PREDICAMENT A TEST FOR HAPPY CAMPER.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

For Ray Ellsworth, this week's two-year anniversary of the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge Earthquake also marks two years of living in a camper outside his quake-damaged home.

"My daughter tells me that I have the patience of Job," said the 70-year-old Ellsworth. "But I just think you don't get anywhere by getting excited about these things."

Repairs to his home - now estimated at $131,000 - have proceeded at a snail's pace mostly because of construction problems, he said. Workers don't show up or work slowly. Others have made mistakes that had to be redone, including relaying the foundation and rebuilding stairs.

His house also has been burglarized twice even though Ellsworth was posted out front in the weathered camper. Ellsworth caught the first thief walking out his front door with his old samurai sword sticking out of a suitcase full of booty.

The second time, he said, thieves stole a Civil War rifle his brother-in-law gave him before he died.

But Ellsworth appears unfazed by his misfortunes.

"I just consider myself lucky that I am still here," he said.

His neighborhood, a middle-class tract of homes behind Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, was damaged badly in the 1994 quake.

He and his immediate neighbors on Kinbrook Street saw old friends leave one by one. A few doors down, one neighbor razed his house and put the lot on the market. Another neighbor sold his home because his wife was too frightened to return, said the retired chemist.

Ellsworth's family, two grown daughters who live in Las Vegas, are anxious about his living conditions, but he insists his situation is not as bleak as it sounds.

A neighbor loaned him the fully loaded camper, which is parked on the street next to his house. A portable toilet sits in the front of his property. A heater keeps him warm at night. A small television keeps him entertained.

He reads five books at a time and several magazines daily. The local restaurant serves as his kitchen and neighbors offer their showers for his use.

But he admits that things haven't gone as planned. Originally construction was to be completed in a year. Now he won't even predict a move-in date.

"I often wonder if I am being tested to see how I handle it," Ellsworth said, who didn't have earthquake insurance and received a small-business loan. "And then I think the house is just a material thing anyway."

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