Geneva is the publisher of a very entertaining and lovely blog called “My Heart’s Song” and she has a wonderful story to tell about how she became a proud owner of a beautiful mobile home. Actually, she has several great stories to tell so be prepared to sit a spell! Long story short, they were retiring and living in a gorgeous but huge brick home. Eventually, she and her husband Buzz decided they needed to downsize, live more simply and debt-free.
They sold their brick mini-mansion and purchased a used 16×80′ 2001 single wide with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths they call “Whisper Cottage.” Once you read the whole story you will understand the name completely. I have so much respect for them, not a lot of people would be willing to make such a drastic change of lifestyle. They immediately commenced to remodeling it into a true dream (mobile) home. Allow me to tell the story with photos:
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They had one month to remodel the mobile home enough to be liveable in before their lease went out on the transitional apartment they had gotten while looking for the perfect place. The post “Our First 30 Days“ has a complete photo timeline of the initial remodel.
Here’s the rest of her home. I can only come up with so many adjectives, so I’ll keep to just showing the photos. You can thank me in the comments..
What a beautiful transformation. We too left our beautiful brick home for a 20 year old double wide. The double wide was truly more solid than our brick home. We renovated and ohmygoodness it’s beautiful! We wouldn’t trade it for anything❤️
🙂
Hi Lynn!
I’m so glad you like it! It’s definitely a work-in-process and I learn new things about blogging everyday. I removed the newsletter and email signup form a few weeks ago and forgot to put it back – I’ll do that asap. Till then, I’ve added your email to the newsletter list. You should receive a confirmation email, just click the link and you’ll start receiving our newsletters (usually 1 or 2 per month). You can also enter your email in the form on the top right and get notified via email when a new article is published.
Thanks so much!
I just found your blog/site. I’m trying to figure out how to subscribe. I love your examples of the makeovers. I’m trying to figure out how to buy one and don’t mind doing some diy work, but I’m older, so have to get some help. Thanks for all the great ideas. I’m still finding my way around your site and learning. Really awesome and inspirational.
What a fabulous website! My dream is for us to downsize and simplify our family life and you’ve opened up my mind to more options. Thanks.
Hi Margie!
It’s great to hear from you! I’m so glad you’re happy with your home!
Thanks so much for the information – I’m sure it will help many people! Hope to hear from you again!
Hi Crystal,
I wanted to say how glad I am that I came across this website. Years ago when my then husband and I was looking to buy a home I wanted to buy a modular. He didn’t want anything to do with one. Well several yrs later we divorced and I was able to buy my own home and you guessed it I bought a 1995 modular that was in 2003. And happy to say I’m still living in it. I wanted to comment about window and door replacements. I had the old aluminum windows and I ordered vinyl tilt in windows the size I needed through Lowes with no problems in 2008. I had a very large window in the living room and one in the master bedroom. It was cheaper to order 2 smaller windows and mount them together then to replace the one large window. I also have two regular exterior doors and nice storms on my modular. It had the old metal trailer doors. So those items can be changed Sharri. Again enjoy the site. I wish I could find someone that has the same setup/look inside as my 95 modular. The primitive country one has a couple of similarity’s but not much.
Sharri, you should be able to retro-fit anything you want into a mobile home. If there’s a will, there’s a way..lol! I’ve never been to an Ikea (I’m in southern WV and the closest one is 4.5 hours away) but the sinks and faucets from Lowes work fine in most mobile homes.
Doors and bathtubs are the 2 things you’ll need to watch out for – you’ll either need to buy mobile home specific sizes for both or retro-fit them. The standard tubs from Lowes are usually about 6″ longer than a mobile homes so you’ll need to borrow some space from somewhere but its usually cheaper to buy to buy a standard tub than a mobile home (expect $450-600 for a mobile home tub and surround). Windows could be an issue, too. It’s easier to go bigger, than smaller, but you’ll need to frame it and make up the difference with some trim work.
I think you’ll find answers to just about every question you have here – just start browsing through the posts, especially the improvement and repair category. It’s great to meet you and I hope to hear from you again – we’re here to help 🙂
HI I just love all the info I have seen so far. My hubby and I live in amish country in Pa, land is so expensive here,. we want to live debt free, we have some savings and also have a large bill we have to pay down. we are renting an old like 180 year old house I like it but its not ours and not well insulated OIL heat $$$$$$$$$$.. we have talked about buying a single 16 ft wide mobile home, that we can live in and remodel completely and pay off asap! then when we can save for 1 or 2 acres we can have it moved to our own spot, I just want to own something I can do as I please to tired of landlords, and I do appreciate every place we have lived in , we once owned our own , economy tank thankful ours sold , we moved to fla now back to pa to be near kids and grandbabies.
I am wanting to know of any advice from readers that have done these things best way to go about and do remodel , I am wondering if IKEA can be retro fit into mobile home living? anyone know. thank you for making this forum available. sincerely ,sharri
Thank you for this wonderful site. It brings much inspiration to us. Goes to show that we can make our mobiles into our own designed "castles". We have a double wide, and love it. Lots of room, lots of windows, warm, cozy, bright, and it's ours !!!.
The above changes are awesome !!. Love it. ♥
So much inspiration here! I love it!
You are so kind for commenting Steven! Thank you for all the kind
words, I do respect the people that have allowed me to feature their
homes very much. I'm sure it's not easy to just allow someone to
\”feature' their home but homes this gorgeous really needs to be seen!
Thank you!
A dream home by anyone's standard.
Just saw this on Pinterest ;o) LOVE this SO much!! Kudos to Geneva for the fabulous renovation – gorgeous! And thanks to you Crystal for continuing to inspire us with your lovely features!!
Have a glorious weekend!
Hugs & Blessings,
Becky
My recent post Our Make-Ready is Almost-Ready!
Oh Thank you Becky..I've gotta to get yours on Pinterest too! I'm
working on getting them all up (with proper credit to you and your
blog)..My computer is so slow when I pin stuff though, it seems to
take forever..I get to the rest of them this evening..thanks so much!
Kathy, I was thinking the same thing.. \”Wow, that's 5 more feet of
width in every room..that's like half the size of our little 12(but
really 11.5)x58..I'm so dang jealous not only cause it's gorgeous but
2 of my homes would fit inside hers..hope your doing well!
A MANSION!!! 16 x 80' and in the 21st century!!! You are truly blessed….from a 14 x 60'…20th century!!!
P.S. And two bathrooms!!!
My recent post All Ready for Santa
I know! I know!
WOW!!!!!!
Thank you so much for this lovely feature! You've done a wonderful job … I can't wait to share it on my blog. Thank You Again!!!
Geneva