Closing one chapter, starting another
Nov. 5th, 2017 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyA couple weeks ago I finally sold the trailer. The park owner made a reasonable offer. I didn't get nearly what I paid for it in 2003, but that's to be expected. Mine had a few issues, which were pointed out, understood, and factored into the price. Maybe I could have gotten more if I had taken care of some of the issues ahead of time, or knew more about what I had, but it's not my job to know how much mobile homes are really worth. I like to think the cleaning up I did helped. The park owner is a good man who knows what he's doing; he'll have it fixed up and cleaned up, possibly better than when I moved in. He'll likely make a profit off of it, in fact I hope he does.
When it was completely empty and I did the final walkthrough, it no longer felt like the "home" it once was, it felt like something that was just kinda there, and at that point I was ok with selling it and stop torturing myself with it.
There's already a list of things calling dibs on the money. There are things I want to get, that I've been meaning to get, that I've promised for myself in some shape or form. Such as this device:
https://www.quickjack.com
If I had the ceiling height for a proper full-size 2-post lift, I would have gotten that instead, but the QJ will help me with the vast majority of what I need to do. I gave mine a test run and in seconds, it can put my car high enough in the air that I have almost 20" of space underneath to work with. I could probably get another inch or two if I really need to.
Since I'm going to be doing fluid changes at home, I ordered a giant pile of absorbent pads. I don't expect to be making that much of a mess but if I do make a mess and I need them, having more than enough is better than not enough. I can get some at the auto parts store if I'm ok with only having about 6 of them, which was slightly more than enough for cleaning up the ISO-32 hydraulic oil that invariably spilled out when priming the pump and bleeding air from the cylinders.
There was a wave of car parts already, and larger waves are on the horizon. Both of the girls are going to be getting a bunch of new parts; they need (and deserve) it. I've already started doing some repairs. It felt good to have that controlled environment. Or at least a lot more controlled than what I had before. Raining sideways? Nighttime? Raining sideways at night? Whatever, that's not an issue now.
Yes I did get a tool chest, although I didn't get the one I was originally looking at because all the negative reviews were complaining about how the tool chest was all dented and the drawers didn't close right, like it fell off a truck. And there were a bunch of those kind of reviews, so maybe a whole container of them was dropped? So I looked elsewhere, different brand at a different store.
The combination I did get boasts a total of about 16,000 cubic inches, plus I was able to get it home in my car (even if I did need to have the hatch partly open). I figured my tool collection could fit in that? Nope. I ended up filling it because I had more than I thought. Well, I'll just get another one of the same size. Two smaller ones should be easier to move around than one big one anyway. And first-world problems tend to share the same first-world solution: Throw money at it, either your money or someone else's.
After that? I'll probably start putting it into improvements on the house. It's perfectly livable as-is, it's just there are a few things I'd like to make better and adapt to my preferences. Looking at it that way, it won't be spending the money, it'll be putting it into a different form of value.
Much of my free time in the near future is going to DIY repairs and unpacking boxes and putting things away and otherwise trying to tame this Walpurgis Night of clutter. That's going to take a while to finish, if it ever does. I'm alright with that, it'll keep me busy and out of trouble. When that winds down to an acceptable level, then I can go back to doing "fun" things.
When it was completely empty and I did the final walkthrough, it no longer felt like the "home" it once was, it felt like something that was just kinda there, and at that point I was ok with selling it and stop torturing myself with it.
There's already a list of things calling dibs on the money. There are things I want to get, that I've been meaning to get, that I've promised for myself in some shape or form. Such as this device:
https://www.quickjack.com
If I had the ceiling height for a proper full-size 2-post lift, I would have gotten that instead, but the QJ will help me with the vast majority of what I need to do. I gave mine a test run and in seconds, it can put my car high enough in the air that I have almost 20" of space underneath to work with. I could probably get another inch or two if I really need to.
Since I'm going to be doing fluid changes at home, I ordered a giant pile of absorbent pads. I don't expect to be making that much of a mess but if I do make a mess and I need them, having more than enough is better than not enough. I can get some at the auto parts store if I'm ok with only having about 6 of them, which was slightly more than enough for cleaning up the ISO-32 hydraulic oil that invariably spilled out when priming the pump and bleeding air from the cylinders.
There was a wave of car parts already, and larger waves are on the horizon. Both of the girls are going to be getting a bunch of new parts; they need (and deserve) it. I've already started doing some repairs. It felt good to have that controlled environment. Or at least a lot more controlled than what I had before. Raining sideways? Nighttime? Raining sideways at night? Whatever, that's not an issue now.
Yes I did get a tool chest, although I didn't get the one I was originally looking at because all the negative reviews were complaining about how the tool chest was all dented and the drawers didn't close right, like it fell off a truck. And there were a bunch of those kind of reviews, so maybe a whole container of them was dropped? So I looked elsewhere, different brand at a different store.
The combination I did get boasts a total of about 16,000 cubic inches, plus I was able to get it home in my car (even if I did need to have the hatch partly open). I figured my tool collection could fit in that? Nope. I ended up filling it because I had more than I thought. Well, I'll just get another one of the same size. Two smaller ones should be easier to move around than one big one anyway. And first-world problems tend to share the same first-world solution: Throw money at it, either your money or someone else's.
After that? I'll probably start putting it into improvements on the house. It's perfectly livable as-is, it's just there are a few things I'd like to make better and adapt to my preferences. Looking at it that way, it won't be spending the money, it'll be putting it into a different form of value.
Much of my free time in the near future is going to DIY repairs and unpacking boxes and putting things away and otherwise trying to tame this Walpurgis Night of clutter. That's going to take a while to finish, if it ever does. I'm alright with that, it'll keep me busy and out of trouble. When that winds down to an acceptable level, then I can go back to doing "fun" things.
