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One Place To Spend Your Money If You Have It

So far we've had pretty good luck with the things we've picked up on Craig's List. The one place I would spend more money if I had it is on labor. I'm pretty excited about the carpeting we picked up. I finally saw it the other day laying in the living room and hallway. It's amazing how much homier the mobile home feels with just the addition of a carpet. Where I'm having a problem is getting it actually tacked down. I had advertised for a carpet layer on Craig's List, and of course took the lowest bid. We all know the saying "You get what you pay for". When the gentleman answered my ad, he sounded as if he could get it done right away. As it turns out he comes to me to do the carpet after he works another job putting on a roof somewhere else. By the time he gets to me he doesn't have much time left, either because he's got some emergency at home or because it's getting dark, etc. Evidently his bid was low enough not to motivate him to get me taken care of. This is a problem for us as we are under a time limit and are waiting for the carpet to get laid to move our furniture in. I've paid him in part already for the work already done, but it's like being between a rock and a hard place. I really can't afford to go now and hire someone else to get it finished. I had a long talk with his wife last night and she was going to help motivate him. LOL.

We just picked up a Queen size box spring and mattress that the people took such great care of it, it was wrapped in the original plastic when we went to get it. It's incredibly firm, which my old body will have to get used to, but it's great for my posture. Between the King that we just downsized from and this Queen, I've probably grown 2 inches since our last Queen size bed just by standing up straighter. LOL.

We should be out of here this weekend and living on the other side of the hill by Sunday. It wasn't as fast as I would have liked, but it is what it is. I'm having a heck of a time finding boxes for packing. When we moved in here we gave all of ours away. It's not like the old days where you could drive behind a few stores and pick up tons of boxes. Now they have them all broke down and bundled. It seems the ones listed on Craig's List are gone before I've even seen the ad. Speaking of which, I better get back to packing the boxes we do have. Time is ticking away.

Just remember, if you have a shoestring budget, the one place to spend the money you have is on the labor for things you can't do yourself.

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Not Everything Goes According To The Rebuilding Plan...

Not everything goes according to the "rebuilding" plan that I have in my head. As I mentioned once before, a friend of ours is moving and is on the same timeline we are. He also has to be out by the end of the month. He's had a couple of yard sales and is to the point of just giving the rest of what he doesn't want away just to get rid of it. One of those things was a 10' metal shed. Originally I didn't know he was getting rid of it. I thought it stayed with the property. Since the Perp already had a plastic 10' shed at the mobile home, when my friend said he was giving his away I jumped right on it. Like most mobile homes all we have is a carport. There is no place for storing anything, least of all Tom's tools.

According to my friend, taking this apart was supposed to be about a one to two hour job. I have no clue what he was thinking. It took two guys almost 2 days to take it all apart. There were a million screws and square bolts to be undone and not only that, but my friend had painted the shed so all the screws were filled with paint. Not a job for the lighthearted. LOL. I just kept reminding Tom how much it would cost if we had to go buy a shed. That took a little bit of the sting out of it.

Now we're down to "crunch time". This is where I try to line things up in order for us to be out of here within the next few days. I want to leave enough time for the landlord here to paint, etc. before the new tenants move in. We have the carpet for the mobile. The very first thing I need is to get it laid right away so we can move our furniture over there. Unfortunately, this too has to be done on a shoestring budget as we don't have hardly any money left and we still need to get a truck. I put an ad on Craig's List and have had one offer that is at least realistic for us, and the guy seems to understand the position we're in. The other 2 offers I had were rates guys normally charge. If we could afford to pay that, I wouldn't have put the ad up. Helloooo. LOL.

Another thing I have to put my attention to is the fact that there is no door to my office. Where the green tarp is in this picture is where the Perp totally ripped out what ever door was there. I have no clue if it was a slider or what, but there is no frame, nothing, just wide open space. Needless to say I really don't want to move all my office furniture and computer in there without even having a door. Of course, now that's truly being "open for business". LOL.

According to the "rebuilding plan in my head" things fall into order 1,2,3... In reality it doesn't work that way. It seems when you get down to the steps of moving into the home you are rebuilding or remodeling, so many things have to happen almost at once!

If you live in the San Jose, Santa Clara, or Santa Cruz area and have items you would like to get rid of from a remodel or demolition job, we are still looking for appliances, a bathroom vanity (36" wide), a door to my office (81.5" x 67"), and laminate for the kitchen and dining area (approx. 170sq. ft). Will exchange for a ton of advertising if you are a company or have a business. Just contact me at lauribeamish@gmail.com

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Kitchen Remodel- Thank You Craig's List

Kitchen/Dining Area

This is what our kitchen looks  like right now. Pretty friggin' empty. LOL. We now have kitchen cupboards thanks to a nice couple in Boulder Creek that remodeled their kitchen. These pics are how the cabinets looked in their house. Not bad, and the boys said when they picked them up they were still in pretty good shape. We picked up the cupboards, countertops, and kitchen sink. All we need now is the laminate for the floors and the appliances and we'll be "cookin' with gas". (If you remember that saying, you're probably close to as old as I am. LOL).

 None of the appliances came with the cupboards, but I actually saw an old fashioned stove like this one on Craig's List and was thinking at the time how cool it was. I think we need something a little larger though since we can't even get everything for a holiday meal into a full sized oven now. Something else I've been seeing is a lot of "double ovens" but I'm not sure I'm willing to give up the cupboard space. We would have to do a double oven and then a separate stove top. The kitchen just isn't that big. We've pretty much decided on a free standing oven and range. Tom was right in the fact that it is a lot easier to find an electric stove than it is gas, which is what we are set up for.

The sink that came with the cupboards is cast iron and heavy as can be. Even though we got a kitchen sink already, we may go ahead and leave the one that came with the cupboards just for the ease of it already being a part of the set up.



It appears we also got our carpet thanks to Zion Engineering, a demolition and remodeling company located in San Francisco. Lucky for us a lot of the stuff they rip out during a remodel, he posts on Craig's List either for cheap or to barter, etc. Tom said these guys were so good and so fast it was like watching a bunch of busy bees around a behive as they were tearing this place apart. Tom and Scott say they "think" it's enough carpet to do the whole mobile home. I'm hoping. Part of the carpet is an off white Berber. I'm not a big fan of Berber, but it will look nice in my office and in the extra bedroom downstairs. The rest of the carpet is regular carpet, again in an off white, but should be consistent for the living room, hall and our bedroom. I'll tell you, of all the colors of carpet, white is probably the last color I should have in my house. I am too busy and just not very good at keeping anything white clean. LOL. At the same time, with as small as the mobile is and as dark as it can be, white should be a good color for making it "feel" bigger. It will make a nice contrast under our dark wood furniture.

If anyone has any suggestions or offerings, feel free to leave a comment or contact me by email. We appreciate it.

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Day 13- Great Day For Rebuilding a Mobile Home

Beautiful!
We took a trip over to Capitola to check on the mobile home today. Haven't been over there in almost 2 weeks. I was half afraid. I didn't know if the Perp had been back, and if he had didn't want to know what else he had done. Legally he had until tomorrow to get his shed off my lot, and it appears he did exactly that. (Darn it. Nice shed. LOL). He must have come and done it all in the middle of the night or something, because it would have taken a pretty big truck and my "Watchdog" never heard or saw a thing. Everything else though was as we had left it. Thank you God.

I had put a couple of ads on Craig's List asking for anyone who was remodeling and getting rid of their old stuff to please consider us. (In fact I need to do that again) This really nice lady emailed me and had me send her my email so she could keep in touch after my ad ran out (or got toppled with multiple others). She has been wonderful! She not only had a kitchen sink for us, but she has done a ton of remodeling, some even in a mobile home, so she is a great source of information for some of the stuff I want to do. God Bless her! You just never know when God will put just the right person in your path. LOL. I ran an idea for the bathroom shower over tub we have by her this morning, and she was able to tell me what would not work, which is the part I would like to skip (getting it wrong part).

It felt so good today going over there and putting the kitchen sink and garbage disposal where they will be, approximately. It actually helped get more of a vision of where everything will go, precisely what we need, and how much room to do it in. I know that it is a much larger project than what I am envisioning,
that nothing is ever easy, but I'm excited. It's amazing how one small step in the right direction can do that!
It was a great day for rebuilding a mobile home.

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Packing and Weeding Out More Stuff

As I've been going through packing, getting ready for the "big move", I realize that even though we downsized quite a bit when we left our last house, I need to do some more. Instead of helping my friend with his yard sale, I better start thinking about holding our own.

I mean, really?
The duplex we're in now is about 1000 sq. ft, 3br./2bath. It's pretty decent size. The mobile home is approx. 750 sq. ft., only a 2br./1 bath, although we are planning to build another 1/2 bath onto the 2nd bedroom. I have collections that I'll never have room to display. I have a huge dining room table that is hoping to be refinished one day. I'll never have space for that. It would take up most of our livingroom! LOL. While I have a big hutch that I am taking with me, I don't need all the dozens of wine glasses, and mismatches that I have held onto.

One thing I learned in the last move is that it is only "stuff". So as I'm packing I will be weeding out more stuff. Where's George Carlin when I need him? LOL

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Days 9 & 10- SCORE! Rebuilding With Small Steps

On top of us getting ready to move here, I've been helping out a buddy of mine that has to move also. Friday through Monday last, he had a huge yard sale. I've been doing some advertising for him, and then showed up early a few mornings to help him get organized, etc. We ended up getting the ceiling fan, which the picture doesn't do it justice as to how pretty it is, to go over our dining table. We also picked up a 1/2 horsepower garbage disposal for the kitchen.

My friend had a lot of wood trim, etc. that I thought would be great for the doorway that's open on the porch, soon to be office, but Tom said there wasn't enough that matched. It is a rather large opening. I did remind Tom if there was anything (tools, garden tools, etc) that he was going to want to pay retail for later on, that I would probably kill him.

I also went yesterday and picked up some moving boxes from some people just a couple of blocks away. I had come to a stand-still in the packing. These boxes are quite large, so I have to be careful not to fill them with so much heavy stuff we can't move them. Even though we have hand-trucks, at some point human hands have to move it somewhere.

Someone is emailing me that is remodeling their house and they had 2 bathroom vanities. They look great, but unfortunately our space is probably half of their smallest one. I am waiting with baited breath to see if they are redoing their kitchen. LOL

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While We Are Waiting For Materials To Rebuild Our Mobile Home...

old bar/new office
While we've been waiting to find materials we need to rebuild our mobile home, we've been packing and planning. Tom is the "engineer" type, so he's very good at drawing out a room, figuring dimensions, etc. Some of the furniture we have here is furniture that came out of the mobile home when I sold it, so we will just take it back and set it up similar to how it was before. I didn't realize until showing the place we're in to prospective renters, but some of the furniture we have now is just LARGE.

I have a couple of favorite pieces that mean alot to me as they have sentimental value, so I would like to be able to take them with us. Enter Tom. He has been taking the dimensions we have for the mobile home and measuring our furniture to see if it will fit and where. God Bless him, because it looks like it will work. We have decided to turn what used to be the bar area off the front porch into an office with it's own entryway.(The part that has the attractive (lol) green tarp).
condition of "office" at mobile (porch)

my office now not including bookcases










As you can see, I have a ton of stuff "stuffed" into my office where we live now. Tom has measured all pieces and says everything will fit including the couple of little bookcases I have that aren't pictured here.

In the livingroom I have a hutch also that is very important to me, but it looks like that's a "go" also. I am so happy! The only thing I see we can't put up in the mobile home will be the King size bed we've gotten rather used to sleeping on, but there is just no way! I will sacrifice going back to a Queen to get my dresser and his Armoire in. Once again, very oversized furniture when you consider if you buy an old mobile with the dresser drawers and everything built in.

If anyone has done this before, or knows of salvage yards basically all mobile home stuff, I'd love to hear. You would think with Capitola having a ton of old mobile homes that there would be a really good salvage yard over there. The one on 38th is great, but not much for a mobile home. So now you know what we're doing while we're waiting for materials to rebuild our mobile home. Never a dull moment. LOL

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Days 6,7, & 8- Patience When Rebuilding is Definitely a Virtue

I've been spending most of the time packing, showing the place we're renting here, and looking for materials. When you're looking for free materials, you definitely have to be patient waiting for the things you're looking for to appear. I have joined Freecycle, the Santa Cruz chapter, figuring it would be great to be able to find some stuff on that side of the hill instead of having to cart things all the way from San Jose or Santa Clara. I have received a couple of responses to my ad for remodeling materials, but I am afraid we are poor as church mice so coming up with even the reasonable prices people are asking for materials is tough.

My watchdog who lives a couple of doors down from me in Capitola says it's been really quiet over there the last few days, so I guess the Perp is either laying low or moving into his own place long enough to leave us alone.

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Days 4 & 5- Waiting On The Law, Responses From Craig's List

Masterbedroom closet doors ripped out
On Tuesday I was over at the mobile home in Capitola all day. I had missed a couple of measurements the day before that you don't realize you need until you're mapping everything out. I got the size of the master bedroom, but how deep are the closets? I had measured the width of the second bedroom, but got to talking about where a second bathroom was going to be, and forgot to measure the length of the bedroom. Dumb stuff like that. As we are here measuring furniture to see what will go where, I realized I missed the length of one living room wall and the width of the opening for the bathroom vanity.

We found the most delightful little locksmith in town. He's obviously been in his little hole-in-the-wall shop for a long time. I would hate to have to take inventory in that place! We had taken in the handle with a lock in it from a sliding glass door. This sliding glass door had always been the main entrance, and remember this mobile was built back in '61, so the lock was ancient. He was great. He had the lock re-keyed quickly and probably in better shape than it was originally, and gave us two keys for not quite $10.00. I was impressed, and as luck would have it, it's right next door to my girlfriend's bar in town. Nothing like a cocktail while you wait! LOL.

The Perp was supposed to have 2 of his workers come at 4:30 to pick up the last of his tools, etc. We waited until slightly after 5:00 and no one showed up. I called the policeman who had taken my report and who had come out on the trespassing call the night before. I let him know I didn't appreciate the fact that I was there by this guy's time and he didn't show up. I don't feel after him gutting my mobile home that he should be allowed to come and go "willy nilly" unsupervised. I don't know if it will do any good, but at least it's been reported in case he breaks in again. I had a long talk with my lawyer and just to file the forms for the deficiency judgment costs approx. $500.00. He says he needs a retainer of $1500.00 to do the paperwork, file the papers and have him served. Needless to say, that's going to have to wait awhile.

Yard torn up and overgrown
While we were waiting, Tom tore out a bunch of the brush, picked up a ton of nails, and tore down a fence that encroached on the neighbor's driveway. She had fought with the Perp so much about his stuff and her lot, she doesn't even come over to Capitola anymore, and has her mobile up for sale.

We came home to a "For Rent" sign in the front yard. I shouldn't be surprised. After all, I did give 30 days notice. It just seemed like he had the sign up rather quickly. LOL. I told him I would help get the place re-rented so I put an ad on Craig's List for him, as he doesn't do any computer stuff. It's a great place in a great location. He shouldn't have a problem getting it rented again.

Yesterday was sort of a "catch-up" day. I had let everything go here while I was taking care of things in Capitola. Tom spent most of the day looking to see what work was available over there, and drawing plans for the different rooms in the mobile. I got a text from my daughter. She's a manager at a Chili's in Moreno Valley. She said Chili's is looking for a General Manager for the Chili's in Capitola. What a coincidence, aye?

I got a couple of responses to my ad on Craig's List looking for anyone remodeling. One was a guy who has two bathroom vanities, one of which I thought I would probably like, but unfortunately they are both too big. One response was from a handyman that says he has flooring, etc. he doesn't need, and the other a retired contractor that has sinks, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing what they have. When I was over the hill on Tuesday we went to a salvage yard to have a look around. That was quite interesting, and a little more expensive than I would have thought. I don't think we'll be doing much business there unless it's for stuff we absolutely need and can't get anywhere else. He did seem to have a little bit of everything!

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Day 3- Assessing Damage From The Inside

We were able to get into the mobile home yesterday and see the bathroom and back bedroom which we weren't able to see from the outside a couple of days before. I was both surprised and happy to see that the toilet and tub/shower were still intact. He had taken out the vanity in the bathroom and replaced it with a pedestal sink. There is a mirror and some kind of pebbling on the wall behind the sink where the medicine chest used to be. He did a terrible job on the plumbing to the sink, as you can see by the picture.


I called the police yesterday right after we got there. I really didn't want to disturb anything before having them file a report. I also re-posted the "No Trespassing" signs that the Perp had torn down the last time he went inside. As we were waiting for the police to show up, we went ahead and got most of the measurements for everything and started figuring out what could go where.

I am very happy to report it looks like I'll be able to keep my office set up and my china hutch. LOL. The rest is questionable. Actually, the living room and dining room furniture we have now came from the mobile when I sold it, so we should be able to just move it right back Not so sure about my bedroom furniture as it is a bit larger than the furniture we had in there originally. This guy tore out the sliding closet doors that went the full length of the bedroom, so it has been tempting to think about arranging things a little differently this time.

 The police finally came and supposedly filed a report. I'm going to test that theory this morning. There is a nice rubbermaid shed outside, mostly on my driveway, partially on the lot next door. It's full of tools etc. that belong to the perpetrator. Stuff he leaves behind by law, he actually has 15 days to retrieve before I can do anything with it. I had told my girlfriend who lives a couple doors down that if this man came back, to call 911 immediately as I don't want him doing any more damage.

We weren't home long at all when she called to let me know he was there and she had called the police. The policeman that showed up happened to be the same policeman that had filed the report for me earlier. The perp told him the shed was on the other lot, not on mine, and he was retrieving his tools. The policeman told him if he went inside the mobile he would be arrested, and then he left for another call. The Perp is supposed to send two of his co-workers today to retrieve the rest.

Bathroom before "remodel" by Perp
This morning we are headed out to get new locks for the doors and look for a sliding door which somehow the frame has been busted. There happens to be a warehouse or "yard" with a lot of used items for contractors located not too far from the mobile. I've put an ad on Craig's List for anyone in the area that is remodeling and wants to get rid of anything (cupboards, flooring, etc). I keep looking on Craig's List for things we can use, along with Freecycle. We're pretty broke with paying the landlord here yesterday along with our 30 day notice. I will be trying to get packed pretty quickly and told him I would try and help him re-rent.

Now that we've assessed the damage inside, we can start with the re-building.

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A New Year, A New Project, A New Direction


Happy New Year everyone! A New Year brings with it a chance for new beginnings, new projects, and new directions. Due to a "real estate deal gone bad" that is exactly where I am today.

The man that had bought my mobile home on an installment contract decided not to honor the contract and has moved out. The mobile home has reverted back to me to rebuild the whole inside which he completely gutted on the way out. All that's left is the shell. Definitely not resalable.

This is a picture of what used to be the kitchen, going into the living room. He took everything including the kitchen sink. LOL. The first time we were able to see inside the mobile and start to assess the damage was Friday, December 31st, which for a lot of people was essentially a holiday. We weren't able to get in as we need to get a locksmith to open and re-key the locks. I half expected this, but my boyfriend and partner in this project, was devastated. He could not believe anyone with any conscience at all could do something like this. I posted "No Trespassing" signs so if he should come back to do any more damage, I can call the police.

Normally, I would not be able to pursue a deficiency judgment against the buyer, but because he damaged the mobile home, it opens the door for me to sue him. It won't do much good as far as getting what he owes me, but it will be on his record for a minimum of the next 10 yrs.

All kinds of thoughts have been swirling around in my head. I need to look over my Homeowner's policy, which he never paid me for, and see if they will cover anything. We, like a good portion of America, have no savings so we will be doing this as cheaply as possible. This blog will be a record of our journey.

On Friday, just to ad insult to injury, I received a 3-day notice from the park owner for this man's past due rent and utilities. If I didn't pay it, the park owner could demand I move my mobile out of the park. This is just another $560.00 added to what he owes me.

Of course Saturday was New Year's Day and Sunday locksmiths and police non-emergency are closed, so we spent the weekend in the planning stages. We have decided in order to move our stuff out of the place we are in, we will need to put down flooring first. I had found free laminate on Craig's List, but didn't move fast enough. That is my first lesson learned.

Today I am giving my 30-day notice to the landlord, setting an appointment with the locksmith, setting an appointment with the police, and contacting my lawyer. Today I will find out if he took the toilet and shower along with everything else.

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