Lauri Ann's New Life

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

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

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