lorihadams
Always doing laundry
There has been some discussion here and there about remodeling a doublewide and if it is worth it. As some of you know, my husband and I were very blessed recently by my granny. She was forced by her siblings to sell the property that was owned jointly by them and had to do something with her 2005 doublewide. Unable to sell it for almost a year and forced to move it by developers she chose to give it to my husband and I. We were also blessed by my FIL who gave us 2.5 acres off of his family land so that we could accept her offer.
Based on the value of the land and the home we were able to get a loan from the bank of $65,000. We had to install well and septic, a driveway, dig footers for the house, move the house and existing deck around 200 miles to the new location, build a back deck of some sort so it would pass inspection for occupancy, permits, HVAC, plumbing and water lines, new electric lines and transformer, and other various expenses. So far we have spent about $52,000 and that includes the purchase of a trailer to haul trash, hay, animals, etc. so that we would not have to rely on others to borrow theirs. We would have had to have one eventually with the move to the new farm.
We also chose to do some remodeling to make the house our own. Here are the things we have done so far and still have to finish some things but we have since moved in.
*paint all the rooms except laundry room (yes, you can paint a doublewide!)
*install laminate flooring in all rooms except bathrooms/laundry room
*build a 12x20 back deck
*install fencing for a new bird run and rabbit run
*paint kitchen cabinets
*remove existing fireplace and rebuild it with glass tile and new surround (still needs trim attached and paint)
*new baseboards for living room, kitchen and master BR
*new plywood, tar paper, and stone for underpenning of house
*ceiling fans for all 3 bedrooms (they only had light fixtures)
Is it worth it to remodel a mobil home? Well, that depends on what you do and how long you choose to live there.
For us it was worth it because we are hoping to pay off the loan from the sale of our other home completely or relatively closely. We should be able to clear $40-$50k on the sale of our old home and that is listing it $20k cheaper than 3 other comparable homes in the area to hopefully sell quicker.
When all is said and done our mortgage should be $10-20 at the most and hopefully less. We have enough left over from our loan to cover the new loan payments and utility bills for at least a year with some left over.
We wanted to rip out the old carpet because my granny's dog and my mom's 2 dogs had soiled it in several rooms and we knew it needed to go. We chose to spend the extra money on laminate to avoid all the issues that go along with carpet and I am glad we did.
The old walls were all off white with brown stripes throughout and were not the worse I have seen in a mobile home but they just looked dingy to us so we painted them and the cabinets didn't go with the flooring we picked out and made the kitchen look dark so we painted them white to brighten things up.
Cosmetically speaking, anyone could do what we did with minimal cost and we installed everything ourselves. We probably spent $600 on primer (got enough to do this house and some of the rooms at the old house), paint, deck stain, and supplies.
The flooring was about $2000 but that was with the moisture barrier (the padding was attached) glue for the boards in the kitchen, new baseboard trim pieces and transition strips, and installation kit. We got it for $1.49 a sq ft. from lumber liquidators.
We hope to be debt free in 2-5 years as a result of this move.
Based on the value of the land and the home we were able to get a loan from the bank of $65,000. We had to install well and septic, a driveway, dig footers for the house, move the house and existing deck around 200 miles to the new location, build a back deck of some sort so it would pass inspection for occupancy, permits, HVAC, plumbing and water lines, new electric lines and transformer, and other various expenses. So far we have spent about $52,000 and that includes the purchase of a trailer to haul trash, hay, animals, etc. so that we would not have to rely on others to borrow theirs. We would have had to have one eventually with the move to the new farm.
We also chose to do some remodeling to make the house our own. Here are the things we have done so far and still have to finish some things but we have since moved in.
*paint all the rooms except laundry room (yes, you can paint a doublewide!)
*install laminate flooring in all rooms except bathrooms/laundry room
*build a 12x20 back deck
*install fencing for a new bird run and rabbit run
*paint kitchen cabinets
*remove existing fireplace and rebuild it with glass tile and new surround (still needs trim attached and paint)
*new baseboards for living room, kitchen and master BR
*new plywood, tar paper, and stone for underpenning of house
*ceiling fans for all 3 bedrooms (they only had light fixtures)
Is it worth it to remodel a mobil home? Well, that depends on what you do and how long you choose to live there.
For us it was worth it because we are hoping to pay off the loan from the sale of our other home completely or relatively closely. We should be able to clear $40-$50k on the sale of our old home and that is listing it $20k cheaper than 3 other comparable homes in the area to hopefully sell quicker.
When all is said and done our mortgage should be $10-20 at the most and hopefully less. We have enough left over from our loan to cover the new loan payments and utility bills for at least a year with some left over.
We wanted to rip out the old carpet because my granny's dog and my mom's 2 dogs had soiled it in several rooms and we knew it needed to go. We chose to spend the extra money on laminate to avoid all the issues that go along with carpet and I am glad we did.
The old walls were all off white with brown stripes throughout and were not the worse I have seen in a mobile home but they just looked dingy to us so we painted them and the cabinets didn't go with the flooring we picked out and made the kitchen look dark so we painted them white to brighten things up.
Cosmetically speaking, anyone could do what we did with minimal cost and we installed everything ourselves. We probably spent $600 on primer (got enough to do this house and some of the rooms at the old house), paint, deck stain, and supplies.
The flooring was about $2000 but that was with the moisture barrier (the padding was attached) glue for the boards in the kitchen, new baseboard trim pieces and transition strips, and installation kit. We got it for $1.49 a sq ft. from lumber liquidators.
We hope to be debt free in 2-5 years as a result of this move.
my poor husband.....
