Rehab Nightmare at Lot # 66

Where do I begin, this blog will detail my entry into the world of rehab and some of the many pitfalls, this is the story of My Rehab Nightmare at Lot # 66. This blog could be a very lengthy one, I will shorten it so that I do not have to relive all the mistakes and pitfalls involved in this one experience.

It all started when I evicted a woman from the park who was a crack head, for non payment of lot rent, I offered to give her a couple of hundred dollars to move immediately so I could get her out of the park as quickly as possible instead of waiting for the eviction process to run it‘s course, in turn I took ownership of her home with her giving me the title to the home. Now I am the owner of a mid 70s, 12 X 56, 2 bedroom mobile home.

Through some local people I met a rehab man that I hire, on day one he removes all the misc. debris that will be in his way out of the house so he can get started. Day two, I purchased some of the supplies we initially needed to start the job and he got started, day two ends with him getting some basic things done. Day two happens to be the end of the week, Monday morning comes and he never shows up, without going into all the details that’s the end of rehab man number one.

So now a week or two goes by while I look for a new rehab man, I’m referred to someone that says his family has been in the rehab business all their lives, during the next couple of weeks I will come to believe he was not one of them. So the rehab man and his helper get started, there is a flurry of activity and I am buying supplies so we can get the job done. Several weeks go by and the results are less than impressive, I’ve bought a lot of materials and I’ve had a number of talks with the man but there is no improvement and rehab man number two is gone.

To try to keep some progress going I even took my grounds person and had him put paneling half way up the living room and kitchen wall to try to cover up some of the mess created by the last rehab person. All I kept hearing from helper number three was I’m not a rehab man, I’m not a carpenter, so I continue my search.

My level of frustration is extremely high, the project expenses are running very high, I am not a rehabber, I’m new to the area, I don’t know who the good from the bad are and the project just seems out of control. Now I’m just looking for a way to keep things moving forward so I can get this thing done. My grounds person tells me about a man who does basic carpentry work, I hire him to try to keep things moving forward until I find a real qualified person. As we look the job over and try to move forward , we uncover a number of things that must be done over again because they were not done correctly. Helper number four moved slowly forward trying to correct some of the issues we found, at least he did quality work. He was a good man, but he wasn’t a leader, he needed someone to give him direction each day. To get to this point had taken several months with all the stops and starts and going back to fix things that were not done right the first time.

Enters my current rehab man Rick, those of you who attended the MOM meeting probably met Rick at the park and saw the quality of his work. He does a great job and is the key to our current success in rehabbing homes in the park. With his help we have finally got this home turned around and someone living in it.

A partial list of some of the issues we had to go back and correct after the original rehab people are,
* Hot water heater access door was covered over, no access.
* Cabinets purchased did not fit the area’s available in the kitchen.
* The outlet for the stove was pushed back into the wall and covered over.
* Plexiglass panes were installed in several windows without removing the protective skin coating.
* Heating vents were covered over with the floor covering.
* The masonite on the outside was so rotten in spots that if you leaned against it your hand would go through it, The outside had just been freshly painted.
* The stucco pattern was so bad we had to overlay the walls.

The list goes on and on, The final cost on this small 12 X 56, 2 bedroom home hovers around $ 9000.00 to rehab, so believe me when I say the right rehab person is worth every penny, I know what I’m talking about. The amount of frustration and the time and effort it took to get this job done really made it feel like a nightmare. The good news is that I learned a lot of lessons in this first experience that have helped in the month’s that followed.

---