Gardening Part Deux

On this first day of summer, I spent the majority of the day doing more gardening prep work. I will be using a lot of materials that I have on hand. Most were picked up second hand--much of it free or at little cost. For example, I arranged to remove a spa out of someone's backyard. It has no heater, so few people want it. I want to use the spa as a raised garden bed, and can use the pump for the fish pond I want to grow.

In the picture above you can see the remnants of a couple of Chinese Elm trees that I removed. I'll have to keep an eye out for shoots popping up around the yard again. It's about 95' from the block wall to the back of that garage. I plan to make the garden about 60' off the back wall, which will allow me access to the septic system and should give me enough room to eventually put a gray water tank in.

Here you can see a smaller amount of tires. I took this picture toward the end of the day. In the lower left corner is the manual tire changing machine. I've had that for years and it's bolted down to the slab. The machine on the right, is a pneumatic tire changer that I picked up at the swap meet, and it's good for breaking the tires loose from the rim, but doesn't remove the tire very well. It's also not bolted down to the slab, yet. We ran an air hose from the garage to the wall, then behind the other stuff. You can see the air hose dropping off the back of the 1965 Ford Flatbed. In the lower right hand corner is a solar water heating panel.
My buddy, Steve, and I set up to removing tires. I would work the pneumatic changer, because I've worked in garages before, and I didn't want to take chances with him getting hurt/losing a finger. He provided the brute force for pulling the tires off. On a few of the larger tires we used my Bobcat to loosen the tire from the rim. Then we took the tires over by the wall and unit and sorted them by size.

Here is most of the tires we got done today. Not very many, but we moved quite a bit of stuff around, as well. So I don't feel to bad. If you look to the right of the line of tires you can see the air hose. I climbed from the cinder block to the top of the block wall and walked the hose back behind everything so that I can still maneuver the Bobcat and other vehicles back here.
The plan is to stack tires until they are about the same height as the block wall, filling each layer with soil to keep them in place. Then I can plant stuff in the terraced tires. I'm thinking herbs or some sort of ground cover or flower that keeps bugs away. A wall of color would be nice there. I'm also contemplating painting them white to keep the temperature of the soil down. I've read that a problem with raised beds, especially with all that black to absorb heat.
Just to the left of the lined up tires you can barely make out some grating.

Here is the grating. I have a bad problem with gophers on this property so I'm laying down the grating to help protect the crops. They aren't tight to the wall, because there's a cement footing there. I've slid the one under the tire. I picked up the grating from a walk-in refrigerator I was asked to remove. I plan on using the glass doors from the walk-in as part of my green house.
Happy Summer!

More Gardening Stuff

So I've decided to post the pics I was talking about earlier.

This is the view from near the detached garage. There, behind the cars, is a block wall. I want to put a raised bed against the wall to grow tomatoes and (something). The boarded up building to the right (west) is a 6 unit apartment complex that I've run out of money to finish at the  moment.

Obviously I'll have to move the cars. I'm thinking about taking the tires off the rims and building a wall 20' out from the apartments. I am thinking about 5' tall and terraces toward the east in order to plant an herb garden on the east and maybe something decorative on top. I think I'll either paint the side that faces the apartments or cover them with mesh and stucco that side. I happen to have a lot of paint given to my partner by his cousin who was a superintendent for a housing tract.

I've also gotten in touch with a local horse rescue shelter. So I'm able to get horse manure. It has a real high pH (8.5) but can be composted. It could also be mixed with the caliche on my property and made into adobe. How cool would that be?

For those of you who are vehicle buffs, from left to right: 65 Ford 1T flatbed, 70 GMC 3/4T with a working factory tachometer and 402 cid engine (needs rebuild), 1978 Propane power Toyota, 1967 Daimler Saloon.

This is the back of my garage and workshop. The evaporative cooler is up and working, which is good, because it's been over 100 for the last 3 days. I've replace a lot of toilets over the years. The wife insists that I don't use them as pottery. I may rebuild them with the cost of ceramics going up. It mostly involves removing calcium deposits. I also knocked down the weeds with a string trimmer today.
I plan to stucco the garage at some point, but materials alone are close to $2000.
You can't see it, but there is a water line by the evaporative cooler that I'll tap off of for my water line.

Here is a closer view of my southern bounds for the garden. I'm standing near a 10' wide chain link gate. It's six feet high.
In the foreground are a couple of solar water heaters and a heat exchanging tank. I left a helper unsupervised and he rolled it to the recycling trailer. I don't know if it's any good anymore.
Yes, more tires.
Under the tires and solar water heaters is a cement slab. I may use this area for a chicken coop or ????

In the foto to the left, I'm standing behind the orange Toyota truck. This is the back wall. As I said earlier, I later knocked down some of the weeds.
This picture reminds me that I need to install a back panel for the shell on the GMC and a carpet kit.

I turned to the left 90 degrees (now facing north). You can see the boarded up windows on the apartments and the garage, and a Chinese elm tree. The elm has been very stubborn, as has the acacia about 30' behind it that you can't see.
I'd like to start more acacias as they have horrific thorns every 3-5". I think they and the cactus will make great security.
You can also see the propane tank in the back of the Toyota.
If you look to the right of the door stoops you can see a depression that is the trench for the water and gas piping. At the back you can see the wooden fence. It was also recycled from a job where the contractor was happy to drop it off at my house rather than pay the dump fees. He was putting up a block wall.

Now I'm standing to the west of my garage. The utility trench is more clearly visible. You can also see the acacia.
The acacia was over 30' tall, but seemed half dead. After cutting it down, suckers started popping up all over. We removed several from the trench on the right. Some of them were covering a beehive in the block apartments. I couldn't find anyone to remove them so, sadly, I had them exterminated. I feel horrible about that, as my great grandfather was a beekeeper.

I'm hoping to lay out a few raised beds and 6 to 10 fruit trees in this space. I have to contend with gophers. I'm going to get 1/2" hardware cloth for the trees and have some used shelf racking from a walk-in refrigerator to put at the bottom of the raised beds. I've been told I should by a couple king snakes for hunting gophers, but I think that would interfere with chickens and rabbits in the future.

Feel free to comment, just don't tell me how bad the building looks. I know, trust me, I know.

Gardening and stuff.

I haven't posted in a while. I had the flooring to redo in the mobile home and have that listed up for sale. Right after I got the flooring in, someone threw a rock and broke a window, so I had some really nice infrared cameras installed along with a multiplexer. So now the mobile home has a professional security system, as well. The work was done by Sam Moose at New Age Systems.
In the mean time I've been developing my skills gardening. I'm looking at plant types, pH levels, composting, gopher guard for trees, and putting in some raised garden beds. I'm even thinking of doing a terrace with some of the used tires I've acquired. You might be surprised how many with rentals, or maybe not. With small growing areas, I thought I'd use them for a wall on one side, and small herb gardens in the exposed soil.
So I need to get an empty 5 gallon bucket for my local coffee shop so they can save me coffee grounds. Then I'll measure the pH of the grounds and see how I need to modify the soil.
I have to move some trucks I have parked against the old back wall. I want to use the wall to shelter tomato plants from the wind.
I need to learn to plant more densely. So I'm looking at planting shallow and deep rooting plants next to each other, but I have a lot of work to do prepping the beds.
I just wanted to write a little something for now. I'll try to keep things updated with some pictures in the near future.

More rearranging the home office and submitting a commercial offer

So today consisted of running over to a clients place of business and having him sign an offer on a restaurant going into foreclosure across town.

The lender plans on foreclosing on Thursday, so my client made what he thinks is a high offer, though I doubt the lender will be happy with it. I've been saying we're heading for a commercial crash, and mentioned the stagnant commercial market, so I'm hoping for a counter offer, at best. If we don't get anything, we'll just wait and see if it comes up again at a better price. I'd like to be more hopeful, but I think a lot of lenders are too optimistic about the commercial market, or too stubborn to take a small loss now, in order to take a bigger loss later. Maybe the lender is hoping to make another loan on the property in order to foreclose a second time.
The location is on outer Hwy 18, so a little hard to get to for travellers, but it is close to the post office. We could use a place for a good cup of drive-thru coffee over there.

I also spoke with a businessman and his wife (businesscouple ?) about the value of the building they were leasing with an option to buy. Hopefully I'm making friends. Their building is old and needs a lot of work to bring it up to current codes, as is the attached SFR, but their credit isn't the best, so maybe they can work something out with the owner. IMO, the owner wants way too much.

Still working on the home office. Had to get some round cable staples for the power cords. Just about have things set up in an acceptable manner. Older places never have enough electrical receptacles. When I get my dream house built, it's going to have lots of places to plug the stuff in...if I don't go all mad scientist and power the place with a Tesla coil.

Tomorrow is time to meet an inspector and potential renters.

New Computers and technology stuff

So, I'm still getting settled in after the move in February. There's much arranging and rearranging of the home office space. My boss, is even talking of expanding, and possibly opening an office in the High Desert.

In the midst of all this, I've gotten a new computer. I'm setting it up to run Linux Mint. My subscription to WinForms is about to expire, so I'm moving over to a membership with Firsttuesday.us which has great articles and real estate forms for about one quarter the WinForms price.

So there have been quite a few late nights messing with technology. My PDA wouldn't sync, so I reset it and lost some contact info. Everything seemed fine, but now it's temperamental again. I set up a digital picture frame for my grandma. Now I'll need to use my old computer parts to build something for her to scan in the old family photos, and type up some memoirs.

So, I still need to get the network printer to work with Linux, though I have a friend who'll help me "when he gets the time". LOL, we're all so busy these days.

Meanwhile, I'm helping a couple friends with their rentals, and have gotten all my California rentals filled. It's now time to get some of the back rent owed with the help of income tax returns. When I had empty rentals and no qualified applicants, half rent was better than no rent. Now it's time to get people caught up, catching up, or packing up.

Basically the last half of March, was a lot of property preparation, and some pre-summer maintenance.

There have been several articles out there on more price drops in the future, and I'm submitting an offer on a commercial property tomorrow.

I went to the International Code Council meeting in Victorville last Wednesday. The discussion hinged on home health care facilities. I was torn between it and the Mojave Water Agency meeting on gray water use, but a friend attended that. Unfortunately, she hasn't been feeling well, and left early.

I'll be going to Las Vegas this weekend for a professional leadership seminar. I'll also get to see some friends. After that, I'll come home for a few days, then I'm off to Colorado Springs to tidy up a house up there for sale.

Good news for buyers and investors! There's another dip in pricing coming.

If you've seen any of my answers to questions in the past, you've probably thought I'm pretty pessimistic on real estate. I'm not pessimistic so much as realistic on where things are headed. Over the last year or so, I've spoken with numerous people who were in trouble with their mortgages, and the banks hadn't bothered to foreclose on them, some for more than a year in default. I'd spoken with enough people that I knew there was a second round of foreclosures in the offing, and that the various government incentives were there to prop the prices of real estate up.


Why would the government want that? It would keep money in the banks, and allow for higher property taxes. As usual, follow the money.
Other than in Southern California, prices have been dipping. California is coming next.

Read this article from the NYT
 
Can't believe it's been more than a month since I last posted.
 
Since then I was given back a mobile home that I was carrying paper on, finished moving (but not unpacking), visited relatives in Arizona, changed the timing belt and spark plugs in my Honda Element, had the transmission go out in my old MB grease burner, and some transmission problems occur in my old 4x4 4runner, closed an escrow for a client after 6 months of short sale purgatory,  and dealt with the wife's health problems. It's been so busy and I have so much more to say.
 
My boss is also thinking of opening offices in the High Desert, Las Vegas, and La Paz Mexico. I'm game for anything at this point.

Are there more desirable areas of the Victor Valley?

I answered this question on Trulia.com late December of 2009:

This is a fairly complicated question. I have a client from out of the area who is looking to invest and he's asked me a similar question. While the Victor Valley has been occupied for 100 years, most of the growth has been in the last ten. Many larger cities have found it economically feasible to house parolees in the area, including some of the nicer areas. Many investors bought homes in nice areas in order to house Section 8 rentals. This has made even nice areas a mixed bag. There are nice neighborhoods scattered throughout the valley, but there are a complicated set of factors that will help you decide what is most appropriate for you.


Some of the factors you should consider: Who is the occupant (you or someone else)? What is the health of the occupant? Does the occupant commute? Will there be children in the house (which public school will they be in, or are you willing to pay for private school, or home school)? How much privacy does the occupancy like? Do you need park an RV at home?

This really depends on what you want to do and where you will be spending your time. If you're a commuter, and don't want to spend an extra 30 minutes on the road every day, you should consider Oak Hills or Summit Valley. They are rural, yet close to the freeway, and don't have the congestion problems that exist along Main St., Bear Valley Rd., and Hwy 18.

You will have further drives then if you lived in town, but time-wise, they won't end up much longer because you're not spending as much time in slow moving traffic. This is also less time breathing exhaust fumes, so if you have respiratory problems this is also a concern. Health concerns might also lead you to want to be closer to the hospitals in town.

One of the nicer areas with newer homes and a great view is the Quail Ridge community in Apple Valley. There are also gated communities built by Pulte Homes behind Jess Ranch. There are also many nice homes by the Apple Valley Country Club golf course. These areas are close to shopping at Bear Valley Rd and Apple Valley Rd while offering newer more energy efficient houses than some older neighborhoods which will save you fuel in your car and money on your energy bills.

Something to keep in mind about the Victor Valley: It has been an inexpensive place to live for years, and as such, the quality of neighborhoods is less fixed than other areas. Areas that used to be exclusive no longer are or certainly not to the extant that they once were.

This is my recent follow-up(February 20, 2010):

I'm not saying not to buy, but I am saying that you should do some "due diligence". Some web sites offer stats by zip code, but the Victor Valley doesn't have a lot of density, so our zip codes are not an efficient way to look for crime online.


Also, fences make good neighbors. I would look for a property with block walls and wrought iron fencing if I were in the city, and taller chain link fencing (above 5') in the more rural areas.

Also, don't let a nice neighborhood lure you into a sense of complacency. Nice neighborhoods become targets for thieves. My uncle in Simi Valley recently told me of a band of thieves who would drive a moving truck into cul-de-sacs of the nicer neighborhoods and break in and load up. Unless you and your neighbors are friendly, they might not even realize that the persons moving your stuff, aren't movers. Thieves target good neighborhoods (and the increasing political rhetoric seems to be stoking the flames of class envy) so these neighborhoods may put you directly in the crosshairs of criminals your were hoping to avoid. This is especially true if there are parolees or people on probation that are now acting as scouts in nice neighborhoods (and having California tax payers paying for their housing, too). So the criminals might 'commute' to your nice area.

There are some very nice houses outside of the city limits. Some builders and others built very nice houses in rural areas with plenty of land (to park vehicles) and then let the house go back to the bank. Many of these houses can be bought for the price of construction.

Also, in this economy, verify whatever any agent tells you with disinterested third parties. We are commissioned salespeople and things are slow, so it may be in an agent's best interest to NOT know and therefore NOT be liable to disclose information. I recommend talking to the neighbors in the surrounding housing and looking up local news by address number, and go to the local police station. Or pay someone to do these things and write up a report for you detailing what they did.

My last recommendation: Pick up the book "The Zombie Survival Guide". As strange as it sounds, it has a lot of really good information on making you and your home, more secure.

Citigroup to trade deeds for 6 month stay in homes

According to the Associated Press, Citigroup will be trading a 6 month stay in your home for the deed. The article is here. The former owners will be required to keep the utilities on.

This is obviously cheaper for Citigroup than a full foreclosure with an eviction. It may also mean cleaner and more well kept houses for resale, as the former owners may come to see the bank as a partner in the move rather than a cold and heartless bank who wants to throw them on the street. To further that image, Citi is offering moving counseling.

Fannie Mae has a similar program, but rents the house back to the people at "market rates". I would be curious to see what Fannie considers market rates. Here in the High Desert, rents have been falling from $1.00+/sf to $0.50/sf is some cases. There are lots of move in specials, too.

I was unable to get a loan modification, and the bank has offered a $2000.00 cash-for-keys. My significant other and I are going to accept, and move into one of the vacant rentals, rather than fight the bank for 6 months and then get an eviction in addition to the foreclosure. Luckily her credit is good, and her name is not on the deed.

San Bernardino County Addressing Problem Redux

So, per my January 29th article, I had some issues getting the addresses straightened out. I thought they got fixed. I passed the gas-air test. I have Southwest Gas coming to put a meter in tomorrow. Then I got the letters from SB county code enforcement.

Seems that the computers and/or staff are still not capable of handling the job. Now my units do not have separate addresses OR A & B designations. So I called back to Code Enforcement for the Addressing division using the telephone # on the paper they sent me. I was told that there was another number, and when I called that number, I was told that Building and Safety was now in charge of Addressing.

I called the B&S # twice and it was busy. So now I'm just venting a little on my blog.

Is it any wonder businesses aren't hiring when government entities can't do the simplest of things well and now we have the largest expansion of government since the New Deal? Seriously, how am I to believe the bureaucrats are going to take care of my health decisions when they make up an addressing problem that didn't exist, and then complicate it further by giving me an addressing problem?