One of things that most distinguishes the godly from others in this world is not whether we have trouble, but how we handle it.
I’m praying about a pretty big problem. It’s not as if I am whining and trying to blame someone else for the situation. It’s not a question of whose is the fault, but what God wants us to do now that we are in this fix.
Some years ago my parents went in with my wife and I on a mobile home. We first rented it because it was quite large enough and quiet out here away from town. We knew the previous occupants had done some damage, but were under the impression it was mostly cosmetic interior stuff because they had rowdy kids. The place was one of two we could have chosen, and this one seemed the better deal. After a year or so, we decided to buy it.
Sometime later, my parents divorced. Eventually they both moved out leaving us alone here. At about the same time, my son and his wife lost their ability to keep up the payments on their own place (also in the same mobile home park) and moved in with us to share the expenses. That was a few years ago. Meanwhile, the property changed hands and a different company took over. They figured large in a couple of previous blog posts, but the point is we haven’t been too happy with them.
Last summer I had a friend show me how to re-level the house because it had settled a bit. When we stripped away the skirting to do the work, we were surprised to discover roughly one-quarter of the bottom insulation was sagging. This unit thing has a plastic skin holding in the insulation, and it was bulging downward. A poke through the skin indicated the insulation was wet. That stood to reason because we knew the place had suffered a burst pipe before we moved into it. The floors above the repaired pipe creaked like replacement floors do. Apparently the water saturated the insulation at the same time, but no one knew about it. So now, some years later, we see the results.
This was why I had problems with allergies here, because such a situation causes mold to infest the structure. We began praying and planning to find another place some day so I could stop suffering. But we figured the situation was stable.
It is not stable.
This evening the floor and wall over one section of this water bag insulation collapsed under the weight of some furniture. In essence, the house is rotting away from the pervasive dampness. It’s possible to fix the immediate problem with the floor and wall, but getting rid of the moisture would mean waiting until warmer weather, dropping that insulation and replacing it. I am told by a competent expert that is several hundred dollars worth of materials, maybe thousands, never mind the labor costs.
This is not a fund-raising campaign post. I’m not sure what to do, though, since our income won’t cover that and I doubt it’s covered by our minimal insurance. The only way we could afford it was to accept a huge deductible, as you might expect. At any rate, we will be contacting everyone who needs to know about this and we’ll see what comes of it.
I’m a little sad about it, but not depressed or upset. I just wanted you folks to know what’s going on behind the scenes here while we still keep our eyes on the mission.
Update 1: (09 FEB 15) We have contacted our insurance company and expect an adjuster visit in the next few days. We have also notifed site management. Their maintenance chief suggests it is likely an on-going small leak and that costs for repair and mold clean-up will easily exceed our deductible. If the mold is bad enough, the whole thing could be condemned, but that seems currently unlikely.
Update 2: (09 FEB 15) The insurance adjuster says that the damage is covered. It will include roofing and some other stuff, as that’s how he wrote up the claim. And indeed, there is a stinking hole just about the size of a squirrel in my roof…
Ed,
Take it from someone who used to do repairs on mobile homes (me)… What you have is the end game for that ‘structure’. I’ve actually replaced entire floors AND insulation in these tin boxes at tremendous cost to the owners (MANY thousands of dollars). Despite my advice to them that it wasn’t worth it. But they wanted to do the repairs. I hope your insurance man is not shining you on, but even if he isn’t, I can tell you once they start tearing that mess out, you will get into a whole can of worms. These things definitely weren’t built to last–in fact they were intentionally designed as ‘disposable’.
My advice, IF they finance the repairs, do them and get the hell out of there. Sell it before there’s noting left to sell. I’d personally rather live in a tent than a mobile ‘home’. They are wretched, dangerous, unhealthy atrocities, and nothing but a money-hustle for the shylocks who “finance” them to the unwary, the desperate, or the ignorant.
And your parents recently got “divorced”? What were they in their 80’s? Who does that??
Thanks, Pinko. I grew up living in these things, and I’m not too attached to anything that people call “home” regardless of the nature of the structure. I’ve been homeless a time or two, for quite a while once. I was at peace moving into this place at the time. I am at peace with the way this thing is panning out. I may just about break even, and that would be the mercy of God. I’ve long had plans to leave this thing to my son, who also lives here with his wife and kids. I am utterly certain they couldn’t do any better. As for my parents, the story is not worth retelling, but they were in their 70s. I love them both, but they never should have been together in the first place.
Okay then.. just trying to help. Paul was a tent maker (probably lived in them), Jesus was homeless, probably billions of humans are/were nomadic throughout the ages…Nothing wrong with that. I respect them all. But if you are willing to pay a banker (and the state, and the Homeowner’s Assn, and the Insurance company shareholders…etc.) for the privilege of living in a refrigerator box down by the river, I suggest you’d do better with the money God provided by building yourself a modest structure (or tent!) that better suits your needs–and doesn’t line the pockets of the PayDay-Loan hustlers (who will get their proper payback from God in the Judgement of Gehenna, I assure you).
Were those your birth parents? If so, who are you to say “they should never have been together”?? You do realize that is the method God uses to form all the people (like you and me) who will one day be His Family, right? “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matt 19:6) Rather than excusing your parents’ atrocious behavior, try agreeing with God. Won’t win you friends, but it will gain you favor with Him.
Kindly offered,
Pinko
Well, I’ve already made it pretty clear that I don’t expect you to agree with what I think because you approach things from a rather different angle, Pinko. I don’t take it as hostility, but my long-term readers will recognize the fundamental differences, so I’m not worried about allowing your comments for them to see. My explanations are more for them.
In general, the Lord called me to live as a life-long renter. Land and home ownership are inconsistent with His purpose for me. I never considered this a permanent home. My parents, with my wife and I, moved in here and rented at first. However, the property management made us a deal of sorts, so that buying was far cheaper than renting. At that point, it seemed like a decent idea, but I was still a junior partner at that point. Once we were locked in, something subtle but very important changed: My parents slowly passed over the family headship to me.
Within biblical moral assumptions, I was obliged to take things as they were and make the most of it. I’ve already made it clear here that my otherworldly focus means I don’t put much stock in smart property management and so-called wise investment as most Americans measure it. I am quite certain God doesn’t see it that way, either. Western style “thrift” thinking is not inherently godly; it’s a middle-class European value that is alien to Scripture. It’s not that I waste God’s resources, but His handling of things (as evidenced in Scripture) is extravagant and wasteful to Euro-centric Americans. He is in charge and I’m playing along. So I see no need to defend any of those choices made along the path; I am at peace. I have no mandate from God and no time to chase a better deal right now. But I agree that the greedy hustlers and usurers are part of the Babylon that John says “is fallen” at The End. (Let no one doubt you and I have vastly different notions about The End.)
I never encouraged my parents to separate, nor did I encourage the conflicts between them that made life nearly unbearable here during the few years we all shared this house. As I gradually took up the headship of the family, being saddled with that conflict was a bigger concern than mere physical property. Before I could assert some real leadership, things exploded. Call it what you will, but my role as family elder bore little resemblance to anything familiar to Americans. The biblical dynamics are alien to Westerners, but I stuck with what I knew. The details don’t matter; a horrible and sinful marriage ended, along with the torture for all of us. Seeing it all as one simplistic and legalistic issue is contrary to Scripture. There were multiple conflicting moral demands on multiple levels — that’s how things are in this world. The situation was okay when we decided to live here in one house. It came apart based on God stripping away the lies. It was for my parents to decide how it did or didn’t work, but I take the blame for making hidden conflicts apparent by how I taught the Scripture in our home worship during that time. I can assure you the divorce hit me as a total surprise, because I thought things were improving. In the aftermath, they descibed their different perspectives to me. Bad as I knew things to be growing up in an abusive domestic environment, I didn’t know the half it.
The abusive family context is just the fact. I forgave them both long ago, and still hold out as much forgiveness as they’ll take. I came to that after a long and tortuous inner path of my own, including periods where I was near suicide. That’s the way it is when you sense the hand of God calling you and pulling you into an alien parellel universe that says everything you know is a lie. Becoming aware of the moral plane and God’s moral character against a world that is false on every level, and in every way, makes you feel pretty crazy. You have to moderate the conflict inside yourself and there are precious few simple answers to anything.
My long time readers will recognize this is part of what I call “quantum moral reasoning” — multiple considerations on multiple levels all connected to a single issue. They will also recognize my rejection of simplistic legalism. Which of the sins involved takes precedence? There were no good choices, but that my parents should not have been together was obvious to others long before I was old enough to think about it. Once they accepted me as elder, it most certainly was for me to say, and that such a bad union was how I got here is a separate issue. Now that I’m here, I can look back over the trail and destruction and would rather not have been born at such a cost. Still, I’m here and God has a mission for me. The biggest question for me is, “What shall I do now that pleases my Lord?”
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Thanks for your honest words. That took balls.
I meant no disparaging of you. I was giving you my honest opinion, and placing blame where I believed blame was due. Not you, btw (for those who don’t know).
Anyway, this life is an “experience of evil” for men, “to humble them thereby.” (Ecc1:13) That’s why we’re here. Congrats on “getting it”. Most don’t. Including most of your ‘readers’.
I read your last entry today. Can’t say as I disagree with it. But whatever is coming, it is God’s plan. Nothing anyone can do will change it. Nothing. And God “has a mission” for us all, Ed. Believe it or not.
Our differences are only temporary… “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” You’ll see I was (mostly) right 😉
Carry on, soldier.
Don’t sweat the small stuff, Pinko. As you suggest, we are not enemies.