Analyze this, part 1

Note: In the blog that recently went away forever, I had playfully posted several times about branded products I owned, knowing (or believing) that somewhere out there, data analysts were busy compiling this information to get a consumer profile of me. But not being much of a consumer, compared to most people, I ran out of stuff to tally.

Well, it's a new time and a new place (new state, new environment, etc. etc.), not to mention a new blog, so here goes. Get out your pencils, everyone! [Ticonderoga or Pedigree are my preferred brands of pencil, btw.]

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Good morning, everyone! It's a lovely day here at the mobile home park in extreme north Georgia. By "extreme," I mean that it's so close to the Tennessee state line, that if you hop the fence bordering this community, you're back in Tennessee.

We moved here a couple of months ago. We sold our modular home, with the help of Keller-Williams Realty, and purchased a 1985 model Kimberly manufactured home. The difference between the two types of homes is slight. Modular homes are created inside a factory, then shipped to a location where they are placed upon a foundation (slab, crawlspace or basement). Our old 2002 modular was a double-wide and had the roof lags to prove it. 

Our current home is considered a "small" double-wide. As a manufactured home, it still has axles and two visible towing mechanisms, but that's just a technicality. Manufactured homes over 10 years of age cannot legally be moved. The towing mechanism is triangular, and we figure that's where the Christmas tree will go. This way it will be on display for the neighborhood but won't tempt the cat. 

Total square footage is about 300 fewer than the previous home. But we love it. It's cozy without being cramped; it's attractively designed with a cathedral ceiling in the great room, hardwood flooring and a stone fireplace. There aren't as many closets here as we had before, but the closets we do have are deep, with plenty of racks and shelves. We have covered parking for the first time in over 2 decades. This will extend the life of our 2014 Subaru Outback.


Not our living room ... but it could be.

Okay, let's get to the brand names, already.

We have a Lane rocking chair, an Ashley reclining sofa, a color-block accent rug from Dollar General, a coffee table from Rooms to Go (part of a set; more about that later), and a Vizio32-inch flat screen TV. The TV is less than 2 years old. Our previous set, a 32-inch Sharp CRT model, lasted nearly 16 years. After its demise, it sat in our living room until the day we moved. Crime experts say that if you put your old TV out on the curb, it will tempt burglars to come in and find out what you replaced it with.

We don't have any floor or table lamps so far, but there is a ceiling fan/light fixture from Hampton Bay. It has gotten a good workout so far, since the average temperatures this summer have been in the 90s. It's good to have ceiling fans. We have 4 in this house. There's also an LG window air conditioner, but it usually doesn't work. That's OK - the central AC is in fighting shape.

Let's visit the kitchen. We have a brand-new Maytag refrigerator-freezer, which we purchased at Home Depot. It replaced an old Hotpoint or Westinghouse side-by-side that came with the house. When I say "old," I mean 1970s style, in "Harvest Gold," with the cladding on one door handle completely gone, and lots of attractive mold everywhere. We lived on restaurant take-out food for the first two weeks we were here, waiting for the fridge to be delivered, because other than ketchup packets (Heinz ketchup, that is), we didn't dare put anything in there that we thought we might eat.

Three of the other appliances are similarly old, clunky and noisy: A washing machine and dishwasher with the G.E. brand, and a clothes dryer made by Whirlpool. But they all work just fine. When we get tired of the noise, we go outside.

For awhile, when we ran the washing machine or the dishwasher, we suffered from water backing up into the bathtubs. Eventually, with the help of a plumber, we determined that the cause was mainly using "flushable" wipes, which are made by various companies, including Kimberly-Clark, Georgia-Pacific and whoever makes the Great Value Walmart brand. This was never a problem in our previous home, but I think the pipes here are smaller, and sometimes subject to intrusions from tree roots, etc., so we decided to stop using wipes. We have not had a problem since then. Toilet paper (Charmin Ultra-strong) is all we really need.

The final kitchen appliance is a lovely Frigidaire radiant cooktop range that came with the house. Oh my, do we ever love it. So many people warned us against radiant cooktops. They take forever to heat up, they said. They're hard to clean, said others. None of this is true. There's nothing not to like about this range. One of these days, we may upgrade our range hood, however. It's old, rusty and ugly. Once we pay down the Home Depot account from the fridge, and the washer & dryer we got for the folks who bought our old house, we'll look into that. 

We brought some small appliances with us when we moved: Our second-hand Hamilton Beach slow-cooker; equally second-hand Panasonic microwave; Mister Coffee and Keurig coffee makers, and White-Westinghouse can opener. 

I know all of this sounds terribly tempting, but beware. Don't even think about breaking into our home to steal our stuff. It is protected by XFinity Home, which also provides our internet and TV cable.

To be continued!