Craigslist mother load!

There have been a few times in my life when I felt like a sign, a sign that I was on the right track. Over and over I in my life I have faced hardship only to be renewed by something much greater. Well on Sunday it happened again.  I was hanging out with my wife and daughter at the house while I was just doing some browsing on craigslist.  I ran across this post.

I thought wow they have a trampoline. Over the last few months I have ran across a few ads for trampolines and I was too late as other people already beat me to it. Today I wasn't going to let that happen. I immediately responded by email and got in the truck to head over. 

When I got there no one was at the house and I knocked on the door and saw inside it was completely empty.    I walked around back and saw in the drive way a bunch of miscellaneous items and several craigslist crack heads rummaging through the items. 

I opened the gate and saw the trampoline, hot tub, and playset. I thought wow! What am I going to do? No one is here and I haven't verified I can take these items. I figured I better ask the neighbor. After speaking with the neighbor they said they saw a uhaul earlier and figured the owners got out in a hurry.  So I showed him the ad and decided it wasn't a scam so I was covered if the police showed up.

So I got started with the trampoline first. I didn't have any tools at the time to dissemble it so I said screw it and drove like these. Luckily I had tons of straps and made it home with out a issue. 

Olivia was ecstatic to say the least! 

 I drove back to the house, the owner was there and she was so happy I offered to take the swing set. She said everything had to go and they didn't have the ability to remove it all.  We were standing on the driveway and a older lady showed up and was going through the items , the home owner offered to pay me to remove the trash. The older lady heard her and begged to take the trash because she really needed the money. I felt bad for her because she clearly had yellow eyes from Jaundice and I knew she had medical issues. I said I don't need the money let her take it. She offered to pay me still for taking the swing-set but I said no because I was happy to take it for free and that was payment enough for me.

It was getting dark and the owner left I was there by myself in the backyard in the dark for 3 hours, dissembling the swing set. Then I got it all loaded up and took it home.

I was beat and I didn't want to make two trips so I just piled everything on and used many straps to hold everything in place.  People were sure looking at me funny when I was driving down the road. And no one wanted to ride behind. lol
But never the less I got home with no issues. My neighbors were kind enough to help me unload.

 It was about 10pm and I was beat but I remembered seeing a giant dog kennel in the back yard as well. So I called the home owner and asked if that was also something she was needing moved. She asked her spouse and said 'Sure Scott its all yours, happy new year!" I thought WOW that is awesome so I headed back for one more trip.


This kennel was solid all one piece and she told me the only way to get it in her back yard was to drive behind the alley and lift it over the fence. So i realized at this point I might have met my match. I tried to drag it but it was too heavy so I decided to roll it on its side. That seemed to work better so I begin to flip it and flip  it until I got to the fence. Once I got it to the fence I stood it on one side standing up in the air and I pressed it over the fence. As you can imagine it was quite loud when it landed on the other side.  With it being 11pm now I was thinking to myself, How in the world am I going to be able to explain this to the police if they show up? Its the middle of the night and I'm taking this huge kennel from the back yard of a house where no one is home. Lucky for me it didn't happen.
I quickly realized one fatal flaw in my plan. This kennel was far to big for my short bed pickup. But remembering a saying we had in the Army, Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. I improvised and made it happen, and even when I thought, "Scott this is too much, you going to far, just stop and maybe you can get a trailer or have a friend help tomorrow." I said to myself dude, you got it this far might as well get it all the way.

This is how I made it home. It was only a 15 min drive on the high way. I know people were looking at me crazy on the drive home. All I got to say is the people who say it can't be done need to step out of the way for the people who get it done. That why they say Adapt and Overcome. Shake the naysayers off and know if you want to do this kind of stuff, people will tell you no over and over again. At some point you have to realize if your looking to get permission from someone to let you do this. You wont get it. But its OK because you don't need anyone's permission to do something, if your passionate about it and you love it DO it. Your spouse might not give permission but they won't stop you from doing something that makes you happy. So just keep it positive and when they see the awesome stuff you get, they will back you up afterwards.

Here is the kennel in its final resting place. I'm thinking it could be perfect for letting my chickens graze. Either that or I will get some more animals to add to the Urban farm. Maybe some pet turkeys lol . It all depends on what the code says so Ill have to do some more research on my city ordinance.

This was a smaller kennel with in the larger one.

 It took me a few days to get it put back together but as you can see Olivia loves it.

All in all this was a great find. I was able to help people in need and I made out with some great stuff for free. 

This play set I have seen between 900-2000 grand at cosco. 

The kennel I estimate to be around 600-1500 based on where you buy it from. Since its all one piece of welded steel I would imagine it was pricey. 

And the trampoline I bet between 150-300 since its smaller. 

All of this stuff was just something that someone threw away. Now I am not saying you will find another dog kennel, but I regularly see trampolines and playsets all the time on craigslist. They are there and kids grow up the parents are happy to have more kids get use out of them. If your patient and focused you will find what you need.  Its up cycling on a whole new level. That's what sustainability is all about. Recycling old materials so the resources used to make the new ones can be saved for other use. Imagine how much plastic, trees, and gas was used to make this? Why waste it when alternatives exist which are free, and waste nothing?

Oliva asked me "Daddy you got all of this for me?" It melted my heart to see how happy she was and I knew all of it was worth it. Staying outside in the cold, in the dark, taking this thing apart, missing football. It was all worth it, because she was so happy. It shows what sustainability can do for you on a whole new level. If your living paycheck to paycheck like me, thinking about spending a thousand dollars on a playset isnt even on the agenda. Imagine how much more exercise and confidence a kid gets from playing outside. Oliva must have sled down that slide 100 times already. And her happiness level was the same on the last time as the first. It cost me nothing but time, and I got a hell of a workout at the same time. Boom! Done...