Does this look like the yard of a slob, a slacker, a person with no pride in their home or one deserving to be kicked out of a trailer park for failing to comply with the landscaping rules? I'm talking about basic requirements - keep it weeded, raked, pruned, watered, fertilized - just the basics, nothing fancy like th0u shalt always have seasonal flowers planted or thou must use landscaping blocks and spend a lot of money on your curb appeal. 
I wish I had "before" pictures - sure it got very overgrown and was unattended for over 6 months because I broke my arm last year, had surgery and recently had agonizing trouble with an arthritic hip and generally miserable joint pain all over my body. A cousin helped me with the Fall weeding and then disappeared before Spring came around. My 18 year old son is difficult to motivate or direct. He's intelligent, talented, funny, good-looking and a high-functioning autistic adult. If I don't work with him, he only knows some basic yardwork skills and can't visualize solutions for tricky problems like removing tree branches that obstruct the house number or how to wipe out a patch of noxious weeds, or deal with crabgrass. His mind is on music (he's a brilliant guitarist), art (he just graduated from an arts/communication high school) and friends (most of whom are female). (what's with the underlining and how come the freaking toolbar has no way to get rid of it? Come on Blogger people...)
These pictures were taken on Monday - same day I got the nasty notice from Commonwealth Properties. I've been given a deadline of August 17, 2007 to bring my lot into compliance or leave. Do you know what that means for someone with a mobile or manufactured home? We can't rent it - against the rules. Can't pay rent on the lot for the empty house and rent on another place to live. These places usually take quite awhile to sell, especially if you want to get your asking price instead of taking a lowblow offer from someone who will probably fix it up with cheap carpeting, slap on some cheap paint and pocket an amazing profit. Pennies on the dollar for you and where do you and your child or children go to live after you've been ejected from a trailer park? Where do your beloved pets go? And who is that somebody who will either give you the lowblow offer or more likely wait it out until he can just steal it from you? The owner of the park who resents any other realtor coming into his park to represent any of the houses, owned by the residents in actuality, but owned by the park owner in his own mind.
I've been working on the yard for about 2 weeks, because I discovered that Ibuprophen is a wonder drug for joint pain and I've even been able to work hard out there for up to 3 hours and not wake up the next day with the kind of pain that had been dogging me for over a year. I also have recently lost over 30 pounds which can only make all activity easier. I also am a shameless follower of the Flylady - Marla Cilley - the most wonderful life coach in the world and she doesn't charge for the incredible life-saving work she does. Flylady has taught me about routines and structure for side-tracked people who tend to be ADD and live in chaos. The interior of my house has gone from total CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) to a place with some semblance of order, dishes usually washed and bed always made (mine, not my son's). I'm not anywhere near to being done with the interior, but I've moved way beyond the shame and depression of the chaos that was my life.
A week ago last Sunday, I spent an afternoon on hands and knees, pulling what I think were crabgrass roots, as an alternative to constant Roundup spray - I had a mountain of grass root and the entry to my house went from covered with knee-high weeds to a beautiful clean walkway with bark-dusted beds and re-discovered stonework along the walkway. The following Thursday, I awoke from my evening nap (we work all day, outdoors, in the heat with large groups of demanding children and arrive home exhausted, so shut-up) and there was a car sitting perpendicular to my car at the end of my driveway. It looked odd and I said so, not far from an open window (relative space in a trailer park is kind of European - small, close and intimate). The driver of the car was startled and suddenly tossed a notebook and pen on the seat and tore off down the street.
Who was taking notes on my private home and why? What I want to know really is why they only noted the work yet to be done and completely dissed my accomplishments. Obviously this is a work in progress and obviously I do good and thorough work - just look at that entrance. All that remains to do there is paint the fence. I even have plans and paint to redo the entire porch and do the parts the previous owner didn't bother with. I also plan to tile the rises on the steps - that part that you don't walk on, but see as soon as you walk through the gate. I am sure as hell not doing all this so that Commonwealth Properties can steal my house and profit off all my hard work. They will never get my house. I'll sell it for pennies on the dollar to a friend who can move it before I'll let those bastards have my house with the wonderful mosaic bathroom and kitchen (photos to follow when I figure out where they are on my computer).
Tuesday, after work, instead of napping, I was still fueled by anger and in addition to the hour of furious weeding I did Monday after bringing in the mail, I worked another 3 hours weeding, thinning, raking, pruning obsessively and chopping debris into little pieces for optimal stuffing into the yard debris bin. Pickup is not until Wednesday next week. My neighbors, who are also my 2nd cousins (well, it IS a trailer park) brought their empty debris bin over without having to be asked. They are completely sympathetic, not because they are related, but because they have been harassed by Commonwealth repeatedly about parking their boat in their carport (they finally sold it to be done with the grief) and also for yardwork (their lot is completely done in lava rock and nothing grows there - typical here for keeping the owners off your back). The most rediculous notice they ever received was an order to remove their collection of yard angels - statues of angels and cherubs - one with a gazing ball - because "nobody else has religious icons in their yard" or perhaps it was "this is too trailer trashy for our too-big for it's britches park". As soon as I can afford to waste a little money I am getting at least 2 big pink flamingoes and posting them out front. Our response to the order to remove angels next door was to put an angel in our yard as well. Hell with em.
Another reason my cousins are still here is Legal Aid. Their pro bono lawyer proved that a lot of the hot air that accompanies these nasty notices is just hot air. They are heavily loaded with lots of warnings that "you have no legal recourse. We've paid our due to lobbyists in Salem and we now have all the power over where you live - so get cozy with your car, because we can have you living there in a heartbeat." Actually, they are just like any other bully. Big, ugly and talking shit. Bring your guardian angel (your pro bono lawyer) and they just fall over, start babbling over the phone and hang up on you. They are so naive not to ever consider that their tenants are not stupid. We know how to find the number for Legal Aid and some of us have close friends who happened to go to law school and own a 20 yr old practice in Portland.
For over three years I have kept my little secrets to myself, because I want to save them for the right moment. Confiding in a blog is not really a public act unless you get hits and people don't find you boring, so I doubt that this will ever reach Commonwealth Properties. If it does, all the better, but I don't give a pig's patoot what they do or don't know about me. I know that they are sleazy lying bastards and I have written proof from a county electrical inspector.
I wish I had "before" pictures - sure it got very overgrown and was unattended for over 6 months because I broke my arm last year, had surgery and recently had agonizing trouble with an arthritic hip and generally miserable joint pain all over my body. A cousin helped me with the Fall weeding and then disappeared before Spring came around. My 18 year old son is difficult to motivate or direct. He's intelligent, talented, funny, good-looking and a high-functioning autistic adult. If I don't work with him, he only knows some basic yardwork skills and can't visualize solutions for tricky problems like removing tree branches that obstruct the house number or how to wipe out a patch of noxious weeds, or deal with crabgrass. His mind is on music (he's a brilliant guitarist), art (he just graduated from an arts/communication high school) and friends (most of whom are female). (what's with the underlining and how come the freaking toolbar has no way to get rid of it? Come on Blogger people...)These pictures were taken on Monday - same day I got the nasty notice from Commonwealth Properties. I've been given a deadline of August 17, 2007 to bring my lot into compliance or leave. Do you know what that means for someone with a mobile or manufactured home? We can't rent it - against the rules. Can't pay rent on the lot for the empty house and rent on another place to live. These places usually take quite awhile to sell, especially if you want to get your asking price instead of taking a lowblow offer from someone who will probably fix it up with cheap carpeting, slap on some cheap paint and pocket an amazing profit. Pennies on the dollar for you and where do you and your child or children go to live after you've been ejected from a trailer park? Where do your beloved pets go? And who is that somebody who will either give you the lowblow offer or more likely wait it out until he can just steal it from you? The owner of the park who resents any other realtor coming into his park to represent any of the houses, owned by the residents in actuality, but owned by the park owner in his own mind.
I've been working on the yard for about 2 weeks, because I discovered that Ibuprophen is a wonder drug for joint pain and I've even been able to work hard out there for up to 3 hours and not wake up the next day with the kind of pain that had been dogging me for over a year. I also have recently lost over 30 pounds which can only make all activity easier. I also am a shameless follower of the Flylady - Marla Cilley - the most wonderful life coach in the world and she doesn't charge for the incredible life-saving work she does. Flylady has taught me about routines and structure for side-tracked people who tend to be ADD and live in chaos. The interior of my house has gone from total CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) to a place with some semblance of order, dishes usually washed and bed always made (mine, not my son's). I'm not anywhere near to being done with the interior, but I've moved way beyond the shame and depression of the chaos that was my life.
A week ago last Sunday, I spent an afternoon on hands and knees, pulling what I think were crabgrass roots, as an alternative to constant Roundup spray - I had a mountain of grass root and the entry to my house went from covered with knee-high weeds to a beautiful clean walkway with bark-dusted beds and re-discovered stonework along the walkway. The following Thursday, I awoke from my evening nap (we work all day, outdoors, in the heat with large groups of demanding children and arrive home exhausted, so shut-up) and there was a car sitting perpendicular to my car at the end of my driveway. It looked odd and I said so, not far from an open window (relative space in a trailer park is kind of European - small, close and intimate). The driver of the car was startled and suddenly tossed a notebook and pen on the seat and tore off down the street.
Who was taking notes on my private home and why? What I want to know really is why they only noted the work yet to be done and completely dissed my accomplishments. Obviously this is a work in progress and obviously I do good and thorough work - just look at that entrance. All that remains to do there is paint the fence. I even have plans and paint to redo the entire porch and do the parts the previous owner didn't bother with. I also plan to tile the rises on the steps - that part that you don't walk on, but see as soon as you walk through the gate. I am sure as hell not doing all this so that Commonwealth Properties can steal my house and profit off all my hard work. They will never get my house. I'll sell it for pennies on the dollar to a friend who can move it before I'll let those bastards have my house with the wonderful mosaic bathroom and kitchen (photos to follow when I figure out where they are on my computer).
Tuesday, after work, instead of napping, I was still fueled by anger and in addition to the hour of furious weeding I did Monday after bringing in the mail, I worked another 3 hours weeding, thinning, raking, pruning obsessively and chopping debris into little pieces for optimal stuffing into the yard debris bin. Pickup is not until Wednesday next week. My neighbors, who are also my 2nd cousins (well, it IS a trailer park) brought their empty debris bin over without having to be asked. They are completely sympathetic, not because they are related, but because they have been harassed by Commonwealth repeatedly about parking their boat in their carport (they finally sold it to be done with the grief) and also for yardwork (their lot is completely done in lava rock and nothing grows there - typical here for keeping the owners off your back). The most rediculous notice they ever received was an order to remove their collection of yard angels - statues of angels and cherubs - one with a gazing ball - because "nobody else has religious icons in their yard" or perhaps it was "this is too trailer trashy for our too-big for it's britches park". As soon as I can afford to waste a little money I am getting at least 2 big pink flamingoes and posting them out front. Our response to the order to remove angels next door was to put an angel in our yard as well. Hell with em.
Another reason my cousins are still here is Legal Aid. Their pro bono lawyer proved that a lot of the hot air that accompanies these nasty notices is just hot air. They are heavily loaded with lots of warnings that "you have no legal recourse. We've paid our due to lobbyists in Salem and we now have all the power over where you live - so get cozy with your car, because we can have you living there in a heartbeat." Actually, they are just like any other bully. Big, ugly and talking shit. Bring your guardian angel (your pro bono lawyer) and they just fall over, start babbling over the phone and hang up on you. They are so naive not to ever consider that their tenants are not stupid. We know how to find the number for Legal Aid and some of us have close friends who happened to go to law school and own a 20 yr old practice in Portland.
For over three years I have kept my little secrets to myself, because I want to save them for the right moment. Confiding in a blog is not really a public act unless you get hits and people don't find you boring, so I doubt that this will ever reach Commonwealth Properties. If it does, all the better, but I don't give a pig's patoot what they do or don't know about me. I know that they are sleazy lying bastards and I have written proof from a county electrical inspector.
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