When I was in elementary school I had a favorite house that set right outside my hometown. This home was regal and fancy. It was a two-story brick home with three white columns and to a middle-class coal miner’s daughter that had always lived in a manufactured home, this fancy brick house was my idea of a true dream home. (I didn’t even know placing a manufactured home over a full basement was a possibility at the time)
This isn’t the home but it’s close:
In high school, while riding with a friend we drove by that house and I mentioned how much I loved it and how I dreamed of owning it.
Before I continue, I should mention that as a teen I was a bit embarrassed about living in a manufactured home, even though we lived in a very nice double wide, and my closest friends knew it. I didn’t take kindly to being associated with ‘trailer trash’ and even though I don’t think anyone ever called me that, I was still scared of being labeled with such a derogatory term.
Immediately after I shared my thoughts about the home my friend laughed. It was a deep, almost sinister laugh that took me by surprise. A laugh that you can’t help but ask, “WHAT?”
She grinned and said, “Crystal, that is nothing but a double wide setting on a high basement. The homeowners own Southern Homes (the local manufactured home dealer). Of all the nice houses around here your favorite one is a manufactured home – how ironic is that?”
I probably learned a very important lesson that day though I can’t tell you exactly what it was. Maybe that was the day I learned that manufactured homes are what you make of them. Or, maybe I learned that I was destined to live in a manufactured home and I was absolutely okay with that. Maybe I didn’t learn anything at all but should have.
The very true story above came about because I wanted to share a video with you that shows how a double wide can be placed over a high foundation and turned into a beautiful home.
Basically, you get the site-built look at a manufactured home price!
While the video states the home is a modular, the same can be done to a manufactured home. There are a few differences between manufactured and modular. While both types of homes are built in sections in a factory and transported to the lot for assembly, a modular home must pass local and state codes whereas a manufactured home only needs to pass a national code.
Manufactured homes can be turned into a two-story brick house with fancy white columns if that’s what you want! They can become huge ranch houses or small southwestern abodes.
The sky is the limit and that’s one of the most beautiful things about factory-built homes; they allow us the freedom and the unlimited potential of a site-built home, at a fraction of the cost. Placing a manufactured home over a full basement is just one of many options for manufactured homes.
Thank you so much for reading Mobile Home Living!
Crystal Adkins created Mobile Home Living in 2011 after buying her first home, a 1978 single wide in Oak Hill, WV. She searched online for mobile home remodeling ideas but didn't find much. She's tried her best to be the resource she was looking for. Today, Mobile Home Living is the most popular resource in America for mobile home remodeling ideas with over 40 million pageviews.
