1980s Dream

I bought my dream home seven months ago, and it’s a mobile home in a working-class neighborhood.

There. I said it.

I realize this doesn't sound very glamorous. But here in southern Delaware, mobile homes make up about 18% of the housing. And for many people, including me, their affordability is exactly the point.

I wanted simplicity, a bit of land for my flowers and my sailboat, and to be near the water. This modest 1,000-square-foot house sits on about a third of an acre, two miles from the bay. It needed work, but had a solid block foundation, a newer ribbed metal roof, and a three-season porch addition.

The first thing we tackled was the outside.

The siding was missing pieces and, once it came off, revealed a thin, cardboard-like material that wasn't doing much for either structural strength or insulation.

So we added plywood to strengthen the walls and a layer of insulation before covering everything with new CertainTeed board-and-batten siding.

The windows were original, drafty and, in several cases, broken. The doors weren't much better. During a late-winter blizzard, one of the old storm doors crumbled and fell off.

Once the new siding, windows and doors were in, the house looked more like a little coastal cottage than a mobile home.

Inside is another story.

The interior was an unfortunate 1980s time capsule. A small closet and a non-load-bearing wall were removed to open up the living space. All of the little strips of wood hiding the seams that screamed “mobile home” came down. The walls are in various stages of being taped, mudded and painted.

Drywall dust coats everything.

And then there is the plumbing.

The house still has its original polybutylene plumbing, the gray plastic piping used in many homes during the 1970s and 1980s that later became notorious for leaks and failures. After a recent pipe leak, I decided it was probably time to stop pretending the old pipes were going to behave themselves forever.

So the entire plumbing system has to be replaced.

While I'm waiting for the plumber, I have one functioning toilet, one functioning tub and not a single working sink.

The HVAC system is original, too. It still heats the house, although I'm not entirely convinced it plans to do so for the rest of my natural life. There is no working central air conditioning, so I'm considering ductless mini-splits.

There is still quite a lot to do before I can pack up the tent I've been sleeping in in my living room. (Read more about my tent here.)

But the vision is slowly coming together.

Someone else might have looked at an old mobile home with broken windows, failing doors, questionable plumbing, and a dated 1980s interior and decided it was time to tear it down.

I looked at it and saw something worth restoring.

That probably isn't anybody's idea of a dream house.

But it's mine.

Enjoyed this story?

Come wander through Petal Talk.