Our Home Project: Befores and Afters

The workmen cleared up their tools and picked up their small messes and left on Friday evening about an hour before Shabat began.  John and I knew the work we'd had done would be better than what we had but we didn't realize how very nice it was all going to look overall.  We agree that house seems quieter than it did, and we're convinced that the new work about the foundation of our home is going to give us an energy savings as well.



Typically a mobile home has skirting about the bottom edges.  It's pretty standard to have a thin PVC plastic type product like what we had.

You'll get a better idea of what I mean if you enlarge this photo.  The pvc stuff does it's job.  It keeps the underside of the house free of most pests and animals and does somewhat insulate the pipes.  Nearly all doublewides have a flexible vent pipe for the AC running under the house.  This is fairly fragile, much like a dryer vent pipe.   I've seen plenty of doublewides with absolutely no skirting at all under them and nine times out of ten you'll also see insulation hanging out as well.  We got the skirting put on our home in 1997 when the house was set up and all in all it held up pretty well.    

The down side to what we had is that if you use a weed cutter near the skirting, you'll often find you've cut a hole in it.  Rocks thrown up by the mower can do the same.   If you want to go under the house, the skirting has to come down and once it comes down it doesn't always go back up nicely.  There was a spot at the back side of the house that I would rarely photograph because the skirting permanently bulged way out due to being off track from repairmen who had to go under the house.  

Years ago I'd begged to get a more permanent foundation.  At the time, we were paying the mortgage and we had a fairly high interest rate though at the time we financed our home it was quite a good rate.  However, when rates had fallen to 2% and you're paying 9%...I really wanted to refinance but our skirting didn't count as permanent foundation and so no refinancing could be done.   John just didn't see the point in trying to scrape together the money we'd need to do the work on the foundation and frankly we were fairly strapped for cash at the time.  I gave up the fight and buckled down on paying off all our debt.

But I never gave up the hope that we'd have a nice foundation and eventually debt was paid and we saved and set aside money meant specifically to redo the foundation.  We'd looked at products on the market, we'd picked up flyers at the fair, we'd even talked briefly to my brother about getting a quote.  We're still waiting on him to get around to that...

Never mind.  I saw this contractor working on a neighbor's house and asked him to quote for the work I wanted to see done on our place.  And so last Monday the work began.

This is the process: all the  plastic skirting comes off.  A product called hardy board goes up under the edges of the house and in a shallow trench at the bottom and is fixed to the house at the top.  Then a hardware cloth type product is laid over that and then a coat of cement goes over the wire mesh.  It's about the same process that most stucco exterior homes are built by these days.

I thought I had some photos of the work in progress but apparently I don't have many.   I don't have any photos of this area before because it was such an eye sore with the skirting bulging way out.   This spot behind the propane tank and between the air conditioner is not finished in this photo.   I think it's the only one I took of the work in progress!   You can see the wording on the hardy board product.  The metal hardware wire is over the boarding there near the air conditioner unit and you can see the vent the contractor put in.  The white vinyl band that bordered the plastic skirting went back up at the top edge (seen behind the propane tank) and covers the transition line between mortar and vinyl siding.


This is the far end of the house with one of the two access doors that were put in.  The pipe is our gray water pipe from our washing machine.  Eventually I'll have a flower bed that goes all the way around this end of the house and around the front.


This shows the door at the end of the front porch...and River, Josh and Isaac's dog, who came to spend the day with me that day.  She got along fine with the working men here but she drives Maddie nuts because she's so full of energy and Maddie's old and grumpy.



The new steps that come out onto the patio from the front porch.  I walked up and down these steps yesterday morning without any trouble at all.  When my brother put the steps on the back porch the reach from the first step to the porch is a little hard for me to do, it's just  too deep.  These steps are just right for me to walk up and down easily, without feeling I need to haul myself up an especially steep step.    The step railings were fashioned from the old kennel fence posts we had on hand and they are solidly set in.  Not a single wobbly bit which makes me feel nice and safe.


This is an old 'before' photo of the front porch with the inset steps


The view now, out towards the patio. You can see where the boards were put in to cover the old steps.  I'll be cleaning and painting all that in the next week if all goes well.  See how much more floor space we gained!  John and I have already mentioned that screening in this porch is now a possibility.  It won't happen this year but it's certainly something we could see doing and would give us even more enjoyment.

The day River stayed here she did something that I was a little mad about and a little not mad about at the  same time.

See that hole?  She ripped out the lattice and went under the back porch.  No clue why except that she apparently wanted to.   When Sam and I had walked about the house the other night I'd pointed out that lattice and said "It kind of looks shoddy next to all that fresh work..."  Sam agreed and suggested I might paint it to make it look better.  And I probably would have done but once there's a hole, what's the point in paint?  

John and I discussed different options, some way more expensive than others, some really pretty and some more practical.  In the end, I suggested we just cover it with hardware cloth.   I'm going to have pots and plants and such in front of it anyway.   The hardware cloth won't allow pests to get in since it's such a fine mesh and it's sturdy enough once nailed to the wood supports that the dogs aren't going to pull it loose.  It won't rot.  There are lots of pros for using this on the bottom of the back porch.



When the contractor came to finish up his work and clean the job site he saw the material on the back porch and asked John what it was for.  John told him we were going to pull off the lattice and finish the back porch with the hardware cloth and Mr. Handyman said "Oh I can do that for you!" and went at the task.  We didn't buy quite enough of the roll hardware cloth but Mr. Handyman had a whole sheet of the mortar wire cloth left and he put that up at the end of the porch.  I think it looks just fine and once I've got my flower bed above  mulched and bordered and flowers pots and whatever else set up I don't think the wire will even be noticeable.

So that's the work we've just had done on our home.  We've noticed a difference already in how well insulated we are from outdoors noise already and we expect to see some savings on heating and cooling bills with the increased insulation this new material offers.

I've lots of work to do on both the front and back porches.  There's mildew and algae to clean from the damp winter we had and paint to be put on floors and touchups on railings to be done and there's furniture that needs fresh coats of paint.  I've got new cushions for chairs.   I hope to get a few pretty pots of plants set out and to lay more mulch and finally to start a new flower bed instead of just sprucing up all the old ones...so stay tuned as I continue to work on our great outdoors.  I'll be sharing more before May is done!

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