Back in 2005 when we were told that the organization I work for was moving to Kentucky, the office chatter was full of jokes about hillbillies and trailers. I probably made a remark or two myself as I had no intention of moving.






























Karma's a bitch!

HKAR10006575H by Matt Black, on Flickr

No way, are you joking or really moved in?

Well at least its big and got lots of grass. I'm sure you can cover that over with all your old cars in no time

How are things really going out there?

No joke, closed on 8/14 and moved in with us (the kids and I) sleeping on the floor. Wife stayed in MO until we closed there on the 27th and she joined us in KY after the movers left on the 30th. The movers just unloaded here in KY today.
Even with the truckloads and truckloads of stuff we got rid of, fitting the contents of a 4+ bed house with a full finished basement into a singlewide where the entire storage situation consists of 4 bedroom closets, kitchen cabinets and a 1 1/2 car garage/shed is going to be a challenge. Especially when the owners of said 4 bedroom house are both "collectors".



My two "project" vehicles are back at a friend's place in MO, waiting until I buy a trailer capable of hauling them down here. Two others went to the scrapper. I have to clean out the shed enough to fit at least one of them in there. Right now the shed is full of tools and boxes and misc that wouldn't fit in the house. The moving lady's estimate of the weight of our load was 10K lbs, actual weight was closer to 16K and I brought two truck loads of the heavier car parts (intake manifolds, cylinder heads) down myself. Plus, we left all of the appliances and much of the furniture.



Things are going well I guess. Better that we're all together and our future is more certain. At this time a month and a half ago, we had no idea when we would be back together or where we would live. Kids are doing well in school but miss their friends.


Here's a pic from the back...

HKAR10006575G by Matt Black, on Flickr

Its good your all together, my hubby worked away for a year when our little one was 3, just coming home on a weekend, it was crap.

Sounds like the kids are settling in, they always miss their friends, but they'll make new ones quickly. At least you know where your future lies now.

Sorry about your 2 scrapped projects, I'm sure that was a sad day

Well good for you, and I love the space, I hate the way there is so much space here but everything is built on top of everything! the kids will be fine, they just worry us because they can!

Oddly enough, a buddy of mine from round here just moved to a trailer in KY, around the same time.

Still, though, at least (a) you're all back together and (b) not in the hole for some random, overpriced, house made out of cheese.

Sorry about the scrapped projects. I dread what might happen to mine if we ever had to move back to the UK, or to CA, NJ or anywhere else that small mechanical assemblies are illegal.

WELCOME TO THE TRAILERHOOD!!!

Glad to hear you are all back together and in your new home. Nice yard and pool. Buying a trailer home might not be a bad idea in an area where you have a huge military population- when you find your 'dream home' the trailer will be easy to sell. Assuming of course that the trailer isn't already your dream home.

I've seen worse (actually lived in worse when I first came over here), you have landscaping and a pool! The family being together will be worth everything.

You're dead on.

We lost $ on the place in MO, bought for $156K in '03, sold for $145 for the house and the 20 acres. Could have been a lot worse, we put it on the market in early April and got our one and only offer July 16th, signed contract on 24 July. My friend who also relocated due to work put his place up in Feb and hasn't had any bites, hasn't even had any lookers for a month.

Luckily we did pretty well on our prior place which we bought in '98 back when the market was normal and sold in '03 (after everything went crazy) for twice what we paid. We used a large chunk of that profit as a down payment on the farm so that equity somewhat mitigated the lower selling price. Still, after paying off some loans and the credit card we pretty much back where we started, nothing in the bank, but no debt either. Which is OK with me. I got us into a place like that once, I can do it again.

That brings me to the plan... Our new mortgage is less than most people's car payment so we should be able to actually save some $, which we haven't been able to do for the last 7 years. Especially once my wife finds work. There are numerous elementary schools in this district (the school district encompasses the whole county), but only one middle school and one high school. My daughter has two years of elementary, once she moves into middle school we can move anywhere in the county and she won't have to change schools. My son is in middle now and will be in high school by then. So, for the next two years we're going to save like crazy and keep an eye on the market. After that, we'll start looking, but no rush this time, we'll wait for the right place. Like you said, this is a very transient area and I'm only 9 miles from work so we could hopefully sell easily or even rent it.

You know, it's what the rest are saying. You are all together as a family and when we have kids, we do and move to where we think they will be secure and have a comfortable future, so good on you And if you don't like it, it's not forever and your yard looks spacious for the kids and they will get the benefit of the pool in the good weather. Hope you all settle in quickly and good luck for the future

For a singlewide, it's really pretty decent. The prior owners took really good care of it, put in nice berber carpet and pergo flooring, upgraded all the light fixtures, spent time and $ on landscaping etc... The plusses are the above, and it's close to work, it was cheap, has a decent (although kinda small) shed/garage/shop thing, sits on 2.25 acres that's about half grass and half woods so the neighbors aren't right on top of us, it's in the school district we wanted and it's a "wet" county so we can buy booze right down the road.

The minuses are that it's basically made of cardboard, there's no basement, very little storage, no wood stove, the decks and porches are OK, but not as well built as I would have done them, and the two smaller bedrooms are tiny.

And I count the pool as a minus, it nearly put me off buying the place despite the kid's delirious joy at the sight of it. I haven't had the desire for a pool since I began paying my own bills and it's already turning into a PITA. Came back from a weekend trip to MO two weeks ago and it was as green as jade after having been crystal clear for the first week. Apparently the floaty thing ran out of chlorine. I have NO clue how to operate a pool. I was told to "shock" it, which I did, along with dumping in a gallon of algae killer and refilling the floaty thing with chlorine tablets, but green it remains. The P$$L guy is coming today to fix it.

Our above ground pool was a pain to keep clear. You might need to add more shock. You could always ask Pat for tips, his always looks good.