Saturday, May 23, 2009

Pics

Kate asked for pics - so, that's what I did. Got out there before it got too dark, snapped some photos of things I have been working on, walaah.

EDITED: I AGAIN forgot to reduce the size of the pic on my camera, so, if you want to see what I am REAllY focusing on in the pics, you'll have to click on the pic itself, otherwise, you might thing I am a REALLY bad photographer. I ain't the greatest, but - really - I'm not THAT bad!!

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The Trellis Project.
I put the third trellis up today - it's the farthest on the left - and then had to slide behind that panel of trellises to put in "equalizers" I'll call them. That is simply little strips of wood that I screwed onto the trellises from behind to make the trellises all line up together. You should be able to see the sunshade stuff I put behind it as well. The top is sagging down - another project, another day. Probably tomorrow. I still have to put up 3 more of them. I have one more right now, would have to buy the other 2. Money is tight, not sure I'm going to do it. I will have to work around the satellite dish and the bathroom window if I ever get that far with it.

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Laundry Trees.
This project is all but finished. I just need to buy another line to give it 6 lines wide of clothes hanging euphoria. It's VERY sturdy - you could load it up with wet comforters and it wouldn't budge the wood, which is cemented into the ground.

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Behind that "stuff" is a sliding glass door. I had to stack up chairs as I made a mistake - I needed to put huge flat washers on the screw heads. A good windy day came and the styrofoam just ripped itself over the head of the screws. I forgot about that today at Home Depot. Anyway, the difference in here - where I'm sitting which is right next to the sliding glass doors, is QUITE palpable. The material over the foam looks much better - I think anyway - than just having styrofoam with ugly writing all over it.

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That's the front yard, and today, I cut that grass array down to what you see there. It was too high, it was all dying - it's just a normal phase in the cycle to cut it back and let the grass grow out again. I spend quite a lot of time working on that front yard today, still more to go. The white car is Mimi's the "newest" tenant - though soon, hopefully, she won't be referred to that as I will have someone else in Mary's room.

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This is the paver project out front. Mary had had stacked - pavers and bags of sand - on the sidewalk of all places. I dumped the sand into the area being worked on and started installing more pavers. Picked up where Mary left off. I need several more bags of sand to finish that project, which is basically stalled right now until I get some more. Mary wrote in her complaint to the city that I had bags of cement and construction materials stored out front. Obviously, the work is being done, and since it's started, I fully intend on buying whatever sand I need to get the job finished. I do NOT need Mary to do everything around here, it was just a big help. Frankly, my expenses will be reduced significantly without her presence and her extreme leanings towards waste in terms of electricity and water.

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Michael - has been acting strange for several hours now. He said he's bored. I doubted it. Hormones raging, there are other things on that kid's mind. His girlfriend - lol - broke up with him. Reason? He's totally consumed by video games. I believe he's rethinking that position as male hormones decide FOR him what's important in life and what is not.

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I know you're going to have a hard time believing this, but this photo actually shows the center of the universe. The Hubbard has nothing on this pic. This is the clearest photo ever obtained of the origins of the universe, our galaxy, and earth. Called "The Grill", there hasn't been anything discovered that has any more signifigance - The Lord Is Good, cause' He caused this thing to be created. Thank you, Lord!

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Mimi's room, this used to be the window/room of Mary's first room. It gets warm in there in the morning, Mimi wanted the window covered up. I started and completed this project today.

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This is one of my tenants.
NO, take that back, this is a photo of the zoo trip a while back. I could have sworn when I glanced at that photo that it was on of my prior tenants, though............................

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I have been enjoying an entire day working outside.

Well, not the entire day. I went and picked up a computer chair cheap this morning.
After that, a stop at Albertson's for some boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale.

Then to Home Depot where I purchased a bottle of outdoor spray poison - the kind you hook up to a garden hose. I'm afraid that a paid exterminator is out of the question at this point.

Home, I went to work with the poison, covering the entire property. The bottle was empty just as I was finishing up.

I then attached another trellis to 2 beams I had cemented into the ground. After that, I got a stick of wood I had purchased to place on the beams - all of them together, to even out the array. I then took small pieces of wood I had bought to use as stakes - which I pulled out of the ground but did not throw away, and placed them between trellises as well to even them out even more.

After that, I got the shade material, 2 sticks of wood, measured the entire length of the trellises up so far. I measured that out on the shade material and then some for working room. Screwed wood posts into each end of the shade stuff and then proceeded to attach it to the back side of the trellises.

OH, do I wish I had bought more of that stuff. Well, that project as far as it's going without cementing more beams into the ground, I got to work on Mimi's window dressing. Specifically, putting the styrofoam over her window. Measuring it all out, I cut styrofoam pieces to size and then did all the work involved in attaching the southwest looking material to it with glue to make it look nice - instead of white foam looking not-so-nice. I am letting the glue dry out and then I will be attaching it to the frame outside of her window. She wanted it done - it makes a huge difference in the heat levels in her room during the morning hours.

In interims, I have been deep watering plants all day long. Out front, I took over Mary's "job" and started pulling weeds. I was a little surprised she had let such a great amount of that stuff grow out there. Grass and weeds everywhere. I got 90% of that out of the ground. I also cut back some tall grass stuff - I don't remember the name of that, either - but it looks good - it had grown out of proportion and it needs cut down to about a foot and a half tall length periodically. I also pulled out some dead plants.

Again, I was amazed that Mary had let so much of this go. I had been watching it, yes, but I didn't want to "intrude" on "her" grounds.

With all of that, I have the grill cooking some of that chicken breast on sale and pork steaks that were a manager's special at Albertson's - half off. They are "sell-by" tomorrow.

So, I have Mary's project to finish - but I didn't get any sand at Home Depot today, as I wanted to see what my finances are. Especially after dumping a mortgage payment in the mail and also facing a car payment and car insurance payment. Everything else is either current or paid-in-advance. I need more sand, anyway, to continue on with that project.

It may sound like a lot- and really it is - but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has taken my mind off a lot of things and has been a total release for me. I am headed back out there in a few minutes. I want to install the styrofoam, dig 2 more holes for more beams for the trellises, continue with the deep watering project all around the house (take 3 days to finish it), and continue to work on pulling weeds on the east side of the house. Everything cited in the complaint Mary made against me has been taken care of - it wasn't really much - excepting the car. Mom suggested just washing it and making it look like it's being used. So, I also took the hose today and bathed it down, including the tires and everything underneath it.

Actually, I have a huge list of things I want to accomplish today, tomorrow and Monday - but it is hardly burdensome. I have 2 people interested in Mary's room. I will be paying to have all of it removed out of there to a storage unit if she doesn't come for it tomorrow or Monday. I need the income, the money spent on getting that stuff out of here will be replaced by the next tenant's initial payment for rent. I have not heard back from Mary - either she is showing up tomorrow unannounced, or she just ain't showing up.

Regardless, I'm back to the races.
ben

Next: Notice of Abandonment

As I noted in the comments section of the last entry, I cannot just dump Mary's stuff out of here - I wish I could, just have a huge yard sale and get rid of all of it. To do that - at least in Arizona - would mean she could go to court and sue me for the loss.

Instead, I have written her 2 emails so far, one yesterday and one today - the only method the judge prescribed for us to communicate about this - to come get her stuff on Sunday at 1:00 pm as previously arranged when the police were here last. The second notice, I just sent to her, includes the statement that if she does not have her stuff out of here by Monday, May 25th, 2009, I am going to move all of it to a storage facility and then she will have to pay for the move and the storage costs BEFORE getting her things - that is also written right into State Law.

Further, since I really only have an Order against her, I am also going to post a Notice of Abandonment on her bedroom door and send a certified letter to her work, the only other address I know of. The notice is simply the next legal step in ensuring that in a year from now, she doesn't - for whatever reason no-one could ever fathom - would want to walk back in here. Yes, the Order is good for a full year.

Hmm, state law a little murky - there is nothing in there for a case like this. Sort of isn't. After reading one particular section, however, I was QUITE glad that I won yesterday. Losing would mean she could sue me for damages that would amount to 2 month's worth of rent in a judgment against me, if she did so. But, from what I am reading, proceeding with a Notice of Abandonment and sending it to her workplace does appear to fit into one of the definitions of abandonment:

H. In this section "abandonment" means either the absence of the tenant from the dwelling unit, without notice to the landlord for at least seven days, if rent for the dwelling unit is outstanding and unpaid for ten days and there is no reasonable evidence other than the presence of the tenant's personal property that the tenant is occupying the residence

Okay, what I'm looking for is how to get rid of her stuff, basically. Not just in storage, I mean after a certain amount of time has expired, to sell it/dispose of it/whatever of it and have it out of my hair. I am assuming Mary wants this stuff back - all well and good, but I am not going to be drawn out into this forever. That's the point - to store it means money out of my pocket - hiring a truck, people to help carry it out to the truck, drive it over to the nearest storage place, pay for the storage, unload it, take the truck back, pay the people that helped move it.

Mostly, I'm straining to think how I could take it all out of there and distribute it around the house, lol. Caleb's closet is empty, I could load that up with boxes of Mary's stuff. But her bed is both large and heavy, takes up a lot of space. She has other stuff - dresser, table and 2 storage units in her room that just are spacemongers. Nope, no way to distribute it, it would have to go into storage, unfortunately.

Onto other things. It's a nice, overcast day again. Haven't looked at what the high temps are supposed to be, but certainly it can't be getting over 100 today with the sky overcast as it is. Yup - high of 92 today, not bad, not bad at all. Today? I'm going to take it easy today. Water the plants, pull some weeds, a trip to the store, that's about it. No work until Tuesday, and after ordeals like yesterday's, I'm very happy to have some time off to let it pass. If Mary shows up tomorrow, all the better.

Hope everyone is doing well.
ben

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