Making Use Of Small Spaces in a Manufactured House

Making Use Of A Small Space

 Since we screened in the back porch, it left us with the original small screened in porch not being used.. We've had two incredibly cold winters here in Northern Michigan, which made it very expensive to heat my little back yard studio, so I haven't used it for the last 2 winters.. But I still needed someplace to paint.. Since this little porch was enclosed around the bottom half, I thought why not turn it into a little art room?

I knew the floor could use insulating as the deck boards were not completely butted up against each other, so I took everything out of the room and used the same process we had used in the new room of running a bead of silicone along the bottom of the walls and running a bead of liquid nails between each deck board to seal the air leaks. 

Once that was dried, I added a layer of tar paper, which we had left over from the room addition, so it didn't cost me anything. 

After that, I laid a layer of pink insulated board, which was also left over so didn't cost me anything. 

I laid OSB board on top of that, which was board we had purchased a year earlier but never used.. 

I screwed each board down with lots of screws to make sure it was very tight and would never lift up.

I replaced the carpet that was already out here and the floor was done. 

I went out to the studio and took apart some of my work benches and had John help me carry them in along with some cabinets.. 

I ordered four very inexpensive bookcases from Walmart, which came with free shipping. The UPS driver brought them right inside the house, so I just had to open the boxes and put them together, didn't even have to lug the boxes from anywhere.. 

I bought some pretty lace valances for the windows and a curtain to hang under my work bench to "hide" things. 
It's hard to get a good picture of this room because it really is very small, about 9'x10', but it's worked out great.. I have lots of work space, lots of storage space and in the summer, I have three walls of screens for plenty of fresh air, not to mention having a great view outside while working. 

I knew this would be a nice place to paint spring through fall, but figured there was no way I'd be able to use it in the winter.. We had made storm windows for it years ago using heavy duty plastic, but they didn't keep all the air out. So I redid a few of them and added foam around the edges for extra sealing power.. After I'd put them in, I added a layer of shrink wrap window film to the inside and shrunk it tight to the windows.. I sealed any gaps I found with foam sealer and then stored all my paints inside the house for the winter.. 

The next time I had a screen order, I took a doctor heater out there and ran it for a couple of hours, just to see how warm it could get.. I was shocked that the room actually heated up, and was so warm I had to turn the heater down.. I've been able to use the room all winter just by heating it with my doctor heater whenever I needed to use the room.. 

It's made a great little work area for me to use all year long, and a way to use a space that was no longer being utilized! 
I love it because it's quiet and private, with a beautiful view! Who could ask for more? 

Den Manufactured Home Redo

The Den

Our little sanctuary

Before I married John, I'd never had a den and never thought much about it.. But he had a den in his home, and he loved it.. I soon understood why.. It was just kind of tucked away, felt very private, cozy and was a great place to relax and watch tv or read..

So having a den in this house was great.. It sure was plain to look at, but it did have pretty french doors and a built in desk, which was nice...I decided to try and recreate the den he had loved so much. 

I started by pulling off those little strips between the sheets of drywall.. I suppose they use those because it's faster and easier than mudding the seams, but boy do I dislike those things.. I took down all the crown molding and marked it on the back so I'd know where it went, then after mudding and sanding the seams, I painted 3 walls a really dark hunter green.. On the tallest wall, I added tongue and groove in the opposite direction as I'd used it in the livingroom. 

John has hung on to many things from his childhood that mean a lot to him, so this wall became a place to put some of those things.. 

I hung tongue and groove on the wall leading into the den, which was an odd shape and took some maneuvering. 

I wanted to decorate it in a fishing theme, since that's what John's old den had been.. I looked for wallpaper borders and found a neat one with a hat, fishing basket and fishing box that matched items John had. I ordered it, and when it came, we were shocked that it also included a little calendar for the month of January, 1944.

John's birthday is in January, and he was born in 1944. 

Needless to say, this border will never be replaced by us. 

Not a lot has changed in this room today. We've added a few things, removed a few things, but it pretty much stays the same. This is John's favorite room and where we spend a lot of time together, just me, John and the furry kids.

The den doors after the latest redo.

One of the knobs on the doors came loose and we weren't able to tighten it again. I never really liked them that much to begin with, so I was happy to replace them.. I found these neat looking knobs and back plates at hobby lobby, at 40% off.. 
This summer we will be tearing out the ugly green carpet and replacing it with the same flooring as the rest of the house. Other than that, I doubt we'll ever change anything else in this room..

With just a little elbow grease, imagination and not that much money, a manufactured home can truly be transformed into a cozy, warm, affordable home.

Manufactured Home Livingroom Take 2

Living Room Redo

Take 2 

It's been 7 years since we first purchased our home and redid all the rooms.. About a year ago I got the itch to start redoing again... We had done the house in a very rustic, kind of lodge look... We live in an area surrounded by woods, so it fit in really well..

My husband loved it, but as a female, I started really wishing it was a little less rustic looking and a little more pretty...  I LOVE shabby chic and would love a house done in pinks and whites, but I'm pretty sure my husband would start tiring of that look before long..

I also love the look of country chic and cottage chic, but I'm not the kind of person that follows someone else's interpretation of what that look has to be...

I pretty much just decorated in Karen Chic... lol... I'm not sure what someone else would call the way I decorate, but does that really matter? Isn't the most important thing about decorating making a house your home, and decorating it so it represents who you are and what you like?

My husband really likes the color of red, and I do, too, so red became my pink, and I feel good about the end result, especially knowing my husband doesn't have to live in a house that looks too girly for his masculine self , and I don't have to live in a house that's too manly for my feminine self...

We're both happy with the results, and for very little money, our living room has a fresh new look.

 I didn't really do a lot of extra work in this room this time around. 

I painted one wall a country white. I love the look of tongue and groove painted such a creamy ivory white color.. but to be honest, it was hard painting that one wall, which took a lot of coats and a lot of brush work in the seams, so I decided to leave the other walls their natural wood color for now... 

This is a TV stand one of our sons made by hand years ago, so it  has
a special meaning. We don't use a TV in the livingroom,
but still wanted to use it, so I painted it red and turned it
into a book shelf. 

I painted the end table and coffee table the same country white as the wall (which also matches the fireplace). 

I did all the painting after we ripped up the carpet and before laying the new floor. I liked not having to protect the floor from paint!

When done painting the furniture, we moved everything out of the living room so we could start laying the flooring.. 

I have a page about laying the floor HERE.

We used Style Selections Luxury Plank Flooring from Lowes.. The page highlighted above shows exactly how we laid it, the only difference with this floor is that I did a quick layer of paint on the sub flooring the night before. I just used a spare gallon of paint we had and rolled it on.. It created a nicer surface for laying the flooring.

I didn't get pictures taken of this floor before we put everything back, but you can see part of it in this picture... 

I love these floors! What a difference it makes! We still have some of the old ugly green carpet to pull up in the bedrooms and den. I'll be glad to see it go when we finally get to it. 

I took down the lodge looking items over the fireplace and replaced it with a few family heirlooms, country accents, greenier and silk floweres for a country look. 

I bought SureFit slipcovers to give the furniture a new look. Our furniture is still in good condition and comfortable, so we didn't really want to replace it. Slip covers let us create a new look without having to replace it. 

I actually ended up buying two different sets because I couldn't decide between them. I got them on a super sale, so I ended up getting both sets for just a little more than the original price of one set.. cha ching!

I made some simple curtain panels from red gingham home decor fabric I ordered from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon and paired them with lace panels I already had hanging. 

We bought a couple of new lamps and tried out the other set of slip covers..The living room is finally done. 

I put this on another page, but thought I'd explain it again.. This fireplace was just a very plain, kind of ugly fireplace when we bought the house. I used scrap lumber to create the fireplace surround, added a few decorative wooden accents from Home Depot, and painted the wood pieces and mantel country white.. I really had no idea how to do this, but it really was very simple and improved the look of the fireplace 100%.

The fireplace does work, and had been used by the previous owners, but we didn't really want to deal with the wood and ash, so we bought a Dimplex fireplace insert. It puts out a great deal of heat, looks pretty darn realistic and doesn't cost that much to run...
It makes the room feel very cozy, too..  

 I really like these wooden signs and I found them at a discount store for only a couple of bucks each....






I bought this wreath from Hobby Lobby and decorated it with silk flowers purchased from Dollar Daze. 

Good words to live by....

I bought the greenery and flowers from hobby lobby, the candlesticks and clock are family heirlooms and my son sent me all of the beautiful gold trimmed pine cone vases, candles and candle holders from North Carolina. 

In an alcove between the kitchen and bedroom are these built in cabinets..
They were in good condition, but when I painted the kitchen cabinets, I painted these, too. I removed that dang wall strip, mudded it and painted the walls, too.

 It took some doing to get those etched glass inserts out, and when I took this picture, I was still working on the 3rd one.. Those things were glued in there good! 
This is a great place to put family pictures and nic nacks..

The last redo, I painted all the cabinets white and the counter tops red. I added lace curtain inserts and moved the nic nacks to curio cabinet. 

My son gave me a set of Precious Moments "In The Beginning" Series, 
so beautiful! I wanted them where I could see them everyday, so this area was perfect. 

Living room redo...

Livingroom Redo

The livingroom was painted white, had those little strips they put between the sheets of drywall and the fireplace was pretty blah.. The glass front had been broken and it looked like someone had started a fire and let it get out of control. There was soot running up the front of the fireplace and onto the ceiling.. I use dilluted TSP and scrubbed as much soot away as I could before I got started. 

A lot of Manufactured homes have little strips of wood for molding, but luckily, this one had pretty wood crown molding. I removed all of it, marking where it belonged on the backside and started ripping the little strips off the walls.. Once I had removed the crown molding, I painted the ceiling, which made a huge difference.

I decided to do the walls in this room with tongue and groove boards to give it a nice rustic look.

We already had an air compressor, so my husband decided to buy a Brad Nailer from Home Depot to make putting the wood up go much quicker.. He showed me how to use it and I went to town!! That thing was a blast to use and boy did it make the work go fast.. 

From white to wood in no time at all...

Once the wood was up, I replaced the crown molding, which was pretty easy. 

Something had to be done to spruce up that fireplace.. I tried and tried and tried to remove the mantle but it was not going to budge, so I worked around it.. I added a piece of wood across the front, 12" pieces of wood running down the front and sides and crown molding along the edge of the old mantel.. I added some decorative wood pieces to the front panel and then painted the whole thing a nice cream color.  I used a lot of scrap pieces of wood for this project so it really didn't cost much at all.. I bought the crown molding and decorative wood pieces at Home Depot.. For about $25, I completely changed the look of the fireplace..

Even though this was a working fireplace, we decided to add a Dimplex electric fireplace insert instead of burning wood in it.. We're glad we did.. It cost about $250, but was well worth the money. It warms the room quickly, runs on little electricity and looks very realistic, all without the mess of wood, soot or ash cleanup.. 

Along the center of the livingroom is the seam most manufactured homes have and a pretty ugly looking ceiling fan.. I removed the bottom row of molding and painted the seam "straw", which matches the wood perfectly. I found a high end ceiling fan at Lowes on clearance and my husband and I put it up.. I think we'd both agree this was the hardest thing we did in the house... It's a heavy fan and having to stand on ladders while holding this thing up while one of us connected the wires and attached it to the ceiling was a nightmare... We were both so tired and aching from holding our arms up that long that all we could do was laugh about how seriously stupid we must look. It probably took a couple of hours, but seemed like an entire day to get that thing up there, but it sure is much easier on the eyes... 

This is the opposite side of the livingroom, also done in the tongue and groove wood.. 

Ok...This really doesn't show much of the livingroom, but just had to include a picture of two of our beautiful granddaughters...

Update:

It's now been 7 years and I have the redo bug again... I've been redoing each room little by little over the past year and the livingroom is one of the last rooms to get done.. 

I'll be adding new pictures of the latest redo very soon...

Stay tuned!