phillipsplace

Happy Valentine’s Day

Dale and I keep Valentine’s day pretty much low key.

la Madeleine cookies and one of my cookie jars. Love purchasing these heart cookies around this time of year. So delicious!

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Dale and I keep Valentines day pretty much low key. We plan to stay in and have a special dinner tonight. Chili Hotdogs! Ha-ha! I know it doesn’t sound very romantic, but for some reason we’ve been graving hotdogs. 🙂 I am so looking forward to spending a nice, quite dinner with my sweetie. Keeping it simple makes me happy!

If you have a significant other or not, don’t feel pressure about this day. Keep it simple and enjoy the day.

Happy Valentine’s day!

Elizabeth

Texas Closet

Our latest project! Updating the master closet.

Hello everyone! Our latest project! We just finished updating our master closet. Okay! The closet is not necessarily a Texas size closet, it’s not even a regular walk in closet! I would consider it a half-size walk in closet! Ha-ha! All I can say is, it wasn’t working for us. Dale and I decided to change that and make it user-friendly for us.

Originally the closet had a wire shelf with the rod attached to hang clothes. Funky! Also we could not hang any clothes within fifteen inches from the door opening, because it would interfere with the door closing, which was wasted space.

Dale took the wire shelf out and patched the holes. Afterwards, we sanded the walls to prepare for primer. Painting this small space would be a test for us to see how complicated it will be to paint the rest of the house. The walls are sheet rock with some kind of vinyl over it like wallpaper. We used Zinsser Bulls Eye primer for all projects, suggested by the painting department at Lowes Hardware. (My tip, let the primer cure twenty four hours before you paint.) The day after I primed, Dale painted the walls and it turned out better than I expected. We used Valspar Ultra 2000, High Hide White and believe or not we used one coat! Very pleased with the Valspar Ultra.

My husband made ten shelves for shoes and misc. and a shelf above for extra storage. Originally we had one single rod to hang clothes. Dale installed upper and lower rods using one inch electrical conduit. Now we have a much better closet with more storage! I am happy with the way it turned out!

Original Closet

Before

Original Closet Wire Rack

This type of clothes rod was difficult to move/slide items.

Wire rack removed.

Patching and sanding.

Walls have been primed.

Installing shelves.

Shoe shelves and storage shelf.

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Painting the walls.

Finishing work for the shelves.

Placement for the rod brackets.

Re-using the wire rack for long ware.

After

Shoe shelves, extra storage space, upper and lower clothes rods.

Finish Closet

Better organize closet

The cost for this project was $100.00. Includes the wood, electrical conduit, primer and paint. By Doing It Yourself you save money!

Remember it doesn’t matter if you have a mobile home closet or not, you can update any small closet. Thank you for visiting!

The Phillips

Skirting/Back Porch and the American Flag

This has been a humbling experience for us. We are so thankful for the many who have donated their time, money and prayers.

I am so excited to tell you about our mobile home skirting and the back porch! Since we have a concrete slab, we choose to go with smart panel for the skirting around the house. We had vinyl skirting on the Bonnell and always seem to have problems with it moving or cracking. I think mainly because the ground here moves a lot.

1987 Bonnell with Vinyl Skirting.

Umberto the contractor whom we used through Clayton homes and his crew framed underneath our home with 2 x 4’s and used treated 2 x 4’s at the bottom, which was applied on top of the slab. The crew nailed the smart panels to the frame and my husband requested for the smart panels to run pass the slab. Important note: By doing this step it keeps the water off the slab and prevents the wood from rotting. The crew also made two crawl space doors at the back of the house and installed air vents for ventilation. Once they were done they painted the skirting to match the color of the home. Oh what a big difference! The skirting looks wonderful!

Concrete Slab we added J-hooks to the slab to make it easier to tie down the Anniversary.

Frame Work

Smart panel installed, before paint.

Smart panel runs pass the slab

Back of home.

Front before skirting was painted.

Skirting was painted to match the color of the home. Complete.

Next is my very favorite! The back porch! The kitchen area has a beautiful sliding door and Dale and I envisioned a nice size back porch. The porch size is 10 x 20 with a ramp facing the carport and steps facing towards the back yard. Having a ramp makes it easier carrying groceries into the house and helps for anyone who might have problems walking up stairs. Now you guys know I am going to have fun decorating the back porch! Ha-ha!

Building the back porch

Future back porch

This is Umberto posing for us. We appreciate all the work he and his crew have done. Very happy!

Porch Complete

New Back Porch

This has been a humbling experience for us. We are so thankful for the many who have donated their time, money and prayers to help us get to this point. I say this with tears we are so grateful.

In November we had a party for our friends, family and neighbors to show our appreciation. I officially put up the American flag that was previously displayed on our old porch before the festivities got started. We had burgers on the grill and had a live band playing! The Texas Humdinger’s! The band even donated their time to play for us. We just couldn’t believe it! We had a great time and felt it was time for a celebration!

Putting up the American Flag

What a fun night with the Texas Humdinger’s!

I wanted to mention that one of the band members was a victim of the flooding too. There are families still in our neighborhood rebuilding from the 2016 flooding. Please keep them and others in your prayers.

Thank you so much, Dale and Elizabeth.

Carport

My husband is so smart he also had the carport moved forward, which gives us a better view of our property.

Hello and Happy New Year!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Dale and I have taken a break from everything!! We needed to retreat and refresh and spend some time enjoying our new home. Believe me, we are now ready for some projects. Ha-Ha! I would like to continue to show you what we have done to the outside construction of our home.

The carport is now complete! Mr. Garza our concrete guy and his crew set the metal carport on the knee wall, they did a wonderful job. I am so happy Dale came up with the idea to have it raised! We have a much better sight line, before our view was block by the buildings cover.

My husband is so smart he also made arrangements to have the carport moved forward, which gives us a better view of our property when we are sitting on the back porch.

Before picture of left side of carport.

Left side knee wall.

After

Right side of carport.

Having shrubs here was difficult to trim between the house and the carport. Having a sidewalk is much better for this space.

Right side knee wall.

You can see it really looks clean and sleek. Since we had to remove the shrubs we decided to have a sidewalk installed instead. We are all about having things easier!

Before

After

We extended the driveway for extra space for a patio/workspace and to meet the future ramp for the back porch.

The patio extends ten feet pass the carport.

I wanted to end this blog with a picture of the garden area.

In late December we had some warm weather so I took advantage of it by cleaning up my garden. I spent a day pressure washing the raised beds and washed all my pots. I am looking forward to planting some vegetables this spring. Very hopeful indeed.

Thank you for stopping by the Phillips Place and be sure to subscribe to my blog so you will not miss any future post.

Thank you Dale and Elizabeth Phillips

Kitchen and Dining Room

It’s okay to think out of the box when it comes to your home! Use your space to your advantage!

Dale and I have settled into our new home and are enjoying it very much! We are slowly but surely getting the place organize. Let me tell you about a few things we have done. When we purchased our home the kitchen came with black appliances. We exchanged the stove, air vent and dishwasher with the white appliances we already had. We haven’t replaced the refrigerator yet.

In the kitchen area you will see a beautiful white island that Dale and I found while on a road trip to Wimberley, Texas over the summer! We put this beautiful piece in the breakfast area. I wanted to have an extra serving space and an area I could work on projects.

We also found a beautiful rosewood dining room table on our road trip! We both love the rustic, farmhouse style and scored a good deal! We purchased the chairs from Hermann Furniture in Brenham Texas, one of my favorite places to shop because they have a wonderful antique mall!

Okay now when you see the pictures of the dining room, keep in mind the room was intended to be the living room. Ha-ha! Yes! We are using that space for the dining room! Dale and I really don’t watch much television, but do watch movies. Dale is using the third bedroom for his little media room. I plan to show pictures at a later date.

It’s okay to think out of the box when it comes to your home! Use your space to your advantage! When we have company over they don’t even miss the living room. The kitchen, dining room has become our gathering place. I do plan to make a little sitting area behind the bar later, but for now we are enjoying our space.

We don’t want to do any major projects to our home at this time. I feel we need to live in our home for a while to get a feel for it first. We are working on a small project which I will share later. I hope this was fun! Enjoy the pictures of the kitchen and dining room, till next time!

Before

Dining Room

Before Breakfast Area and Buffet

After

Before

White appliances looks better with the white farmhouse sink.

Home Sweet Home

View from the dining room.

Rosewood Farmhouse Table

Originally for the TV, using this space for shelving.

Built in shelves.

Handmade ceramic pitcher housewarming gift.

Before Transom Windows

After

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

AC Placement and Platform

Hello everyone! One of the things I forgot to mention, it’s about the air conditioner! I think this is a really important step to think about when you are setting up your new mobile home. Does anyone ever think about the placement of where the AC will be installed? Not always! We didn’t want the air conditioner too close to the future back porch and we did not want it near or under a bedroom window. Yes! Dale and I can be a little anal sometimes. Ha-ha! We constantly think of all kinds of situations! Okay, can you imagine you’re sipping your ice tea on your back porch, relaxing and suddenly your AC comes on! The noise just ruins it! Same thing goes with the AC being right under a bedroom window when you are trying to fall a sleep.

Usually the manufacturer is going to put your AC closes to where the furnace is. Our furnace is in the hall next to the second bedroom, which would put it pretty close to the bedroom window.

What to do? Notify the manufacturer in advance where you want the placement of your AC. This is very important so that the installer will make sure to bring enough copper tubing and wire. We had the AC placed furthest from the bedroom window towards the back corner of the house.

Air Conditioner Platform

Now about the AC platform. It was required by the county and FEMA that the Air Conditioner be set above the floodplain. Special note! It was required by us too! Believe me, even if it wasn’t mandatory by the County we would’ve set it high anyway! Common sense when you’ve been through a flood. Dale built the AC platform along with the help from his son. They did a wonderful job!

My featured image is the inside of our home before we moved in. After pictures coming soon.

The Anniversary 2016

“To be prepared is half the victory.”- Miguel De Cervantes

Sidewalk, Driveway and Carport Transformation

I can actually walk with heals to my car without getting my shoes wet or dirty!

Ever since we moved in it’s been busy here at the Phillips Place, you will see what I mean.

Mr. Garza and his crew did such an awesome job on the foundation we thought let’s not stop there! Ha-ha! Dale and I have always talked about installing a paved sidewalk and knew this would be the time to have it done. We had 16 x 16 stones as our sidewalk, but when it rained, we would have puddles in some areas of our path.

We had a gravel driveway and during our past wet season the driveway was deteriorating fast and collecting water. When we purchased the property it came with a 20 x 22 foot metal carport. We had Mr. Garza install a driveway and sidewalk, but Dale added his special touch when it came to the carport. He designed it along with Mr. Garza to make a one foot knee wall, which will raise the carport. Raising the carport gives us a better sight line. In addition we added another sidewalk between the carport and the house.

Before picture. We used 16 x 16 Stones to make a walkway.

Bracing the carport was a very important step, it was necessary so that the carport would not collapse. Preparing to move the carport so the old house could be removed and make ready for the new driveway.

Nothing is as easy as you want it to be. Moving the carport was a very time consuming job. We did it little by little, step by step until it was done. Dale used PVC pipe to roll the carport.

Carport temporary home. Front yard.

Sidewalk Form

Preparing for the concrete.

Preparing for the new driveway.

One foot knee wall form.

Far left future sidewalk, bottom right future front sidewalk.

Pouring the concrete. Very exciting day!

Oh my! Once the work was complete it made such a big transformation! It looks wonderful! I can actually walk with heals to my car without getting my shoes wet or dirty! Ha-ha! Before I would wear flip flops and change my shoes in the car.

Driveway is finish. Carport still needs to be installed.