Monday, January 30, 2017

Urgent! House Renovation Campaign!

BACKSTORY: In the early 2000s, my dearly departed father, William Francis Way, due to a lack of prudence and circumspection, unfortunately cost the Way family its old house on Black Diamond Road in Century Ranch. Times went hard for him, my mother, and brother, who then was still living with them, in Colusa County (I myself was living in San Francisco, sending money from my biweekly paychecks, whatever I could afford, to my mother.) The three of them were forced to live in a camper on two acres of land just outside of the town of Stonyford (happily, the land has always been in my brother's name.) But a few short years later, my beloved Grandfather passed, leaving a decent inheritance to his daughter, my mother. My mother subsequently purchased a previously owned manufactured home, which was then assembled on the property; we also are equipped with a well, a septic system, and have electricity as well as propane.

Glad to say, the fully developed property is owned outright by my younger brother; I live here now with my mother, paying her rent every month... There is no mortgage, no debt against it. We do have a certificate of occupancy; the County passed the house for inspection in 2003 or so.

THE CAMPAIGN: This is, however, a pre-owned manufactured home; it needs a lot of TLC. My mother and brother had planned to finance a custom built home, but my mom is getting on in years, and our family would rather not be saddled with the debt incurred by a construction loan (even if the resulting occupancy is a superior real estate investment/development); better option we've been in discussion with each other about is to spend perhaps $4000 to $5000 on renovating the current home. Certainly, we're already in the process of updating the wiring, and we'd also like to fix the plumbing, as well as address certain structural damage, especially in the underside and subflooring, in order to bring the whole thing up to code. It would be great, too, if we could install new flooring, paneling, baseboards, moulding, fixtures, and so on -- by no means would we do anything fancy, like hardwood or laminate; no expensive drywall or tile. We're talking surfaces appropriate to a manufactured home, but that are clean and new -- materials easily purchased online via Home Depot, and put in by our neighbors who are local contractors and handymen (not to mention with my volunteered sweat equity.) Here are some pictures of more serious damage (the last picture shows you the exterior, which clearly demands new siding, trim and skirting):






Like I mentioned, we're just looking to patch damage in the structure and install new surfaces, and do a new exterior. And fyi, the roof is a little over a decade old, in great shape...

All told, with the desired updates, we're looking to raise approximately $9,000. If this is feasible, I'd be happy to report on the end result with pictures and such.  The donations may be sent to my Venmo account:


(Snail mail donations can be sent to: WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979) Hope you can give; I'll be reposting the request with every new Hollow Man update, including funding raised to date... Thanks so much, and Happy Lunar New Year everybody!

1 comment:

  1. It looks like it is going to definitely take some elbow grease to fix up that manufactured home. It's going to be nice when it is all renovated and organized. Are you going to get new appliances? Stainless steel is all the rage right now. Hope it all works out for your guys and enjoy the journey.

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