debrafrederick's Journal, 04 February 2024

Way to go on the loss! So awesome your hubby’s biz is doing well, too. 

Yes! This so fantastic!  

I can't WAIT to downsize. The most celebrated loss will be my property tax bill!! ha ha ha that'll be my 'big drop.' Weight will like remain similar, give or take...💙 

That's wonderful, Debra! 

So happy for you !! 

Wow! Great weight loss! Sounds like a great plan your hubby has. People here are upgrading their mobile home and they look great.  

That's a great size building for sure. Hopefully there will be cement in the future. it's amazing how the harder we work the better we feel in the Long run. My dad was in the modular home world for many years. So glad your business venture is taking off.  

So, about 15 years ago when we lived in Florida, we had a camper on our property here in GA, we came up here for a week one summer and it rained the entire time we were here...so we had to find something else to do besides hang out outside. We bought a local paper and read the want ads, saw an ad for mobile homes being sold in Hinesville (about 70 miles away) for 500.00 bucks each. A mobile home park had to get rid of zone 3 hurricane zoned homes and switch to zone 4's. They were rentals of course and in pretty poor shape. We inspected all of them and found the one with the best "Bones", we paid cash for it and had a local glass company come replace the busted windows in it. Then we hired a mobile home mover to bring it to our property and set it up.....that cost 2,500.00 bucks. So the next time we came up here...there it sat all set up and ready to work on. We gutted it...completely, then we began rebuilding it, one room at a time, back then...building materials were pretty inexpensive so we would buy 500-600 bucks worth of plywood, sheetrock, screws and paint. Two years and about 3,000.00 bucks later, our place was ready to put appliances into. Our property was paid for, we paid cash for the house and move and cash every time we worked on it. We had spent about 8,000.00 all together, plus 5,000.00 for a well and septic system. That was his first mobile home remodel and it is my little slice of heaven. He has gained more skills and tools in the following years so his work is a bit fancier now....but I love my plain and simple home, it's snug and comfortable and needs no improvement yet. Things will break down over time but he built it to last a lot longer than most stick built homes. I'm so happy his passion for making old things new and better is being recognized. We did the same thing for my Mother when she moved here...bought an old used mobile home and renewed it, so now I have two sitting here on our farm. Now he gets to make his shop from a shell....it will save on all of the work of clearing out all of the old materials on the inside. The sad thing is, the new building (shell) cost's 11,000.00, which is more than mine and my Mom's home combined. Of course everything costs triple what it did even 5 years ago.  

Deb, this will be a long one but so what!🙂 I got home to shower from the gym when I read your post. I just kept smiling! I had a small business for almost 7 years. We had nearly 500 regular customers that we serviced anywhere from 6 to 12 times a year. We made a good living but decided to sell once I had my first daughter. So anytime I see someone in small business doing well it makes me happy. So congratulations to the both of you. Because it takes a team to make it work and grow. My wife stayed home several years and was are secretary and kept up the books. She eventually wanted her own job and identity so to speak. So she went back to work and has been there ever since. She actually just received a nice size promotion so we're really blessed. Something in what you wrote and trailingsun also mentioned it. We bought a modular home a few years ago it was are very first home purchase. Some of my buddies busted my chops about a modular being a fancy "trailer". We loved that place and still do! Not bragging but to show that a fancy trailer could go for. We paid $125k and sold it last year for nearly $300k. So I got the last laugh🙂But anyways we sold that and bought my moms place which I grew up in. It's a smaller trailer but what our hope is to do what you mentioned. Although it is nice it could use some updating and that's are plan through the next few years. We've already redone the roof, new water heater, siding etc. We love this property and it's getting harder in Florida to find it at a good price. So we were lucky mom cut us a good deal and the value is already double what we paid. We're really blessed to say the least. Sorry for the long post but this peaked my interest. I think we'd be good friends in real life.  

wow great news, congratulations on your dedicated fasting and business success..  

We would probably be excellent friends IRL Joe! I think when I was a child I read all of The Borrowers books and I was always intrigued by the things the little folk made from the things they found or "borrowed" from the Human Beans. I make repurposing things into art with a ton of different mediums, hubby makes useful things better and more useful, we enjoy the transformation process and when it's something for yourself, well, you prize it even more because of the work you put into it. Love makes it stronger and lasting. You customize, make it fit your vision of beauty and utility. Our home in Florida was huge and fancy, we lived there for 20 years, but it was never really home, we slept, showered and ate there, but we had no part of building the walls and floors, the layout was someone else's vision so it was great, but not exactly how we would have done it. Down-sizing our lives and putting our heads, hands and hearts to work on our forever home was one of the best decisions we ever made. 😊 

♥️Wonderfully stated and I second your thoughts. 

i hope he supports and loves you the way you do him! 

Where are you at that mobile homes are so expensive? I live in a 16x80 that cost $25,000 including getting set up. I got it 20 years ago but in Iowa a lot of people don't want a trailer house so they aren't too expensive. 

Congrats on the weight loss! Sounds like you’ve been pretty busy! 

Yay! That's awesome! 

When you say "mobile home" I take it you really mean "Manufactured Home" and not "Recreational Vehicle or 5th wheel"?  

Mobile home, yes, mine is a 14x70 single wide with three rooms added to it. It's only mobile when they put axels under attach a tongue to it and move it with a tractor trailer LOL! 

Sara, I live in GA and right now, new built manufactured homes start at 100,000 and go up, you can buy foreclosures for less, but they usually require a considerable bit of work to make them liveable. You can purchase one cheaper in another state, but you will also eat it on the delivery and set up charges....twenty years ago they were way cheaper. 5 years ago you could get a new built for around 55,000.00 that has gone away in this area, that is why many people have that amount of cash, they were planning to replace the old MH with a new one, they are on fixed income now and do not want to take on a home loan, so they are opting for renewal as opposed to replacement. The bad thing about Manufactured homes, is when you spend 25 years paying a payment....well the home deteriorates. In the older homes they used substandard materials for the building....standardized building codes did not show up till the early 80's. Five years ago you could buy land here for 1,700.00 - 2,000.00 per acre, right now it's selling for 10,000.00 per acre....I'm sitting on a gold mine with 13.9 acres, but we won't be selling. We have huge auto manufacturing plants being built along I-16 right now...about 40 miles from us and it has caused all real estate prices to skyrocket. 

yeah, that must feel great!