Darned Doorknobs

I like the little touches, the ones that make a space feel different. A big eyesore for me was the doorknobs. I don't like brass, so I decided to change them out. I figured, well, how hard could it be? Harder than I expected.

This is what we had on the doors. They are smaller than average doorknobs. As a matter of fact, we couldn't find replacements in any of the big box hardware stores.

So the way these work is you first remove the little plug screw on the neck(?) of the doorknob. You then unscrew the knob itself. This is what you're left with...

Tried spray painting the knobs, but it didn't look right to me.

I ordered a couple doorknob sets from a mobile home parts website. I was so excited! I thought they would go on pretty much the same way and I'd be done! No!

As you can see, these are much more standard than what was on the doors here. I will have to redrill holes and all that fun stuff. Needless to say, I am not that adept with a drill, so I think my better half should do it.

So I guess the moral of the story is: don't assume :) 

I'll post before and after pics when I finally get them on.

That Dining Room

So paneling was a thing back in the '70's. I despise paneling; it's dark, depressing and dated. The entire mobile home part of our place is paneling. My better half's grand idea is to pull it all off and replace it with real walls. Well, until that happens, I've been painting.

Painting is not my favorite pastime, all that prep work and mess, but it's been a necessary evil. My focus these past few weeks was painting the dining room. This is what the room looked like when we bought the house:

Not quite sure what those white panels (masonite I think?) were all about; they were held in place by black plastic strips. My other half says they were probably mirrors at one point. Glad they got rid of the mirrors if that was what they were.
In the interim, before I started in on the room this is what it looked like

Once I started priming, you could immediately see a difference in how bright it looked

Gimli photobomb.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with that awkward wall at the back, paint over the weird panels and plastic strips? Decided to try his idea; just rip it off and put up a wall. We used a pre primed board for it, not sheetrock. Anything was better than paneling. It was relatively inexpensive to put up.

The wall went up and we decided to do an accent wall a little darker than the other walls. I liked the idea, we probably could have gone a little darker, but this color coordinated with the lighter one.

Moulding around the doors, window and floor make the place look much nicer. Painted the black door too. Painting the ceiling definitely lightened up the room, though ideally removing those seam strips and spackling would be a better choice. Right now my goal was to make everything brighter and fresher. Somewhere down the road if I get the urge to do that, I will. I have to be in the mood :)

Not completely done with the dining room, the wall on the left needs attention. Not sure what to do there yet, it's another awkward space that needs to be addressed. Hopefully in the next couple weeks it'll come to me as to what to do with it.

Kitchen Nightmare!

So realtors always say kitchens sell houses. Well, not this one... but we saw potential. Dark, dated and pretty much falling apart, it was in desperate need of a makeover.

Before

Before

We aren't finished yet, not by a longshot, but so far, here's what we've done; these pics were after the first real big attack on the kitchen. 

During, Stage 1 

During, Stage 1

Ripped out the one wall that had the closet on the other side to open up the space. New stock cabinets and stock countertop (formica). Built the island out of a couple cabinets and a butcher block wood top. This is going to change, we want to add one more cabinet, making the island wider to balance the space more. We also want to frame out the space next to the stove to add a counter and cabinets, that would give the kitchen a more "finished" look. Moved the gas line for the stove and changed the window. Under cabinet lighting brightens up the area too.

The entire house is pretty dark, including the kitchen. Skylights one day.

As of today, this is what the kitchen looks like now...

During, Stage 2

During, Stage 2

Brighter overhead lighting opens up the space, and getting rid of that dreadful 70's vinyl floor helped. We put down laminate wood flooring throughout which also opens up the space.

Still a lot of work to do in the kitchen, but so far so good. I love getting up in the morning and seeing it.

Welcome To My blog!

Hi, and thanks for stopping by!

So what exactly is this blog about? Well, it's about us transforming our home.

Not a McMansion or anything like that. It's a mobile home (technically a manufactured home, something about when it was built that determines which term should be used, I have to do some research to find out more about that).

We purchased this home in 2014 and boy, what an outdated mess. The actual manufactured home was built, I believe, in 1974. Sometime in the 80's the previous owners added on to it, so it's now a mobile/stick built hybrid. Aside from that, it doesn't seem they did anything else to it. It was horrendous. They were using it as a sort of vacation home for quite some time, only coming up for the summer and ski season (did I mention we're in the Pocono Mountains?). They used to rent it or lend it out to friends and family as well, we think, because there was a "usage manual" for the house. That made me giggle. When I find that book I have to post pictures.

I decided to start this blog because right now, I've just been taking before and after pictures, but I wanted to do a little more than just have pictures saved, so I thought it would be fun to do it this way. For the most part, we've been trying to do everything ourselves; my better half has been in the construction industry for years so he has a good grasp on most stuff, whatever he can't do he knows someone in the business that can, so we've been (relatively) lucky, though not all the time.

Well, with that said, it's time for me to start poking around on the computer and the camera for pics of the house that we've taken and just never did anything with.

Here are a couple beginning pictures, it's the front of the house as it was when we bought it. Don't think I have a picture of the back, don't know what I was thinking not taking one!.