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- Sept 20,2006
- First step is to dig a hole to put the house in. Altho the house will be on piers (jacks) like all manufactured homes, because of being in a hole the end effect is that it is at ground level.
This is a corner lot. The front of the house will face the street on the left of the photo (East). The drive and carport will be on the west side.
The house is scheduled to arrive in the park on Sept 21, 06. I'll add more each step of the way.
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- Sept 22, 2006
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Well they said it would arrive Thurs. They were half right. The back half arrived and was parked in the street
near our hole. About noon on Fri the front half arrived and joined the other out in the street. I guess technically we are
no longer homeless even tho our house is in the street.
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Click photo to enlarge
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Click photo to enlarge
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- Sept 26, 2006
- The work crew arrived bright and early this morning. At least I think is was bright and early, I wasn't up yet.
The photo on the left shows the truck backing the front half into the hole. You can just see the back half along
the right hand edge of the photo waiting it's turn. The photo on the right shows the complete house in the pit.
Before the crew knocked off for the day the two halfs were closed up and leveled. The water, sewer and electric
were also connected. I guess two halfs really do make a whole. They start to work early around here so they can finish
before it gets too hot. The weather is getting better but even so it got to 102F (38.8C). I can understand not
wanting to shovel sand in the afternoon.
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- Sept 27, 2006
- They were at it all day, but nothing that would really show in a photo so you'll just have to take my word for it.
One crew was putting the wood skirting around it getting ready to back fill the dirt in the hole. Another was
working inside sealing it up and fixing cracks in the paster that were caused by careening down the highway with a
crazy man driving.
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- Sept 28, 2006
- Not much happened today except more inside work. The county inspected the skirting as well as the plumbing
hookups. I expect they will backfill around the house soon.
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Sept 29, 2006
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I walked past the house at 7:00 AM this morning and nothing had changed.
I drove past around 9:00 and it had been completely backfilled and all excess sand carted away.
There is no dirt here, it's all either sand or rock and in this case
it's sand. They are building the cement forms as you can see in this picture.
It is difficult to walk in the yards because of the sand so all these houses have a cement sidewalk
around them and a 16' wide drive/carport/patio on one side. I imagine they will pour the concrete
either Saturday or next Monday.
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Dec. 07, 2006
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OK, so I've been lax for a couple of months. I'm retired!!! Anyway, here is the cement slab at the
rear of the house. It will serve as driveway, shed base, and patio. Notice the hole about half way down.
That is where the foundation for the shed will be poured.
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Click photo to enlarge
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Dec. 07, 2006
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Folks have been asking for some inside pictures. Here is the living room ceiling. Notice on some of
the outside photos that the roof has a 3 window dormer. This is the dormer from the inside. It provides
a lot of light while still allowing me to watch TV while less than fully dressed and not have the neighbors
complaining.
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Click photo to enlarge
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- Dec. 07, 2006
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Ya, I'm posting several on Dec 7. OK? Here are 2 photos of the living room. I was standing in the dining area
to take them. In the right hand photo you can see a little bit of the kitchen and the den. We have the den set
up as a office/computer room.
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Click photo to enlarge
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- Dec. 07, 2006
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On the left is a picture of the front room with the dining room behind as seen from the front door.
The right is the den/office. The open arch into the office gives even more of an open feeling to an
already open front room.
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Dec. 07, 2006
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The kitchen is open to the dining area, which is open to the front room which is open to the den.
Kitchen has an island counter. Just to the left of the refrigerator is the pantry with it's door standing open.
The opening to the right of the refrigerator leads to the utility room with washer and dryer as well as the back
door to the carport.
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Click photo to enlarge
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Dec. 07, 2006
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This is for you techies. The house is heated and cooled by the heatpump which is at the far
end of the house. Here is Iris and Shadow standing beside it so you can get a feel for it's size.
It provides the cooling of 4 tons of ice. Did I mention that it gets warm here? :-)
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Dec. 09, 2006
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The cement slab shown earlier now is covered with the awning. This is a view of the carport end.
The short white pipes you see sticking up are for the sprinkler system. The whole "yard?" will be covered
with brown rocks about 1" in size. It was a lot easier to put in the sprinkers now, before the rock. When the
rock is in I'll go along and cut the pipes off to about ground level.
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Click photo to enlarge
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Click photo to enlarge
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Click photo to enlarge
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- Dec. 07, 2006
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On the left is a picture of the patio end of the cement slab, and on the right is the shed that is
built over the hole they left in the slab. Of course they poured a much thicker floor here. I bet
the car is a lot heavier than anything that will every go in the shed.
The house is surrounded
on about 3.5 sides with what they call a "retention" ditch. I call it a moat. The desert sand does not absorb
rain water quickley so it gets stored in the moat to slowly sink in.
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