They could have had a brand new, clean, safe house. All they had to do was nothing. Just sit back, agree to what the grownups tell them, and get a free house for being stupid and burning down the old one. And they* fought it. They kicked and screamed and said NO! They were essentially handed a winning lottery ticket, but tore it up because they wanted more.
Maybe. Unless people have sources they're withholding for now, we're still not certain what sort of settlement was being offered, and for all we know it might not have been enough to put them in a new house. I suspect they were offered something less than the cost to rebuild 14BLC but still more than sufficient when added to the land value sale of 14BLC to put them in a nice, little two bedroom somewhere nearby, but Barb refused anything less than the full restoration of 14BLC (because it's not just where she put the hoard, it's part of it). Or it could have been just $20k and nine months free rent. Until we get real details its all just speculation. The only thing certain is Barb has not handled things well. Or sanely.
Considering they still own the property, they might just drop a trailer next to the burned down husk of the house.
Depending on permits and zoning. Really, that's probably what they should have done from the start if they absolutely had to keep their old address: level the house, pour a slab, and drop in a double wide. And modern manufactured homes can actually be pretty nice; certainly nicer than 14BLC was even before they torched it.
Nah, they might not have the space in their new place. Storage unit.
I think it's pretty much guaranteed they won't have space wherever they wash up. And rental storage units are the obvious, stupid, money wasting solution (and we're talking a LOT of money). In fact I would not be at all surprised if they don't have a few storage units already, possibly from even before the fire. Hoarders do that sort of thing, and I'm not convinced all the barbage they've pulled from 14BLC would fit in their current rental. The dumpster was the more economical long term solution, but that would have made sense and Barb will have no truck with it.
Speaking of which, I
really feel sorry for their landlord right now, because he's going to have to deal with whatever they leave behind for lack of storage. And whatever they abandon will be pretty horrifying indeed for Barb not to take it with her. Cleaning up after people like the Chandlers is never pleasant.
Of course there is the faint possibility he might find himself in possession of a lot of barely used new legos as well, so here's hoping for that silver lining.
Barb might also attempt to sue State Farm for being trolling mean and making her homeless. It can't see her going down without a fight.
I gather she's already suing State Farm.
In the end, if they don't get arrested for stupidity, they'll probably get a small apartment or trailer. And it will probably be Chris's home for the rest of his free life.
If it isn't a trailer it will probably be a string of increasingly crappy apartments. The Chandlers are undoubtedly lousy tenants, and I don't see them being able to maintain a lease once their landlord sees how they live. Trailer homes can actually be pretty inexpensive; sometimes as little as a few thousand for used ones. The real expense there comes from slab rental in a trailer home community, but that's something the Chandlers could probably manage indefinitely. Even the Chandlers would be hard pressed to find a way to permanently damage a trailer slab.
I wonder if this has anything to do with Chris updating his OK Cupid profile. Things are getting down to the wire and he needs a Sweetheart from the Ground-up to provide him shelter.
You might have something there. It certainly fits his M.O. of looking for someone to solve his problems instead of trying to solve then himself. Even if it's just coincidence in this case, we can probably expect him to do increasingly desperate things of that nature as the move out day approaches. Or maybe he'll just remain willfully oblivious before making an 11th hour call to Rocky.
I'm willing to bet that over the past 6 months, they've spent enough money on a storage unit for their old ruined furniture that they could have just purchased a nice new set of furniture.
So it's confirmed they do have a storage unit already? Idiots. Leave it to the Chandlers to squander a perfectly good dumpster.
Ikea is often cheaper than storage units and definitely cheaper than furniture moving. Maybe that's a sad commentary on our disposable society as a whole, but for the Chandler's specifically it's something they really should have thought about.
IIRC, one brother also booby-trapped the place so the other couldn't leave. I now have the image of

setting up traps in the Hoard to "protect mah treshurs!"
That's what the dogs and cats were for: setting "traps".
I'm sure this is just a typo, but it's become my new favorite description of the barb horde.
Actually Alec coined "Barbage" IIRC. And it's so damned apropos I make a point to use it whenever called for (I've actually found myself saying it IRL a few times too - even had to explain it once).
Has anyone figured out what has changed yet?
Demolition waste in the dumpster etc. instead of just more barbage. And that's significant. Read the thread.
I kinda want to go in there, just to see what's inside, like an urban exploration project.
If skyraider's source is what I think it is, interior shots are probably forthcoming eventually.