Dad’s House @ LongLiveTheMonkey.com

Weekend Of 6/28/08 Update

We set out to get a lot done this weekend and we did.

Sunday I had to work my first shift (real job) so we didn’t go down. We did go down Saturday and did a lot.

Brian and Robbie moved the rest of the basement stuff in the pool room. Stacy and I went through it later that day.

Progress on basement:

Date Started: June 21, 2008
Estimated Time: 2 months
Actual Time: 2 weeks
Players Involved: Brian, Curtis, Stacy, me, Uncle George
Status Of This Project: Completed (we went through all the stuff, some of it we kept for a flea market, some we kept for sentimental value)

We completed Dad’s room! We got all the furniture out. Now just to go through the rest of the stuff in his closet and the stuff we have in his room.

Progress on Dad’s room

Date Started: Feb 2008
Estimated Time: 6 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me, Stacy, Uncle George, Curtis
Status Of This Project: In progress (almost done!)

We threw a lot of stuff off the balcony to make it easier. We threw the remainder of the heavy safe (everything but the door and the bottom) we got into. We also threw Dad’s wood rack and his filing cabinet off the balcony.

Youtube videos in this post when they upload!

*youtube video here*

The big things we need to do:

• get the rest of the cars out
• knock down our old clubhouse
• the garage
• sell the boat
• sell the ram
• sell the incomplete house
• get the house ready to sell

In the immediate future (as in before fall):

• knock down clubhouse
• do Dad’s roof
• finish incomplete brickwork around pool room
• get dirt to bury stuff
• plant grass to make the yard pretty
• get people’s cars out!

Here’s who we still have to get their vehicles out:

• Suzanne - brown Lincoln
• Mike I - boat(s), blue van
• Denny/Frank - black truck on trailer, maroon truck
• Mom - Suburban, Camero

To do:

• knock down clubhouse
• do Dad’s roof
• shred more stuff
• sell vinal
• sell or ditch coke bottles
• put incomplete house on Craigslist

Clubhouse, since we decided to get rid of it:

Date Started: TBD
Estimated Time: 2 weeks
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: TBD (Uncle George, Curtis, Brian, me, Stacy)
Status Of This Project: Planning (since we decided, it just needs to be done)

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Weekend Of 6/21/08 Update

I accomplished my goal of putting the boat on Craigslist here. I’ll put it up again in another few days when the thing expires.

We had the goals of:

• moving more furniture
• go through Dad’s desk
• his closet
• his cabinets
• his bathroom
• the closet in the hallway

We accomplished going through Dad’s desk!

Date Started: Feb 2008
Estimated Time: 2 weeks
Actual Time: 4 months (off and on)
Players Involved: Brian, Stacy
Status Of This Project: Completed (was put on hold but worked on sparaticly)

I went through Dad’s closet but I didn’t finish it all the way. I stacked all the books and threw out a lot of junk. We had already weeded through Dad’s clothes and stuff. It was just a lot of Coke stuff, records, tapes, DVD’s, and boxes in there. I have a few more things to do yet. We also have to get rid of the vinal (records).

Progress on Dad’s closet:

Date Started: Feb 2008
Estimated Time: 3 weeks
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Me
Status Of This Project:In progress (need to ditch the vinal and other stuff in there)

Brian and his Dad worked in the basement all weekend. They basically moved a lot of stuff from the basement to the pool room. Stacy and I need to go through a lot of it. I’m not really sure if its progress, but it’s clearing out of areas of the house.

Progress on basement:

Date Started: June 21, 2008
Estimated Time: 2 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Curtis
Status Of This Project: In progress (need to move more stuff and go through it, a lot of it says with the house)

I completed Dad’s bathroom. It’s all cleaned out. He kept his lightbulbs there and whatever I thought was trustworthy I kept (it wasn’t a lot).

On Sunday we started to shred. We gave up on the community shred idea because of the limits. They only accepted five grocery-sized bags per person per vehicle. Yeah, that was like one box to us. So, we borrowed Shawn and Jen’s shredder, we got our own, and got Curtis’ shredder to start the process.

Progress on shredding:

Date Started: June 21, 2008
Estimated Time: 2.5 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Me, Curtis, Brian, Stacy
Status Of This Project: In progress (we have like 10 boxes full of stuff to shred, got one done today, got one for home, Curtis got (basically) two)

We only got done one box because the shredders kept overheating and I got bored really easily. However, Curtis took a big bin (the huge blue one) and we took a big bin so we’re going to shred at home.

While we worked inside, Uncle George and the neighborhood kids worked outside moving cars and tires and stuff. They got quite a few out last week and this weekend.

Progress on junk yard:

Date Started: Mar 2008
Estimated Time: 6-12 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Curtis, me, Uncle George, people who have cars up here, neighborhood kids
Status Of This Project: In progress (Uncle George estimates we should be done by end of this month, everyone’s cars need to be out by July or else they are going, for real!)

We worked outside some Saturday sweeping, raking, and seeing what else we had to do outside.  It’s coming along! Fred also stopped by to get his gas pump. Had a good conversation with him.

Stacy sold her Mustang to Uncle George. Good deal I thought. He’s going to fix it up and drive it. He took it Sunday.

We also gave Uncle George all of our old old kid play house toy thingies. Yeah, they’re old from when Stacy and I were kids. He’s going to give them to Nick’s sister. Awesome, we were probably going to throw them away anyway.

All in all a very productive weekend. We still have left to do:

• put Dorsey on Craigslist (will do once appraised)
• move more furniture (need to move the desk and bed board)
• continue going through Dad’s closet, cabinets
• go through the closet in the hallway
• fix the bricks on the pool room
• shred all stuff
• get rid of vinal
• get rid of Coke bottles

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Weekend Of 6/07/08 Update

Wednesday we made a special trip down to Dad’s to give the Charger to its new proud owner.

That was a hell of an accomplishment!

Date Started: Feb 2008
Estimated Time: 2 months
Actual Time: 4 months
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer, guy who bought the car
Status Of This Project: Completed

I really hope its new owner loves it like my father did. It is a really nice car! I will miss it.

As for the weekend, we had a few things on our to do list but it didn’t get done.

Friday, Suzanne called and said she just got the lawyers letter. Apparently he didn’t send them out until like last minute. Crap! Oh well. They have to get their cars out.

Saturday it was really really humid and hot outside. Brian and Uncle George and a neighborhood kid did a lot outside. They created scrap piles to take to the scrap yard and cleaned up the yard. I did lots of paperwork inside.

Fred got a tow truck to get his Cadillac out.

Brian and I also started sorting through Dad’s stuff in his room. I created a huge pile of paperwork by pulling it all from one of Dad’s filing cabinets.

The guy who towed Fred’s Cadillac out offered to buy Dad’s 1997 Camero! (You know, the one that was recked.) Sunday he picked it up!

1997 Camero progress:

Date Started: None
Estimated Time: 2 months
Actual Time: 1 day
Players Involved: Uncle George, tow truck guy, me
Status Of This Project: Completed (we didn’t even plan it)

Sunday we got a lot more done. The tow truck driver got his car and paid me for it in cash. He also came back to get Marcus’ Barracuda. My sister was available to help so she and I did paperwork all day. The men basically worked outside. They got tires together and created more of a path for the scrap guy to get more cars.

No one got any of their cars out (besides Fred and Marcus). Mike called to say he might get his boat out on Sunday but never called me back. The other people need to make arrangements, but as far as I’m concerned (and I’ll verify this with the lawyer), we’re going to scrap and take away all the vehicles two weeks from now.

Sunday we also finished the attic paperwork and moved furniture.

Date Started: May 10, 2008
Estimated Time: 40 hours
Actual Time: Approx 50-60 hours
Players Involved: Brian, me, Stacy sometimes
Status Of This Project: Completed (we have more in Dad’s room but the attic is done, we just need to shred all that’s useless)

For another weekend:

• Get people’s cars out (it’s becoming too late, guys, we’re really starting to get rid of all of it, yours might be gone)
• Move the rest of the furniture (like from Dad’s room)
• Clean Dad’s room out (his desk, the cabinets, the rest of his bed)
• Clean Dad’s closet out

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Weekend Of 5/30/08 Update

Saturday was a pretty productive day. We didn’t start too too early, but we got a lot done. Uncle George and George finished the roof of the garage.

Progress on garage roof:

Date Started: May 24, 2008
Estimated Time: 3 Days
Actual Time: 3 Days
Players Involved: Brian, Uncle George, George
Status Of This Project: Completed (roof should not leak anymore since it was built the right way now)

Also Saturday we went through a lot of paperwork. Stacy and I did that while Brian and Curtis started moving furniture down to the pool room. We’re moving all the furniture to a central location in order to get things organized.

Saturday night, I’ll be honest, we partied. I got pretty wasted. So did everyone except Brian. I was useless Sunday. Brian got up around 8AM and loaded Robbie’s truck with our old bed for Stacy’s new apartment. So Brian went to Annapolis without me. Him and his Dad did get a lot done.

They moved a lot of furniture, cleaned out the gutters, checked on the tarp, and did paperwork.

Kim’s sons got her jet ski’s out also.

Stacy took a lot of furniture to college. She got the movers in Sunday to help her. They didn’t show up until 5 which sucks.

We called the lawyer since we didn’t get a check for Uncle George. I’m going to get him to send it to me so I can give it to him next weekend or something. Also, letters SHOULD already be sent out about people and their cars. New date is Saturday, June 7, 2008 9AM-3PM.

Sunday I called the guy buying the Charger. If everything goes well, he should own it by Wednesday. This means we have to drive to Annapolis Wednesday for him to get it.

Stuff to do next weekend:

• Finish paperwork, finally
• Look at the house roof, possibly begin working on that (probably won’t happen)
• Continue moving furniture to pool room
• Get people’s cars out Saturday
• Work on Dad’s bedroom, more documents
• Get Dad’s closet done and cleaned out
• Clean out Dad’s desks and filing cabinets

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Weekend Of 5/24/08 Update

Well I found out Friday that the lawyer didn’t send out notices to people about their cars. Everyone was notified by phone but it’s better to have it in writing, I suppose. So we’ll set it again for Saturday, June 7, 2008. Plenty of time.

But, seriously, isn’t it their fault that they haven’t gotten their vehicles out? We’re not running a free parking lot here, people.

Anyway, this Memorial Day weekend, we spent Saturday and Sunday doing the garage roof, paperwork, and other miscellaneous stuff.

Uncle George and his friend George spent all day Saturday and Sunday working on the roof. Many trips to Home Depot and 84 Lumber.

They’re going to finish it next Saturday and move on to Dad’s room. We might have to take out the skylight since the leak has been neglected for so long.

Progress on garage roof:

Date Started: May 24, 2008
Estimated Time: 3 Days
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Uncle George, George
Status Of This Project: Pending (need to buy shingles & shingle it)

Progress on Dad’s roof:

Date Started: TBD
Estimated Time: 5-10 Days (depends on how much damage has been done)
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Uncle George, George
Status Of This Project: On Hold (should start next Saturday)

Also, Saturday, a guy came buy to look at the Charger! Welp, he decided to buy it! Finally, we’re free of that car! Things should start moving Tuesday. He’s going to set up an Escro account with the $25k and Littleton should do the rest!

To prepare, we gave the Charger a good cleaning and a nice bath. Honestly, we should have done this before since it totally transformed the car, in my opinion.

Progress on selling Charger:

Date Started: Feb 2008
Estimated Time: 2 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer
Status Of This Project: Pending (should start the selling process Tuesday)

We also finished moving all the train stuff to Brian’s parents house.

Progress on paperwork:

Date Started: May 10, 2008
Estimated Time: 40 hours
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me, Stacy sometimes
Status Of This Project: In progress (should hopefully finish it in 1-2 weekends)

Curtis went by the incomplete house and mowed the grass again. Uncle George also mowed the grass at Dad’s.

Sunday we went by the incomplete house to get inside and change the locks.

In the house, the guy who was building the house recorded all the times he was there. It was freaky. The last time he was there was Jan 29, 2008. He wrote Roland RIP.

It’s going to be a two bedroom, one bath, one story. It has a washer and dryer and bathtub already. The electrical seems to be done, or in progress. The pluming may also be done, but according to records, failed inspection. All we did there was change the locks.

All in all it was a very productive weekend. This week:

• Make sure Uncle George is taken care of
• Talk to lawyer about guy wanting car as soon as the money is in Escro
• Inform lawyer about Dove guy, the lean, suing the estate for incomplete house
• Make sure notices are sent to people for their cars

Next weekend:

• Hopefully finish paperwork
• Pay Mike I back if he gets his boat
• Finish garage roof
• Move on to Dad’s roof
• Start moving around furniture to pool room

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Weekend Of 5/17/08 Update

Pretty productive weekend, I’d say. Saturday the boat guy came over in the morning to take pictures of the boat. Hopefully he’ll list it sometime this week. He also took pictures of the Dodge Ram that’s available as a bundle.

Suzanne came over to get her cars, also, on Saturday. She got the Chevy Blazer, Kim’s Neon, and Pancho’s Rally Sport.

Also, the scrap guy was there to get my Pop-Pop’s old Station Wagon.

Status on cars:

Date Started: Mar 2008
Estimated Time: 6-12 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, Curtis, me, Uncle George, people who have cars up here
Status Of This Project: In progress (we are scrapping a lot of cars and random parts that are worthless now, get a pile of cars together to sell)

After Suzanne got all of her cars (besides the Lincoln) and the scrap guy left, we settled down and went through a lot of Dad’s boxes from the attic.

I swear, my Dad must have saved every single piece of mail (including JUNK MAIL) since before I was born. I’m talking about useless mail, useless papers. I’m slowly going through the older stuff right now. Brian is currently working on the newer stuff. We’re just trying to find anything of value to us now.

But, seriously, there’s boxes and boxes of this stuff!

Date Started: May 10, 2008
Estimated Time: 40 hours
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me
Status Of This Project: In progress (we’ve gone through probably 10-12 boxes so far, there’s a lot more to go)

We also moved most of the trains to Bri’s parents. There’s quite a pile there now.

Next Saturday May 24, 2008 9AM-3PM is the big day. Everyone is going to have their cars out by then. We’ll be there all day. This day is the last for people to get their junk cars out of there. The lawyer is sending out notices and NO EXCEPTIONS are made.

To do for next weekend:

• Get people’s cars out (5/24/08 9AM-3PM)
• More paperwork
• Garage roof if weather permitting
• Get into incomplete house and change locks if needed
• Finish moving trains
• Check Dad’s journals for Cuda guy contract pictures (Apr 2003)

Stuff to do this week:

• See about getting a shredder or renting or community shred
• Call real estate agent to get a quote on incomplete house
• Call Bri’s uncle to see how close houses go to their tax values
• Talk to the lawyer about paperwork, options for the 1955 Tbird, keys to incomplete house

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Day Of 5/14/08 Update

Brian and I took off Wednesday to get a few things done for Dad’s estate.

We met with the lawyer in the morning. We came to the following conclusions:

• We need to sell the boat and/or the incomplete house
• We need to concentrate our efforts onto the incomplete house in order to finish it to sell
• We need to get all stuff out by July
• We need to get people’s cars out ASAP
• We need to fix the roofs ASAP

After meeting with the lawyer, we went over Dad’s to get with the boat seat place. They called me to say they were running late. Uncle George and Brian went to the incomplete house to mow the lawn. I waited around and did paperwork. The scrap yard guy came to get two cars and the boat seat place installed the new seat. That went well.

Yay, we’re really moving on this! This weekend the list is:

• Paperwork
• Trains
• Boat guy
• Find the key to the incomplete house

Probably more to do later. Bad news on the boat. Supposidly there are three boats of the same make and length available for sale in this area. Progress on the boat:

Date Started: May 2008
Estimated Time: 5 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer, Marina place
Status Of This Project: Pending (take pictures, clean the boat more, hopefully move it later when interest generates)

By the way, I also listed the Charger, again. It’s on Craigslist now.

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Safes

Dad had five safes that we needed to get into for paperwork and what not. We got into the first one, the big one, a week after he died. The lawyer got a safe company to come in and open it. However, no luck with the other safes.

I called Annapolis Lock And Safe and a really nice guy, Harold came up. He was awesome. It took him around 7 hours all together over the course of two weekends to open the rest of the safes. It took him two seconds to open the safe in the garage. The rest of them, he did what we were doing and using force to break open the safes. We actually started the one for him.

After the safes were open, we decided to put them into the little garage, aka our trash area. The best way to do this was to throw them off the balcony.

Date Started: Apr 12, 2008
Estimated Time: 2 hours
Actual Time: 2 hours
Players Involved: Brian, Curtis, Seth
Status Of This Project: Completed (safes are in the little garage and will probably be recycled)

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Weekend Of 5/10/08 Update

Well, since this is my first weekend update, I shall tell you what we did on May 10 - May 11 2008.

Saturday morning we got up around 7 AM to be to Dad’s by 8 AM for the dumpster. The dumpster guy came and dropped off our dumpster. Bri’s Dad, his brother, and Uncle George and a bunch of young fellows he knows came up to do some stuff around the house.

The dumpster got loaded (Load 1), Uncle George and company got four cars ready to take to the scrap yard. We also cleaned up the garage some. We also did what I have wanted to do for a while and that was move the 1996 Camero out of the garage. The car had been into a major accident. It’s totally gone. My Dad, thank God, survived it. Anyway, that car is out there now. We have some more breathing space in the garage.

Also, early Saturday, a guy from a Marina came buy to take a look at Dad’s boat. He will be coming back next weekend to take some pictures of it. Hopefully we can get that unloaded soon. It also needs a boat seat. We just started to work on that. The lawyer just mailed a check to the boat seat place and I set up an appointment. Progress on the boat:

Date Started: May 2008
Estimated Time: 5 months
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer, Marina place
Status Of This Project: Pending (take pictures, clean the boat, hopefully move it later when interest generates, need the boat seat in)

On Sunday, Uncle George and his pal came up and mowed the grass. Man, does it look good! Brian and Curtis put a tarp over the leak in Dad’s room. We also started to move trains around. Furthermore, we cut down a dead tree that was in the way of the garage. I’m currently trying to put the video on YouTube but am having problems importing it to my computer.

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Incomplete House

Lucky us, Dad has a house that he was in the middle of building. However, we think work has not been done on it in a long time. The house has been sitting there for a while now. It burned down in 2005 and Dad has been slowly (I guess) rebuilding it. No electrical is done, it’s just a frame of a house. No isolation, water, walls, or anything.

We have to decide what we’re going to do with it. It might be worth putting +/-$20,000 into to fix up and sell. As for right now, I guess we need to keep the lawn cut and figure out what we should do with it.

Date Started: TBD
Estimated Time: 2+years either way
Actual Time: TBD
Players Involved: Brian, me, lawyer, Stacy
Status Of This Project: On Hold (we need to talk about it, we could fix it up and sell it or just try to sell it, the economy sucks so it probably will not go)

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