Tiger Tamer Chronicles - The Build

[2bits]

Hi Mandy, Nice to see your post, I work at Countrywide Home Loans, so yes every day is a wonderful crapshoot... I hope you can have good luck finding a BETTER job! Take care and keep in touch with your family here no matter what.

[jdarkoregon]

Mandy,

Darn it, I'm sorry sorry about your sad news. You will be back in the game soon. You are just not somebody to stay down too long.

and yep, you've done the hard part with your tear, YOU STARTED.

John

[Ivar the Red]

Mandy,
Keep your chin up girl! Obama says it'll get better.
Just because you're not building though doesn't mean you can't get on here and talk to us. Case in point...look at my number of post vs my progress. I work in the oil business so ever since the election we've all been nervous.
Anyways, good luck to you, and all of us.

[Lgboro]

Sounds painfully familiar. I think there are several in a similar situation (I do know it doesn't make it feel better though). I'm in survival mode for the fourth time in my life and it still doesn't seem to get easier being forced to endure and restart although when I was younger and healthier I always landed on my feet in a better situation. Good luck and hope you will be back on your tear soon!

[rhltechie]

Hello to all of you...

it's been way too long i know. wow, I have missed this place!! It's been a rough few months. I did infact lose my job in Jan. Thankfully I had another company offer me a great job at just about the same time. so it did work out. The new job though, doesnt afford me to ever be on the net. Just when I got back on my feet, some a$$hole busted in my back door while we were at work one day and ransacked my house. they took the laptop, my digi cam and...this is where i draw the line...3 bottles of liquor!!! so...I was without laptop for some time. so thats the latest in in my crazy life...i am STILL trying to get my house refinanced. I started this friggin process in july..what a mess. but, I think things are finally looking up..i see a light at the end of the tunnel anyway.

soooo..I had not done a single thing with the TD. I like to blame it on the fact that it was too cold for me to put the icky goo on the bottom..but I think I just lost my focus...or something. with all that was going on...when i thought about working on it i just felt like it would be such a chore. so tonight, we had a nice night in the 70's and I finally got my a$$ back out there. I was at the point where I needed to put the black goo on the bottom. I put my gloves on, turned up the music and started. So I have to say...this was one of the worst experiences of my life..lol. It was the first time I was thinking to myself, what the hell am i doing?!?! I kept thinking of the picture I saw of Mary K putting hers on with a paintbrush. If I had tried to use a brush, that stuff would have laffed at me!! I had to use a putty knife to get mine on. It was like spreading thick chocolate frosting on a 5x8 cake...and I gotta say, i HATE baking. I kept thinking the entire time...I sure hope this is the right stuff. I dont remember everyone else saying it was this bad. it took me roughly 2 hours to gets the entire bottom smeared....so, it's black, it's gooey and more importantly......its not going anywhere. lol I did post a picture of what I got here a long time ago and all the pros said it was what I should use...but dayum!!!

so anyway...after the goo dries, I will mount the floor on the trailer. supposed to be cold this weekend, so I will fill in some cracks with the fill it i got from the rot doc. I am surely hoping my interest comes back quickly....I was so excited about this project and now I feel a little...hmm..i dunno. any of you others feel the same once you have started? I think I am afraid to fail so i just keep putting it off.. ha! but..i shall continue, even if it takes me 3 years!! My dad keeps picking at me, everytime he comes over the house he is like "sooo...i fixed this trailer for you...when you gonna do something with it!"

thanks to several of you who sent me messages asking if i was still alive

[b.bodemer]

Good to have you back Mandy!!!!!!!

Barb

[Steve_Cox]

Hi Mandy,

I hate the black goo too I've done it twice now, and getting better at it.

Glad to see you landed on your feet, but sorry about you loosing your stuff.

Mostly I'm happy to see you posting again. Welcome back. See what I did while you were gone?

[Ivar the Red]

Hey Mandy!!! I'm glad to see you back here...sorry about the break in. That crap seems to be happening more and more. I've moved my big dog into the back yard with my stuff. Welcome back!!!

[2bits]

Dang Mandy, I guess people are getting more desperate? No, it could have happened anytime, same thing happeend to me two years ago. I hope your insurance is replacing your stuff. I didn't have too much of a problem with the roofing asphalt. I couldn't imagine using a brush. I used a couple of spackle spreaders which is basically the same thing as you, but it took me a couple of hours too! I ummm didn't use gloves so that stuff was with me for a few days after that I think you got the right stuff!



It's been 4 months since I worked on mine too, I think it is just alot of stuff going on combined with winter. Did you have a time change this weekend? More evening sunlight, means a better opportunity to get some stuff done, and get energized again! If you are like me, it's hard to get started, but once that ball gets rolling, look out, sawdust is gonna fly, good luck to you and it sounds like you are coming out of the storm!

[tinksdad]

Mandy...

Welcome back. I was watching your build with interest before you temporarily disappeared. Happy for you on the job situation. Not happy about the break-in. Can totally understand the refinancing thing, I'm going through it as well; but I just started the process.

Black goo.....Yech!! I'm dreading the thought. I did the aerosol undercoating the first time around; but I'm not totally satisfied with it. That means I'm gonna end up laying on my back in one of those white paper bunny suits trying to re-coat the bottom.

[2bits]

I did the aerosol undercoating the first time around; but I'm not totally satisfied with it.

Yeah, you can see the flat black that is on my floor in my pic above... that is the spray undercoating stuff.. like 10 can's of it. (Expensive) less than ONE gallon of the shiny goo covered it all and is much much better.

[NebraskaTeachr]

I'm so glad to see you back. In fact you were pretty much the catalyst to get me going on my tear. I hope they find the guys who broke in and stole your stuff.

I had the same experience with my black goo that you did. I think next time instead of roofing cement I will use the fence post coating.

Glad you are getting back on your feet.

Tim

[S. Heisley]

Hi, Mandy!

Welcome back! I'm happy to see your post!
I'm glad you found a job so quickly. Sorry about the break-in.

Be grateful that your dad is bugging you. My friends do that to me sometimes, too. It keeps us from sliding to a total halt or stopping for too long. Winter is a hard time to build. Not only does it feel yucky cold out but also, it's when we get the duldrums or get sick or whatever. Now that it's almost spring, things will start looking up and warming up, too!

Yea! Mandy's back!!!!

[grant whipp]

Dontcha just hate it when Life gets in the way of what we think is important ... ... I know I do ... ...

Seems to me that you've already shown you've got the gumption to finish what you started ... hell, your back ... ...!

So ... I'm tryin' to figure out this black goo y'all are talkin' about that ya gotta spread like cake icing ... ...? Sounds to me like like yer talkin' about black mastic-type roofing patch ...? What I've been using (and advocating) for the last 15-or-so years is the black asphalt emulsion that is used to seal concrete retaining walls and cinderblock walls before backfilling with gravel & dirt ... it's like double- or triple-thick latex paint, but you can certainly spread with a decent paint brush instead of a spatula or trowel! Maybe somethin' got lost in the translation ...

Well, bottom line is, your floor is sealed! And the most important thing is ...

...

...

YOU'RE BACK!!!!
Welcome home ...!

CHEERS!

Grant

[Rigsby]

Welcome back Mandy, great to see you are still doing a bit. I have found that warming the black goo helps enormously, i had mine sat in a bowl of continualy replenishing hot water for an hour, before i layed it down.
steve