Glory in my pain - Brit rehabs a filthy trailer.

Well not much to report today. We mostly ran around organizing insurance, power and so on. Got the duct cleaning guy coming tomorrow and I'm aiming to finish gutting the kitchen and safe all the wiring that used to run the oven, hood and stove which means I can dump those nasty metal boxes in the trash trailer.
 
Only until you have to mow it :)

Once we're done with the house and immediate area, I'm going down the hill to pick a spot for a shooting range. Nothing fancy at first, just 100 yards or so with a berm (probably going to fell some tress out of the many acres of timber and use the logs to build a berm box with a dirt fill).

I don't want it too close to the house but also don't want to hike a mile to get to it either!

Land has been a dream of mine since I came to the US. It's a bucket of work to have gotten here, but finally we're making that dream come true. On a shoestring budget no less.
Congrats. It will all be worth it. When we found our land, it was like the world changed for us.
 
Apparently if a fat polar bear dude doesn't get enough to drink and works in the heat, he gets wobbly. Rough one today.

I did finish gutting the kitchen. Including unhooking and safe-ing all the bare wiring although I couldn't carry the stove out yet, too wide for me to grab alone without pressing my face against it *shudder*.

Under the sink was nasty. We're going to relay that corner of the floor.

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We forgot the drinks cooler, which didn't help with my overheating. I'm home for a bit drinking cold diluted orange Gatorade and it tastes like ambrosia.

My girl did a lot of fiddly stuff in the bathroom and painted nooks and crannies and we test fit a couple of floor tiles to check the colour. It proceeds apace.
 
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since you have it gutted, I would seriously consider getting some vinyl plank and just redo the entire floor. We got ours from Ollie's discount and it worked out great for about $1.50/sq ft for materials
 
since you have it gutted, I would seriously consider getting some vinyl plank and just redo the entire floor. We got ours from Ollie's discount and it worked out great for about $1.50/sq ft for materials

Yeah we were talking about that. The floor is a mess. We were tempted to pull it up and see what the original is like but I'm scared there's sod all under the shitty planks.
 
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I know you're planning on putting it to the torch, but as much as you are already doing maybe do it nice and have an in-law/guest house?
 
I know you're planning on putting it to the torch, but as much as you are already doing maybe do it nice and have an in-law/guest house?

Very small maybe. And that would mean the new house needed it's own septic which is money we don't really want to spend.
 
Good on you for getting some land. I always remember the line from "Brother Art Thou" "You ain't no kind of man, if you ain't got land" Once you get through the initial grief, you are going to love pissing anywhere you want to and being able to shoot on your own property. I used to do some remodeling on rent houses, your job is bad, but way far from the worst I have seen. Pulled plaster off a wall once and behind it was nothing but a wall full of cock roach egg casings and mice skeletons! Good luck to you on it and if Reidsville is the new location, I am in Stoneville, so if you need to borrow any tools or help loading something heavy, let me know.
 
It'll be worth it! We bought a dump house 15+ years ago, they had 14 cats inside, and a bunch of feral ones that hung around they fed. When we walked in my eyes and nose started weeping from the ammonia, but it had LAND.
The modular/doublewide home on a basement got: the roof replaced & raised it 2.5', plumbing, insulation, HVAC, siding, relocated rooms & staircase, included a covered porch expanding the living room by 12', finished the basement into a living room and 3 bedrooms. It about killed us, yet the place has the fondest memories for my family. Even through the Hussein OhBummer property deflation we ended up making money, so like the gluttons for punishment we sold and built again.
Just keep swimming!
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And one more bit of advice -from your pictures. Cap all your disconnected fixtures -including sinks, toilets, washing machine drains. Methane gas from the septic is poisonous and odorless. It will make you sick while you are working on your project.
 
Don’t rule this out. Even one or two outdoor ones will exterminate a lot of vermin. We’ve had cats ever since I lived in a mouse infested apartment back in college. Got a kitten. It cleared up the mouse problem and I haven’t had one again, even in the RV parked in a field.

Plus they'll take care of those pesky outdoor voles!
 
Today's update, but no pics. We got all the huge debris pile to the dump, cleaned the heck out of the kitchen area floor in prep for floor work, scrubbed all the walls except one bedroom and kitchen the first bedroom is now ready for paint then flooring and will then be done. First bathroom is done except for flooring and I ripped out the trashed sink unit in the other one.

Swapping the crappy old bulbs out for 9w LED bulbs helped to dispel the gloom, so my girl has rethought painting ALL the faux wood paneling which should be a good deal of time saved. It's now getting delicious Clorox scrub downs (multiple) and most of it is being left unpainted.

Made some good progress today before fumes and heat made us stop for food and cold fluids. I'm going back later for a bit and I'll try and remember to snap some land pics.

I'd like to say that this thread is good for making me realistically evaluate what we've done, I have a tendency to feel that I've achieved nothing which in turn lowers future productivity. Knowing I'll be reporting and getting it all right in my head makes me realise we've done more than it feels.
 
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I just redid the floors in mine. Tore all of the carpet out, didn’t bother tearing vinyl out of kitchen or bathrooms. Went to builders discount in Burlington and bought 30 sheets of 5/8” OSB and 100% snap together vinyl planks for the kitchen and laundry room. Bought carpet and padding from Surplus Warehouse on Gate City BLVD in Greensboro. Ended up having to do some plumbing work in the main bathroom but some great friends helped me with that. Shoot the OSB down with a nail gun on the joists and it’ll stiffen the entire house up and you won’t believe the difference it’ll make.
 
I just redid the floors in mine. Tore all of the carpet out, didn’t bother tearing vinyl out of kitchen or bathrooms. Went to builders discount in Burlington and bought 30 sheets of 5/8” OSB and 100% snap together vinyl planks for the kitchen and laundry room. Bought carpet and padding from Surplus Warehouse on Gate City BLVD in Greensboro. Ended up having to do some plumbing work in the main bathroom but some great friends helped me with that. Shoot the OSB down with a nail gun on the joists and it’ll stiffen the entire house up and you won’t believe the difference it’ll make.

We're probably going to level what there is as much as possible and lay lino over it. We're really not planning to be in this thing long enough to justify the cost of a good floor.
 
We're probably going to level what there is as much as possible and lay lino over it. We're really not planning to be in this thing long enough to justify the cost of a good floor.
I had a boot leak that did some water damage to my ceiling in the laundry room. I got some insurance money from that is the reason I did my floors. But what a difference it made.
 
I finally took some land pics this morning. This is the cleared area just behind the house. There's about another 8 acres of woods that are in the background there.

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And now after a horrible afternoon of scraping mouse shit I am pleasantly hammered on Kraken and citrus juices.
 

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It'll be worth it! We bought a dump house 15+ years ago, they had 14 cats inside, and a bunch of feral ones that hung around they fed. When we walked in my eyes and nose started weeping from the ammonia, but it had LAND.
The modular/doublewide home on a basement got: the roof replaced & raised it 2.5', plumbing, insulation, HVAC, siding, relocated rooms & staircase, included a covered porch expanding the living room by 12', finished the basement into a living room and 3 bedrooms. It about killed us, yet the place has the fondest memories for my family. Even through the Hussein OhBummer property deflation we ended up making money, so like the gluttons for punishment we sold and built again.
Just keep swimming!
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Heck of a transformation. Very nice and I’m envious of the yard and landscape. You must be throwing hundred dollar bills at the yard all the time.
 
Heck of a transformation. Very nice and I’m envious of the yard and landscape. You must be throwing hundred dollar bills at the yard all the time.
Sadly, yes... it pains me. We put down 14 pallets of zoysia sod yesterday.
That yard was Savanna Bermuda.
As a mechanic for over 35 years we’ve accumulated a lot in assets.
The focus has been on home & family. We’ve had rice & beans, one 10 yr old car, no cable/satellite and always working on home.
 
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Sadly, yes... it pains me. We put down 14 pallets of zoysia sod yesterday.
That yard was Savanna Bermuda.
As a mechanic for over 35 years we’ve accumulated a lot in assets.
The focus has been on home & family. We’ve had rice & beans, one 10 yr old car, no cable/satellite and always working on home.
Sod cost? Thinking of doing my back and side yard in zoysia. What does yard prep consist of before putting it down?
 
They are as nasty as their home. Utter white trash in the worst ways possible. Mumbling. Incoherent. Liars about almost everything. Filthy. Lazy as hell, demanding a quick closing to let them leave asap but then demanded multiple extensions on time to get their foul crap out. Which they're still doing outside the house, we had to let them have until Friday after which they get billed $25 a day. The lawyer was super friendly with us and welcoming, but when they showed up nearly half an hour late to the closing, reeking like pigs and unable to concentrate for more than a minute before starting some meth head grade mush-mouthed and unintelligible story...

you know... I don't appreciate you talkin' that way 'bout my mama.
 
Sod cost? Thinking of doing my back and side yard in zoysia. What does yard prep consist of before putting it down?
We got Zeon in the front yard, I’m doing it the hardest way by plugging, I’ve put down 20k+ plugs.
I also got a piece of Empire and it went from a 10” square to a 10’ circle in 2 years.
We put Empire in the back yard from these folk https://carolinaturffarms.com/empire-turf/
My price was $210/450sq/ft (pallet)
Yard prep is a box blade or skid steer to slick it up, a layer of topsoil if your soil isn’t great, lay them down like carpet, water well in the mornings to keep it alive.
 
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Update: painted the big bedroom ceiling and trim today, marked up some floor soft spots for fixing, did more cleaning and prep for flooring and paint and policed up some little stuff.

Taking a break for a couple of hours to let the heat die down a bit then going back to finish the painting tonight in the bedroom and do the bathroom ceiling.

Starting to look pretty good at that end of the house.

Edit. We took the windows apart and cleaned those, painted the first coat on the accent wall and finished the closet. One more coat of paint and a little ceiling touch up and we'll be ready to floor and be done with that whole end of the house :)
 
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I spent most of today looking for a new job, but still got some buts and pieces done at the mostly untouched end of the house.

What sort of moron glues linoleum directly to the bloody floor? Not tacks, it looks like they used Liquid Nails.
 
What sort of moron glues linoleum directly to the bloody floor? Not tacks, it looks like they used Liquid Nails.
That's how it's done, Brit!
I've done it me own self.
You need a hoe-like tool to scrape it up.
In my house, we scraped up the linoleum, and there was another layer glued down underneath that!
 
I spent most of today looking for a new job, but still got some buts and pieces done at the mostly untouched end of the house.

What sort of moron glues linoleum directly to the bloody floor? Not tacks, it looks like they used Liquid Nails.
Some flooring is meant to be glued that way and the glue comes in buckets. Reason I didn’t try to tear mine out, I just floored over top of it
 
I spent most of today looking for a new job, but still got some buts and pieces done at the mostly untouched end of the house.

What sort of moron glues linoleum directly to the bloody floor? Not tacks, it looks like they used Liquid Nails.
Warning on the scraping, some of the glued flooring is asbestos based.

I thought you just got a new job in the area.
That’s a bummer
 
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Few years from now, when you're sitting on your front porch looking out over your land enjoying a cool breeze and a cold drink ,this will be just a blip on the radar.
Sometimes you gotta sweat to get where you wanna go in life, and I'd say you're well on you way. Excellent job
 
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Warning on the scraping, some of the glued flooring is asbestos based.

I thought you just got a new job in the area.
That’s a bummer

I got one last year, but between being given half my bosses work and or her being constantly (1-2 weeks a month) and us being 50 percent light on bodies and me getting most of the coverage the final straw was then not giving me my full time benefits due to their snafu.

I quit to work on the house a couple three weeks straight while I find a new job where I'm not a pure bitch to someone else's vacation schedule
 
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I got one last year, but between being given half my bosses work and or her being constantly (1-2 weeks a month) and us being 50 percent light on bodies and me getting most of the coverage the final straw was then not giving me my full time benefits due to their snafu.

I quit to work on the house a couple three weeks straight while I find a new job where I'm not a pure bitch to someone else's vacation schedule
That sucks.
Best of luck ‘ole chap!
 
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Today's update, but no pics. We got all the huge debris pile to the dump, cleaned the heck out of the kitchen area floor in prep for floor work, scrubbed all the walls except one bedroom and kitchen the first bedroom is now ready for paint then flooring and will then be done. First bathroom is done except for flooring and I ripped out the trashed sink unit in the other one.

Swapping the crappy old bulbs out for 9w LED bulbs helped to dispel the gloom, so my girl has rethought painting ALL the faux wood paneling which should be a good deal of time saved. It's now getting delicious Clorox scrub downs (multiple) and most of it is being left unpainted.

Made some good progress today before fumes and heat made us stop for food and cold fluids. I'm going back later for a bit and I'll try and remember to snap some land pics.

I'd like to say that this thread is good for making me realistically evaluate what we've done, I have a tendency to feel that I've achieved nothing which in turn lowers future productivity. Knowing I'll be reporting and getting it all right in my head makes me realise we've done more than it feels.

Just a reminder, don't mix Clorox and ammonia................:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
Just a reminder, don't mix Clorox and ammonia................:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I probably got more chlorine exposure running a commercial pool with an Indian tightwad who refused to replace crappy equipment, but good reminder :)
 
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