Lauri Ann's New Life

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

I don't know if you missed this, but I surely did and I have no idea how.

Tylenol has been recalled again. This is the fifth recall for the company that makes Tylenol, coming on the heals of a recall for Children's Tylenol, in the last 9 months. This time also being recalled is the popular pain reliever Motrin IB. Thursday's recall includes certain versions of Children's Tylenol, adult-strength Benadryl, Motrin IB, Tylenol Extra Strength, Tylenol Day & Night and Tylenol PM. The affected medicines were sold in America, Puerto Rico, Fiji, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.

I haven't felt Tylenol was a very safe alternative to aspirin for a long time. I don't know if you happened to read what happened to my son's friend who almost lost his liver to Tylenol titled "Another Tylenol Crisis", but it seems to me now this company is just getting careless with our safety.