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  • #31
    Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
    my roomie has a small 13 foot camping trailer in the field that she stores scrap iron in [to keep it out of the rain] and one time this past summer I caught someone in the fielt trying to hook their pickup to it .. "I thought it was abandoned" They had to lift a gate marked Do Not Trespass, go about 100 yards down a driveway, through yet another gate, past a chicken yard with loud squawky birds, around the back of our house and wade through 3 foot tall grass/weeds/feral plants of whatever type.

    The trailer is not licensed, has a tarp sort of strapped over it, and is up on blocks ... it is not moving any time soon. [if we put up a cute shed, it would get taxed, the junker trailer we got off the side of the road isn't taxed ]
    If you're not inclined to get a hitch lock for the trailer, there are a couple of other options:
    1. Remove one of the through bolts holding the coupler to the tongue of the trailer, and re-insert it through an eye splice in a piece of 3/8" aircraft cable a couple hundred feet long. The other end of the cable is attached to a ground anchor that can stop a Peterbilt in its tracks.

    2. Get a piece of heavy-gauge bungee cord about 20 feet long. Attach one end to the coupler bolt, and the other end through one of the holes in a brick. Get a short (couple feet ought to do it) piece of 1/8" cotton cord (sash cord or clothes line), tie it through another hole in the brick, and attach it to a ground anchor. Be sure the working load limit on the bungee is several times the breaking strength of the cotton cord.
    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

    Comment


    • #32
      Quoth Amethyst Hunter View Post
      Especially in this age of foreclosures, I've learned that it's not uncommon for some former residents to purposely rip out/damage a place before the bank/whoever takes possession of it.
      We actually helped someone do this.

      We were renting a house from my husband's chiropractor. We weren't aware that her life was spiraling out of control until we got served with a notice that the house was being foreclosed on. (An example of wonderful timing: we had just that morning closed on a house some 50 miles away, and were planning on giving her notice that night.)

      When we got in touch with her, she told us that she wasn't going to do anything about the foreclosure, that the house she lived in was also being foreclosed on, and that when we moved she wanted us to take with us anything we wanted that was in the house.

      She gave away most of the appliances; we took an entire workshop that had been set up in the basement, some of the plants, gardening tools, drapes, blinds . . . She even gave us some things that were in her primary residence, that was also being foreclosed.

      That should have been some sort of signal to us. Six weeks later, the day before the marshalls were going to come in, she killed herself in that house.

      Comment


      • #33
        Some of these stories remind me of the Tom hanks flick, "The Money Pit".

        "Nice stairs......We're taking them with us! hahahahaha."
        Show up and stairs are gone.
        GFY

        Comment


        • #34
          I love some of those housing porn shows on the DIY network(s); I stumbled across one on Hulu that had me howling with laughter. The show, best as I can tell, is a reality show about flipping houses. This couple were moving out of their home and decided to try to flog it, but they couldn't get anyone to meet their ridonkulous asking price. Seriously; they were asking something like twice the actual value of the place. During a housing glut.

          Very nice, clean cut, professional couple, obviously each earning six figures or better...

          When they failed to sell, they decided instead to rent it out. They rented it to, as the show said, "three college students" and then took off to another state for 18 months to be absentee landlords.

          They returned after the college students moved out, and when they re-entered the house, they gasped and staggered and clutched their chests and went pale as if they'd just walked into a hoarder home. Their eyes were huge as they surveyed the devastation wrought by their tenants, which amounted to a small pile of sand in one corner that didn't make it into the dustpan when the tenants left, and a single broken clasp on one of those crank windows. The cameras then zoomed in really, really close on some minute scratches on the finish on the hardwood floor. In the basement, they found a beer bong that was so new and unused that it practically still had the price tag dangling from it, probably thrown there by an overzealous TV producer just before the walkthrough.

          The show ended with the couple swearing that since their house had been mistreated so heinously, they would never, ever, ever again rent their precious sanctuary to college students. A title card then faded in saying that the couple never managed to sell their house, and they had to pay over $18,000 to repair the damage caused by their tenants.

          Maybe their standards are a wee bit too high...

          Love, Who?

          Comment


          • #35
            Quoth dendawg View Post
            Roomie may want to consider buying a hitch lock to put on the trailer.
            Quoth protege View Post
            If someone tried that in rural SW PA...they'd find themselves on the business end of a shotgun. Some, if they catch you on their land, *will* shoot first, and ask questions later That's why everyone else tends to take the "Posted" and "No Trespassing" signs seriously, especially the ones already riddled with bullet holes.

            Seriously though, I'd get a hitch lock, or remove the hitch altogether, along with the wheels. Also, I'd think about concealing the trailer somehow--a pile of earth would do the trick.
            She does have a hitch lock on it, they had bolt cutters [that they also used to get through the second gate...

            Quoth Jay 2K Winger View Post
            For some reason this reminds me of that episode of CSI where the crime scene's walls were covered with blood, which turned out to be from the soon-to-be-ex-husband, who had a condition that more or less allowed him to spray blood out of his nose, and over the course of several days he'd done that to the walls to spite his soon-to-be-ex-wife.

            IIRC, that was based off an actual incident one of the creators of the series had heard about/experienced.
            I remember seeing that episode ... eeew
            Quoth wolfie View Post
            If you're not inclined to get a hitch lock for the trailer, there are a couple of other options:
            1. Remove one of the through bolts holding the coupler to the tongue of the trailer, and re-insert it through an eye splice in a piece of 3/8" aircraft cable a couple hundred feet long. The other end of the cable is attached to a ground anchor that can stop a Peterbilt in its tracks.

            2. Get a piece of heavy-gauge bungee cord about 20 feet long. Attach one end to the coupler bolt, and the other end through one of the holes in a brick. Get a short (couple feet ought to do it) piece of 1/8" cotton cord (sash cord or clothes line), tie it through another hole in the brick, and attach it to a ground anchor. Be sure the working load limit on the bungee is several times the breaking strength of the cotton cord.
            I am not going to worry about it, we put a new lock back on the second gate. Usually don't find people *that* enthusiastic

            Quoth Ben_Who View Post
            I love some of those housing porn shows on the DIY network(s); I stumbled across one on Hulu that had me howling with laughter. The show, best as I can tell, is a reality show about flipping houses. This couple were moving out of their home and decided to try to flog it, but they couldn't get anyone to meet their ridonkulous asking price. Seriously; they were asking something like twice the actual value of the place. During a housing glut.

            Very nice, clean cut, professional couple, obviously each earning six figures or better...

            When they failed to sell, they decided instead to rent it out. They rented it to, as the show said, "three college students" and then took off to another state for 18 months to be absentee landlords.

            They returned after the college students moved out, and when they re-entered the house, they gasped and staggered and clutched their chests and went pale as if they'd just walked into a hoarder home. Their eyes were huge as they surveyed the devastation wrought by their tenants, which amounted to a small pile of sand in one corner that didn't make it into the dustpan when the tenants left, and a single broken clasp on one of those crank windows. The cameras then zoomed in really, really close on some minute scratches on the finish on the hardwood floor. In the basement, they found a beer bong that was so new and unused that it practically still had the price tag dangling from it, probably thrown there by an overzealous TV producer just before the walkthrough.

            The show ended with the couple swearing that since their house had been mistreated so heinously, they would never, ever, ever again rent their precious sanctuary to college students. A title card then faded in saying that the couple never managed to sell their house, and they had to pay over $18,000 to repair the damage caused by their tenants.

            Maybe their standards are a wee bit too high...

            Love, Who?
            I know, I am amazed at the people on the home porn shows sometimes. Especially the ones that are so negative about something as stupid as purely cosmetic stuff - paint and a roller, pwincess. Wallpaper? Scraper and steamer. Ceiling popcorn? Scraper.

            Ever see the one about best bang for the buck? Obscene amounts spent on renovations ... $150K for a freaking backyard? That is half again as much as my whole property cost
            EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

            Comment


            • #36
              Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
              Ever see the one about best bang for the buck? Obscene amounts spent on renovations ... $150K for a freaking backyard? That is half again as much as my whole property cost
              That's about what the goofballs next to my parents spent on their backyard. One of the local papers actually did an article about the "garden wonderland" they have. Included in the article, was a breakdown on how much all that shit cost. From what I remember, those tools spent well over the amount that the house cost. I could somewhat understand if it added "curb appeal," but the entire back and side yards are surrounded by a nasty, green, wooden fence.

              Also interesting, is that the amount of mulch dumped in that yard is truly mind-boggling--the 'gardens' are about a *foot* higher than the surrounding grass Their front yard is rather plain in comparison--no fountains, no pathways, etc.

              With all that said, I tend towards "cheap" home improvements. Things like ripping out dying pine trees, planting grass and/or flowers, a coat of paint on wooden trim, new railings, etc. All of those things are easy to do, and relatively inexpensive.
              Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

              Comment


              • #37
                Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
                my roomie has a small 13 foot camping trailer in the field that she stores scrap iron in [to keep it out of the rain] and one time this past summer I caught someone in the fielt trying to hook their pickup to it .. "I thought it was abandoned" They had to lift a gate marked Do Not Trespass, go about 100 yards down a driveway, through yet another gate, past a chicken yard with loud squawky birds, around the back of our house and wade through 3 foot tall grass/weeds/feral plants of whatever type.

                She does have a hitch lock on it, they had bolt cutters [that they also used to get through the second gate...
                Someone needs to go after those bozos with a clue-by-12 (clue-by-4 is nowhere near enough). A good rule of thumb is that if you have to go through multiple locks to get to it, it's probably not abandoned.
                Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

                Comment


                • #38
                  The only yard improvement I want to do whenever we end up getting a house is to plant flowering trees and bulb flowers so I can have the pretty stuff year-round. And hey, if the cherry or peach or whatever trees we put in actually give us some fruit too, score.

                  Those renters to the "college students" should listen to my grandmother's tenant tales. She's had some real doozies in her rented properties.
                  "Enough expository banter. It's time we fight like men. And ladies. And ladies who dress like men. For Gilgamesh...IT'S MORPHING TIME!"
                  - Gilgamesh, Final Fantasy V

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Was she able to file charges against them? :/

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Damn, PK! And I thought the story about my wife's former downstairs neighbor was bad. She got evicted for not paying her rent, but before she left, she ground dirty diapers into the carpet.
                      Sometimes life is altered.
                      Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                      Uneasy with confrontation.
                      Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Quoth morgana View Post
                        We were renting a house from my husband's chiropractor.

                        She gave away most of the appliances; we took an entire workshop that had been set up in the basement, some of the plants, gardening tools, drapes, blinds . . . She even gave us some things that were in her primary residence, that was also being foreclosed.

                        That should have been some sort of signal to us. Six weeks later, the day before the marshalls were going to come in, she killed herself in that house.
                        That's so sad.
                        ~~ Every politician that opens their mouth on birth control only proves that we need more of it. ~~

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Quoth Amethyst Hunter View Post
                          That's so sad.
                          It was indeed. I wish we could have helped her, but she gave absolutely no one any clue that she was going to do that. Everyone who knew her thought she was using that experience as a starting-over point. It was quite a shock to quite a number of people.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Quoth Raveni View Post
                            When I bought my house, the previous owner took all the light bulbs, ceiling fans, switch covers, everything. I suspect that he had played too many video games:
                            Pretty sure you aren't actually allowed to take things like switchplate covers or things like curtain rods, though curtains can be considered fair game.

                            My realtor (in the process of buying a nice little place right now, actually) mentioned a case that had to go to court over a wall mounted TV. Turns out the buyer insisted the house came with the TV because it was attached to the wall. Thankfully the judge was reasonable and declared that the mount came with the house, but the TV went with the old owners.

                            Quoth sweetj82 View Post
                            I guess i was a Sb(sucky buyer)
                            When we looked at the house we bought the washer and dyer were knew. when we went for our final walk through they were something very old.
                            Appliances like that are something that need to be discussed beforehand. Unless the sellers state that the ones shown that are the basis for the offer aren't actually included, they're supposed to be included. The place we're buying doesn't even have hookups, which we plan to remedy post-haste.

                            We're lucky in that a co-worker has an awesome realtor that we're going through. She really knows her stuff and has a lot of connections to good inspectors, appraisers, etc. If the seller doesn't go weird on us, we might be moved in as little as two months. (short sale with the value already approved by the bank holding the old mortgage)

                            Thankfully, since we're in sou Cali, I won't have to worry about what one home-buyer from another forum found: HAZMAT showed up at their house because the previous owner didn't remove the heating oil tank when he converted and just pretended it never existed. This is an update post from a year later.

                            ^-.-^
                            Last edited by Andara Bledin; 04-09-2011, 08:49 PM.
                            Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              We are going to be replacing my phenomenal woodstove and anything that is not going to carry with the house BEFORE we start showing it, and any furniture we leave to stage it will be available if the people want it. I plan on leaving it at least minimally equipped for living in, so theoretically someone could buy it and move in with nothing but a suitcase of personal goods and clothing.
                              EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                My cousin and his wife bought a huge house in a really expensive area, but they got it relatively cheap because the previous owners were going through a really nasty divorce and basically ripped out everything they could (presumably to spite each other). Light fixtures, bathroom fixtures...they had to call the cops to prevent them from removing the pretty glass-and-wood front door.

                                Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
                                Ceiling popcorn? Scraper.
                                My brother's living room ceiling is popcorn...with little bits of gold glitter and gold stars embedded in it. Tinkerbell's living room? He doesn't take it down cuz he doesn't want to deal with the mess of removing it...then again, he didn't complain about it either. He also still has the rather girly curtains that were left in the kitchen. The wall is painted a really nice sage green, though. The curtains look nice but he really doesn't strike one as a gauzy-white-with-roses-curtains kind of guy.
                                I don't go in for ancient wisdom
                                I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
                                It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

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