Tips for Turning a Mobile Home into a Forever Home
When you have a limited budget, it’s important to make the most of every dollar you make. Many people don’t realize that they can turn a mobile home into a forever home with just a little bit of work. The following guide walks you through a few things you can do to turn your mobile home into the home you love living in for the rest of your life.
Choose the Right Location
In order for the home to feel like a forever home, it’s important to have a prime location for it to be situated. Buying a piece of property to put the home on ensures your long-term security. You won’t have to worry that the mobile home community will one day shut down, or the person who owns a piece of property you are renting wants to suddenly sell it. Mobile homes require a very small amount of land so finding one at an affordable price shouldn’t be too difficult.
Have a Concrete Foundation Created
If you want your mobile home to be your forever home, you need to give it a solid foundation, literally. Having a concrete foundation for the home not only protects the bottom of the home from the elements and animals, but it also gives the home a finished look. Concrete foundations only go around the perimeter of the home, so they are often very affordable and can be created in a very short period of time. In order to have a concrete foundation created you do need to own the property that the home is going to be located on because it does create a permanent fixture on the property.
Add a Deck and Entryway to the Mobile Home
In order to be able to relax and entertain comfortably, you need to have exterior spaces to enjoy. Having an entryway created will make getting in and out of the home easier. Having a deck added to the home provides you with great exterior entertaining space and can actually add a lot of value to the home. The deck doesn’t have to be overly extravagant in order to be great.
Upgrade to Engineered Wood Siding
Vinyl siding is the traditional siding used on the exterior of mobile homes. While the siding looks great, it can show signs of wear and tear over time and upkeep can be a bit of a hassle at times. Upgrading to engineered wood siding gives the home the look of a stick-built house without the high cost. The siding is designed to look like wood siding, but it doesn’t require the same upkeep that wood siding requires. It will have a grained appearance and is available in a variety of colors so that you can customize the look of your home for an affordable cost.
Sheetrock the Walls in the Home
The vinyl on gypsum walls in a mobile home exposes the fact that it is a mobile home. The walls have a unique look to them and are often thinner than traditional walls. If you want to give the home a more finished look, you can have sheetrock walls added to the house. You can then paint the walls and hang items differently than you can on the traditional VOG walls that come in mobile homes. This allows you to create a relaxing oasis you can look forward to coming home to each day. The sheetrocked walls can also help with insulation in the home to lower your heating and cooling costs at the same time.
Get Energy-Efficient Appliances
If you know that you are going to stay in the house for years to come, you need to invest in affordable appliances. Many of the appliances that come standard with mobile homes aren’t very energy efficient. This is because energy-efficient appliances are more costly. When you have money available to invest, consider upgrading to energy-efficient appliances. Start with the water heater. When you have an energy-efficient water heater, you’ll be able to start seeing a difference in your electric bills almost right away.
Add Landscaping Around the House
Many people who own mobile homes know that there is a chance that they will have to move home in the future, so they ignore the landscaping around their house. If you know that this is your forever home and you are going to stay in the same location for many years, why not add great landscaping around the house? Adding flower beds, shrubs and even trees to the yard can create the look of a stick-built home. Be sure that anything you plant near the home won’t have large, cascading roots in the years to come to ensure that the roots don’t grow under the house and damage the foundation.
Pay Off Your Loan as Quickly as Possible
One of the best ways you can make your home feel like a forever home is actually to own it. Take the time to pay off the loan for the home as quickly as you can. Many people are living a very lean lifestyle for a few months so that they can dedicate as much of their income as possible to paying off their home loans. Once the loan is paid off you will have peace of mind that you own something valuable. The equity in the home is something that you can always fall back on if times get tough financially. Owning the home will also give you a sense of pride and accomplishment in the long run.
Turning your mobile home into your forever home isn’t hard to do. You need to do more than hang a few pictures on the wall though. It won’t happen overnight though. Take the time to create a plan of action when it comes to creating a forever home. You want to be sure your home is a space you love and want to come home to each and every day. Taking baby steps towards transforming it ensures that you don’t get overwhelmed or sink deeper and deeper into debt.