De-Trash Your Trailerhood: Manage It.

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Here is the first phase of our mission to start de-trashing the trailerhood, or rather, my trailerhood but these are applicable anywhere I'd say. Keep in mind that as we do this some of our steps may get out of order depending on what we are working on.

When I first moved into my trailer it looked straight up trailerhood (for the duration I will be saying "hood" but I mean that in terms of a trailer park/manufactured home community).

Here's a little reminder:

I don't have very many original pictures since it was not my original plan to start a blog. I know. That was dumb. I'm kicking myself for it now. But you can sort of see that the wood is rotting in places, the stairs are weird, there was rotting lattice attached to the porch and some of the flashing was gone from the roof overhang.

Here's what it looks like presently:

You can see even in this picture that the grass is over grown, the rails are filthy, and my aspen tree is totally dead.

Even this big mulberry bush is trying to escape from the picture.

Porch is cluttered with planting materials and is very, very dirty.

This side wasn't so bad even though all the paint was peeling off my bench and it was looking a little wonky.

Loads of cobwebs all around the front entry is also not very inviting. It works out okay on Halloween though!

The main point of showing these somewhat embarrassing photos of my house is that maintaining your exterior is crucial! It not only adds value to your home but also increases the curb appeal, and allows you to identify potential issues early on rather than waiting for it to totally fall apart. 

So for a total investment of $0.00 dollars we are going to start our detrashing by cleaning up the outside of the house considering that is the first thing people see when they drive by, and often the only thing.

To-do list:

• Mow the lawn
• Pull weeds that are mega tall.
• Fill containers with pretty flowers
• Repaint the peeling paint on the deck.
• Clean off the cobwebs 
• Replace the icky light
• Repaint the bench and clean furniture.

Keep in mind that water is (nearly) free, you can get a decent broom at the dollar store, and if you have to buy paint you can get it for only $15 dollars at Lowe's or even WalMart.

Check back on Friday and I'll show you the steps I've taken so far!

Summer Series: De-Trashing the Trailerhood

****If you are seeing this content on http://manufacturedhomefacts.com/ please be advised it is there without permission! thismessybusiness.com is the OFFICIAL and only site I publish on!***

One of the hardest parts about owning the home I do is the fact that it is a trailer. I try to make it pretty by calling it a manufactured home but the truth is... it is still a trailer and I live in a trailer park community for all intents and purposes (though technically it actually is a neighborhood because you have to purchase land where I'm at.) I hate that. I feel as though people judge me before they pull up to my house.

They imagine this:

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Well I can't change the fact that it's a trailer, and the way the market is right now, we're not moving. So we are going to de-trash the trailerhood for the rest of this summer!

The goal of this series is to change people's minds about trailers and change my attitude about it as well.

I've outlined five major steps to help out this process:

1. Manage It.

2. Clean it Up.

3. Wear it Well.

4. Give Me Attitude.

5. Keep it Up.

The goal? Have the nicest trailer in the hood, and maybe encourage my neighbors to do the same!

If you would help me out, please comment with a notion or thought that you have about trailers and people that live in them. It will help me a lot! (And don't worry I'm a high school teacher, tough skin yo.)

Roommates Strike Out

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Some of you may remember a couple years ago when I painted the third bedroom in my house with stripes for a much desired office. Financially I couldn't support not having another roommate because I was still in college. Well 6 months after graduation and with having a full-time job I can finally do it. Plus another roommate would probably make me lose my marbles.

Not good.

My current roommate has the room set up like this:

After the age of 15 I feel like teddy bears on the bed is kinda weird. But hey, that's just me. I also noticed that she has all of her wall hangings hung up in a bizarre mishmash which means there is likely going to be a number of nail holes and tack holes in the walls....

Since I no longer have any more of the two colors that originally went into the stripes I have decided that they need to be redone anyway. Thankfully they are already started so it won't be nearly as hard as it was the first time. I am going to start looking at colors to get an idea of what I want to go with.

So Office/Guest Room To-Do List:

• Find a full-sized guest bed
• Build desk for under window 
• Repair walls/repaint stripes
• Create awesome storage solutions 
• Fix door/paint door/do something with the door
• DIY some wall decor

If you have any other tips or ideas for creating a good combination space in here please let me know! It will be a bit before I can get all the furniture and such that I want in there so I am open to suggestions!