Adding an addition to a Manufactured Home

Adding an Addition to a Manufactured Home

A few years ago, our sun room collasped in the middle of the winter.. I wrote about that experience Here...

We were left with the decision of what to do now.. Should we build another sunroom, just use the deck it sat on as a deck or add a new room? 

Our insurance company gave us the names of a few builders in our area they had worked with and the first one we called came over to look the situation. 

He asked how much we wanted to invest, and what we'd really like there.. The insurance was paying for some of the rebuild, but we weren't in a position to put a lot of our own money into it, so he went to work and came up with a plan. 

He suggested he could build the frame, roof it and side it, and we could redo the inside ourselves, putting as much time and money into it as we could afford.. 

I think it was just our good fortune that this happened in the winter when they didn't have a lot of work going on, so he was willing to take on our little project as a way to give his employees some needed work.. 

They tore down the sunroom and removed everything from the room, which wasn't an easy task considering all the snow!

This is a picture of what the deck looked like when we built it. Luckily, we had put in 42" footers because of the cold temps here in Northern Michigan, so the builders decided it was a good base for them to build on. 

 It was amazing how fast the walls went up once they'd cleared all the sunroom debris away.. 

 The next day the roof went up.. This was the noisest day they were here.. It sounded like the roof was going to cave in, but by the end of the day, we had a roof. 

This is what it looked like from the inside at this point. 

The nexxt day they inserted windows and the doors.

Then the siding went up along with the roof shingles on top of an ice protective layer.

Their job was complete, and it was time for us to get started on the inside. 

We decided to go with tongue and groove for the walls and the ceiling... We got a lot of advice from our sons, home depot and the construction company.
We insulated all the walls with rolls of R19 kraft faced insulation purchased at Home Depot. 
The tongue and groove was actually pretty easy to put up once the insulation was in place using a cordless nailer.

There was a leak in the ceiling, which took forever to get the builder to take care of.. That was really the only complaint we had about this whole process.. We had to hold off finishing the ceiling until they finally fixed it.. 

Once it was fixed, we first installed thin insulation board as a vapor shield, then inserted R30 unfaced insulation. A sales person recommended insulation supports, which are just wires you use to hold the insulation in place.. Very inexpensive but made it so much easier to do! 

Once that was done we added the tongue and groove boards to the ceiling, then my husband made the window frames himself out of pine.. 

After that was all done, we stained the walls and ceiling with MinWax Poly Stain in Golden Oak.

We then had to deal with the floor. One of our sons is a carpenter in the South, and on his advice, we first laid a bead of silicone around the bottom of the walls to seal any possible leaks, used liquid nails between all deck boards to seal any air leaks, topped that with a layer of tar paper, topped that with a layer of pink insulation board, topped that with strand board, which I painted, then topped with vinyl tiles and completed it with a room sized carpet. 

We added a ceiling fan and an outdoor light, and we were finally ready to add furniture and enjoy. 

We thought this would probably be a 3 season room, but then started considering a pellet stove after one of our sons installed one and really liked the way it heated their home. 
We ended up buying a King Pellet stove from tractor supply and having it installed by someone local who is a professional, although, lots of people install them on their own. 

There was a bit of a learning curve to start off, but once we got it figured out, we have totally enjoyed this thing to the max! It heats the entire house for about 1/3 what we used to pay for heating/electricity. We buy our pellets from a local pellet factory, so we are able to save even more on the price. We heated the house last year for $600, which is something for Northern Michigan, especially considering the frigid cold temps we saw in 2014!

All in all, having a sunroom come crashing down in the middle of the night was not fun, but we have ended up with a room we love that made it possible for us to add a new heating source to our house.. 

Sometimes the worst things that happen turn out to be a blessing in disguise!

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.