Alright, first I want to thank the new subscribers that have come in over the last couple days. I want to remind all of you that if you don’t immediately begin receiving your email alerts than please email me. We’re all caught up now and processing the subscribers as they come in. Thanks!

 

   I’m beginning to get a back log of reader questions and I will answer them as quickly as possible but will probably not do more than one of these types of posts per week. I know some folks really like those but others don’t so I’m going to continue to keep the topics revolving. I don’t want anyone to get bored!

 

   One last thing, please continue to tell your friends about “Prepper” Nation. I want to see our community growing and I can’t do it without your help! Also, I asked you all to start watching your local areas for good deals on Mobile Homes and I haven’t had one email on this yet. Just a reminder, keep your eyes peeled for these homes as this could be a real windfall for someone in your area to take advantage of – Thanks!

 

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   I don’t have to tell you that I’m becoming a big fan of these older singlewide mobile homes… I challenge anyone to show me a way to get more for your money? I’ll live up to my end of the bargain and show you all how nice a place like this can be. Other than the limited square footage, I just can’t find a downside for one of these on a property you plan to keep, long term!

 

    With the niceties out of the way, we can get down to business. These older homes SUCK for fit and finish. Cheap cabinets, low end surfaces, limited or sub-standard trim, inside and out. Then there’s the sheetrock, I do like the idea that it is sheetrock on the interior but it’s very thin and I haven’t seen this stuff at Home Depot. There must be an outlet for 1/4 sheetrock but I haven’t tripped over any at the hardware store yet?

   I have a small area around the back door that’s in need of some wall repairs. Just for cosmetics, there isn’t any rot or anything. The previous owner said that his dog tore the hole in the wall? You’ve seen my dog, BOD, she’s the type of dog that you might expect to do something like chew wall board off but not even she would do that?? With the pergo floor already installed, I’m hesitant to start changing the interior around. I want to put in new kitchen cabinets someday but this is low priority since the existing ones still work fine. All things to be taken care of in good time. We’ll tackle one project at a time and eventually get them all done.

 

  Its actually another exterior project I recently completed that I was going to show you today. I’m going to post both before and after photos to better illustrate what I’m referring to.

   

  When we bought the home, you probably even noticed, it had some real funky window trim on it. This wouldn’t even be called trim in my book but it was installed that way so it must have been what the manufacture intended to be trim! This stuff is about as low end as you can get… Little more than cardboard? It lasted 12 years and hadn’t disintegrated so I’m probably exaggerating a bit but this stuff was pretty bad!

 

   We knew all along that this would have to be replaced but it wasn’t until we were doing the prep work before painting that we made the time to remove this stuff. It was stapled up there at the factory and would have probably lasted another 12 years without falling off. It would have just continued to look more shabby year after year. In addition to the cheap material, the manufacture had the trim put up in a way that was suppose to look more elaborate but only looked more cheesy to me. The pattern they chose just screamed MOBILE HOME. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hoping to fool anyone but would like to put my best foot forward!

  

   As you know we’ve completed the paint job and are very happy with the new brown color over that awful blue. So, was time to find some appropriate trim and get it reinstalled. I headed off to Home Depot, to see what I could find.

 

   When I got there I discovered a least three different trim board materials to choose from. There was cedar but this wasn’t what I was after. I was going to be painting it and so cedar wouldn’t be the best choice. I found some sort of soft wood that was pre primed. It was pine, I think? This would have been alright, except the wood was warped badly and I would assume only get worse when put back out in the weather. The third choice was a OSB, oriented strand board, product and it was also pre primed. I took a second look at this stuff and it was arrow straight and less expensive than the solid wood…

 

   I went with the OSB. We bought enough to do the project and set out to get it installed. I did a traditional window trim wrap. Straight board across the bottom and then two up the sides. Topping it off with a wider board and cutting angles on the ends for additional character. Not the most creative idea but it works and is much better than its predecessor!

    As you can see in the photos, it came out pretty well! I still need to get the caulking done and then a coat of paint to finish it off. We haven’t decided what color for the trim yet for sure. We’re leaning toward the cream colors and so it won’t look a lot different than it does now.

 

   You can see that the place is looking better and better. I mentioned that I’m going to head for the BOL after work on Friday. If the cold weather hasn’t hit to hard I’d like to get the caulking done and maybe some paint on this trim as well but we’ll just have to see how ambitious I feel this weekend! It’s a long drive so I always feel compelled to get as much done as possible. We’ll be up to our ears in snow before much more time goes by, I guess then I’ll feel better about laying around relaxing… Gangland, anyone??

 

Anyway, see you tomorrow!

 

Prepper