rr - Aunt Bea had the right of it. As hard as it must seem to be - until you've found the leaks and repaired them - it might be wiser to stop ripping things out and doing your renovations. It would be horrid if your work was all ruined in the Spring rains to come.
Plus the walls inside, although not integral, could possibly help support exterior walls from twisting should the trailer settle (sink) and move in a lopsided way before being placed on permanent supports.
What a goal you've got and (as I'm sure many of us here think) I have no doubt you are up to the task! LOL - any one who has the talent, patience and guts to do those miniatures (I've seen some of your pics) is well up to this challenge.
Think of it as a rather large fully equipped and working doll house - for a special doll - YOU!
Well, nothing else is going to be touched until I get the leaks fixed. For now, though, I think all I can do is throw a tarp over the thing. I found out today that I probably need another sensor replaced in my car and that has to come out of the trailer/water budget. Where is that smilie that's hitting his head against the wall?
Very cool.
You said you'll have electricity and running water, correct?
I'm
supposed to be saving up to have water put in the lot. That was supposed to be done in March, but because of the snow, it probably won't be done now until the end of April or even until May.
All that will be done is a (tall, maybe 3 ft) outside faucet being brought up close to where I want my garden. I won't be having any water brought into the trailer. If I want water, I'll have to go out and get it. It's not ideal, but it's not something that will bother me that much. It won't be the first time I've had to do that.
The guy doing the work quoted me $800 to do the faucet and it's an $800 hookup fee. The way things are going, I may not have that money now till June. Taxes are due next month.
I need to put a transformer on the lot for electricity and that will cost $5000 and I have no idea what it will cost to put a meter in. So that's on the schedule for next year, hopefully in fall of 2020.
The fifth wheel seems like a much better solution than living in your car, as you had talked about last year. I agree with Aunt Bea and dragnlaw, though - I'd fix the roof and flooring first, so it's weather-proof and has a solid foundation. Floors need to be done before new cabinetry and appliances go in. Good luck.
Agreed 100%. Yesterday I drove out to the lot to meet with a contractor to see about leveling a site and putting down a gravel base for the trailer. But fixing the leaks comes first, then the walls, then the floors, then having a base done for it.
I don't think you'll like this part, though. I had planned to move out in June, but I doubt the trailer will be fit to live in by that time. So I may end up living in my car through the summer. I could stay here, but that's just delaying the inevitable. And I hate it here. There's other reasons to move out as soon as possible, both health related.
One of them is I crack my window at night even in winter because the heat is always on and it's hot here, and in summer my window is open 24/7. I have a constant layer of dust over everything. In winter it's from the vent which is right over my bed and in summer it's from the cars going by on the street below (my room faces the main drag).
After a couple of days, the dust starts looking like very fine sand and that's what I'm breathing in morning, noon, and night. I've noticed how out of breath I've gotten in the years since I've lived here and I'm getting concerned about it. On top of that, everyone and their brother smokes here and you can't leave the building without walking into a wall of smoke.
People walking across the street will smoke and sometimes that drifts into my window as well. And you can always tell when someone on the street is smoking pot. Sometimes the residents here will sit by their windows and smoke pot and cigarettes after the manager has gone home for the day, even though they're not supposed to. And that drifts into the windows in the summer, too.
I feel I need to really get away from that and I can't help thinking that even if I have to live in my car, it will be better for me than being here. So I'm still set to move out in June and I'm hoping I can move into the trailer by September or October.