Mobile Home Art

Your mobile home is a piece of art!

Recently, I have became a bit obsessed with mobile home art. I guess the artistic part of me and the mobile home collector part of me has figured out that the 2 can merge happily. 

The simplicity of the lines is why I like to draw them. I find myself drawing mobile homes while I'm on the phone at work. Yes, I'm a geek but that's OK!

Here's a few of my favorites:

                 Source: etsy.com via Crystal Adkins on Pinterest

                 Source: etsy.com via Crystal Adkins on Pinterest

                 Source: etsy.com via Crystal Adkins on Pinterest

                          Source: etsy.com via Crystal Adkins on Pinterest

                 Source: etsy.com via Crystal Adkins on Pinterest

I'm currently painting a mobile home with a butterfly roof on a 9"x11" canvas. I'll let you see it when I'm finished. The angles are so hard to get right!

As always, thank you so much for reading Mobile Home Living!

The Shabby Creek Cottage

                                                 The

Shabby Creek

 Cottage

I've been a big fan of The Shabby Creek Cottage blog for quite a while now. The cottage is a double wide mobile home that the owner, Gina, has completely remodeled and decorated in a modern cottage style. This home is more than beautiful!

This blog is packed full of great DIY ideas and she explains the steps clearly. If you like the cottage look your certainly going to love The Shabby Creek Cottage. Be prepared to stay a while, I lose at least an hour every time I go there. 

and a video of The Shabby Creek Cottage...

If you are about to remodel your mobile home just remember that anything is possible. It's not what you live in but what you do with it. There's so many great reasons to choose a mobile home, price being the best reason of all. With a little creativity and elbow grease you can have the home of your dreams! The proof is right here...

Thanks so much for reading Mobile Home Living!

Source:
All photos and videos are property of The Shabby Creek Cottage.

DMA Steel Skirting

Please welcome Nick Trussell of DMA Skirting, a supplier of steel skirting. Steel is strong and durable and will not suffer from basic lawn care activity and is very affordable. Read more about this great option for mobile homes!

Summertime is once again upon us and it is the time of year to fire up the lawn mower and that trusty old string trimmer. No weed stands in the way of that trimmer, and neither does your old vinyl skirting. You know, the vinyl skirting you put on 5 years ago and is now full of holes and falling off in the back. The same skirting both of your neighbors have and their neighbors have. Well, it's time for something different. It's time to step up to something that doesn't fear that string trimmer. It's time to take down that tattered old plastic and install steel skirting, DMA Steel Skirting.

For over 35 years, DMA Skirting has been providing home owners a high quality and durable alternative to vinyl skirting. Our G40 galvanized steel skirting can withstand years of abuse caused by frequent lawn care, and when properly installed, it even creates a barrier resistant to wind and pests. Are you tired of being stuck with the plain color choices that other skirting offers? DMA galvanized steel mobile home skirting can be painted to match virtually any exterior color pallet! Plus the double-stamped rockface pattern is sure to dress up an exterior that could use a little texture.

The advantages to DMA galvanized steel mobile home skirting are clear. Our skirting is affordable, making any weekend facelift project well within budget. Most do-it-yourselfers find it easy to install with basic hand tools. DMA steel skirting is lightweight yet durable, 100% recyclable, and versatile enough that it can be left in its natural galvanized finish or painted to match any exterior.

After DMA Steel Skirting!

For more information about DMA Skirting, along with installation instructions, visit us at www.dmaskirting.com.

Thanks so much for reading Mobile Home Living!

Trailer Travel, The History of Mobile America

As you may know, I collect vintage advertising, manuals and brochures of mobile homes and travel trailers. I have thousands at this point but like any typical collector, I always want more!

 I just put my order in for the book I have been wanting: Trailer Travel, The History of Mobile America and I found it for $12.57 shipped here. It's not new but neither am I. The following post from modernhouse is how I first learned of the book and the gorgeous graphic design just speaks to me, "Crystal, I am beautiful and bold and I am about mobile homes, you must have me." 

Oh, do books not talk to you? That's weird. 

Allison Arieffis is the Food & Shelter Ambassador for GOOD, writes the “By Design” column for the New York Times and blogs at modernhouse. She also co-authored Trailer Travel. This is how she explains the book:

A whirlwind of a project developed with Phil Noyes, Allison Arieff and myself, Trailer Travel, The History of Mobile America is a bold and graphic book offers a look at motor-camping trips in the early 1900s, the unparalleled innovations in trailer design during the thirties, rare and unique trailer models and interiors, and an extensive array of bold and graphic promotional material, literature, and postcards that illustrate the undeniable attraction of living on wheels. Trailer Travel is the perfect book for the fan of the open road and the fervent collector of trailer ephemera. <-----that is so me!

Trailer Travel, The History of Mobile America
9.9 x 8.9 x 0.5 inches. 160 pages. Published by Gibbs Smith, July, 2002.

I'll let you know if I learn anything new. I hope there's some great photos and ads that I've never seen before. Oh, be still my beating heart!

Thanks so much for reading Mobile Home Living!

The Wolfson House

What Do You Get When A World Famous Architect and a  Vintage Spartan Trailer Get Together? 

 

Utter Awesomeness!

I've been surfing around after everyone goes to bed. I'm mainly looking for a vintage camper to buy and doing research on the cost, material, etc. and I clicked another magical link. Oh, how I love those magical links! 

Source

This is a 1948 Spartan Royal Mansion mobile home (although another reference the home as a 1947 model) that has a gorgeous home built right around it! Get this, the very famous architect and designer, Marcel Breuer, kept the Spartan intact and incorporated the mobile home perfectly into the design just as he was asked. 

The owner of the Spartan at the time, artist Sidney Wolfson, had asked Breuer a couple times to design the home around the trailer but Breuer kept turning him down. An interview with the current owner of the home in 1996 in the Hudson Valley Magazine states " that the architect probably just “didn’t want to deal with a trailer” and then the writer adds:

"Or maybe Breuer feared that in head-to-head competition with the trailer, his work would come out second best?"

I think that's the best line ever! It is hard to beat any Spartan, they are exactly what dreams are made of.

Retro Remodel

Modern, Hip & Fabulous!

 I stumbled upon yet another fabulous mobile(ish) home. This is in France so I have no idea about the manufacturer. It could possibly be a train car, I don't really know. It looks close enough to a vintage single wide trailer to me though!

The owner is Pierre Arnoux and he buys older travel trailers, buses or mobile homes and renovates them into pure awesomeness. This remodel leans toward fresh and hip and great minimal design. It's a very retro-modern look.

Total Trailer Chic Remodel

Jackpot! 

By way of The Nate Show website, I found this gorgeous single wide transformation in the House Proud section. After drooling, reading and clicking a magical link, I found 2 more wonderful mobile home transformations at a blog called "Trailer Chic." They are 2 ladies that love trailers. While I haven't had time to read this blog in it's entirety yet, I have skipped around like a raving lunatic trying to take it all in.
My conclusion: These girls have skills!

So without further mumbo jumbo from me, please enjoy:

Home on Wheels

Couple Tanille and James Leal of Reno, Nevada bought their home for a real steal - free.  The 1959 trailer was in terrible condition, but after $7,000 of renovation work, the Leals completely transformed the trailer into a modern, chic home. "We believe these are the original plates," says Tanille. "If you look closely the date is June 1960. How cool is that? I love that we took this old trailer that had been forgotten and everyone thought was garbage and made it alive again. The epitome of recycling!"

Outside Disguise

Appearances can be deceiving. "The outside is our 'disguise,' says Tanille. "No one would guess what is inside and that's the beauty of it. Everything is original. It just received and good cleaning and a coat of paint." 

Mobile Home Remodel

"This shows the extent of our remodel," says Tanille. "We took it down to the studs. It had been so neglected that the floors were rotted through, the insulation was paper thin and the ceiling was sagging. All of this was rectified due to a lot of hard work, and now we have a solid little structure!" 

Horror to Home

The state of this trailer when we found it was horrifying. You can see in this photo the nicotine that was caked on the walls, the white square on the wall was where a picture was hanging. The former owner also lived with several cats. You can imagine the smell. The first few days of demolition we had to wear masks or we would be sick. All of these windows had to be replaced, many were broken or wouldn't close. 

 

Small Dreams, Trailer Parks in Palm Springs: A Typology

I love stumbling upon awesome online finds! This one is a pure gem, except the word trailer could be changed to the more appropriate wording of mobile home. I digress though.  Feast your eyes on 24 gorgeous mobile homes, all part of a photography typology by Jeffrey Milstein. 

Small Dreams, Trailer Parks in Palm Springs.

2006 – 2009, archival digital prints, 24 x 36” to 40 x 60”

Small Dreams presents a typology of the post WWII trailers that popped up in Palm Springs, California. Early models were made using surplus sheet metal and the technology developed to make World War II aircraft. Over the years people would add on, remodel, and create mini gardens and decorative statements. Shot from the same straightforward angle, each exterior facade photograph reflects on the nuanced details and expressive personalized touches of their inhabitants.

Vintage Mobile Home Ads - Week 3

It's Sunday, and that means more vintage ads to share!

I've found some lovelies for you this week. The 1964 Pacemaker especially intrigued me. This is an actual advertisement and Pacemaker did produce a mobile home with an arched roof. However, in the real photo I found the arch was not as prominent but I am almost positive the home has had a roof replacement.

This feature is both genius and a bit problematic at the same time. Genius because an arch is the strongest structural shape known to man and problematic because there could be standing water in the marriage joint of the double wide. All they had to do to alleviate that is give a slight slant, so I'm sure they did. I can't find anything else about them online nor can I find a double wide photo, hopefully one day I can find some literature or an owners manual on one.

Hope you enjoy these beautiful pieces of history: 

1964 Pacemaker single wide

Manufactured Home Inspection Checklist

 

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) developed this checklist to help residents gauge how vulnerable their manufactured home might be to wind damage, based on where it’s located, how well it’s anchored, and what type of foundation was used.

The Institute also has a very informative site called DisasterSafety.org where you can type in your zip code and identify the risks that you face in your area.

ABOUT HUD WIND ZONE RATINGS I, II AND III

If your home was built before June 1976, then there were no universal standards in place and your home is likely quite vulnerable to damage in a severe windstorm or hurricane. Between June 1976 and July 1994 manufactured housing was built to a single HUD standard regardless of where it was to be sited. While these homes (especially the double-wide units) typically perform better in high wind events than the pre-1976 homes, they are not nearly as wind resistant as the HUD Wind Zone II and Wind Zone III homes built after July 1994.
Since July 1994, each newly constructed manufactured home has been required to comply with the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, commonly called the HUD Code. The HUD Code stipulates the home shall be designed and constructed to conform to one of three wind load zones. The appropriate wind zone used in design is dependent upon where the home will be initially installed. Homes designed and constructed to HUD Wind Zone I cannot be installed in a higher wind zone.

• HUD Wind Zone I =
70 mph basic wind speed

• HUD Wind Zone II =
100 mph basic wind speed

• HUD Wind Zone III =
110 mph basic wind speed

If you are purchasing a new manufactured home, have it installed on a permanent foundation. If a permanent foundation is not feasible, the latest anchorage recommendations for HUD Wind Zone III should be used for maximum resistance against uplift and overturning forces.
If you own one of the older homes or a HUD Wind Zone I home, the structure of the home is vulnerable to damage in a severe wind event and strengthening of that structure is difficult to accomplish. However, the following checklist may help you better assess the level of vulnerability that exists and the actions listed below may help to reduce the overall vulnerability of the home and will hopefully improve the chances that the home will still be there when you return after the event.
The following is a list of items to inspect with regards to site characteristics, foundation requirements, and anchoring requirements for an existing manufactured home.

SITE CHARACTERISTICS:

1. Are there trees that are in close proximity or hang over the home that can potentially cause damage during a high wind event?
Yes ❏
No ❏
Trees that are in close proximity or hang over the home can fall or branches can break off the tree during a high wind event.
Trees should be pruned to reduce the risk of damage or possibly removed to eliminate the danger of tree fall. Of particular concern are pine trees, 12-inches or more in diameter, that are tall enough to fall across the home.