first home, mobile that is.

[mud2005]

haven't posted in a while cause I've been moving

well I've lived in crap holes for the past 10 years so I could save some $$. anyway, I decided to buy a mobile home.

I know "trailer trash alert" there are many stereotypes around mobile home living and most are negative.

I chose this route for a few reasons.

cheap, space rent here is cheaper than ANY apartment I could find in Eugene. and when I say any I'm including quads w/ a shared bath/kitchen (yuck) and space rent includes water sewer and garbage

location, it's just out of town which is awesome.it's also right across the road from a lake and park which I can see from my living room window, there are 2 HUGE trees in the yard, and I got and end space so only 1 neighbor behind me.

anyway, I started this thread cause I wanted to talk about mobile home repairs and remodeling, but I just like to talk about myself I guess

so whats the best cheap floor covering??? I'm looking at those carpet squares that you can just stick to the floor. anyone tried those? I need to replace some 40 year old shag and I don't have much $$ left after moving here.

here's a couple pics, check out that 70's shag it's hard to see in the pic how long it is. if I drop my car keys they get lost in the shag j/k. the stove and sink are green the counter is yellow.... I've got some work to do any tips on remodeling are appreciated. I have no idea what I'm doing.

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[Ypedal]

Congrats man !!.. yeah. it's a mobile but damit.. it's yours !!

Paying rent is a total waste, i did it for 7 years before getting my house and cringe at the 10,000's of $$$ i threw away.... even if you have to pain interest on a mortgage at least some of it comes back to you !

Shag carpet.. has got to go.. yes sir... :lol: Check into peel and stick floor tiles, carpets are just dust magnets, the tiles are not that bad these days and they do last well, i put a bunch down when i first moved in, all i could afford, and 7 years later it's still there looking " Ok " ..

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=peel%20and%20stick%20floor%20tiles&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1003&bih=592

click flooring is pretty cheap these days too, but you need a really flat floor or you will curse trying to get it to click... leveling compound is not so great and adds to the expense.. unless that sucker is solid.. and flat... i would avoid click..

 

[mud2005]

hmmm, I could do the peel and stick tiles and then throw down some area rugs and I bet it would look a lot better. thanks

I wonder if they make them in woodgrain patten... off to homedepot wesite

 

[mud2005]

$.88 a square foot! http://www.lowes.com/pd_186792-61-A3210051_0__?productId=3018738&Ntt=vinyl+tile&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dvinyl%2Btile&facetInfo=
I think we have a winner

 

[HoverBoarder]

anyway, I started this thread cause I wanted to talk about mobile home repairs and remodeling, but I just like to talk about myself I guess

so whats the best cheap floor covering??? I'm looking at those carpet squares that you can just stick to the floor. anyone tried those? I need to replace some 40 year old shag and I don't have much $$ left after moving here.

here's a couple pics, check out that 70's shag it's hard to see in the pic how long it is. if I drop my car keys they get lost in the shag j/k. the stove and sink are green the counter is yellow.... I've got some work to do any tips on remodeling are appreciated. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Hey Mud,

Congratulations on your new home. I think you made a good choice as long as you can handle your mortgage, and it sounds like a great location. Eugene is a fun and easy place to bike around, and it is nice to get a good location that will give you will have an easy commute. It sounds like you got a much better place than what you could get for comparable rentals, plus, like Ypedel says, it's yours.

I have helped my friends with some basic remodeling, and I don't have a lot of experience, but I thought I would just add in my 2 cents...


In my opinion, the very first thing I would do (and maybe this is because my dad is an electrical engineer) is to change the light fixtures. This is a relatively cheap and easy thing to do, and if you get some lights that do not hang down as much, than it would really open up the room.

Here are some good light fixture options I found while doing a quick search on Craigslist

Here are some $30 bathroom light fixtures


As far as flooring, I would either go with carpet, wood, or peel and stick tiling. The tile carpeting looked easy to install, but it was not as cost efficient as I was expecting at about $3 per sq foot as far as I could find.

This carpet from a company in Eugene looks to be cheaper than the tile carpeting that I looked at $0.95 per sq foot for the carpet plus $1.05 per sq foot for installation

For Bamboo and wood, the click-clack, or the wood that snaps together is very easy to install:

Here is 140 sq ft of easy install bamboo flooring on Craigslist for $275 OBO which is about $0.50 per sq ft

Here's some pretty nice and easy to install wood looking laminate at $0.69 per sq ft

Good luck and enjoy your new place.

 

[Ypedal]

the stove and sink are green the counter is yellow....

My bathroom sink and tub were PINK ..

The short term solution was to pain the damn things, seriously, you can paint enamel stuff, they sell 2 part A+B mix up paint stuff you apply in 2 coats ( only mix halt at a time, because you have to use it once you mix it.. ) and it comes out pretty good...

It's always better to do it right, but when every penny counts and you have to do something " now " .. and temporarily, there are all sorts of options out there ! :wink:

 

[neptronix]

Congrats, mud.
I'd buy a mobile home too. Never have been one to go big or go home myself... a lot of the people who have done so no longer have homes thanks to subprime lends

GL with the new place

 

[mud2005]

thanks guys, lots of good info

my bud back in NY had an all pink bathroom it was brutal

did I mention I don't have a mortgage... I got this place for cheap after months of looking. I bought the home w/ cash and just have to pay space rent.

honestly though it was 10+ years of saving like scrooge mcduck.

I sold all my electric bike building stuff to get this place. that includes the astro 3210 build, my lathe and milling machine and everything else I could sell. it was worth it though. I got most of money back on those machines anyway. It was the one thing I was spending $ on and it was totally worth it

 

[etard]

Nice singlewide mud! Looks bigger than mine, my first mobile was an old 11 x 35 and I loved the fact that it was mine. The nieghborhood wasn't bad at all, and we all watched out for each other, so never bothered to lock my doors, one of the advantages to being able to hear EVERYTHING. So watch what you say, too loud and they will hear it.

Flooring suggestion, I have seen the peel and stick that looks like laminate flooring, I think that would be perfect for your floor. I wouldn't invest too much money into it, cuz the value won't go up accordingly, at least not like a house would. I would suggest looking at all your plumbing fixtures and the water heater and even flash a light in the crawl space to make sure you don't have any water leaks, the materials they use I'm those mobiles just turns to cardboard if they get wet.

Mobile living sure is cheap, I paid about $350 a month including utilities, the only way to beat that is to move to Mexico. :lol:

 

[dogman dan]

The good news is that trailer looks old enough to be better built than the 1983 one I owned for 18 years. Better than renting in several ways, at least you can do what you want inside with paint and carpent etc. Plumbing in older MH's is suprisingly good, though the actual fixtures can be pretty lame.

Look at Home Depot or Lowes etc, for remnant flooring for the cheapest deal. When I remodeled our trailer to sell to mother in law, we got a good deal on carpet, that came in short pieces. I thnk the rolls were 12x 12, and two of them did two rooms. Over the 18 years there though, the best rug for our dog kennel lifestyle was short nap carpet like you see in restaraunts and stores. No pad, it glues down. Given the way a trailer is built, you should be able to get away with it, and cover your mistakes with furniture. Glue down will be easier than stretched carpet with pad to install.

Glue down squares don't work as good in trailers because the floor is always more lumpy than in a regular house. But if it's not to uneven, then the self stick squares can work good. For a dirt cheap, temporary solution, yank that nasty rug and just paint the floor. Prime it first, then get some semi gloss in a tan color or something like that.

Looks like a decent space. In some ways, better than owning some land in a real trailer trash slum. You know, dirt road, 5 cars in front of every house, one car at most per house runs. Me for a neighbor with 4 bloodhounds.....

 

[Harold in CR]

Looks NICE. Lived in them when we first got married. First was very used. It was steel outside. Painted it using 2 sections of ladder like a lean-to. Draped a tarp and painted from underneath.

Second bought brand new.

First thing I would do is, check the roof. Even though it's probably rolled sheet steel, it needs to be protected. Get the Fiber reinforced 5 Gallon buckets from the Depot, and a special brush on a handle. Wash with soapy water, and when dry, smear that stuff on.

Now that you are weather tight, watch CL or other places for used appliances.

Applying stick-on plastic laminate on the counter top is not all that difficult. Just sand the stuff really well, and use a good clean rag to wipe clean. Cut to fit and carefully lay it on. You can be walked through that VERY easily. DO NOT remove the old Laminate.

I second the look under every place that water could have spilled. Under sinks and toilets. Water heater, also. IF you find problems, they must be repaired, before you step through the floor. It's probably not plywood, but, particle board.

Decorating is easy to suit your taste. Looks like a VERY nice location. Congrats on your first. Paid for is MANY thumbs up. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[Ykick]

We own a 1980 14' x 60' Fleetwood in a nice city owned So CA park - about 1 mile from ocean next to a quiet nature park. We bought the unit outright and my space rent is much less than average area home property taxes and insurance on a full house. Beats hell outta Condo too!

In areas without harsh freezing temps and/or Tornados, Mobile Homes can be very efficient, pleasant and affordable homes. In fact, in earthquake country I would rather own a MH because it doesn't have a foundation to crack and probably the worst that can happen is that I might need to re-level in the event of a severe shaker. My home actually sits on some earthquake rated jacks which are supposed to handle a fairly big one.

Our remodeling consisted of 1' ceramic tile for the kitchen, hall and bathroom floors. Roll carpet in living room and bedrooms. Many homes (not just mobiles) from the late 70's early 80's used those dreadful Aluminum AC outlets so that was something I had to replace throughout my home.

One bitch is learning to hang things like pictures and stuff from wood paneling - quite different from sheetrock to be sure.

Congrats and welcome to the good life!

 

[torker]

Congrats ! Both the homes I've owned have the click wood lookalike flooring.. 88 cents a ft. and easy. Only thing is it will raise that area a little over a 1/4 inch so sometimes hard to make a transition to another room. I ended up making my own thresholds out of 3 inch wide oak with a beltsander

Have fun. Time to have a party and fire up the grill.

 

[auraslip]

Lol @ the shag. I have the same color shag in my mobile.

Just a heads up on the plumbing: a lot of mobile homes from that era use "law suit" pipe in the plumbing. It's called "lawsuit" pipe because it's known to crack, leak, and burst and their has been many class action lawsuits and settlements involving it. The worst is slow leaks that you don't notice until you have breathing problems from mold or your floor boards start to give.

It's actually fairly easy (and inexpensive) to re-plumb trailers though, if the plumbing hasn't leaked every where and made a nasty mess down underneath it! I'd keep a close eye for leaks, or replace it.

 

[gogo]

I like to think of the smaller "Park" models as mobile because they leave the axles on those and yours as a "manufactured home". If it has aluminum wiring, educate yourself about the issues that come with it.

 

[mud2005]

I just looked under the living room carpet and it looks like an old vinyl floor. its ugly as hell, but at least I can pull the carpet, it smells funky.

I second the look under every place that water could have spilled. Under sinks and toilets. Water heater, also. IF you find problems, they must be repaired, before you step through the floor. It's probably not plywood, but, particle board.

when I bought the place there was a slow drip under the bathroom sink that killed the floor in there. I know it needs to be replaced, but I hope it holds out for a while cause that's going to be a big project.

If it has aluminum wiring, educate yourself about the issues that come with it.

It has copper wiring, but I do need to replace all the plugs cause they suck.

water was not very hot so today I looked at the water heater and found it set very low so I turned it up to 130f degrees and the water still wasn't very hot. I took a shower and it ran out in like 5 minutes.
I have a feeling I need to replace the elements in the water heater. I also need to put a new door on, the access is on the outside of the house and someone has just covered it with a sheet of plastic and screwed it in.
and I have to replace the valve thats shuts the water off to the house cause it doesn't fully close and its really hard to turn.
good thing I like these kinds of projects cause I have a ton.

 

[gogo]

water was not very hot so today I looked at the water heater and found it set very low so I turned it up to 130f degrees and the water still wasn't very hot. I took a shower and it ran out in like 5 minutes.
I have a feeling I need to replace the elements in the water heater. I also need to put a new door on, the access is on the outside of the house and someone has just covered it with a sheet of plastic and screwed it in.
and I have to replace the valve thats shuts the water off to the house cause it doesn't fully close and its really hard to turn.
good thing I like these kinds of projects cause I have a ton.

I'm not a plumber but I think its the electric water heaters that suffer the most when not drained periodically to expel sediment.

 

[Ypedal]

if your water has alot of calcium the tank is likely more than half full of rock..... covering the elements inside in the process.. best to replace the whole tank, find out if it's rented as in some cases the utility company will replace it for free..

 

[mud2005]

I have well water here and the sinks and tub have calcium buildup so I'm guessing your right and the tank is probably nasty inside w/ calcium.
going to look at having a new one installed by a professional.

 

[REdiculous]

Getting a new element(s) should be a lot cheaper and it's not hard to DIY.

 

[Ypedal]

Getting a new element(s) should be a lot cheaper and it's not hard to DIY.

But how do you get the 50% volume of calcium out of the tank ? :lol:

 

[REdiculous]

But how do you get the 50% volume of calcium out of the tank ?

I doubt it's so bad that CLR wouldn't work. :wink:

 

[Gordo]

Congratulations Mud;
From your pictures it looks a little dark inside. An off white paint makes a huge difference. Another trick is narrow strips of mirror on the window openings. This sends light all through the room. Most hot water tanks have 2 elements. When the bottom one goes, you run out of hot water more quickly. Turn the power off, lift the wires and check the resistance of the element.
There are some "self leveling compounds" which work very well for prepping floors. A lot of mobile home floors are chipboard on 20" centers which is the shits no matter what covering you use. Your peel and stick is best for quick cheap fix. Lots of good advice on doing the roof first and then looking for water leaks from plumbing. Watch the sale lists for tin sheds if allowed in your park. Extra room is always needed.
I just finished tearing out all the carpet in this place, which was not very old. No more sneezing and coughing.

 

[amberwolf]

But how do you get the 50% volume of calcium out of the tank ? :lol:

Bore hole in bottom, insert old LiPo. Overcharge LiPo, short out leads. :lol:

 

[neptronix]

:lol: yup, hobbyking makes themselves some fine hillbilly C4..