tell me so is the mattress. We couldn't have gotten it any too soon as my oldest daughter spent a couple of nights here last week, and my son is coming for about 9 days on the 26th of this month. Not only are the cushions in great shape, but all that blue are custom made slip covers to just unzip and throw in the wash when necessary. Truly a steal at $35.00.

Tom finally got around to making a scratch pole for the cats. We had left over material from the carpet we had gotten off Craig's List, and from tearing down a lot of Larkin's mess around here. It turned out really great except the top peace is just a little too small and the cats hang out over the end. LOL. I think we're going to have to change that to just a flat platform that is a bit bigger in circumference. Tom's a little worried that if he does that, it will tip too easily, so we'll have to do a little research first.

Sign Outside One Resident's Home

The Surf and Sand Mobile Home Park has been in total chaos since the park owner and his attorneys sent out the lease packages, income verifications, notices, and intimidating letters. For homeowners in the park, the park owner has to give 90 days notice before he can raise any rents. For me, since I have never been accepted for tenancy, the park owner has tripled our rent and is calling it "Storage Fees", effective July 1. He and his attorneys still say we have no right to occupy my mobile home. The lawyer I spoke to says he can't advise me to pay it because the park owner could just keep raising it and still never give me tenancy. I paid what the space rent should be plus the utilities, and am expecting an eviction notice anytime now. They gave me until 5:00 last Monday to pay the difference and I advised them I wasn't going to, so now they have given me until 5:00 this Monday, the 18th to pay. I am going to have to retain a lawyer eventually, so lately I'm working on how to raise money for a "legal" fund. LOL.

Residents of Surf and Sand Beg for Mercy

I cannot believe it has been a little over 2 months since my last post! Fighting City Hall and the Park Owner have literally taken over my life! My status in the mobile home park is still "non-resident", after him collecting rent from us for the last 7 months. We also have been trying to get some help from the City since changing their rent control ordinance against the mobile home owners, but that hasn't seemed to get anywhere either. The park owner and his attorney sent a 252 page income verification and lease packet to many of the residents in the park. Besides the fact that it takes an attorney to go through the lease, many of the provisions seem to be in conflict with both the City Ordinance and the Mobile Home Residency Law. Yet the City of Capitola has done nothing in the way of coming to the rescue. Part time City Attorney Barisone originally said he would charge the owner with a "Breach of Contract" if the lease and new ordinance conflicted. Like all the other bologna the City gave us before the ordinance was passed and lease packets were handed out, it appears this too was just a line.

In the meantime, I am happy to report that we have obtained most of the major appliances we needed. Tom and I were going over the costs so far and we figure the rebuilding costs are less than $100 so far. I had put an ad on Craig's List in the "wanted" section, and this wonderful gentleman that owns "HoneyDo Services" here in Capitola dropped off a very nice gas dryer to us. He said the lady he was working for, after testing it decided she didn't want gas, and told him to get rid of it.

Not too long after we got the dryer, some very dear friends of ours were cleaning out a house and asked if we would like the washer, dryer, and gas stove. Needless to say I was thrilled! but we had no way to haul them. It turned out they were doing some things on this side of the hill, so they delivered them. Who says there's no God? LOL. Even Tom doesn't say that anymore with the way we have been so blessed!

 Once we got the washer it took me days before I could see the bottom of the dirty laundry. LOL. It's amazing the things I did naturally when I was younger, like going to the laundrymat, are such a bother now. It works like a champ!
This was the second dryer we received, but I think it needed a new thermostat. It took forever for the clothes to dry. Actually the first one we got looked more like it went with the washer anyhow. We donated this and the money will go to help fund Grey Bears, a non-profit for seniors to receive fresh produce, etc.







I couldn't ask for a better stove. It didn't take me long to get used to cooking with gas again. LOL. This thing is so great! It's self-cleaning, the digital clock tells you the oven temp, and the timer gives you a 1 minute warning before it goes off. All the bells and whistles. I just love it. I would have taken a picture of the kitchen, but after cooking last night I swear I used every pot and every available counter space there was.






I added a "wish list" to the right hand side. There isn't a whole lot left that we need. I need to add some measurements. I always thought sliding glass doors were just a standard size, but I have since found out that was not true. The office still has the ugly green tarp on it versus a doorway. Tom hooked up the TV and VCR/DVD player out there and I would like to have a door before it rains again. LOL.

So what have we spent the almost $100 on? Mostly things like pipe for the kitchen sink, vent hose for the dryer, screws for the shed, things like that. The biggest part of the money went to our lovely queen size hide-a-bed for the livingroom that we just acquired from a neighbor. I'll post a picture of that next time. In the meantime I'm off to write another letter to the park owner's attorney. He's trying to call our space rent "storage fees" and triple what we're paying without giving the proper 90-day notice. May be time to call Senior Legal.