The Addition Shell

Now that we've gotten just about all of the demo out of the way, next up is our addition.  The addition was planned to run along the backside of the master bedroom, bathroom and former utility room/back door.  We planned to use it as a large master closet, an office, and a washroom/pantry/utility room with a covered porch on the end that leads out to the back yard. 

We needed to get the addition done before anything else because we planned on moving the water heater out into the new utility room and therefore we can't run plumbing until that is in. 

Here you can see them prepping the back of the mobile home to start building the addition.  They built it on the same level as the rest of the home.

 

The dimensions of the addition are 24/12 interior space and a 10x12 covered porch to the back yard.  This extra space is badly needed. The home before didn't have a true pantry, I just used a couple of cabinets for food storage.   
 

We intended on using shingles for the roof but the pitch wasn't great enough for shingles so we went with metal instead.  Eventually it would be nice to replace the whole roof with new metal.    
  



 

 

 

We're so excited to get the extra space!  We'll be building interior walls and customizing the pantry with a washer/dryer platform, a platform for the water heater, and shelving.   I also can't wait to do some customization in the closet as well.   We'll be re-tasking some of the good windows from the main house to the addition as long as they aren't leaking. The next step is to frame the walls on the inside of the addition, and continue frame and subfloor repairs in the rest of the house.  This mobile home remodel is starting to come along!  

  

DEMO - Exterior Walls

Well, we've gotten the exterior walls completely gutted, which was no small feat.  The drywall panels on the exterior walls had more glue than staples, and where we were able to cut the panels off of the interior walls in larger sheets, that wasn't possible with these.  They had to come down in crumbles.  Not fun!  It created a LOT of dust and mess.  But we have confirmed that the exterior studs are 2x4 which is good.  The only thing left to do here is to get those studs cleaned off from the remaining drywall remnants, glue and staples, then we'll be ready to insulate and run our cables! 


There were some things we ran into in the walls that have been somewhat of an eye opener for me.  The outside is sided in sheet metal, and over the years there have been holes cut and damage from trees.  Every time there was a utility installed, there was a new hole cut in order to run cables into the house.  Here's a great example of a slash in the siding (probably from a tree) and a phone cable coming into the house.  Not sealed at all!

 

And then there was this little guy. I have no idea what he was or how he got in, but I can't even believe he was there!  Holy Cow!  Luckily the insulation that was there helped mask the smell.  This house is about 16 years old and I can't believe how much deterioration has happened in this time.  Hopefully with the repairs we're doing and the quality materials we're putting in, it'll give us another 20 good years before we have to do any major renovation on this mobile home.