Jump to content

I bought a trailer!


rodentraiser

Recommended Posts

As many of you know, I plan to move out onto my lot in June and was planning to live in my car while I saved to get electricity and a septic system on my lot. Well, with the snow up there hanging on and on, it's pretty obvious a faucet for water isn't going to be done this month either. So with a little extra time to save, I decided to see what was available in trailers and found one that I think will be perfect for me.

I found a 30ft 5th wheeler that's in fairly good shape. It has some leaks (and of course it's raining today) and will need some of the inside wood replaced, but otherwise it shouldn't have any big problems. It was plugged in and the heat was going when I saw it, so I know that works. There's a small sofa and a mattress that I'm going to take out of it as well as the dinette set. I'd like to replace the sink and cabinet it's in, redo the floors and paint the whole thing. Basically, decorate a real dollhouse. LOL

Anyway, it only cost me $800 and it's big enough to live in for the next five years or so. If I move a twin mattress into the "bedroom", I'll have room to put an end table (with the legs sawn down) and maybe a couple of totes of miniatures, too, so I'll have a place to work on maybe getting something done. Every time I've had a dollhouse here in my room where I'm currently at, I get yelled at for having too much stuff in my room. With my own trailer, I can stuff it to the ceiling and not have to worry about getting rid of a dollhouse or trying to find a place to hide it.

So looks like things are moving along! These are some pics from the ad - I forgot my camera when the trailer was delivered:

f27241bc41464aa8bea2bc5e8cc1284a.thumb.j

a861380055e04918ae202ed5b0169b17.thumb.j

edbb17a93b06489daffab1dfb0e3497c.thumb.j

 

And this is a pic of the road right around the corner from me - this was taken on Monday!

702040uik8lzkM.jpg.6ab57a575dd5c0b1187cd

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good move! :clap: You'll be joining the small house movement trending now.  Lots of ideas on line for optimizing space. What is your plan for getting in and out during the winter, considering the failure to get up the road a few weeks ago?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is so exciting Kelly!!!  It must be so blooming cool, seeing how your life, your very own spaces are being set up.  It's going to be fantastic!!  Good for you! xx

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow! Thank you, everyone, for the response. I didn't know so many people had kept up on what I was doing. I guess the next time I complain that no one cares about me, Lisa will just have to smack me upside the head. Thank you! You guys are so awesome! (I'm starting to tear up here a little)

Kathie, I don't know about winter. From what I understand, this winter up on the hill has been a winter no one has ever seen before. I don't remember if I mentioned that they got over 2 ft of snow up there (and my lot still has 3" of snow on it!). The biggest problem was finding someone who had 4WD who could haul a 5th wheel into the lot. I finally did find someone, but he had to travel almost 70 miles to get it and then another 65 miles to deliver it. Fortunately, he had another job in the area, so it worked out.

As far as the weather goes, if the road to my lot is that bad I can't get up or down it, I'm not going any place anyway. During this snowfall, the lower road (the main road into town) had over 30 trees down and they took down the electrical wires as well. Up on the hill, I understand the power was also out for 48+ hours. So in a storm that bad, I'm basically snowed in until the trees are dragged out of the lower roads and the upper roads are plowed. But we had plenty of warning with the last snow and I was able to go out and do a month's shopping before it hit. Hopefully we'll have a warning again for more snow.

And look on the bright side. I won't have to run the propane fridge. LOL

But, I'll get chains and cables and at least I should be able to get out when they clear the lower roads and plow the upper one.

And - do I need to say it - it's snowing NOW as I'm looking out my window and has been snowing for several hours. And it's starting to stick. This weekend is supposed to be warm and dry, though, so I expect the snow to melt quickly this time. Maybe.

Lisa thought she would be able to go with me up to the lot this weekend and maybe we can find the crank and crank the front down and haul all that old furniture out of it. Then I want to measure all the rooms and see what I'll need to store and what I can fit in it. And generally get a better view of what needs to be done first. and I'll take more pics.

I really won't have the money to do anything with it until June, so I may be here a month or more longer than I want to be. I'll have to buy a tarp for the trailer and get keys made to it first thing. And something like a chain to put across the road so it won't get stolen.

I also had the receptionist in Seattle call and want to make an appointment to have an MRA (MRI?) done. As I will have to pay the full deductible for that, after the road maintenance fee this month and taxes next month, that may be June's bill. Always something. And I still need water on the lot. By the way, my taxes WENT DOWN by $43 from what they quoted me last year. Of course, that might mean the land isn't worth as much, but who cares about that?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I think first I need to determine where the leaks are. They could be from the windows, too. Personally, I'm all in favor of just putting a roof over the whole thing. I've lived in trailers almost as long as I've lived in Washington state and if there's one thing I've found out it's that trailers always leak. So putting a roof over the whole trailer seems to be the most permanent and easiest thing to do. The cover will make it a little darker inside, but it will also shade it from the sun in summer (a blessing for me since I hate the heat). And there are already so many windows that I don't think the trailer will get too dark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I first read about your plan to buy a lot and move out further away from stores, doctors, etc. I fear I would have sounded like your mother if I voiced concern and caution -- particularly, when you mentioned the possibility of living in your car for awhile.  But as I read of the progress you have made, it looks like you are on the way to making your dream a reality.  A tarp covering the trailer for now and a roof covering the trailer in the future sounds like a good thing.  As you say all trailers (and campers) leak over time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats Kelly. I’m happy for you! I did a trailer makeover and I felt like it was my own life size dollhouse lol. One thing about trailers, the rv mattresses are shorter I think than standard bed mattress but maybe a twin would work. It will be so nice to have your own private space. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t know a lot about caravans/trailers, but a roof over it would be more practical, especially for protection from weather. You could extend it and have a covered out door sitting area or for storage, carport, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Christine, I'm not all that far out, so no one has to worry. As a matter of fact, I'm closer to people here than I was in California living on a 75 acre horse boarding stable. Although my friends were living in the house next door and horse owners were there every day all day sometimes, the nearest neighbor then wasn't any closer than a mile away. My mom thinks I'm crazy, but she's only worried because she thinks she'll have to bail me out if things go south. She never worried about me during the Loma Prieta earthquake or when I was living in my truck. So you sound better than my mother. LOL For what it's worth, I still want to outfit my car and travel across the US in it someday.

Where I'm at now, there are many houses around me. We're just all on 1 to 5 acres surrounded by a gazillion trees, so it only seems isolated. And I'm only 12 miles from a town with fast food (YEAH!), grocery stores, doctors, and dentists. Notice my priorities here.

Karin, the mattress in that trailer was a queen and it was the original mattress, which means it was 32 years old. Needless to say, it got tossed. I'm going to put a small shed out there to store my sofa and box spring and just sleep on my twin mattress in the trailer. Forget the private space - I am so stoked at the fact that I will have my own toilet you can't believe it, even if it will be a composting one!

Shannon, I think if I just get a roof over the trailer, that will be fine. The trailer already has an awning attached to it that I can pull out if I need to. Course whether it works or not is open to debate.

But huzzah huzzah! Lisa came out today with her son and he got the sofa and the mattress out, AND managed to take out the whole dinette set! Here's a pic after the dinette set was taken out:

DSCN0046.JPG.1a3163732caec6d4d7b7b516d8b

 

Now I need to get the toilet and the kitchen sink and its counter taken out. Then that flooring will be lifted and I'm afraid most of the floor is soft, so it will need to be replaced. I'm thinking most of the upper cabinets in the trailer need to be taken out as well.

Many thanks to Paul for coming up and doing this. Physically, I was a wash out. I'm afraid I'll need to pay to get most of what I want done because I don't think I can actually do the work.

But wow! what a surprise going up there. I was just up there on Tuesday and I guess the snow we got on Friday really hit the top of the hill again. I started zooming around on the roads there until I realized that this was all new ice (the road had been completely clear on Tuesday) and the road had to have been plowed again. Time to slow down. All the wheel tracks in the snow from when the 4WD hauled the trailer into my lot were filled with new snow. I'm guessing they got a good two inches up there on Friday. 

Er, I forgot to tell Lisa that we'd be walking through the snow to get to the trailer. Oops. Small detail. Plus, I didn't have any idea there would be so much ice on the road from the snow we had on Friday. She and her son followed me up there in their SUV and I guess it was slipping around on the ice. When we got to my lot, Lisa told me I was this close [ ] to being on her **** list, but she realized when she saw the trailer tracks were covered that it had snowed since I was last up there. We were both laughing about it. 

You guys know what's funny? Last year I had hoped to move out to the lot in June of 2018, but I couldn't get the guy to clear the lot before October. I remember telling Lisa that if I moved out and was living in my car up there, we'd have the worst winter ever. Well, I didn't move out there last year and we had the worst winter ever. Now I'm wondering what next winter will be like. Should I be scared?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...