1 more day of work then a new list.:(

    Making a list has helped move the job along on my daughters place. It has been hot and humid this week and has limited me to 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. Even with limited hours I have framed a wall, door and hung the sheetrock . The hardest part was doing the ceiling . For that I used 4 x8 sheets of luan OSB it paints well and was lite enough for me to put up solo.

    Today I mudded the sheet rock and plan on sanding it in the morning . So my daughter now has a 7 X 13 second bedroom and a small  12 X 13 living room. This is the last of the building stage, next week will be trim inside and out . There is a lot of trim work to cover my poor building skills. I will try to remember to take pictures of the place it has been a while.

   I added this picture to remind me this is what I started with it makes me smile .

Was given a pop up camper.

    Last weekend a man came by the BBQ and asked me if I wanted a old pop up camper. I  miss understood where he was going on it and told him I couldn't afford to consider buying another camper no matter how good a deal. He got a big grin and said it was free he wanted it out of his yard.

    Ok the price is right, he told me where he lived about 2 miles from the house. Now he was honest he said it wasn't in good shape but had seen how I modified other trailers and figured I could do something with it.

    Me and my son went after we finished selling to get it. Of course the only rain we got in 2 weeks started as we pulled up. It had 2 flat tires off the rims no spare and they were 8" rims which I have none. So in Redneck style I pulled it home on just rims.

 

  This is how it supposed to look . Ours was half put up with the sides hanging out but it was at the house. Sunday I decided to set it up and see where to start demolishing . With the small tires it was going to  be a nice low deck hauling trailer. But low and behold when we got it up it was in decent shape !

  Ours had some screen tears but the fabric is leather in good shape . My Son claimed it as his camper ( Funny a kid living in a camper wanting a camper to camp in) because it is light enough to pull with his car. All it needs is a little patch tape a few screws and 2 tires and it is ready to go. For a freebie it is going to get a new lease on life and if it tears up  it can still be just a low deck trailer later.

 Ps it has a stove sink the tanks, air and a 10 amp 12 volt charger that all works plus a 30 amp 25 ft. power cord.

Salvaged wood.

    The rain stopped so today we went over to my daughters property . One end of her trailer was cut off because it was to far gone. Me and my son saved a lot of the wall studs saving us about 80$ and used them there. Today we cut loose and cleaned up 14  2 X8X14 that made up the floor on the scraped end. Tomorrow we will carry them to my son's place to use in the kitchen floor.

     It only took about 3 hours to remove and clean them to reuse. Now it was 2 of us working but at 16$ each x 14 it save's us 224$ so on 6 man hours we made / saved over 35$ an hour. I don't know if we will get the floor joist in tomorrow but they will be on site.

    I like to do savings to work hours . If you made 8.50 an hour and brought home 7.25 our saving = 30 hour at work pay. So we saved/ made 5 times pay . I look at life different.

I get my B.O.L. for free.

   Today I worked on my son's place removing 3 layers of wood and linoleum in the kitchen. We wanted to see the floor joists. What we found was almost nothing, they were rotted to dirt. His kitchen is a 14 x 14 hole with dirt 2 foot below. We will beam and joist it next week then lay 3/4 in osb .

    When we got home my daughter had got a quote back from the state on a 10 acre parcel for 3,100 $. We may or may not get this one even at the price of 310$ an acre it is steep hillside and little flat. I am going to have the timber appraised before I buy. If it will show a profit I will borrow the money to buy it. It could have 12000$ in timber but I am no timber man.

    After I looked at her quote I went to read my E mail and I had one back also. Mine was a shock it was the 2 acre's I wrote about for a B.O.L.  The state wants a whopping 732$ :) for it . I sent the request on 11/30/15 and got it back today for the state that's quick . I  posted about it here  http://garyinbama.blogspot.com/2015/11/i-found-my-bol.html    In that post I had guestimated the old freight trailer at 10,000 pounds but a friend saw it and he said that model will be 15 to 18,000 pounds  because its an old atlas moving trailer with a low belly and grandma attic. He said I would get 14 to 1600$ for it scrap. The certified check will be mailed Monday !!!!!

     My friend that saw the trailer is a junk buyer but he also has heavy equipment. I want to trade the old trailer for 800$ and him to clear the bramble and recut the drive to the top and drag the H&H 12x20 shed to where I need it. Basically it will be 800 cash and under 2 hours on a Bobcat . He gets a better price due to volume than I could so I think he will take it.

Picture update of the trailer rebuild.

     The last  time I posted on the trailer I still had a few sheets of roofing to install. We got that done and the last 2 weeks we got  electrical wiring run  and it sheathed in . So it went from looking like this.

    To looking a lot better and ready for doors and windows .

  The gaps are for the door and windows. The bottom picture is from the drive way it has a large front yard.

 Here is what the back looked like at 10 this morning .

  This is what it ended up finished at 1.00 . We still need about 6 inches all around at the top then the corners and trim but it is now dried in  , roofed and wired.
    Next up will be the floor over laid with 3/4 tonged and groove OSB . Then the doors, windows and sheet rock walls.

     Unless something unexpected happens the whole job May come in Under budget . The wiring was a lot cheaper than I planned but I still have to hire a licensed electrician to do the breaker box (I may try) and hook to the pole.

Busy weekend.

      Sorry I disappeared the last 4 days but while  the weather was nice I took advantage. Friday and Saturday  I did the BBQ and had a fair amount of sale's for the end of January . I finished up  early afternoon Saturday and went to Lowe's for the trailers electrical and the outside sheathing. Long story short is I got it wired and it all works. Today we started at 9 and got the front of it sheathed with OSB and the windows cut out. I had hoped to have more of it sheathed but it was a slow start till we got  it worked out. My son was played out when we got home, he is limping pretty bad. Guess tomorrow I will work alone on the end walls, when my son gets to this point it takes a couple of days for him to recoup.  We are not use to 4 days straight of hard work . I would take tomorrow off but  I have other business to take care of Wednesday and Thursday so I will rest then, sort of. If the rain holds off till tomorrow late afternoon I will have some pictures of the place, this has made a big change.

I'm frugal,Not cheap,a Treehugger, enviromentalist and what the hell is a carbon footprint?

      Some people may have noticed I recycle, reuse and repurpose old junk . I repair what I can and even rebuild what appears to be to far gone. I invest a lot of time and effort into changing what I have into a new functional item.

    Many may think doing this is environmentally friendly and ecologically  responsible. It may be but it isn't why I do it. Some may think it leaves a smaller carbon foot print.  Ok on this I don't know where to begin . My actions are not based on a belief in saving the planet (mother nature will shake her ass and we all will die one day). It is based on accomplishing  what I need to do within a budget I can afford.                                                                            My son's place is going to be 1500$ and it works out to 1.20 invested per square foot . Its a 1200 sq. Foot house and with land its 3200$ and will have a 10 year plus new life. My daughter property cost 4600 and is going to cost 2500 to 3000 in rehab on 700 foot home or 4 $ a foot for a total of 7,500. Her place is going to be good for 15 to 20 years of new life.

   This wasn't done to save the structures from the dump It was because build cost range from 35 to ???? infinite on new. Even my vending trailer is going to come in at 1/10th new cost. We managed to acquire the properties at low cost and do low cost renovation's to make them work. This is what  , Frugal means.    Sparing or economical ,simple and plain and costing little

     Now while all of my project have been environmentally friendly that was not the intent. I do think we are to quick to teardown old sound structures to build new lower quality one's in their place and most houses and businesses are built to only last the term of their mortgage.

    Our great grand parents lived a frugal lifestyle because it was all they knew. We have as a society  forgotten what a frugal lifestyle makes possible .

Framing ,Roofing, Electrical, YOU TUBE

     So far I have framed the trailer, roofed it and spent today tracing what is left of the wiring. The end of the trailer that had to be junked was where the breaker box was. The crack heads had cutout and striped about 50% of the wiring and cut loose most of what was left. What was left but chopped was the kitchen we found 3 circuits that made 8 plugs and 1 ceiling light. It also made 4 plugs active in what will be the living room. Even though I made progress I still have 8  dead ceiling wires I can't find where they feed power from or to, I may wind up just killing them . I drew a diagram and it looks like I have to run 4 breaker circuits . 3 for wall plugs and one for all the ceiling lights. The wiring has to be done before I sheath the walls while it is exposed. The only thing I will hire done later(permit required)is the breaker box to the power pole.

    I have never done electrical wiring before but I have You Tube. If  you are willing to attempt it is a great place to start . A lot of stuff that people hire done is because of fear and uncertainty of how to do the work. Just remember if it is broke you cant break it. A lot of trained craftsmen have taken the time to make a LOT of good video's on many subjects. For this project I have watched framing electrical and plumbing .

   The trailer has no power so everything has been done off my 1500 watt inverter. So far it has worked perfect for cutting and drilling. Today I used it to trace the wiring, I made a plug with naked wires that I wire nuted to each circuit and used a light to check the plugs . It showed me complete circuits and which wires were dead. For remote work an inverter is a must Yea I could have used a generator but why. My 1500 watt inverter cost 95$ (harbor freight on sale with 25% off coupon) It has wires and clamps from an old set of jumper cables for fast hook up and disconnect. It has run my chainsaw, skill saw , chop saw ,drills. It store in the tool box and I have only had to crank my truck twice to finish a day. Any one that wants to build in the woods without drawing attention an inverter is a must.

OK some PIc,s of what i have been working on.

      Went and finished the roof at my daughter place today. This picture was taken this morning when we got there.

   As you see I had only 6 sheets to get in place but they were hard to screw in once I run out of room for me to stand.

 I was having to stand on top of an 8 foot ladder and still will need a few more screws put in by a skinner person.
    as you can see this place is rough. The crackheads did  number on the walls chasing a couple of dollars in scrap copper wire. The inner walls have 10 places they ripped around plugs and 2 ceiling panels .

  Here is what the outside looks like all the exterior metal striped except for that little on the top far end. We got that loose this afternoon.

   The open stud area is what we spent a week on . The A hole's had looped a chain around a fireplace and the central air and heat unit and yanked it out through the walls. The roof was collapsed to 4 foot floor to ceiling on the left hand corner. We used a floor jack and sledge hammered the studs in from the right to left . One ooops and the place would have been a total loss. We put the studs on 24 inch centers and all were cut using a 1500 watt inverter powering the skill saw.

   This pic shows about a fourth of the front yard and the 20+ feet we cut off the left end of the mobile home. The place is still trashy even after 4 pickup loads of hauled garbage plus the tore down end of the trailer. I didn't show it but I have a burn pile that's 15 foot round and piled 6 foot high to burn one day.

   These are all I took today. You see the back porch, there is front deck on the ground under the trash that I will put back for the front door later. Tomorrow the place will be wrapped with felt ,tyvek is way to much . I have to have the electrical run before the outer walls go on so I am just drying the place in for now.

Click on pics for a good view.

I am to fat to be roofer

      Today me and my son put in rafters and runners over at my daughters place . My son has bad feet and stumbles some times on the ground  so I had to do the roof work. I don't want him to fall off a 18 foot high roof . I put in 6 hours up on the roof and feel it. We got it ready for the metal roofing tomorrow. I hope the metal is ready before lunch It will take some time to screw 38 sheets in place. It is going to rain Friday and I would love to have this place dried in .

    The mobile home roof is still good but with the wood siding that we plan on using it had to have an eve and overhang . It looks like I will be able to bring this place in on budget. This is the first project I have done in years that I have used a credit card on. Normally I am Totally cash and carry but these projects would have left me penny less. The carry cost will be kept to a minimum but it will allow me a cash cushion . A lot of folks would have seen this place and said it was  teardown but it had just enough bones I had to save what was there. It will be a nice 720 square foot home when done. I will have put 2500$ into bringing it back. To buy a new mobile home it would have been 32,000$ +. Plus it feels good to recycle on the scale that this place is. We are a throwaway society but it feels good (even aching as I am) to not waste material and money.

I found my BOL.

      I found my B-O-L it is a 1/4 mile from any Nabors in a hollow with a well and a creek . While its not 30 miles out of town it is on a road with just 5 houses in the middle of a area owned by a timber company ( 2400 acres). It has been abandoned since 2010 and the taxes lapsed in 2011 . The  road goes 2 miles past my spot to a house that is owned by a prominent family and a parcel owned by a holding company of a very wealthy family. What may be my property line is where the road is blocked by a keypad gate and posted everywhere No trespassing . It may sound strange but I think at the other end may be a B_O_L of some local rich and famous .

    I sent in a bid request for the property today after spending a few hours researching it and all surrounding properties. It seems most the property owners are principals in the timber holding company. A few small parcels are just family homes like my place was.

    The piece I want had a mobile home on it from 05 till 2010 ( google earths timeline is amazing) it is 2 acres of land . It is hilly with a lower flat of 1/2 acre and a 1/4 on top where the mobile home was. It still has a 12 x20 Morgan building, a 12x12 shed and the pump house with pump. Siting on the bottom flat is an old freight trailer a 45 footer in bad shape. Normally I would love to keep the trailer but its toast and also about 10,000 lbs of scrap metal. At 8.50 a 100 lb that's 850.00$, the back taxes and interest is only 725$. I want this bad I hope The state sends the bid quote back quick I would love to clear the undergrowth before spring.  Oh it also has power and AT@T u verse available. Compliments of the rich folks at the end of the road. Funny they have there place obscured by google earth.

Good deals till i am broke.

       As I have wrote in the past I have been researching state held tax lien property. Today I received a slip saying we have certified mail at the post office . Its from the state property office so tomorrow I will have the tax deed ! Next week me and my son will get to secure and winterize this house to stabilize it till I have the money and time to work on it.

     When I sent the money for this house I set aside 2500$ for the repairs and renovations to bring it to sellable shape. My son was going to live there as we worked and until it sold. The best plans change without warning.

     Last Friday the great state sent us 5 parcel prices that we had requested . We submitted 28 request and have received a total of 12 price quotes. Out of the last 5 there was 2 we couldn't pass up. One of them was 2 acres in a nice farm area for 128$ but its just a lien till May then it can be deeded . It is over grown but has a teardown house and small barn that would yield a lot of lumber . My son loved it so I sent a check. Small price to get him a place. He now has 3 places that will be deed able in May. I hope and pray one of them isn't reclaimed.
      The other parcel is less than 2 miles from my home. It has 3.25 acres  is on a good road and has 240 acre of timberland behind it that will never be sold and is 30 years from harvest. It has an old mobile home and a shed. It has power, water, gas and a septic system on site. Unfortunately it has a high price 4,600$ but it is an immediate tax deed . AS it sits it is worth 12,000$, with a 1,000$ in materials and 2 days on my tractor it would bring twice that.

  As I said earlier I had 2500 set aside for the first house. Now with this 3 acre available I need it and will be barrowing 2,000 from the wife to make it happen. instead of plunking down the money we are going to do a 4000$ dollar loan on CDs. But it will leave my cash on hand below what I like.
    I worked hard to save this money it had been for a truck but I couldn't pass these deals up. 6,000 out of pocket with property alone worth 24,000. After repairs possibly up to 42,000 . 5 liens possibly becoming deeds in May both kids out on there own with a second property each. Yea its a risk but it has a good return.

     I HOPE I DONT GET ANY MORE DEALS I AM BROKE again.

Re-purposing my Son's BBQ trailer for peanuts.

    We are re-purposing my son's BBQ trailer for peanut's literally. He has wanted to get into something to earn some money that's legal. When he was out of his head crazy last year he wanted to scrap out the BBQ trailer we had built out of scrap on an old pop up trailer frame. It would have brought maybe 40$ . I went and got it from his friends house pushed it into the woods beside the house and DARED him to come get it.

  After being clean and sane the last 6 or 7 months he has been working a little with a friend of mine and helping me on my new BBQ trailer. Everyday we walk by his old trailer. Friday I asked him think of something you could sell out of the old stand.

     Well today we were out side and he asked what about boiled peanuts ? Hmmmm no one is doing it around here any more, its low cost, the trailer has the look. Ok I think he is on the right track, what else would you  sell? Roasted, Cajun, Boiled, Raw . I tell him you need more to make enough money for his time. Ok pecans and homemade peanut brittle, spicy nuts and honey roasted. Sounds good you want to do hot dogs and smoked sausage ?   NO !!!  Why not? His answer surprised me . I  can do peanuts and nuts with a peddlers license and be legal, it has a shelf life so no waste, the start up cost are doable with what I have saved.

   It sounds like he thought it trough and has a doable plan. We cleared out around the trailer aired the tires and dragged it out, cleaned it up. Tomorrow we will add a window and go to the farmers market for a 25 lb. bag of peanuts and see how it goes this weekend. I am going to pay for the sign for his trailer in his honor.

            THE NUT HOUSE.
     

   P.S. We got 50 lb. of peanuts  and shelled some for peanut brittle the window will have to wait till tomorrow .      

Roof on Dryed in.

    This is where it was Monday night .

   This is where I got it to by Wednesday night .

 

Racing sundown .

   This time of year the sun sets a little earlier every day.  I finished the roof before lunch . Glad to be done and off those ladders my ankles are killing me . The climbing turning and stretching to attach the metal took a toll on my legs and ankles . My son kept saying your getting old dad . His feet won't let him on a ladder for 10 minutes  I lasted 6 hour on the ladder yesterday and today.

    After the roof was done I took a break ,yea I'm old remember . Laid the floor in place and got it screwed in ,no more give ready for linoleum . Above the windows I cut and fitted  wood to cover the hole and paint it for a sign. Wanted to  post a few pictures but the sun won and was to far down. Will post them tomorrow .

   This project is going to be put on hold for a couple of weeks till I have more money. I had set aside 300$ for this building phase and I spent  336$ but I got the floor done which wasn't part of this push. I will piddle with running the electrical I have salvaged parts and wire on hand. Next push will be metal walls and Linoleum .

New roof and salvaged flooring.

     Today I went and got the metal roofing. We went into the office and a young lady asked what we needed ,I told her my order and asked when could I pick it up she said tomorrow, a man standing at the counter said pull out back he had what I ordered on the machine. I paid took my receipt and when I pulled out back he had already  formed and cut my 14 sheets.  He signed the ticket as filled, as I drove off I saw the name on the ticket was the one on the building. Nice to see an owner who runs his company from a production floor.

    In addition to the roof a buddy of mine told me he had 6 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood  and a dozen 1x6  boards for 50$ if I wanted them. The plywood was going to be 28$ a sheet so this saves another 120$. His new girl friend and him have been cleaning out her rental houses and storage buildings. It is amazing what people, myself included have stored that an be used or recycled . Will post some more pictures Wednesday after I finish the roof.

Sweat equity and reuse saves money.

     We have all heard recycling saves money and is good for the environment . That isn't why I built this trailer the way I did . I AM CHEAP not in a bad way but if I can make something work at a lower cost I will.  This build evolved from material from other projects that I have done and saved .
   
     The frame is from a camper I got 8 years ago for storage.

  It wasn't this nice but for 250$ it served for cheap storage.
Then I re roofed my shed/garage and saved the old tin.

   Last year I disassembled the storage camper and sold the aluminum for around 160$ . This freed up the new camper its parking place and left me with a flat frame for a new vending trailer.

    The weather got hot at this point so it was last week before I got back to work and framed it.

    

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I have spent 270$ Monday I will order the roof metal it should be about 90$.

It will be dried in for 360$ cost less the 160$ in scrap money.200$

 

Walls up roof next .

     Got back on this build Sunday and today, skipped Monday it rained. The back is where the door will go but that will be last. I cant get my smoker in a normal door. It is bigger than the pictures show  the blue ladder is an 8 footer.

 

 

    The opening above the windows will be wood and the windows and corners will be trimmed in wood. Once finished it will be painted BRIGHT Red and white trimmed.

Vending BBQ Kitchen is framed pics.

     I felt 80% today and did a little work . My wife allowed me to work  4 hours an hour at a time with breaks of at least an hour between. She says she is to lazy to break in a new man if I stroke out. SHE LOVES ME . Before I started I snapped pictures of what I did yesterday.
  
    This is what it looked like yesterday morning.

 

 

       By the end of the day we had it to this stage.

     Not bad for a days work but still a ways to go . With my wife watching the clock I was afraid it would take a while to finish the frame . Seem I work better with supervision because I got it to this point in 4 hours work and 8 hours of breaks.

   Got it framed and the serving windows in, the door will be in the back tail end of the trailer. I should be able to have it blacked in and the sheet metal on by Wednesday . Here is a picture of the metal .

   The piece on the tongue is oxidized on the other side like the one leaned against the side. I hope it will look good enough till I can get the log siding.

Cooler weather means work.

     Today I got started back on the new vending trailer. The weather is perfect . Me and my son got the walls up and squared .Tomorrow we do the ridge line and start the sheathing of the outside. I had wanted to do it out of log siding but that is 800$  I cant spare it at this time. We are going to use salvaged tin that isn't rusted but oxidized for a patina on the exterior. It will be hung so I can remove it when I can afford the log siding. I didn't get to take pictures today but will in the morning and after its sheathed.
      I had planned on taking pictures but just before we quit I got light headed and the yard started spinning. I think my blood sugar dropped or my blood pressure spiked .That was the first time I have had that to happen. Normally I know but today it hit me quick. Will be fine for work in the morning if the wife don't bench me. She love's me in a strange sadistically way.

     I want to get this project done because I have a new one in the works. As I have wrote before my son has been looking for  tax property. The state sent us a price on a house that is 5 years past due. It is a 1200sq.foot house on 1/2 acre of land for 1,553$ . Crack heads have stole all the pluming and wiring. The kitchen floor is sagging and about 10 foot of outer wall is basically gone. I can do everything but the electrical for under 1,000$. Before it was abandoned it was valued at 28,000$ . The upside is to great to pass on. If it was sold I make 20,000 + or I have a 500 $ a month rental .My son cant afford this place and doesn't like the town its in but I can and do like it. This is why the log siding has been put off my security blanket of funds will be a sheet before I am done.