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IN JANUARY, I surrendered to passionate irrationality, buying a park unit in Arizona that has become my second home.
Now I understand why, at least in the movie cliché, a man might buy house slippers for his long-suffering wife’s birthday, while giving flashy, expensive baubles to his girlfriend for no reason at all.
My single-wide “girlfriend” is tiny and fragile, the bloom off her youth. Things that improve her are easily obtained. A phone call to a friendly fellow at a store, the provision of a credit card number, and—voila—my private world is transformed for the better. Rational me knows the value I derive from each expenditure might be marginal, perhaps an imaginary gain or even an actual loss.
Meanwhile, our longtime family home in California could also benefit from a new refrigerator, as well as much, much more. Over three decades of living in that house, I’ve remodeled, bought new appliances, replaced a furnace, changed out windows, and completed countless other projects. I have clear memories of improvements that helped and ones that disappointed.
As of today, my 2007 kitchen remodel refrigerator has yet to die, so I’m thinking it can wait another year. After all, even when I’m living in the old family house, I’m not staring at the refrigerator nonstop. I might be in the living room, or dining room, or upstairs or out in the yard, with no thoughts of refrigeration clouding my mind.
Here in my immobile home, the living room is also the dining room and the kitchen. Its tiniest flaws, any neglected maintenance, sit in plain view. On top of that—though not always the case—improving my single wide can require minuscule amounts of time, effort and cost. Less than a single quart repainted the “kitchen” and, with under 20 square feet of visible wall, no ladder was required. The whole of the “living room” took one evening to paint.
In a minor triumph of inspiration and imagination, I removed two cupboard doors to create a built-in bookshelf. Then I repurposed the doors as a faux cupboard, masking a badly executed prior owner’s remodeling project. Total expenditure: zero dollars and an hour with a screwdriver, tape measure and level.
Refurbishing the main family house, by contrast, usually involves dollar amounts that start close to $1,000 and easily end on the high side of $50,000. Not to mention weeks or months of arranging details and schedules with scarce home-improvement contractors.
Even here in Arizona, in the land of easy upgrades, a new refrigerator is not a low-cost item. Neither was the washing machine, nor installing a water conditioner. And I have my eye on an electric induction range next.
The easy immediacy of improvements in a small home is a delight. I see changes in an afternoon, making the place ever more useful and attractive as I put my individual stamp on its functionality.
I like to show off my trophy wife—or is it girlfriend?—of a holiday home. Family and friends smile at my fresh paint, a patched and scrubbed counter, a single fixed railing. By contrast, it’s been a decade since anyone walked into my California house and said, “Wow, this place looks so much better.”
I’m learning new things, having fun, and spending my hard-saved investment dollars on myself and others while I’m still around to enjoy the effects. This is my new self and a different life. I’ve uncovered an inner home engineer, and she turns out to be a spender.
I’m not that man in the cliché, however. Next time that I’m back in California, at the big old reliable house with her good bones, I promise to measure for a new refrigerator.
Catherine Horiuchi is retired from the University of San Francisco’s School of Management, where she was an associate professor teaching graduate courses in public policy, public finance and government technology. Check out Catherine’s earlier articles.
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That’s a very entertaining article, Catherine.
I suspect many of us have had jobs where we typically could not directly visualize what we had done. Thus a DIY project provides amazing gratification as we can see the before and after of what we have accomplished.
Developing new skills, often with the assistance of YTU (You Tube University) allows us to continue to grow.
Another common trait of readers here is frugality. As the charges of trade people seem to escalate more rapidly than general inflation, DIY jobs become more attractive. My observation has been that the newer and larger the truck of the contractor is, the higher the quoted price.
Your tale was such an enjoyable read. Thank you.
It also reminded me of a lesson I got in an economics class when I was getting my MBA many years ago. The teacher there explained why it was economically appropriate when you bought a new car to purchase a lot of upgrades and additional equipment. The lesson had something to do with the time you spent in the car and the greatly increased benefit you’d get from the extras, even if the time spent in the car was less than the time you’d spent in your primary residence. You get better value for your money from investing in your car than in your primary residence. It may be the same for your Arizona mistress.
Great article Catherine. I’m glad the impulse buy is working out for you. Sounds like fun!
Thanks, Michael.
I’m late onto the “Have a good time!” bandwagon, after years of careful living and family responsibilities. I still keep one eye on my young adults but I’m trying new things now that I’m pretty sure that I have enough and a bit more for life (thanks to savings, annuity/pension and social security, the three legs of the retirement planning stool). I figured the immobile home would cost less than a classy car for my driveway (the kind of car that would impress my neighbors), and would provide a lot more of an adventure in a new town. That’s turned out to be the right call, for me.
I like your thinking on your choice over the classy car. Well done.
Catherine, I’ve really liked reading about the bold new lifestyle you’ve created for yourself. And gazing at the Sonoran Desert sounds good to me.
The wide open spaces of the west have always appealed to me, and my wife and I (and 16 yoa doggie!) are planning a car trip from central Texas to southern California, with many desert vistas to enjoy along the way.
That sounds like a great road trip. My dog has been a great traveller point to point between the two places. I haven’t yet taken him further, on a road trip like yours. Maybe this next year?
Catherine – I’ve enjoyed your park unit articles. Keep them coming!
Thank you so much. I really liked your HD piece on your front porch!
https://humbledollar.com/2024/10/updating-by-addition/
It gives me courage for the next big project at the old house, which will be to rebuild/demolish/replace a 90-year-old garage that has suffered multiple bad remodels and 90 years of soil compaction.
At the new place, I want to replace a panel of aluminum siding that has a hole in it, possibly to allow a vent pipe from a mobile heater no longer installed? It’s something that seems doable and relatively easy but requires removing all the screws holding the ends of the aluminum panel in its place. I’m guessing there’s online videos from people who’ve done it, or one of my neighbors will explain to me how. (Or, I could buy a portable heater for the shed and vent it through the hole…Decisions!)
Catherine – on the old house project: soil compaction is not necessarily a bad thing as it might provide a very stable platform for the new garage foundation. It’ll just be harder to excavate.
On the park unit fix: depending on the size of the hole, maybe an easier option is to buy a small piece of aluminum siding to caulk and screw (or pop-rivet) over the hole. This might follow the old adage of “beat to fit and paint to match”. Whatever you do, wear gloves and avoid sharp edges.
Good luck with all the changes!
Thanks, Jeff.
I’ve noticed the sharp edges on the sheet aluminum.Yikes!
A pop rivet, had to look this up and learned a couple new words. This is the fun part of a new place built in an entirely different way than my 1931 stick and stucco house.
There are a couple of RV/mobile home part stores in Tucson where I’m learning about the strange bits and pieces from which manufactured housing has been constructed over the past half century.
One thing I’ve noticed, the engineering of my unit seems very good. Goes to prove that just because inexpensive materials are used (resulting in a cheaper final product), things don’t have to be made badly. I have a lot of respect for engineers and companies that allow them to have enough say in the products that are built and sold to the public. (Have read that some new things are not so well built as they used to be.) Unfortunately the company that made my unit seemed to have gone out of business during the Great Recession. So some things I haven’t found suitable replacements for. Yet.
I like this adage: “beat to fit and paint to match”. I’m going to use it!
Catherine – also don’t underestimate the abilities and ingenuity of a really good hardware store, too. A couple of pictures and a description of what you want to do can go a long way to helping them help you.
My wife says I make words up. When she says that, I ask her to look it up. 🙂
Great article Catherine. I understand your feelings. The first shore house owned was 1156 square feet. We painted the whole thing in a weekend. A few hours effort could make a meaningful improvement in the home.
I find there is a behavioral aspect to this. My wife and I both seem to feel the need to “earn” our leisure. Accomplishing a small project gives us mental permission to enjoy the ‘vacation” aspects of the home and location. An hour spent weeding the garden and trimming the shrubs in the morning makes an afternoon hanging on the beach all the more enjoyable.
Enjoy your well-earned leisure.
Thanks, Rick. It’s great hearing about others’ experiences with having a weekend or holiday place, so much to learn from you. I love the vocabulary around it too: A “shore house” conveys a lot just in two words, like why you are there! My “shore” is the Sonoran Desert and I can stare at it for a long spell, reminds me of watching the waves roll in at the ocean’s edge.
A good point, earning our leisure. Definitely I have this dilemma, at both houses, after 50 years on the job. If I am “sitting around” the house, a little voice kicks in to bring up those shrubs. You are right, after an hour (or once the green waste can is full) I’m better able to unwind. Good observation!
A lot of pleasure can be derived from a useful project, from conception to completion. And I find that often the amount of satisfaction is out of proportion to the size of the task.
Absolutely. The satisfaction within happens even if no one else ever notices or sees it.
I’ve read that a common issue for retirees is cultivating a sense of purpose, especially if a person built their identity around their employment. Recognizing “a useful project” and working “from conception to completion” is super helpful to me in the transition to being a retired person.
I’m happy getting outsized personal satisfaction.
My new place has a workshop and I’m hoping this winter to figure out more projects that will use the excellent workbench therein.
Agreed!
I love to do home improvement projects. Painting is one of my favorites. I think paint provides the biggest ‘bang for the buck’. I’m (slowly) painting every room in our home. I think most of the rooms haven’t been painted since the ’80’s, so it’s a huge improvement.
And it’s really hard to beat pressure washing!
“Bang for the bucket”!
I love hearing about your life in a retirement community in Arizona, too. And your dog training business/hobby. What with the kids growing up, I’ve got the family dog with me on my retirement adventure in the desert, so always walk him with a pair of tweezers/pliers and a comb in my pocket. Lots of adaptations!
Many people seem content to move into a place and just leave it that way for decades. Fine, until the person or their inheritors want to sell. Out come the paintbrushes and repairs, unless one wants to sell a place as a fixer, with the hit to the asking price. I’m not as conscientious as my brother, who’s always kept his home market-ready (their careers required several big moves so he developed this habit). Now that I’m retired, I have the time and inclination to work on my place in this purposeful way. One benefit is that my home always seems like a real nice place to be.
“Bang for the bucket”–that’s awesome! Moving to Arizona from the Pacific Northwest has required a lot of adaptations–for us and the dogs. But the winters here are so lovely. When I hear about the never-ending winter rain in the Northwest, I don’t miss it.
Every home I’ve owned has been a ‘fixer’ but I truly enjoy fixing them up and then selling them for a profit. I’ve always been careful to pick homes that have ‘good bones’ and are in good locations so they typically don’t require any major renovations in order to increase their value significantly. Paint, new light fixtures and new door/window/cabinet hardware all seem to make huge differences in how a house looks. And they are all projects I’m happy to tackle.