January 23, 2011 - Do It Yourself, There's No Other Choice

Sue said "You guys need to stop crawling around all over the place and just hire someone...."

Let me tell you what it's like to live in this tiny town, where there are no services (other than bars, cafes and convenience stores), and 90% of the population is as old or older than we are.


Warning: this post will be heavy on the photos, and in two parts. Part one covers the interior projects, part two will be the exterior work. That might even involve a part three!


We bought this property in the spring 2004. We'd been spending winters, in our motor home, in Arizona for several years, and had come to Bouse at the suggestion of friends who wintered here. We soon fell in love with the little town, and with our neighbors in the RV park. I, however, had never been really excited about spending six months of the year in a "traveling box", preferring something a bit larger, with a solid foundation. When this old single wide mobile home came up for sale, right across the street from where our RV was parked, I jumped at the chance to buy it. It was in pretty bad shape, but I've always love do-it-yourself home projects, and fixing up an old trailer was right up my alley! I mean, we got the place dirt cheap, so we could afford to hire some of the heavier work to be done. You know, things like new flooring. And pruning/removing trees.

Getting the interior livable was the easy part. I loved doing the painting, and didn't even mind that I had to learn to cut, miter and install ceiling moldings and baseboards. It didn't throw me when I had to lay new tiles over the old floor in the small bathroom, and Mr. Granny took it in stride when he had to replace the sink and toilet in that room. The difficulty began when we couldn't hire anyone to install carpeting and kitchen flooring. We contacted places from Parker and Lake Havasu City in AZ, as well as in Blythe, CA. They were all too busy, or wouldn't travel this far, or scheduled an installation and just never did show up. So we carpeted the small bedroom ourselves, and I single handedly removed all the old tiles from the kitchen, floated on a leveler, and installed the kitchen tiles myself. It was about that time we found out...if you want it done in Bouse, you have to do it yourself. We did find a handyman to tackle electrical projects, but everything else was (and still is) done by us.

Mr. Granny converses with the owners, prior to our purchasing the property. I have camera in hand, and take photos of the interior during this, our first time inside. This photo gives you an idea of the condition of the kitchen.

Kitchen eating area, before.

Kitchen, after.

Kitchen eating area, after.

Kitchen floor, before.

I heated the old peel and stick tiles with my hair dryer, and pried them up with a kitchen spatula, to reveal the 1970s linoleum underneath. Notice the "baseboards". These were in every room, but I replaced all but the ones in the main bathroom.

I floated on a leveler, then a primer, then installed the new tiles. The new baseboards are a great improvement, huh? Thank heavens for my electric miter saw and brad nailer!

The living room before. The previous owners (talking to Mr. Granny) were heavy smokers, and every surface was covered with yellow smoke stains.

After two coats of primer, two coats of paint, baseboards, carpet cleaning, new blinds and drapes, new/newer furniture and a Blue Flame heater for taking away the morning chill, the room was much more inviting.

The master bedroom was just nasty! The electrical panel adorns the wall next to the bed.

More primer, more paint, baseboard molding, more new blinds, hand sewn drapes (made from bed sheets), and clean furniture made a big difference. Family pictures disguise the electrical panel.

The small bedroom was even worse then the larger one.



Primer, paint, baseboard molding, window coverings, ceiling cove molding, new carpet and furniture made this room comfy and cozy.

The small 1/2 bathroom was non-functional. The back of the toilet tank was broken out, and all the plumbing under the sink looked as though someone had kicked it out. The 70s green and gold linoleum had to go!

I think by now I had gone through more than six gallons of primer! There was no way I would live with dark walls. I'm just not a dark wall type of gal. Mr. Granny installed the sink and toilet, I did the painting and the flooring, as well as the baseboards and ceiling cove molding. We replaced the regular door with a folding door, which gave me much more room for furniture in the bedroom.

The main bath was probably in the best condition of any of the rooms, so I left it for last.

Replacing the tub and surround were out of the question, so I stripped off the wallpaper border, gave the walls a coat of paint, and had Mr. Granny replace the toilet innards and install a new faucet on the sink. Other than that, only a few accessories and a couple of throw rugs were added (the burgundy rug doesn't show in this photo).

The winter after we bought this place, Mr. Granny had a heart attack. That meant I was the chief cook and bottle washer, as well as the painter/carpenter on all of these projects. I loved every minute of it.....until the electric nailing gun quit on me. It didn't take me long to replace it!

Next: The outside.