Jay Trimble's Sparrow

After the death of his wife Amy 15 years ago, Jay Trimble took a vacation to Isla Mujeres, Mexico.  Most unexpectedly, he bought a house.  It was a lot with a mere shell of a building - and a stunning view, but his construction background meant he saw potential. Over the years kept building.  When the view got blocked by the house built on the vacant lot between his property and the Caribbean - he hatched a plan.  His modern house design looked like a wharf, so of course he added a ship to the third floor.  It's will be christened "The Sparrow". The views from up there are incredible and the finished quality is already apparent.  Listen his story of loss, adventure, foreign investment and what life holds for him after turning 60 later this year. 

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Transcript

Welcome. You are listening to the Overseas Life Redesign podcast where you'll hear fine, relaxed and inspirational interviews with people who are really living the dream. I'm Dawn Fleming and attorney turned alchemist and your host for the show coming to you from the tropical island paradise of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Listen to conversations with courageous souls who step out of their comfort zone and designed a new way of life. They'll share their experiences, wisdom, and offer practical steps you can take to redesign your life overseas. Listen, and you'll believe if you can dream it. You can achieve it.

Dawn Fleming

  00:43 - 01:14

Okay. Today I am here with Jay Trimble, a good friend of ours that we got to know on the Island. And, he doesn't live here full time but has been coming here for 15 years, 18 years. So owns a house here and I, wanted to, he's got a really exciting project that he's working on. I actually just got a tour. So I'm wanting to talk to him about kind of that whole experience. Thank you, Jay, for being with me today and taking the time out. I know you're headed to the States tomorrow, so busy time, but

 Jay Trimble

  01:15 - 01:40

Yes. Well, thanks for coming up. It's a long trek up the stairs to get to my house. We're on a bluff on a cliff above the Cara BNC and I have great views here and I'm doing a project. That's a, it looks like there's a ship upon the clips and it says it's an 80-foot ship made out of cement and it's on top of my house.

Dawn Fleming

  01:41 - 01:57

Yeah. So, take us back to the beginning. So, we'll get to the the, the ship in a moment, but I kind of want to, I'm a lawyer logical thinker. I like to kind of start at the beginning. So, you you're originally from Pennsylvania

 Jay Trimble

  01:57 - 02:28

From the Philadelphia area. I lived in a suburb North of Philly called Doylestown and shall font, which was a neighboring town. And, I came here, unfortunately after the death of my wife and I spent Christmas here and by January 3rd, I found this location and offered on it on the first day that real estate office was open after the new year. So it was a,

Dawn Fleming

  02:29 - 02:33

The plan to purchase property in Mexico when you came down. So it was a little bit of a,

 Jay Trimble

  02:34 - 03:08

It was, yeah, I kind of had PTSD from the situation that I was in and I couldn't work. I truly couldn't work in the USA, so I figured I needed a break and, I came down here. I think I spent, over that year I spent almost nine months of the year here, various trips, and yeah, I didn't even tell my family that I've bought a house here and, we got to work on it right away. And I finished the first floor, which was a shell. I bought it.

Dawn Fleming

  03:09 - 03:11

That's what I was going to ask you. If there was an existing structure,

 Jay Trimble

  03:11 - 03:57

There are just four walls, really. Okay. And then I built, over the years I kept changing it and adding to it. And as time went on, I realized the very modern design that I designed the house, looked like a war for a dock or a pier. So when I had the opportunity to build an addition on the third floor, I built a ship and, it, the, the house is called part to LCA, low door to the sky or port to heaven. And, the ship is going to be called a Sparrow, The Sparrow. So he got a little, movie

Dawn Fleming

  03:58 - 03:60

Pirates of the Caribbean thing Oh, that's awesome.

 Jay Trimble

  03:60 - 04:27

And, right now we're, we're at 95% done with the exterior or going to actually do some painting today to, catch up on the painting. and we have the interior started more on the stern of the ship and then the bow is a little bit behind because it's just been completed. and we're there doing the rooftop deck right now, so,

Dawn Fleming

  04:27 - 04:39

Right. Yeah. It's pretty impressive. you've, you've put a lot of work into it. I was asking you when you gave me the tour, if you designed it and you did, you said you've actually done some design work.

 Jay Trimble

  04:39 - 05:18

Yes, I'm, I'm never was an architect or, I went to art school, but I, design things and I designed interior spaces for people in the USA. And, I've done that for 30, 40 years now. So, when the opportunity to do this came up, I did hire an architect, but, I basically gave him the whole idea to, get it on paper for the licensing and, to build the addition. I said to them, the code enforcement officer,

Dawn Fleming

  05:19 - 05:26

I was just going to ask about that. Cause I had people ask us about, you know, the codes and the permitting and stuff all the time. And it's, it's a little different here.

 Jay Trimble

  05:26 - 06:08

I, I asked him if, if I could do any, any shape of the house I wanted, if there were any restrictions he said, Oh my gosh if we put restrictions on these people, nothing would ever get built because they don't necessarily the average run of the mill. Joe doesn't necessarily have any design sense, you know Sure. So, he said, Nope, there are no restrictions. So then I presented him with a blueprint of a ship and, got it. Okay. And surprisingly, the, what do you call the permits were under, I think under $900 for the entire project right

Dawn Fleming

  06:08 - 06:11

Now. Did you actually get a permit or did you get permiso

 Jay Trimble

  06:12 - 06:46

Oh, I don't know the difference. I actually had the bill, the code enforcement officer was here and I met with, the builder who's Tony Grito Mae. And, Tony is a long-time friend of mine and he said, you don't really want me to do anything. Do you J I said, no, I'll oversee the whole construction. So he gave me his foreman, who is a guy named polio who does a great job. And I meet with him probably once a week and make sure that everything's going in the right direction. Yeah.

Dawn Fleming

  06:46 - 07:36

I actually did the same thing with our third-floor addition, because, you know, he, he basically gave us is he was building another house and, Tom was there to, to supervise everything. So when you're, that's one good thing, you know, if you're here regularly, you can do that. Obviously, if you're trying to manage a construction project from the state's a totally different deal. But, no, the, the the reason I ask is that our account explained to us that, the actual permitting process can be quite lengthy it's months and months. And there's a lot of paperwork, you know, how they like paperwork here. And, permiso is sort of like where you, pay a fee and they, look the other way when they see a construction crew at your

Dawn Fleming

  07:36 - 07:39

House, but there's not

Dawn Fleming

  07:39 - 07:41

Actually a paper trail.

 Jay Trimble

  07:41 - 07:51

Yeah. Well, I did have, I did have to submit, drawings. I know that, so I'm pretty sure I got kinda more, more, and because it was,

Dawn Fleming

  07:51 - 08:05

I did go through my accountant, when our builder presented us with that option and said, is this, okay Like, you know, or can we do this And he said, yeah, that's fine. That's kind of the, you know, the secondary mode of, of getting things done. Yeah.

 Jay Trimble

  08:06 - 08:44

What, w I've been through a permit, a coding officer coming at the final walkthrough, and it's very much different than the USA where the code enforcement officer would come nine times during the building process and check things. And I can't stand that. So what they do here is they know the builder, right. And it's as simple as, Hey, Tony, how did everything go He goes, Oh, everything's fine. He goes, Oh, it looks good. Hey, I really had no problems. No, there's been no problem. And okay, let me sign off one minute. Yeah,

Dawn Fleming

  08:44 - 08:56

Sure. Then you, it sounds like you did actually go through the permitting process because we never even had an inspector after where we got our permiso, like, you know, whatever. so it's interesting.

 Jay Trimble

  08:56 - 09:29

Well, most people were building history and know what to do. And, I have seen people take projects on that. They're just woefully inept at taking on. And, I, I suggest getting a professional, a person like myself, a person that's a builder and trusted on the Island. Right. A friend of mine just built a house down the road and they brought someone in from Cancun and soon all the money was gone and the job on con not completed. So it is,

Dawn Fleming

  09:31 - 10:34

Yeah, that happens. The other thing, our, builder actually, Tony was brought in, on a house just down the street from us, between where our house is and CMV, and it was a one-story building and they've built two more stories on top of it. And the foundation is not sufficient. And so they were asking that he was looking at putting in support columns, or what have you. And, Oh my gosh. Yes, that was well, one of the things we did when we bought our house before we, our house was only four years old and it, we saw the potential, but, you know, knew that there were going to be some, some things we were wanting to do before we ever made an offer. We brought the builder in, it was only a four-year-old house, but we brought the builder in and say, can we do this Can we do this, you know, basically going up. And he said, yes, yes, yes. and he is the number one builder on the Island, Patricia. So we were, confident going in, but a lot of people don't think that part through and you can really end up with a mess on your hands.

 Jay Trimble

  10:34 - 11:03

Yeah. Like I, I had a, like I said, a shell and we did replace a couple of the cops to make sure that everything was, very structurally sound. we've over time, over time, you can replace columns. You basically, put, some legs up to hold up the roof, and then you, redo a column. And that happens when perhaps a metal inside the cement wasn't made correctly or

Dawn Fleming

  11:03 - 11:04

Small, I guess.

 Jay Trimble

  11:07 - 11:09

So, I got a pretty heavy house here.

Dawn Fleming

  11:10 - 11:16

Oh, you do That's why I was asking. I'm like, gosh, you know, we don't want to see that happen. What happened to our neighbors

 Jay Trimble

  11:16 - 11:20

There's quite a structure up, holding

Dawn Fleming

  11:20 - 11:20

The ship.

 Jay Trimble

  11:22 - 12:10

The ship has some crazy angles that, are rounded now. Round is more strong than any, any other shape. So I'm pretty confident that I'm just like an egg, it's hard to break. You're trying to just squeeze it. The round is more strong, like a straight wall that catches wind, and it could just all fall over, but around it, the wall cannot just fall over. Gotcha. Because, because of the angles and everything. So, we, yeah, we built it, right. I, I would have Tony visit maybe once a month to make sure we're not making any major mistakes and he's not an engineer, but he has seen enough and he knows enough,

Dawn Fleming

  12:10 - 12:27

Well, they're Mayans and they built the pyramid. So I feel pretty good about these guys. Like they really know what they're doing. Right. What they, the way they do it sometimes might seem a little primitive to us, what we're used to in the United States, but at the end of the day, it lasts. Right.

 Jay Trimble

  12:28 - 13:16

I, I, one of the funny things is I used to bring like major tools down here in my luggage. One time I brought a full-size jackhammer and I had to break it down into two, two bags, one bag weighed exactly 49.9 pounds. And I got it through and the other bag weighed 35 pounds. So the whole thing was an 80-pound jackhammer. And, the customs people just look at me and shake their heads. Like, what are you doing So I brought cement saws and Jackhammers. I brought, I always bring some of those little mini Jack cameras, handheld. I give them away like chocolates, you know, the workers, just their eyes get real big.

Dawn Fleming

  13:17 - 13:44

They do use it. Cause I know, when, when Oscar was building our pool, you know, Tom kind of was giving him a little bit of a hard time about, I mean, they're wearing flip flops and there's no high protection and you know, what they're doing is yeah. Looking pretty primitive and, and he just shrugged his shoulders and he's like, I've brought them, all that stuff. They won't use it, you know, I've brought the tools. And so it's interesting. They, they are using them

 Jay Trimble

  13:45 - 14:58

Well, yeah. One, one time I had a neighbor build, building a house at Christmas time and I had a rental and, you know, that's the most expensive weekday rental. And some young kid in the street was putting a water line and for the AGA Khan for the, and he was, who was hired by the builder next door. And he has a hammer and a chisel for a week straight. And of course, I lost my renters. They went somewhere else and I lost all that, you know, opportunity. And I called up the builder and I said, I would have bought you $2,000 jackhammer and still saved, you know, tons of money. If you just would have done. He said, Oh, well, they're not going to use, they're not going to use the modern tools. I said, they will, if you don't pay him, they'll. If he said he won't pay him, they will definitely use it. So, yeah, that was not a good scene. And, that's one of the problems around Isla is you, even if you have a rental, somebody could be building next door just that you did. They don't even know that they're going to build until the day they show up.

Dawn Fleming

  14:58 - 15:13

Right. It is prom and, and here, well where we are too, we have zero lot lines. So we're like right next door. So yeah, that happened to us as well when the neighbor bought our house. And of course, he, right as we're coming into high season, he decides to completely remodel

 Jay Trimble

  15:13 - 15:15

The whole place. So

Dawn Fleming

  15:15 - 15:30

It can be a little frustrating. so I know when you bought this place, there was nobody between you and the Caribbeans see this, and then, someone bought the lot and it kind of affected your, your view.

 Jay Trimble

  15:30 - 16:34

Yes. I had the, a college friend of mine, and I had purchased the lot and he was the more of the money man. And I was the guy that was hands-on. And, it didn't take, but a few months and he just soured on the whole idea and resold the lots out from under me. So we were going to do a project here. Oh, I did not realize that. So when a new guy came in and he's a good friend of mine, a good neighbor now. And, he built a house and it's only one story, but it did affect my views. So I changed the balcony that I had. Oh, look, overlooking his house. I changed the balcony to be more like a stairway entrance. So there was no more balcony needed because there's a house there. But then when the opportunity to build the third floor came up, I said, I don't, I don't care. This, this thing is so darn tall. You wouldn't believe it. It is. It's massively tall. I think.

Dawn Fleming

  16:34 - 16:38

I was just wondering that I assume that was part of the impetus for, for putting that up there was just sort of regained the yeah.

 Jay Trimble

  16:39 - 16:50

Yes. To regrow, regain, regain a great view. And, I still have a good view, but it was spectacular now is just good. Right. So,

Dawn Fleming

  16:50 - 16:53

From spectacular, from, from

 Jay Trimble

  16:53 - 17:42

Then, from the, dash up the top of the ship, you can see at least 300 degrees out of three 60 of ocean or water. Nice. So, we see, Cancun and we see Isla, Blanca, we see, Isla or Harris mainland. We see the entire front is, the Caribbean. And we can see all the way to Mia, resort. And then on the Southside, there's one Hill that obscures the view of the South point. But besides that, we can see three, 300 degrees out of three 60. So I'm pretty happy with it. The whole thing has been frustrating at times and stressful at times, but I'm pretty happy with the result.

Dawn Fleming

  17:43 - 17:50

It's I can't wait, to see the finished product for sure. all right. I think this might be a good time

Dawn Fleming

  17:50 - 17:52

To take a break. We'll be back in a moment.

Audio

  17:57 - 18:47

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Audio

  18:53 - 19:38

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Dawn Fleming

  19:45 - 20:16

Cool. Okay. And we're back. So, great. Well, I'm excited about your construction project and I'm curious to talk with you a little bit about your perspective on investing in the United States versus investing in Mexico. I know a while back you were, considered, I don't know if you actually went into escrow, but you were looking to buy a property that was in pretty bad shape, had been on the market a long time, and then, backed out of that. love to hear your thoughts on that.

 Jay Trimble

  20:16 - 20:41

I tried to, purchase a house that needed to be rebuilt and, it was had great bones. It was an old house in upstate New York and it was really inexpensive, but then I found the roof, the cost of repairing the roof was more than the house cost. and not only that it was November and I could not get a contractor to do the work.

 Jay Trimble

  20:42 - 21:45

This was right before COVID started. So, I backed out the day before closing wow. And lost a couple of thousand dollars deposit, but not much, it was such an inexpensive house that, I, was happy that I didn't have a major loss. And then, the lawyer called me up and said, you know, you'd never paid any legal fees. And I did a lot of work and I said, well, listen, we're friends. I can just send you the money. And a day later she said, Oh, I got your check in the mail. And she goes, guess what I'm sending it back because someone bought the house like the next day. Oh. So I was happy about that. I got, I got legal feedback. Nice. And, the USA is, I don't know, it's so difficult. I don't, I don't necessarily want to live in the USA anymore. I'm turning 60 this summer. And, almost me, I'll be 60 in October. They go,

 Jay Trimble

  21:48 - 21:48

Yeah.

 Jay Trimble

  21:49 - 22:15

I'm, I'm kind of, I've done a lot of work in the USA as a carpenter and a finisher and all that stuff and getting a little too old for it. I don't really want to do it anymore. I'll probably do some, consulting work or some design work, but that's, that's more like what I want to do. I also love little projects. I don't mind building a deck or something and I just,

Dawn Fleming

  22:15 - 22:17

Your supervisor, you're more like a project manager.

 Jay Trimble

  22:18 - 23:20

I was a supervisor for, at T and T. I built stores and I know the only reason I got the job is that I'm a bachelor and nobody else wanted to travel. So they said, can you travel a hundred days a year I said, yeah, I can do that. Sure. So I had a fantastic job with them and it lasted five years. And, and I had to fill out one piece of paper a day. That was my paperwork. One piece of paper doesn't sound too bad for a year's pay. And I, I had a hundred pieces of paper I had to fill out. It was pretty much fantastic. So, after that ended, I started spending more and more time down here in Mexico and, really do love it. It's the taxes are almost nonexistent. I think mine is under a thousand dollars a year, the fee to COMESA, which is your bank that owns the house,

Dawn Fleming

  23:21 - 23:22

trust you on your trust,

 Jay Trimble

  23:23 - 23:39

The trust. Yes. what, what it is is the law says that in Mexico, only Mexicans can own Mexico. Well, you know, puts their arm around. You say, Hey, if you send me $500 a year, all in this house for you. So that's what, well, hold the title called the title. Yes.

Dawn Fleming

  23:40 - 24:46

Because there is some, the reason I want to correct you on that is that there's a lot of people that say, Oh, you don't really the property. Well, yes you do. It's just like in the United States, any financial planner worth their salt or estate planning attorney will say, you need to hold your property in a trust for estate planning purposes for protection purposes. So you still own your house. It's just, there's a trust that holds the title, which offers a certain degree of protection. And in both Mexico and in the United States, if you pass it avoids probate and going through the courts to determine who your property will pass to. So it's, it's not, because there's a lot of misinformation about there, like that, that, Oh, it's a lease. You don't really own the land and all these sorts of things. And that's really not true. You own it every bit, as much in Mexico as you do in the United States or Canada. it's just the mechanism for holding the title that is required. for foreign. Yeah.

 Jay Trimble

  24:46 - 24:60

Well, most people that have, houses down here, Americans and Canadians and Europeans, don't have a mortgage. So in a way in the USA, you're more, liable to, to

Dawn Fleming

  25:00 - 25:11

Yeah, because right, because the, in, in those, in the United States and Canada typically, the bank and you own the house in that order. Right.

 Jay Trimble

  25:12 - 25:34

True. Yes. Yes. There's a lot of, a lot of myths and legends about the whole thing. And, the reality is, it would be folly for any Mexican government to, mess with the ownership rights of Americans or Europeans because they would soon have less investment in Mexico. So

Dawn Fleming

  25:35 - 26:37

Yeah, no,, I agree with you. I mean, and actually, I'll put a little plug-in from my book. That's coming out. I talk about that in my book, that the reality of it is you're more likely to have your home confiscated in the United States than you are in Mexico because the law of eminent domain has changed in the United States. It used to be a government that could only do taking for the public good, right. You know, a railway or a freeway or something like that, that they needed to do. And they had to pay you fair market value. Well, back about, I don't remember the exact year, but around 2004, 2005, the Supreme court said, Oh, no, no, actually it's okay. Private entities can do takings just as well as the government. So there's actually, and I cite cases, in potassium, I think one of them might actually be in Pennsylvania where there, they took a whole bunch of houses for a corporate project.

Dawn Fleming

  26:37 - 27:23

and they, you know, paid for these people for their homes. They were not necessarily fair market value and they didn't end up doing anything with the land. Like they, they didn't follow through with that. And it ended up being this huge issue. And I've done a little bit of research in Mexico and they do most countries do have that eminent domain, reason in there because they, they do need to, as I say, build roads or, you know, whatever, there's, there's a good reason why they might need to take your land, but they have to, it's a, it's a pretty known procedure. And, and to have that big of a shift in the United States, I mean, that really tells you, who's calling the shots, right. It's the moneyed interest there. Yeah.

 Jay Trimble

  27:23 - 27:47

Yeah. It's a shame or risky. It's one of the shames of America. There have been so many changes over, you know, the last half of my life that it's just, it's, it's more violent. It's more, disagreeable, like you, we used to all be Americans and now it's like, Oh, there's the good Americans. And then there's our enemy.

Dawn Fleming

  27:48 - 28:00

Yeah. Yeah. It's unfortunate. And, and, it's, I agree with you, it's, it's really refreshing to be here and be away from that. And everybody, I mean, we just had a horrific fire this week. Yeah.

 Jay Trimble

  28:01 - 28:08

I saw all the townies were down there. the Mexicans were cleaning up the thing. There were at least a hundred people there. Yeah.

Dawn Fleming

  28:08 - 28:22

Yeah. And the effort to, really tally all of the workers and track their families and make sure that they're provided resources, food, and, and, you know, they're working with all the owners to kind of identify who these people are.

 Jay Trimble

  28:22 - 28:25

Yeah. There has to be over a hundred workers and okay.

Dawn Fleming

  28:25 - 28:59

I think the number I saw was about 150. I think there were about five to seven businesses that were completely destroyed in this fire that happened this week. So, and then, you know, we certainly saw, you were here, I think most of the COVID period and really nobody got checks from the government. It was all really the community effort that pitched in to try to help the folks that, so many that rely on tourism and, and were literally starving. and, and trying to keep them afloat during this period.

 Jay Trimble

  28:59 - 29:07

Yeah. The whole town was pretty barren, about six months. there was no movement on the streets. There were people sitting at home.

Dawn Fleming

  29:08 - 29:26

We lost our last guest on March 20th and we didn't have anybody come back until October. So it was, yeah. Over six months before we had the return of any guests. And even then it was quite a sporadic know there wasn't, there weren't too many folks until probably,

 Jay Trimble

  29:27 - 29:35

well, I think, I think there'll be quite a turnaround. We have had a lot of building going on. They will stop the builders, the builders.

Dawn Fleming

  29:36 - 29:56

So we were supposed to start at the beginning of July. And, actually, as it turns out, our builder ended up getting COVID. We were supposed to start at the beginning of July. And it was like about the third week of July before he finally got in touch with us and he had lost, I don't know, 25 pounds or something, we're like, tell me what. And he said, Oh, I had COVID. and he was kind of a funny guy, Tony

 Jay Trimble

  29:56 - 29:58

Greta may. Yeah.

Dawn Fleming

  29:59 - 30:13

Yeah. And it was like, Oh my gosh, Tony, that was, he had it bad. He did. He did. He was down for a while. So, yeah, we lost, a few people, on the Island Rubin obviously. And a few other niggers.

 Jay Trimble

  30:13 - 30:25

Well, yeah, we've, we've had some, a rough year with a lot of people, a lot of friends best, from a couple from COVID and a couple from other things. And, Oh my gosh.

Dawn Fleming

  30:26 - 30:35

So I'm returning back to the idea. So you're, are you thinking about moving down here full time or, or, you know, what's holding you back

 Jay Trimble

  30:36 - 31:49

Well, the summer times can be a little intense and if you work outside or you work carpentry, it is very difficult to work, a hard labor job in the sun. Now, these guys do it here. I don't know how they would wear black t-shirts in long jeans and I can't figure out why, but, I'm here in a w Oh, white t-shirt and shorts and flip-flops and just sweating, like terrible. So, I like to go to the US and I may figure out a way to, have a house there. I do not, I sold, I sold my house this past summer. I had 1872 Victorian, so nice. And, the, I F I finished it and sold it. And, the people that moved in were like, Holy cow, this looks better than when we offered on the house. I said, yeah, I'm making sure that it doesn't fall down around you. And, I told, also told him I didn't trust that they were good painters.

Dawn Fleming

  31:51 - 31:55

It sounds like, but yeah. I hope you have a picture of it on your Facebook account. Right

 Jay Trimble

  31:55 - 32:48

I do have some, I did have some good, some good photos of that, that had the, my father would call it gingerbread, you know Yeah. All the trim, beautiful trim around the house. And the interior was nicer than the exterior. I think the exterior was updated a little bit and lost some gingerbread, but the interior had all the old, some old parts to it. And I'm a designer. I do, kitchens and bathrooms, and, usually do it so that they have some antique feel to them and blend with the house. Of course, a Sub-Zero is not going to go into the air for, an old-fashioned house. But, you make it seem like it's that date, even though it's, you know, just a modern kitchen rather than the old fashioned that,

Dawn Fleming

  32:49 - 32:53

So what'd you do with all your stuff That's one of the things I'm going back

 Jay Trimble

  32:53 - 33:21

Tomorrow. I have a house full of furniture and stuff, storage in storage, and tools. I also have a van work van that I have no idea what to do is I would love to have a rental just half a year in us, but it's virtually impossible to do. Yeah. Nobody wants to give a six-month rental to anyone.

Dawn Fleming

  33:22 - 34:09

Yeah. Unless you can find, one thing that, I don't know if you know, you probably do. They cause they live right here, Reggie and, trees. They, so, I think it's the, how something has changed in the circumstances, but they used to go back to Minnesota every year and stay at their family's house in Minneapolis actually St. Paul because they owned a Lake home up North. And so their house would actually be empty in the summertime. So they had, they had, yeah, exactly. So they basically house sat for this family member while they were up at their Lake cabin. So unless you could find a circumstance like that, where somebody had a second home and they were spending their summers at their second Lake home, that might be a good,

 Jay Trimble

  34:09 - 34:45

Good trick. Yeah. I, I've kind of, not soured on Philadelphia. I've just lived it, you know, I've already kind of, yeah. Kind of over it. And I do have plenty of friends there and I had some clients there that I would work for and they all, they're all in their final homes. They all said, okay, we're retiring or not doing any more work. And I'd say, okay, well I'll help you with when you need something fixed. Sure. But, I have no client base in Philadelphia. So it's, it's like, why would be there So I want to go somewhere new and I'm not really sure where, or why

Dawn Fleming

  34:45 - 34:47

The condo, where you could just lock it up,

 Jay Trimble

  34:48 - 35:20

Might be good, come down. But I would like to, I would like to keep doing some of the antiques I would do restoration carpentry. Yeah. I think that'd be a great niche. w when I was younger, I used to do just front doors and people would have front doors and I would slip a card in the way of the slot. I don't even think it's allowed, but it said, you want me to fix your front door basically, And then I'd get a call of 50% of the time. I'd get a call. It's

Dawn Fleming

  35:20 - 35:23

Just great marketing strategy

 Jay Trimble

  35:23 - 36:02

You could obviously see when the door is old or needing help. And I would get a call just so consistently. It was great, a genius. But I did that in Charleston, South Carolina, which is a historic town and there are historic towns all over the US so that's where I want to go and think about that. So I'm going soon. this week I'm going back and jumping in my truck and, just moving around a little bit now, I don't know how long I'll be gone, maybe a week or two, and then back to here because I got to finish up the interior.

Dawn Fleming

  36:03 - 36:08

Yeah. Yeah. So then you think it probably head, head out when the summertime hits

 Jay Trimble

  36:08 - 36:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do it again. hopefully, the rental market will start pumping into East LA this summer, even though summertime is typically not a rental high rental season.

Dawn Fleming

  36:24 - 37:20

I think last year we are booked up for June and July and, did get, initial inquiry for August. But you know, the saving grace for us here as well, shark season. Yeah, of course. And yeah, the revenge travel, they call it, or what did I hear It was, vacation nation or something, something, it was like, it was, it was the the, like the vaccination, they put vacation and vaccinations together. I didn't pronounce it. Right. But yeah, I thought that was cute. Yeah. Vacation nation, something like that. And they want to get out and I feel it I'm like, I want to get out of here too. We live in paradise. It's beautiful. But even that gets old after a while, you just want to change scenery. You know, I'm excited. I'm going to a conference in Orlando in September. Like woo-hoo right. Not a particularly big fan of Orlando and September is not the greatest time, but I'm really excited to go somewhere.

 Jay Trimble

  37:21 - 37:39

it, it is so hot and humid in many parts of the USA. It's no, no more high volume in here. I will say the sun is so intense stuff. it's almost as if the temperature is exactly the same, but the sun beating down on you.

Dawn Fleming

  37:40 - 38:25

But, you know, I mean, that's why we moved here because we, we spent the month of August here when we built our pool, we came down during that construction project and we realized it was cooler here than in Florida in the month of August. Cause you could always go hang out at North beach, under a Palm tree and have those sea breezes, and then you'd go on the water. And the water temperature was cooler than the golf, which gets to be pretty nasty in the summertime. And you know, they have algae blooms and, you know, red tides and bacteria and all that kind of stuff because of the temperature. So that was kind of actually why we decided to go ahead and move here. It was like, well, this is better than, than Florida in the summertime. So a lot of people still do come here, but, but again, the whale sharks are kind of the big draw.

 Jay Trimble

  38:25 - 41:51

Yeah, that's good. I, I'm pretty sure we're, you're right about that. We're going to not have that our low season this year. And hopefully, that will help a lot of them, the townies who have suffered with, income problems. everybody had to tighten their belt and it was not easy. And it's, it's really nice to see, you know, we live close to downtown, so really seeing the return of tourism and, people starting to, to get back to some semblance of normalcy. So, well, one of the things I, when I built this ship, I was kind of happy that no one was really around or had less tourism because when they come back and see this thing, they're going to go, where did that come from

Dawn Fleming

  39:16 - 39:30

that's what it looks like. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Well, this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time. Like I said, especially since you're leaving tomorrow, is there anything I haven't asked you about that, that you'd like to, to know I'm close with her

 Jay Trimble

  39:30 - 39:60

I am pretty good. And just to remember that the name of the house is port to LCA. Lo, I got a new logo from a friend of mine from college, did a great logo and it's of a tall ship with mass and sales. But, my, my ship doesn't have any masks or sales. Well, that's okay. The lightning, just the whole, it's just the whole, well, if you have a link, for your vacation rental, I'd be happy to put that in the show notes too. So I would check that out and look at the pictures and I will do it very soon.

 Jay Trimble

  39:60 - 40:33

I'm, I'm a little bit behind on the promotion. Okay. But, they're coming so they will be ready for, this well, even the photos anyways, really So yeah, the entire project has been photographed and we had, we also had a lot of drone flights, Jim guy, local, drone photographer. And, Sean mezzo is a local photographer and he has worked with me on documenting this whole thing.

Dawn Fleming

  40:33 - 40:54

Oh, fantastic. Sean's great. He did all our photos for our place and is a magician when it comes to real estate and especially thanks for coming over. And we'll have you over for the, breaking of the champagne bottle on the hall. Awesome. All right. Thank you so much.

Audio

  40:59 - 41:45

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