UPDATE! I've made two more trips to work on the house. I made one trip w/o DH, but he went with me this weekend.
So, to lump things together, we have ripped up ALL the carpet and pulled up the laminate flooring in the den, and pulled up staples in the floor. Did you know that when a mobile home is built, they build the platform (floor) and roll out the carpet, then build the walls on top of that? I didn't. There are no easy-to-pull-up tack strips. NO! I used a box cutter to slice carpet and padding along the bottom of the walls in an attempt to get that nasty carpet out of there. I cut it in 2-3' strips and rolled up carpet and padding together and duct taped the bundle.
On the first trip, I taped up the laminate flooring in manageable bundles and loaded them in the trunk of the Buick. I packed the back seat with bundles of carpet taped up in garbage bags. I no sooner got home and unloaded on the curb, than someone pulled up and loaded up the laminate flooring for whatever project he was working on. This trip, we had a pickup load of carpet bundles and dumped them at the curb. I went to feed the horses and when I got back, the carpet bundles were gone. I have a hard time trying to understand that used carpet bundles in 2-3' strips are a valuable commodity.
I am bringing all this back to our present house because we have trash pick up and it is saving me money of disposing of the trash at the new house. And the people who lived there before were some nasty trashy people. There are trash piles all over the place, beer bottles, broken glass, beer cans, toys, and all kinds of general garbage. There are even bed spring units out in the weeds!
As a result of both trips, the house is plastic wrapped inside, taped and prepped for painting. Next weekend, DSIL will Kilz the entire house, then paint the next day. Then the next trip will be to buy and start installing flooring.
DH and I took our tractor up this trip! He sat back and watched me play on my new toy! The huge pine tree that was in the way of the carport was laying on the ground in 8' sections all in a heap. it had to be moved, so I drove the tractor and DSIL "ran" the chain. First he walked a weedy area ( head high in weeds) and dragged out trash so I wouldn't bush hog over it. Then I started cutting. I found a bed spring unit that got real cozy with the bush hog. DSIL cut it out with the bolt cutters I had the foresight to bring. Then we worked for 2 afternoons cleaning up all the tree mess to make way for the carport. Would you believe, while pushing up the tree branches in a pile, that I dug up yet another bed spring unit? Gheesh! That makes THREE!
We met more neighbors. We have the male version of Gladys Kravitz (Bewitched neighbor) He is retired, bored and delighted to have a captive audience to talk to. His name is Robert. Robert left and returned with his wife to introduce to us. The next day, Robert heard the tractor and here he came again. He left. He returned with yet another neighbor who is also retired and bored. Both were eager to help and offered to help with building fence when we start on that. They left. Robert came back with a metal sign that says Security Cameras. He thoughtfully nailed it up on our gate post.
Monday, Robert heard the stump grinder. Robert came to investigate, along with his dog. He promised to watch the place for us while we are gone. I have my DH warming up to the idea of letting Robert and Jerry help with building fence. Might as well, they are thrilled to have new neighbors and want to help. Then when we get moved in, we can have a "thank you" BBQ.
At our present house, we are one block off a major 4 lane highway. Our new house is on a country road, where besides Robert, only 2 cars went down the road on Saturday. Peace.