(AF) MOVING UPDATE - Dismantling the Building Pt 3

As some of you have read, I (Anna) am losing my property to an illegal foreclosure and we are frantically trying to get me moved. Right now, we are about to finish up moving that steel storage building that will later by our Tiny Home. We had tried to get our local Towing (Morgan Towing) company to move it. After nearly 2 weeks of a run around and empty promises of calling us back with an estimate, they finally gave us an estimate of a minimum of $2000! Their way of saying 'no'.

Then there was Davis Buildings of Stigler, Oklahoma, whom we purchased the building from. They had said, sure, we can move it. But, once again, we got the run around for over a week, then they basically said they couldn't do it. They said that they could put us on a waiting list and someday, when they were this way delivering a building, they could move it then. Geez! When people move, and need a building moved, they don't have months and months to be on a waiting list to get something moved! We figure that they figure if we liked the building so much, we would just buy another if they didn't move it. WRONG! We DISMANTLED it! Actually, Dave did most of it and I helped.

It turned out to be an absolute blessing that we had to dismantle it to move it. That building was not at all built to the quality that they said it was! It was supposed to be fireproof, waterproof, varmint proof, never going above 95F, nor below freezing, etc. None of that was true!

I had trusted that it would not freeze, nor get too hot in there, so that is where I had all of my candle fragrance oils stored. It DID; however, freeze and got hot at times, expanding and contracting the bottles of oils so much that many of them busted, ruining a huge section of the flooring, not to mention I lost $$$$$$ worth of fragrance oils! So much for that 25-year flooring, too, that nearly nothing was supposed to be able to damage.

The building was not properly sealed. The roof had been sealed, but there were many, many gaps in the sealing, letting in ants! The entire inside of the roof was one, HUGE ant colony! Dave ended up with hundreds of stings/bites before he had the whole building down! For there to have been ant colonies in that building, that meant that water was getting in and it was staying damp inside. Not good!

The ants didn't stop at just the roof. There were millions inside the walls, too! Here is a section of wall where they came rushing out as Dave took the top piece off. I am allergic to ants and if we had had this building moved, we might not have ever known we were living with walls filled with ants until after we had gotten our tiny little home all set up. Again, ants live where it is nice and damp, so that meant that it was staying damp, all the time, in those walls, for the ant colonies to have been as large as they were!

Here is our little building (future home) most of the way disassembled. A storm came up and we had to stop. Looks like I didn't do too badly of a job with the layer of primer I had put on the wood floor before I laid the tiles, as the water really stood on the floor. Would have made a good slip 'n slide! (not really)  We are hoping all that rain didn't further damage the floor. So far, it looks okay.  Dave had a really hard time getting the screws out inside the building. I had painted it awhile back and did so in a way I wanted the screws to blend in with the wall and not show. He said I did a really good job of it! He had such a hard time getting through all of that paint and into the head of the screws to get them out! I felt so very bad for him, but proud of my paint job at the same time, lol. I had never painted metal walls before, and had asked at the home store how to do it. They gave good instructions!

For a professional building, there sure wasn't anything professional in its building quality! This is a picture of the inside of one of the door facings. They either got in a hurry, ran out of materials, or something didn't fit right and they just waded up the metal at the top of this door frame before putting on the door facing! 




Then there were the tiny little blocks off wood just stuck inside of the edge of the door frame, all up and down the frame, to hold the door! Each one was held in with just one tiny screw, easily removed with a hand held phillips head. You can see on the left the little screw holding the block of wood in, and the scrunched up metal above it where they just folded the metal in, rather than make sure it was completely full of the foam insulation and good and solid.  What you see of this wood block is all that there is of them. They do not go all the way back into the door.

Then there was our biggest shock! More proof that the building was NOT property sealed. When David took the walls off, he discovered that the seam at the bottom had not been sealed at all! Water had run down into the ridge that held the walls and that part is VERY rusted, the entire perimeter of the building! Had we just had this building moved and not disassembled it, long about the middle of winter, we would have been all nice and cozy in our little house and the walls would have dropped off! I guess these people don't ever expect anyone to take these buildings apart and see how they are made. But we did, and we DO NOT recommend that anyone ever purchase a building from Davis Buildings in Oklahoma!  We think we caught all the problems in this little building just in time and can make the needed repairs to still use it, very comfortably as our Tiny House, but I would never  buy one of these buildings again. But for now, this is what we have, and this is what we will work with. The concept is great, and they could be nice, cozy, long lasting buildings if built property.

Now, for some GOOD NEWS! ! ! !  We have been given at least 2 - 2 1/2 more weeks to get moved! !  ! Happy Dance! ! !  (except my poor old body is just too tired and exhausted right now to dance. But I am dancing in my head!) God is good! Prayers were heard!
Thank you for reading this post and supporting us, and please keep praying and sending those positive, uplifting thoughts.  Have a terrific day!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Dismantling the Building Pt 2

Although far too slowly for us, dismantling the building is coming along.  So far, all has been possible to do. Not easy by far, but possible. We are still trying to figure out how to move the heavy floor, though.

If you remember, I originally purchased the building from Davis Buildings based in Stigler, Oklahoma. They had said they would move it but gave us the run around until it was too late, so we are dismantling it and attempting to move it that way. It will be our Tiny House to live in. We find it very odd and interesting that, since we first posted about our issues with them a few days ago, their entire website has been taken down! There website had been up for years and I had just used it a week ago. Very odd.

When taking a building like this down, it is very important to study it a bit before beginning, and mapping out the order in which you want to take it apart so that you don't have walls, roof, etc, crashing in on top of you. Those sections are very heavy with many sharp edges and could badly, even fatally, injure someone if not done in a logical and proper order.

We have one lower wall and 2 half ends left to take down. This part is going much faster than the rest. Here are a few more pictures and explanation. . . .

The building was supposed to be leak proof. They assured us of that. Yet after moving things out of it and getting a better look at the walls, we are finding several bad leaks.

We had much of our camping stuff stored under this window, especially our tents. As you can see, this window leaked, BADLY all the way across! Some of our tents and camping supplies got really wet and we lost quite a bit of it. Davis Buildings obviously did not seal things properly. More on this in the next post.

Balcony wall and window removed on one end.

David removing the other balcony wall end. The entire wall could be moved in one piece without doing this, but it is much too heavy for one (even strong) person to do this. The door was also removed and this wall was taken down in three pieces, plus the door.

This wall could be moved in all one, long section, but it was far too heavy that way.

Top part of wall removed. Removed in 3 or 4 sections. The remainder of the wall was removed in 3 part sections. Although still heavy, much easier to carry and move that way. 

We now only have 3 days left to move. I am trying hard to hold up, but I am beginning to break, and break badly at times. Our bodies are harshly arguing against moving any more, and we still have MOST of the moving to do. We have been going at as fast of a pace as our bodies will allow, but it just isn't fast enough. We have not had, nor does it appear we will have, any physical help moving. A couple of people that were had to cancel, but they had legitimate reasons. The rest, well . . . . just didn't seem to truly care and backed out. . . . kind of went into hiding without a word. If we could just, somehow, have more time to move, (and build new animal pens) the two of us could manage to get it done, except for possibly my piano and the wood stoves. I have had my piano since I was 5 years old, moved it to every house I have ever lived in, and now it is in danger of having to be left behind. My beautiful, old, antique piano is more than just a piano, it became a part of me through my entire life and holds the most beautiful and fun family memories. Somehow, I HAVE to find a way to get it moved. But it is super heavy.
PLEASE continue to pray and hold positive thoughts for our move, for a miracle of extended time, and for our health, strength, and reduced pain so that we can do the remainder of the moving. Thank you so much!
And thank you for reading our post. Blessings for a terrific day!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Dismantling the Building Pt 1

Many of you may remember from our recent posts, the run around we got from both, Davis Buildings (1-888-502-4086 300SW A Street, Stigler, OK - where we purchased the building) and Morgan Towing, (Muskogee, OK) when we tried to get our steel building moved. We desperately need to get it moved because that building is what will be turned into our Tiny House, and until then, we will be tenting it indefinitely. So, with no other possibilities of professionals to move our little building, and no more time to get permits, what is a person to do? The lightbulb went off when I was standing there, gazing at the building, trying to figure out what to do. Some may remember that I had come to the realization that the entire building was put together with nothing more than phillips head screws! So, I wondered if we could dismantle it and move it in sections. And THAT , our wonderful readers, is EXACTLY what we are doing!

David took the lofts out first.You have to before you can take the roof off.  The first one was a bit of a struggle, but by the time he got it out, he had the mechanics of the building figured out and the second loft was fairly easy. The building is, indeed, put together in foam filled segments that are about a foot and a half to two feet wide. You can take them apart individually or in longer sections. You simply unscrew the screws on each side of the sections (Be sure and save the screws!!!

The roof hasn't been so simple! Although it was logical, we had not anticipated that each and every seam would be GLUED together with some kind of cheap, but very gripping sealer! SO, not only did David have a scary time up on that ladder taking out screws, some of which were put in very crooked, but he had to pry all that tight holding sealer loose without ripping the metal

And then there were the ants. If you ever try this and are allergic to ants, TAKE PRECAUTIONS! There may have been lots of sealer on that roof, but it wasn't enough to keep out the ants, Actually, it gave them just the home they needed. Up under all those seams, the ENTIRE length of that roof, was the largest ant nest we had ever seen! Dave ended up with hundreds of stings, poor guy. And their sting was powerfully painful! If we had not taken this building apart, we might not have known about all those ants until we were living in it, and that could have spelled disaster! Yes, I am allergic to ants and that would have been a powerful lot of ants to be living with in a home!

As we (mostly David) started taking this building apart. Ideas began coming to us, ideas we might not have come up with if we had simply had it moved. Taking it down ourselves has opened up some great opportunities and ideas for us. For one, after Dave got that first couple of roof sections down, the lighting in that little building flowed in! It was wonderful! So now we are pondering different ways to replace a couple of those sections with plexiglass or something similar, instead of the foam filled metal, to give us sky lights. Wouldn't that be nice! We would have to shade them in the heat of the summer, but it would also reduce how much heat we had to use in the winter. This alone could be worth having to move it ourselves, although some more help in the way of some muscle would have been greatly appreciated, especially when we get to the part where we have to move the floor in one piece.

So, that is where moving the little steel building stands, so far. We have the lofts down and three-fourths of the roof. It is going FAR tooooo slowly, but it is going. We so desperately need a miracle, somehow, of more moving time. I am trying to hold up and keep positive, but it is growing harder and harder to hold it together as I look around me at the multitude of my belongings that still needs to be moved and only a few short days left. Please keep the prayers and positive, uplifting thoughts going, to keep us going and for that miracle of extra time we so desperately need. And for those that are wondering about "work" through all of this. David still has to work his 7-day a week part-time home health job through all of this, and I had to completely halt my flea market and online sales to be able to pack and move. That is to answer those that have been wondering and asking.  And yes, we will be painting the outside of the building with a really good, quality paint. Suggestions are welcome!
Thank you for reading our post and have a fantastic day!

Back of building and loft before removing.

Loft after it was removed. The gray is primer.

A peek at what the inside of the loft looks like.

Bracket that holds the loft.

My Mr. Muscle . . . so stroNG!

A peek Inside the roof. Dense foam.

Cool beans! A skylight! ! !

Three-fourths of the roof off. It got too dark to finish, even with flashlights, and thunder was rumbling.

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - A Few More Chickens Moved

We are trying not to get too stressed, but it just isn't possible. We are so stressed we have knots in our tummies. There isn't enough time to move nearly everything, not even half, but we are going to keep on moving as hard and as fast as we can, hoping and praying for a miracle of help, more helping hands, and a time extension. None of that looks possible, but we are still hoping hard!

Sunday we got another small chicken pen built and 8 more chickens moved. I say small, but it was a very nice size for them. It will go inside of a larger chicken yard and once the new ones have adjusted to the ones they are going in with, they will be released into the larger pen and the smaller pen removed. These 8 pullets are still kind of young and we just didn't feel that they were quite old enough to be turned loose in with the rooster, so they can keep growing a little longer in their pen-in-a-pen while they get acquainted with their new beau.  Once again, sorry no pics. We were working as hard and fast as we could go to get them moved that day and still leave time to move others. We were working too fast to think to take pics and it got too dark to take them, too, by the time we were done.

We got absolute confirmation yesterday that the last possible known person to move the portable building that we have been planning on using for our Tiny House, WILL NOT be moving it! The people we originally purchased the building from, Davis Buildings, gave us the run around for a week, then finally said yesterday that they couldn't do it. He tried to put me off another week again ("check back next week and I will see what I can do."), but I said I needed to know something now because I had to have it moved by the end of this week, so he said, "welp, sorry, can't do it." I even offered him full banner space advertising at the top of our blog page for a full year, in addition to his moving fee (they do move their buildings and had given me a quote of $550 to move it), and he turned that down, also. What an idiot!

We were originally going to go with Davis Buildings to move our building, since we purchased it from them, but then we learned of a more local place that sold buildings and could move it for us for an even lower price quote. When we finally called them to say we were ready for them to move it, they had gone out of business and their phone was disconnected! We called around to numerous places and none of the other building places would move a competitor's building. It was suggested I call a wrecker/towing service. Most of them wouldn't do it either, but one finally told me that Morgan's Towing was the only one in the area that did. We decided to try them next since they were also local. They gave us the run around for nearly 2 weeks! When I first called, they told me that they could definitely do it but there would be permits to buy since the building was 11 feet tall. I said we were okay with that and were aware of it. She said she would have the scheduler call us right back. No one called us back. This went on for nearly 2 weeks. Every time I called, she said she would step out and tell him to call me back, or he wasn't in and she would give him the message, etc, etc, etc. FINALLY, she said he gave her a quote to give me . . .  $2000 minimum to move it! He said the high price was due to how difficult it would be to get into my yard and back to the building to get it. First, he only had my name and the area in which I lived, not my address. Second, we were clearing the entire area to the building. We just don't have that kind of money, and the building didn't cost much more than that. But they knew that. That was their way of getting us to say NO instead of them saying NO.

We know, for fact, that someone(s) are in my phone, periodically listening to mine and David's conversations. We are beginning to think that someone went ahead of us and convinced these people (both companies) to not move our building. I promise you, it isn't as far fetched as you think.

When I reminded Davis Buildings that getting our building moved was what was standing between us having a home and living in a tent indefinitely, that is when he said, with slight sarcasm, "welp, sorry, can't do it." I reminded him of our advertising offer, but he stood firm. Only a FOOL would turn down an offer like that! Apparently he isn't interested in selling his buildings, either.

As I stood there staring at the little building, mind wondering as I tried to figure out what to do next, it occurred to me that the ENTIRE building is assembled with Phillips head screws! I grabbed my Phillips head screwdriver and was able to easily unscrew a couple of screws! Hmmm..... maybe I can dismantle it and move it that way. That roof sure is a long way up there, though. Don't think I can do it myself? THEN COME HELP ME DO IT! ! ! !

Thank you so much for reading our post, and keep those prayers, good wishes and positive thoughts coming. . . . And if you are local, we could really use some extra hands of help. YES, for once in my life, I am swallowing my pride and asking for help. Have a great day!