Hooray Hooray, My Long Long Trailer Arrives Today!

[AET]

Here's one picture of our summer house, I'll have to get another one that's better, but this is a pic from last summer, before I repainted it. 


If you were wondering who's multi-colored taxi/squad car that is, that's my car I had before the station wagon, good car, but too blue oval for this bowtie guy.

[HobieSport]

Wow Tom your family Summer place is classic 1950s.  Love the barn red paint.

[AET]

The barn red paint is actually the neighbors place, mine's the lovely yellow and brown place next door, which has beared many colors in the past, including aqua as well as pink over the years, classic 50's colors.  It's one of the earlier ones in the area, the oldest ones are from 1951 and people kept building here until the 70's.  It's a great old place and it's even cooler because my grandpa built it with his own to hands when he was 28 years old, and he had built the house my dad and family grew up in when he was 21 (1951).

[HobieSport]

Well Tom, maybe you can repaint your Grandpas' place aqua and pink again someday...

Well, the property dried out enough with some good Spingtime weather, so we were finally able to get the long long trailer into position by the forest behind our houses this morning.  We had to use a tractor for the tricky maneuvers around the house and up the hill, without running over my Girlfriends rhododendron bushes.  Success!  And no harm done to said fragile landscape plants.  Whew!

The trailer now has a great view into the old pine and fir forest to our East.  Very soothing for when I'm patiently working on phones...   When the weather clears up again I'll get the utilities hooked up and I'll start moving in.  This Summer I'll ad a covered front porch, a rocking chair, maybe a couple of pink flamingos and a garden gnome...

Oh I am happy trailer trash today.  Desi and Lucy eat your hearts out.

[Dennis Markham]

Matt, it looks like a nice quiet location.  Will you put it on blocks to get it up off of the tires??  That's probably a dumb question but wondered.  I guess if you're going to plumb it and hook powers lines up you have to do that, but thought I'd ask.

[HobieSport]

Yes, Dennis it's a real nice quiet location.  We're lucky in that we live only a half mile East of the "quaint" coastal town of Mendocino, which gets really touristy in Summer, but our place is at the end of the road and is always really quiet, with the forest on two sides of the acre.  Lot's of deer, racoons, skunks, possums, a red fox and wild turkeys.  We've even spotted a cougar and a black bear in the forest here.  So the views from the trailer have their own little wild life show, so to speak.

Yep, the trailer goes on blocks, and I'll run underground utilities; water, sewer, electric, and telephone lines.  Some nice bamboo and redwood fencing and some garden beds this Summer should make it cozy and not so "raw" looking as it is now.

[Dennis Markham]

It really looks and sounds nice.  You better get the guest rooms ready....phone collectors will be stopping by!  There's probably no chance the Google Maps car will drive down your road, which will help to maintain your privacy.

[HobieSport]

Phone collectors are always welcome to stop by, have a local seafood barbecue, sit around the campfire and tell old scary telephone stories...

Funny you should mention Google maps.  According to Google Earth, we live in a marshy empty lot a few hundred yards away.

My girlfriend Mariko loves it here, for the peace and privacy.  She grew up and worked in Tokyo in her youth, so you can imagine the contrast for her.  She's visiting family in Japan this month, and she loves it there, but is always happy to come back home and paint and work in the garden.  Here is her fine art watercolor website with lot's of local scenery.  I may be a bit biased but she really is one of my favorite artists.

http://mariko-irie.com/

[McHeath]

Gonna be a nice quiet spot.  I will be sure to send up some of our local gangstas to set up right next door and give you the Valley Method™.  You know, tagging, 3am parties, endless thumping music, that sort of thing.   

[HobieSport]

No problem, Heath.  I'll just let the noisy neighbors play with the local bear and mountain lion.  No wait.  Are these Gangstas also phone collectors?  That's okay then.  They can tag my trailer all they want.  Loud music at 3 A.M. will be a problem.  Then they have to contend with my girlfriend.  I'd take on a mountain lion anyday...

[McHeath]

I've always liked the isolated life myself, having grown up in the country.  However, the missus is a confirmed city grrl, and gets anxious out in the woods.  I've told her she could strap on a six-shooter all day, but to no avail.  So I'm getting used to living in town, it's been almost 20 years now, and I'm almost able to tune out the traffic at night.  Almost.

Ah well, city life does have it's benefits, quicker access to thrift stores to look for phones!

[AET]

The trailer looks great Hobie!  Can't wait to see once you've settled in.  The cabin was not aqua and pink at the same time, but those colors at different times, as well as a avacodo with a hint of turquoise in the mix in the 70s. 

Mendocino, eh?  Ever hear the song Mendocino County Line by Willie Nelson, he did it a couple years back, like 04 or so. 

Country life is definately the way to go.  We had 60 acres here with a 5 acre pond.  My dad bought the land for development and much of it has went to that and we now live on 35 acres, which is all up for sale as well, if anyone's interested in a nice 1 year old 3000+ square foot house for 600,000 or so.  It's heaven on earth here and I wish I didn't have to move.  If I keep playing the lotto, I will buy and retrofy it!

Here's the listing:
http://starkhomes.com/vp/ListingServlet?SITE=STARK&ScreenID=LISTING_DETAIL_P&EXCEEDLIMIT=Y&totalFound=0&showMap=N&cd_MLS=349740&PHOTO_NUM=1

[Bill Cahill]

Very nice trailer!!!
May we see inside pictures?
I love the style, and, color.
Have your wiring proffessionally checked first. There have been alot of electrical fires from frayed, inacurate, or, bad wiring in trailers.
Bill Cahill

[HobieSport]

Hey thanks Bill!  Not everyone appreciates trailers, especially the old ones like this 1954 Roadmaster.

You can see pictures of the interior at the beginning of this long long thread.

As you can see, she's already been completely rewired professionally, with metal conduit throughout before I got her.  At first I was a bit put off my the interior conduit, as it all shows, but since I'm a form-follows-function kind of guy, I also saw the beauty of it.  All the wiring is new and accessible, and I don't have to worry about the old wiring inside the frame being a fire hazard, especially as the original wiring didn't have a ground. I've worked as a basic household electrical so I'm able to go over it and double check it all myself.  The plumbing is also all new, so no problems there.

Once I get her blocked up I'll have another electrician friend with more experience than I come and advise me more on the electrics.  I'm hoping to avoid the use of propane completely, as propane is expensive here and electricity is cheap.  And I've actually witnessed a trailer explode from a gas leak. I'm trying to figure if we can get enough electrical juice to run a small instant electric hot water heater.

Anyway, it's a little bit of work to get everything hooked up and functioning, but I'll get there.  As you can see not all of the interior is original.  There is some new paneling, tile counter tops and some replaced cabinet doors. But many of the cabinets and much of the paneling is original and mostly in good shape.
I'm not going to try to restore her to original, just get it comfortable and functional.

[DebbieDoo]

Hi HobieSport,  I know this thread is really old but I stumbled upon it whilst searching for something else......now I can't remember what I was searching for but anyway I love your trailer!!!  The aqua color is fabulous.  Do you have any updated photo's of the interior?  Would love to live out in the woods where you are but alas I'm in the city for now.  Thanks.