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....of construction came today with the completion of the laminate kitchen floor and trimming. The home is officially finished! It took a year and a half (working at a fairly leisurely pace), as I bought the home in December of 2007 and had it moved to my land. For those that haven't seen the before pics or know the background.... The home is a 1996 Atlantic, bought from a bank (it was a repo). Structurally, the home was in excellent condition, no roof, floor, ceiling, underbelly, plumbing, HVAC, or other sordid problems. It's main problem was the insanely scummy people that lived in it before. These people were by far some of the most foul people I've ever seen, and I've never met them, I just saw how they lived, and that was more than enough (these people are what coin the expression "trailer trash"). Needless to say, the first time my fiance and I saw it (pre-buy inspection), we had to cover our noses and mouths with cloth due to the smell (heavy smokers mixed with animal smells (they had 2 great danes living with them that they rarely let out), mouse poop, roaches, rotten food.....need I continue?!? I'm sure you get the idea.....

The home had been vacant for 8 months before I bought it, through the winter with no heat, this killed off all the roaches. once I moved it, we completely gutted the inside except the sheetrock (some was removed, but most was just repaired and refinished). When removing the old carpet and cabinetry, we had to wear respirators and rubber gloves. I then doused it with Diaznon 4E (commercial grade bug killer) to make sure any hitch hikers that came with it after being moved were killed. I never did see any mice (I set traps and put out baits, none were ever bothered), but I did see signs of previous rodents....

All the subflooring was replaced with 3/4 plywood, all fixtures, cabinets, toilets, sinks, shower in the master bath, and anything else that these nasty people would have used was trashed, including all appliances.

Anyway, I'm being long-winded.....here's some pics. All that's left is new appliances and its time to move!!

Kitchen:










Laundry room






Living room






Hall


Computer room






master bedroom






Master Bathroom








Small bathroom (a13yr old girl picked the shower curtain)


Spare Bedroom (again, colors picked by a 13yr old girl)






Ok, there was your guided tour of my slave labor the last 1.5yrs. I went with top-notch products when remodeling this, as I'll be living in this for a good decade while I build my stickbuilt house (building it slow, paying cash as I build, I hate debt), and the trailer is paid for, making me very recession-proof. When the stickbuilt is finished, I'll probably just give this away to someone who wants to move it, or maybe move it to a park and rent it out.....but that's a long way from now... It was amazing how cheesy and shoddy some of the things were in this home, I've never lived in one of these, so I never paid attention to some of the corners they cut making them. After all this, it doesn't seem so 'trailerish' now. Small things made such a difference, like high-end carpet and padding, laminate floors, all trim replaced with real wood moldings, oak cabinetry and full size appliances, and the list could go on.... We looked at a lot of new ones, and they weren't even this well built.......I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but this came out FAR better than either of us imaged it ever would, I guess I'm just giving myself a pat on the back, I'm proud of the outcome... We're excited to move into it!!

Thanks for all the tidbits and guidelines so many of you shared, it helped me in a lot of ways through this project, and I wanted to say thanks for all the help!

Yo top

WOW! ..........Nice looking home.

Harry

Nice job!

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the pics! Good job, love the clean new look. Can't wait till the day I say we are completely done...seems it's one project after another.

Yesterday I went cupboard shopping. Really did not find anything to suit my fancy so it looks like my hubby and his friend will be building a custom design. Thankfully I have a galley kitchen and alot of wood working tools!

You did as we are still doing, pay as you go. Takes a little longer that way but at least no huge credit card bill!

Enjoy your home and take some pics after you get moved in and all decorated. Folks around here love looking at decorating ideas as well.

Again thanks for sharing!

Yanita

Looks great!!

Completely done?? Ya, right, there is ALWAYS a little tweaking to do here and there. Greg

Just curious where you bought the cabinets, they look amazingly like the ones I am putting in my kitchen that I got at Lowes.

DigitalDreams wrote:Just curious where you bought the cabinets, they look amazingly like the ones I am putting in my kitchen that I got at Lowes.

I bought the cabinets from the manufacturer that actually makes them for retailer resale (inside source). They came unfinished, but we did that ourselves. We paid less than a grand for all the cabinets, the same unfinished ones at lowes were almost 1700-something. They're very well built, all oak, and came out looking amazing. Lowes marks those up way too much, track down the maker and cut out the middleman, you'll save a bundle of cash this way if you can finish them yourself. Places like lowes often buy them from somewhat local manufacturers. Mom and pop cabinet makers will also work with you on unfinished, just to be able to compete.

Yanita,
I'm curious to see what you come up with for your kitchen. I stayed close to the original layout, as it was a good design. I just used quality cabinetry, and made some minor changes as I went, for example, the above range microwave and the real pantry instead of the ghetto setup that was original to the home. Amen as well on no credit card bills. I have zero credit cards now, they canceled my platinum visa because of inactivity, I never used it. I've learned from too many friend's mistakes about credit cards. Ironically though, it wasn't money issues that made this take so long, it was time.... I'm very busy, and all the 'heavy lifting' repairs had to be done by me........as I get older, the days get shorter and shorter....

Hey Topcat...

Well I do not decorate or design in the traditional ways that others do. LOL, no I am not outrageous with colors or designs. BUT, I do have a passion for vintage items.

Not that I expect you to have a copy of "Romantic Country" magazine, Nov/Dec 2007 edition. But in the mag on page 36 is almost the identical layout of my kitchen. Well its a 2 page shot and the page on the left is my layout. Love those cupboards!

LOL, I can not promise to post a pic, been here for many years and still no album...can tell you how to upload but mental block on my own pc! Go figure huh.

Our home will forever be a work in progress...it's just what we do. LOL, painted the master suite last year and have recently decided I want a different shade green.

Thankfully since I do have carpentry skills and kitchen layout experience I will help in all this. Well I actually am very hands on in all home interior projects. Keeps me out of trouble with the Hubby and helps keep his frustration levels down,

Again, Thanks for sharing, everyone loves pics!

Yanita

Awesome pics, great job and beautiful home !!

Thanks for sharing.




Take care and best wishes,
Robert

I love your pictures and the work you've done gives me plenty of inspiration for things I want to do.

However, I have one question and someone else may know this answer... I notice that your laminate floor runs lengthwise instead of across the trailer. Is there a reason you chose this way or was it just choice? I'm getting ready to lay laminate all throughout my trailer... Carpet be gone!

Hi,

You can actually install in any direction, width, length and even diagonally.

If your room is long and narrow by installing it length ways your room can look even longer, placing on a diagonal can give the appearance of longer and wider.

Yanita

Hi Yanita

I was wondering which way you were going to go on this one.

I like length wise. It reminds me of a bowling alley. I haven't bowled in years but I once bowled a 253 after drinking 2 Long Island Iced Teas.

Harry

This is the first official post since moving in. We've been in since the 2nd of june, but I finally got the computer room all put back together. I have DSL at my shop, and set up a wireless bridge from the shop to the house, so I didn't have to string and bury network cabling... I moved all my servers to another datacenter that a friend and I set up, so I canned the T1 I had ran into my old house..... The 1st of the month will be really easy from here on out (saving about 1300 bucks in "first of the month expenses").

The first night here, it stormed like hell. The rain on the roof wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, I slept like a baby! The only thing I don't like is the rumbling sound the metal siding makes when the wind is high. So far, its better than I expected, but on that note, when I started this project, the intent was to just make it livable... We ended up remodeling it from one end to the other, so everything is clean and new, and high-end.

I'll post up some 'aftermath' pics once we get all settled in, there's still some unpacked stuff to deal with.