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NOTE: These characters and the Autumn Acres Mobile Court are fictional, and any resemblance to real individuals or organizations is strictly coincidental.
Dave, 37, and his girlfriend Lacee, 32, live in a 50' single-wide trailer (700 ft^2 or about 70 m^2), 1980's-vintage, in the Autumn Acres Court on the outskirts of a major Upper Midwestern metropolitan area. They have three children living in the home; Dallas, 17, Dave's son with his ex-wife, Mandi, 13, Dave's daughter with another previous girlfriend, and Emily, 2, Lacee and Dave's daughter. Dave receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for arthritis and performs self-employed sheetrock and roofing work; he does not pay taxes on the approximately $10,000 - $15,000 he receives a year for the work as he is not registered nor licensed. Dave's employment prospects, should he want to work formally, are bleak; he has four DUIs (drink driving) and two additional felonies (second-degree burglary in '01 and credit card fraud in '07). Lacee works as a part-time waitress at Bono's Cafe and off the books cleaning rooms at a local motel; Dallas also receives disability for ADD and PTSD, although he did dabble with working at McDonalds for two months before being fired for mouthing off to a manager. Dallas is in the high-risk program at the local high school; he has had attendance problems all his life. Mandi is actually doing pretty well, and will be the first to fly in her family over Christmas school break when she will go to a youth conference in Washington, D.C.
The trailer has two bedrooms; Dave and Lacee sleep in one, Emily and Mandi in another, and Dallas sleeps on a convertible sofa-bed in the living room, as well as a bathroom and kitchen. The family has three television sets: a 60” LCD TV purchased in 2011 with Lacee's tax rebate, quite large for the twelve-foot wide living room; a 19” CRT in the girls' room, and a 42” LCD TV in the parents' room, also purchased in 2008 with a tax rebate. All are connected to Dish Network with America's Everything Package. Dave and Dallas enjoy watching action movies on the premium movie channels; Dave sees it as his one luxury in his hard life. Lacee and Mandi share a favorite program, Teen Mom on MTV. The family recently purchased their first computer, a laptop on-sale at Wal-Mart for $299. They use their neighbors' unsecured Wi-Fi for internet access. They have four phone numbers between them, all on pre-paid feature phones. Not all of them are always in operation, though.
The family never goes on vacations save visiting their relatives 100 miles away and once each to Wisconsin Dells and the Six Flags amusement park.
Dave has a '05 Dodge Ram truck, Lacee a '95 Chevrolet Suburban, and Dallas a '98 Chevrolet Impala. Dave, Lacee, and Dallas smoke; Dave used to be an alcoholic, but has been sober for ten months after a relapse. Lacee also was once into prescription drug abuse and dabbled with meth, but she completed court-ordered drug rehabilitation three years ago as a condition of entry into an Adult Diversion Program after she was arrested on felony theft charges.
Because of their hectic, unpredictable schedule, the family rarely eats together, although they have tried to make a regular Friday dinner out of a local pizza chain's $4.99 family-sized pizza sale. Dave often grills up steaks on his outdoor Weber grill in the summer. Lacee often eats what is left over from Bono's Cafe; Mandi cooks frozen pizzas, Hot Pockets, and pop-tarts for her and Emily, although her nutrition lessons in Family Consumer Science prompted her to demand that her mother buy fresh vegetables and fruits from the grocery store, which she now does. Lacee and Mandi often attend the New Life Congregation's Praise and Worship services on Sunday. The family is generally indifferent in political matters, though Lacee is determined to vote for Obama this year.
Is Mandi male or female? Seems pretty stereotyped to me but I'm not sure exactly what you are going for with your story line so with the rest of the story it may be just fine. With nothing more than this it screams typical, low wage earners without much education and odd priorities according to what a lot of society considers normal. I'm just not sure what you are looking for so cannot really give what I consider a well informed answer.
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