Remember when Tim found those 3 pairs of shutters when he was out scrapping?

And he put them up and one set didn’t quite match?

Well, he went and built me the coolest little window box to offset the length of the shutters!

We considered cutting the shutters to size, but that would have been kinda dorky. They are just plastic and well, a bit rough, and cutting them would have really made them look, rougher.

So he built a slim box out of some leftover lumber and just screwed the thing to the side of the Moby.

You know, that is the brilliance of owning your own $800 mobile home. You can screw stuff on the side of it and not worry so much about how it might affect the value of it, or that you might be subjected to some neighborhood watch program for effecting property values. I mean, hey, just about ANYTHING you do to a $800 mobile home is a major improvement. Just keep it simple and plain and tasteful and people around you will be amazed everytime they visit!

I really like the look of the window box! And the longer shutters on that window. That window is my kitchen window and it’s teeny and drab. I’d love to replace it all together, but that just isn’t going to happen this moment. I have a few others things that have to happen in the next couple months, so I’m stuck with that window.

But look at it now! It’s delightful!

I got a couple fall flowers to pop in the box… simple, I think I might need two small ones inbetween, but right now, it’s pretty nice. And lovely to look upon every time I pass that window, or when I’m doing dishes. We actually look out that thing a good deal… we watch our bid station or the dog in the yard, that kind of thing.

Or the cat.

Through the window.

Up close. In the box.

Yeah… in the window box.

HAHA… as he was building and putting it up there, apparently Luna was ready to scope it out as a perfect spot to view her outside AND inside domain. She could keep an eye on everything from this perfect perch!

But considering that it was a good 7-8 feet up there to her perch, and I wasn’t planning on leaving the ladder up for her highness… she decided that it wasn’t quite the best spot and gave it up.

But all in all… I love it!

How can you not? I think I need more window boxes! Maybe next year I can consider it. Would a few dangling plants and all look just so so… European? Wow. A European Mobile Home. Right straight out of a little Bavarian town in the Alps. Yeah.

I can so see that. I wonder if you can grow litchen and moss and all on the top of a mobile home? That would be so cool.

Actually… I read the coolest article about some people that wrapped a moby in straw bale on the outside and then stucco-ed it in… like adobe plaster. That would be SO COOL…. Think about the insulation factor, it would so improve the value of heat and cooling in an old Moby! It would be very cost effective, and it would make it look more and more like a home, rather than a moby. Add a nice overhang roof and you’ve got yourself a really nice home for WAY cheaper than stick built.

Retrofitting a Moby with Strawbale….

I wonder why you don’t see more of this. I mean, what a PERFECT solution… economical and just really cool.

Buy an old moby. Heck buy two. Same length. Pop them together on a piece of land. Cut some connection openings between the two. Like maybe open up the living rooms.

Then strawbale the entire outside perimeter and add a nice insulated metal peaked roof over the whole thing.

Oh that is SO something I want to investigate further and really consider. I mean, it would be SO cool. I already know that to move my Moby within 50 miles or so would be about $5,000. And to make improvements (that’s what they call adding electricial hookups, a pad, and sewer/water to just a piece of land…) would be around $2,000. And of course, a nice acre or two lot in an area that allows mobies… thats another $5,000 – $20,000 depending on where and what you get and all that stuff.

Let’s consider a middle of the road lot…. $10 grand. And another $7 to move and connect to the grid. And let’s be generous… another $3 grand for say, making a little nicer driveway, bushhogging a bit of yard, and some garden space, and just some basic improvements other than just basic necessities… like a way cool little ranch style front fence gate or something…

Still. $20,000 for a home and land that you own? Free and clear? That’s really reachable for a lot of people. I know it’s reachable for me! May take me a while. So what. If it takes me 5 years! Still… a good goal. And I can always do it in baby steps. Buy the land, start to improve it. Maybe even put a temporary yurt on it or something fun like that. Do as MUCH as I can with the help of friends and bartering services, etc. And then finally move the moby over.

That’s a plan…. that’s a goal. Living rent free, mortgage free… with some woods and a big garden and of course… CHICKENS!!!!!

Ah…… that’s the big goal!

And of course, strawbale wrapping her would be even better!

Pin It