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Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Texas Barn in PA

Workspaces between 705 and 1200 squarefeet.
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
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4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
It has been a good setup with the front half boxed and back half open. I can put all of the contents from the cabinets and shelves in the box section and then strap the cabinets and any big items on the rear of the trailer. I even used the holes in the walls to strap tables and shelves against the rear of the box. Then when I unload I take the cabinets off first and then take all of the stuff out of the box section and put it back in their cabinet or on the shelves. Since I’m only moving 2 miles away, I didn’t have to do any serious reinforcements on the box walls. Simple carriage bolts, and u bolts around the front pipe of the trailer holds the box steady.

I hear ya as I also miss both my parents.
 

zmotorsports

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Oct 20, 2009
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21,441
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Northern Utah
That's a big undertaking. Any moving is really, but when you have to move all the garage/shop stuff too...it's a lot.

Last time I moved I didn't have much for tools...can't imagine trying to do it today.

Yea it’s stressful. I just keep telling myself one bite at time and eventually the elephant will be gone!

Yeah, I don't envy you Cody on the move. Been there done that I don't ever want to do that again. Took me a month to move the shop, and I was only moving about 8 miles. We moved the house contents in two days.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Yeah, I don't envy you Cody on the move. Been there done that I don't ever want to do that again. Took me a month to move the shop, and I was only moving about 8 miles. We moved the house contents in two days.
I hope it don’t take a month. At the pace I’m going I might have 16 hours left? If other things lines up before this weekend, I might get everything except the toolboxes and varies home related tools moved. We will see.

Today I hope to move the boat over there and get the two large gray cabinets and the fishing cabinets moved over there. I’ll also load up loose stuff that’s around the garage.
 

zmotorsports

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Oct 20, 2009
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Northern Utah
I hope you don't take a month either Cody, it wasn't a fun experience. That being said though, much of that was deciding on what was going to the trash, what was being sold and/or donated and what was actually being moved to the new house. I used my cousin's enclosed trailer to make about 8 loads of shop equipment and tools but the last weekend I rented a hydraulic lowboy trailer to haul my lathe, milling machine and toolbox.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
I hope you don't take a month either Cody, it wasn't a fun experience. That being said though, much of that was deciding on what was going to the trash, what was being sold and/or donated and what was actually being moved to the new house. I used my cousin's enclosed trailer to make about 8 loads of shop equipment and tools but the last weekend I rented a hydraulic lowboy trailer to haul my lathe, milling machine and toolbox.
In that case I started this move 25 years ago when I moved out of my parents house, 😂🤣😂
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Got a few more cabinets emptied and moved over.

Here’s the cabinets before,
IMG_1345.jpeg

Now gone.
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I also took the boat over there and got it locked up by the garage.

Got a few more cabinets to go and then the toolboxes in the auto area of the garage to move to the Texas Barn. Then it’s the bolt bins and the loose stuff.

Maybe I’ll have it moved this weekend.
 

M.Brane

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Feb 11, 2024
Messages
1,775
Location
1 hr N/W of LA LA Land
Last move we did we hired a moving company to do all the heavy/big stuff as well as all the clothes/kitchen stuff. We concentrated on the fragile/valuable stuff we didn't trust to someone else. It was only a few miles so they were done in half a day. Took 'em longer to load/unload than the drive. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Last move we did we hired a moving company to do all the heavy/big stuff as well as all the clothes/kitchen stuff. We concentrated on the fragile/valuable stuff we didn't trust to someone else. It was only a few miles so they were done in half a day. Took 'em longer to load/unload than the drive. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it.
It has crossed my mind to hire it out. I might still for the house stuff.
 

drivesitfar

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Joined
Oct 23, 2013
Messages
36,042
Location
Pacific Northwest
The garage is filling up fast. I can’t believe you’re doing all this move with what looks like a foot or more of snow on the ground.
I guess you’re only moving a few miles but congrats on getting the boat moved and all this stuff.

It’s been a while but I can’t recall if you hooked up heat yet in the garage and or crawl space?

Keep up the great work and thanks for taking the time to take all the pics to post.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
The garage is filling up fast. I can’t believe you’re doing all this move with what looks like a foot or more of snow on the ground.
I guess you’re only moving a few miles but congrats on getting the boat moved and all this stuff.

It’s been a while but I can’t recall if you hooked up heat yet in the garage and or crawl space?

Keep up the great work and thanks for taking the time to take all the pics to post.
Unfortunately no heat at this time. There’s things that’s on the top of the list to do before heat in the garage. One of the items to complete is sell the other house asap.

The snow/ice has made it challenging in staying motivated to move. But it has to be done.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Good news, tenant has finally left the house.

Bad news, they left a lot of trash and junk.
IMG_1755.jpeg
IMG_1788.jpeg
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There probably 50 contractor bags on those two huge piles of trash and lots of furniture. I was hoping she would have started cleaning and throwing the trash away when I first told her back in June, but that didn’t happen.

Then to preface the biggest issue. She was smoking in the house even though I told her no smoking allowed in the house.
IMG_1754.jpeg

Overall, it appears she was smoking in one room and that’s my old bedroom.

Nasty.
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Test cleaned a spot with TPS,

Before,
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After,
IMG_1793.jpeg

Let’s just say it’s smells bad in there. I’m probably going to be in this room for a couple of weeks. Wife is cleaning the other rooms since she can’t handle the smell.

I got the first round of cleaning done on the ceiling of the room. You can see where the cleaned area vs not cleaned.
IMG_1801.jpeg

I’m going to keep cleaning and probably do each wall and the ceiling 5 times each.

Carpet has already been ripped up and it’s better, one wall has been cleaned 4 times, and the ceiling cleaned once.

One of the other room looks good after pulling the carpet up, just need to fix the crappy paint job though. This room was locked and I didn’t allow them in it. The previous tenants painted this room without telling me they were painting it. 🙄
IMG_1802.jpeg

This blue little room will be my office and indoor hobby room. So I’m going to fix the walls and prep it for paint. Thinking of a sage green but not sure yet. I will keep the hardwood floor exposed, so I need a paint color to go with that brown and make it feel outdoorsy since my fishing stuff and pew pew stuff will go in here with my office desk.


This experience teaches me not to help folks as often has I have in the past. I get left with the **** end of the stick. She was in a bind and needed a place after her last place didn’t work out. I didn’t want to rent the place again after the last tenant and just wanted to start fixing up the house. But my wife wanted to help her and her kid out. Now we are dealing with a huge mess and it’s all because I was stupid and decided to help.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA

That's disappointing
I agree.

I just placed an order for 5 gallon of Zinsser BIN shellac based primer. $440 for 5 gallons, hopefully it works once I get the walls cleaned properly with the TSP. I’ll also have the HVAC come in and do a cleaning and possibly replace ductwork depending on what I find inside the ducts. For some reason I think the ducts have fiberboard inside them, but need to look again to verify.

I’ll also look into ozone machines and air purifier. Any suggestions I’m open to them.
 

loganb

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Dec 29, 2011
Messages
5,603
Location
Omaha, NE
Man...sorry to hear the tenant didn't work out. In good news they're out and can move on and develop a game plan. Assuming you have changed locks etc by now to ensure no returns


On the move...we used movinghelp.com to hire muscle. It's a subsidiary of Uhaul but is basically a matching service where you can screen, review etc moving companies. Worked great for us, they showed up and loaded our provided truck....hired a different crew on the other end to help unload. We just used them to load, but packing also available and when we did it 5 years ago the hosting service acted liked an Escrow Agent and the movers didn't get the money until you gave them a code indicating you were happy with the service and work was complete...they knew the money was available but had to complete the job to get the unlock code.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
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4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Man...sorry to hear the tenant didn't work out. In good news they're out and can move on and develop a game plan. Assuming you have changed locks etc by now to ensure no returns


On the move...we used movinghelp.com to hire muscle. It's a subsidiary of Uhaul but is basically a matching service where you can screen, review etc moving companies. Worked great for us, they showed up and loaded our provided truck....hired a different crew in the other end to help unload. We just used them to load, but packing also available and when we did it 5 years ago the hosting service acted liked an Escrow Agent and the movers didn't get the money until you gave them a code indicating you were happy with the service and work was complete...they knew the money was available but had to complete the job to get the unlock code.
I’ll have to check that out for the move!

Oh and yea, the locks have been changed and the garage door keypad has been disabled at this time. Couldn’t get the code to change so I just disabled it for now.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Lol. Typing on a phone and cant see.
I got one coming and I also ordered a hepa air purifier for after the cleaning and ozone process. Been wanting to put an air purifier in my room, but never could since we had to open the windows in the summer due to no AC in the other house. This house has an AC system so no reason to open the windows on most days.
 

OutlawDrifter

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Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
3,886
Location
KS
Cody, it's a rare occurrence to win in a rental situation. We had one for a few years (long story, wasn't a planned deal), the happiest day was when we signed papers at the closing office to be rid of it.

I could tell you some crazy stories!

The sage green sounds like a good color choice for your office area, glad to hear you're keeping the wood floors visible.
 
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DeeDubz

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Joined
Nov 20, 2019
Messages
1,448
Location
Socal
Dude I dont know how ppl live like that. Sorry for the mess. Sometimes helping people works out. Stories like these make me never want to invest in rental property... especially in CA. Ive heard never ending horror stories.
 

thammel

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Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Messages
2,245
Location
Maryland
Smoking....I feel your pain. Reminds me of about 45 years ago at work. Smoking used to be permitted inside the engineering area. One of the old timers either retired or was laid off. I did a midnight requisition of his book cases. They had front sliding glass panels. They were yellow from his smoking. I recall the windex and paper towels...the paper towels were dark brown after I finished cleaning. My father used to smoke unfiltered camels. He used to tell us how bad it was for your health. I've never smoked, and after seeing those glass doors, am glad I didn't!!
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Cody, it's a rare occurrence to win in a rental situation. We had one for a few years (long story, wasn't a planned deal), the happiest day was when we signed papers at the closing office to be rid of it.

I could tell you some crazy stories!

The sage green sounds like a good color choice for your office area, glad to hear you're keeping the wood floors visible.

Yea, I agree it’s rare but I did have a couple with a kid who were great tenants. Paid on time, lets me know if something broke and understanding if it takes time for parts to come in, kept the rooms clean, and so on. No real issues with them, just normal wear and tear in the place.
Once this house sells I won’t have any places to rent so I’ll be out of the landlord business. Unless I find a small home nearby that’s reasonable in price I might do it again, but I’ve learned a lot about renting by so this time around I’ll be ready and more prepared. Along with it won’t be a sentimental place, just business.

It’s strange cause my parents rented just about their whole life until Dad finally bought the piece of land and put a mobile home out there. We always took care of the places we stayed and then I did the same when I rented in college and when I first got to Pa. But I guess we were the rare ones.

The photo used in the below color selection is from the smoking room. Seems there was a favorite spot that a pet was peeing on. I’ll have to cut some hardwood floor out and fill it back in before new carpet goes down in this room. But the floor is the same shade as the office.

I need to get some color samples but I’ve been looking and I like how the Laurel wood looks
IMG_1815.png

Along with Night Owl, atleast the description sounds fancy.
IMG_1817.png

***** about the condition and situation, but at least that part is behind you now.
Yep, I’m trying to focus on the positives but as I keep working in the house I keep finding more negatives. Positives point is a lot of the stuff will be new in this house once we go through it! 😂🙄
Dude I dont know how ppl live like that. Sorry for the mess. Sometimes helping people works out. Stories like these make me never want to invest in rental property... especially in CA. Ive heard never ending horror stories.
Yea, it sometimes works out. I don’t mind helping friends work on their stuff and go get stuff from Facebook marketplace with them. Just seem like if it comes back to my place I’m bound to loose in the deal. Not always but as with the tenant I let them stay at a reduced cost and got bit by them in the end.
Smoking....I feel your pain. Reminds me of about 45 years ago at work. Smoking used to be permitted inside the engineering area. One of the old timers either retired or was laid off. I did a midnight requisition of his book cases. They had front sliding glass panels. They were yellow from his smoking. I recall the windex and paper towels...the paper towels were dark brown after I finished cleaning. My father used to smoke unfiltered camels. He used to tell us how bad it was for your health. I've never smoked, and after seeing those glass doors, am glad I didn't!!
My parents, grandpa, aunts and uncles all smoked but when I got to teenage years I saw what it was doing to my grandpa and decided it wasn’t for me. Can’t say the same for the cousins as they all smoked now. But I’m the only one who doesn’t smoke. I’ve cleaned my grandma’s house and removed the nicotine and tar in her house. I’ve learned a few things but it’s the same labor intensive work to get it done. But her kitchen was a bright yellow and white color combo when it was first painted. When I started it was almost orange and light brown color combo. She didn’t think it would ever look as bright as it once did, but I got it cleaned and it was bright in the kitchen! Then the relatives started smoking in the house again and it just went to **** again.
All I can think of is, that’s what it’s doing to your lungs…
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
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4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
Cleared out the attached garage. I need to take the benches to the other house an bring the cabinets and bench tops here. But atleast I got the trash out of there.

I took 18 bags to my in-laws house to spread it out around the neighborhood.
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Here is the pile by the house after I threw some carpet on top.
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Here is the attached garage emptied.
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Just building material on the left side.

Did some work inside the house and also brought some stuff here from the other house to declutter the place. Been a long day and tomorrow will be just as long.
 

gearhead1960

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Mar 21, 2019
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Manassas, VA, a small blot in history
Cody, We had to use the Ozone machines in my in-laws house. They smoked in the house (cigarettes and cigars) for 30+ years. The painter also had to do 2 coats of Kilz....you'll get there, but not after a lot of work and paint. Sorry to hear you had such a crappy tenant. Did you at least keep the deposit (if there was one)?
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
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Monroeville, PA
Cody, We had to use the Ozone machines in my in-laws house. They smoked in the house (cigarettes and cigars) for 30+ years. The painter also had to do 2 coats of Kilz....you'll get there, but not after a lot of work and paint. Sorry to hear you had such a crappy tenant. Did you at least keep the deposit (if there was one)?

I did, but just like everyone knows in the rental business, the deposit isn’t enough if they do this kind of damage. I could do small claim court but I know I won’t get any money from her, it will just go against her records which isn’t great to begin with. At this point, it’s a moot point and I am just going to caulk it up as lost money.
 

zanyad

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Apr 26, 2018
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2,817
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NE Ohio
Along with Night Owl, atleast the description sounds fancy.
IMG_1817.png
I like this shade, saved for possible future use!
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,195
Location
Monroeville, PA
After 5 rounds of cleaning the walls and ceiling, the water was finally looking cleanish. It was just a tint of brown instead of the chocolate brown tar color it was initially. Also steamed cleaned the windows. Even though it looked cleanish after wiping it down with TSP, those creases were hiding more tar and nicotine.
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A lot of paper towels were used.
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I got the ozone machine going tonight. I just set it for 40 mins and I’ll see how it works tomorrow. I’m planning to run it 3 times before I start priming. Tonight the bedroom is closed in, but depending how it smells I might open the doors and let it work the whole 1,200sqft of the first floor tomorrow night.
 
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madison069

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Nov 5, 2010
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Location
Monroeville, PA
That looks disgusting. How long did this smoker live there?
7 years. Overall she was a “good” tenant for 4 of those years, then she started doing things that made me question her. The past year was the worst and she was having some tough luck. I feel sorry for her but at the same time I did a lot for her and I just got tired of helping. The past month has been a roller coaster of emotions regarding her and the conditions of the house. But luckily we are slowly getting the house back in shape.


I cleaned the other rooms and the water indicates that there was no smoking done in those rooms. Honestly it seems like she kept the door shut and had one window open all the time. Why I say one? The one window was coated in tar and nicotine on the outside of the window and the other window was just coated on the inside. Luckily the windows pivots inward so I was able to steam clean the outside of the windows.
 
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