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 .

I got the Deed.

    I have been on pins and needles about getting the deed on the property I wanted for a BOL . The state sent me a letter in February that they would issue on April 1st.  For some reason I was afraid something would come up and I would get a "we no longer have any interest in this property to convey " letter. Well I got the Deed by certified mail today :) . As nice as it is to have it will be a back burner project.

     Today we hung sheet rock in the bedroom of the trailer and tomorrow I will start on the living room sheet rock. I hate sheet rock but hanging it is not to bad . I am still thinking about hiring the mudding and finishing work. Before I make up my mind I think I will attempt one side wall to see how I do . If you don't try you will never know if you can. It has been a slow time all I got done last week was buying the sheet rock and finish hanging the insulation. My son did paint the exterior while I was on vacation with its base coat. My daughter picked a darker gray for it but when it was painted and dried it looks BLUE . I hate it but she likes it so what the hell its going to be her home not mine. Once the sheet rock is hung I plan on hitting his place hard everyday for 2 weeks so he can move in and do the little stuff himself . After sheet rock my daughters place is all small finish work I can do alone and hopefully my son can do the same. We have been getting on each others nerves and we both know a blow up will happen if we don't put some space between us soon.

The flu beats some jobs.

   Last week I had the flu ,body ackes coughing fever. Now I am not the sickly type and usually just keep going, not this time . Had to take 2 days off .Maybe I am getting older but I felt it this time and then it turned into the croup . Luckily it was cool and that helped me breath . It is the only thing that works for the croup, cold air and musinex . Even feeling as bad as I did I still did the BBQ and this week finished the floor and exterior walls at my daughters place. Now it is sheetrock time so I took today off . I hate sheetrock and this is going to be 30 sheets  worth of hanging and mudding . but it is also the last big project to getting her place done.
    If I had to choose between the flu  or sheetrock I would take the flu. Both will leave me sore and coughing .

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.

The new House will never be a home.

     The house we bought for taxes is to far gone to ever be a home again . Over the last 4 weeks we have spent 6 days at it cleaning and cutting . We stabilized a wall and have poked and inspected to see how we should attack the repairs. The water problems are more substantial than we thought. This place is still wet and we have had 6 dry days . It gets almost no sun it was built on the wrong side of a large hill that has huge Oaks and Pines that allow zero sun . I will fix its problems but the area has low resale on old homes so the cost benefit is to narrow .

    It isn't a loss, me and my son have decided to make it into a food commissary with him a 4 room apartment attached. A commissary is just a place where food is stored and cooked and cleaning done on a mobile food truck. It is basically a normal kitchen with a floor drain , mop sink and if needed a vent hood with  exhaust. All of which I have and can install. By doing the house into a commissary we can both get license to operate any where in the state in both of our vending trailers. When the new trailer is finished it will also be licensed and registered as based out of the commissary. To make it into a home would cost 5 times as much as a commissary

     A home is about look feel and finish appeal. A commissary is about sanitation ,food handling and utility. The 4 room apartment is basically in good shape now. It will cost little to separate it from the kitchen unit . This plan will only cost about 800 in structure electrical and plumbing cost. Add 400 in flooring and counter cost should about do it. To get it to a rental level would be 3 times this and to a sale level would be over 5 times as much.

    To rent a space in a set up commissary would be 500 a month per vending trailer and to my knowledge the nearest one is 40 miles away. That's 1500 a month  FOREVER.  Buying and remodeling this house will be 2500 to 3500 once and done! Plus the cost of license is 1200 less in Blount county and the units are only 50$ each instead of 200$ each. The apartment for my son is an added bonus :) till one of our other places becomes deedable. This plan is a lower cost and a higher return over the next 5 years for both me and my son than rental or sale could net.

Must have building materials to keep on hand .

      Most people keep some preparedness items on hand . In the prepper community its standard to have food, water, communication, power, cooking. The one thing most never talk much about is building material . Now I do a lot of projects around the houses and can tell you it is a pain to go to the hardware store multiple times. In the event of a storm or earthquake you wont be able to go and they wont have much left. I got to thinking what would be the most useful construction and repair items to keep on hand that is versatile and reasonable priced . Here is what I think is best for me to keep on hand.

 Plywood/OSB
 2 x4s different lengths
Nails /screws assorted
Plastic sheeting thick and lots
Tape (gorilla, duct)
Shingles
Metal roofing (expensive but priceless)

   The list as always could go on and on but these items cover most emergence repairs improvised shelter water catchment and get a lot of home projects started. Having the trailer and house work on- going plus this article got me thinking what I need more of on hand.
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/your-own-home-depot-for-preparedness/

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 .

Building in the heat and progress.

     Wednesday I went and got the deck lumber for the new trailer. I decided to use 1/2in. OSB on 2x3s instead of 2x4s cost and weight .The OSB was 8.00each and 2x3s 2.15 each . So far I have spent 130.00 $ in lumber and hardware . I paid 8.49 for a pound of sure gripe 3inch screws with torx head . Great screws but damn pricey . I will not use any nails due to its a mobile tiny house. Here is what I have got done so far.

 

   Not bad considering it has been 95 plus everyday .All I have been able to stand has been 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the evenings. The deck is 8 foot 3 inches wide and 19 feet long. That's almost 160 square feet .

    Next will be tires since my truck needs new tires soon I will keep my old  ones for the camper and have new ones put on the truck. After that I will lay vinyl flooring before the walls go up.

The start of my build .

      Here is the old trailer frame. I don't have a picture of it before I took it apart . It was a 1969 little Gem deluxe 20 ft. I gave 250$ for it about 8 years ago and have used it as storage after pulling a 20 inch stove/oven 3 sinks and a hot water heater from it. I am using the stove and have the sinks and water heater stored.

        I saved the bottom pan as it is aluminum and would cost a fortune to replace . The tires will have to be replaced and the frame painted but I will do that later. Here is a web pic of what the camper looked like.

  If it had looked this good mine would never have been destroyed but mine wasn't even good for a storage shed any more.

Made progress on the roof

    Got the lean to roof on and the garage roof stripped.Not a bad days work for a lazy fat man.

This is the old leaky roof and the lean to that was made out of 20 scrap pieces of tin.

    Here is the lean to made with 6 sheets 18 ft long.If you look at the wood on the garage it is over 80 years old and only had 1 board  rotted.It holds my 260 pound butt!Next is to put felt down then the Tin.

    The whole garage is sheathed walls and roof with 1 and 1/2 inch ruff cut pine can still see the blade marks on the planks.

P.S. Smoking is still at only 2 cigs most days its getting easier.

A few pics

A lot of junk piled in the front and it looks worst inside.

this is the lean to on the side.

A shot of the roof that will be replaced.

Here is the salvaged metal from the old barn. It is dirty and rusty but will clean up and be painted.This is 14ga high V industrial grade. Spent most the day next door cutting the bushes and branches off my fence and garage. The garage sits dead on the property line to the inch.So while i have no neighbor's I'm trimming everything back a few feet on that side.The old metal roof will be tore off  i think i have a use for it but i better wait a while before i ask the wife.I was given 4 rolls of insulation R25 and 20 sheets of 4x8 foam sheeting with the pull off metal i may make a nice tractor shed and brewing room.

The 4th of july BBQ and dreams of vacation

   I have survived the 4th of july BBQ  rush barley! The smoker has been in constant use since monday.I smoked 48 boston butts and 45 slabs of ribs and sold out in 5 hours between wensday and thursday.

my red smoker and tank that became my extra smoker

I had to use both pits to handle the butts and ribs but i got it done.The new pit wasnt finished i had to use 2x4s to hold the grate decks up till i get to the weld shop but it did ok for the holiday.
    I think i worked harder this week than i have in a lonnnng time but the payoff was worth it.Me and the wife are planning a trip to the gulf the 14th going to try and get some of the kids to come down too.We will go to big lagoon but i think we will b going to some other areas also.I know i will have to carry the wife to gulfport one day for the casino,s.I dont gamble like i use to.
      We will be taking the teardrop this trip the new standie is still untested and we dont want to be that far away and have problems.Had a man stop by and look at my teardrop he plans on building his own soon .I have known his son for years and i think we will do build at the same time.he wants a 4 wide and i want a 5 wide.