By Raymond John Anibas
’56 Spartan Executive Mansion
Trailer houses have made sense to me ever since living with my parents and two of my sisters in a ten-wide on Kodiak, in late ’64. Being the only boy, I had a 7’x5′ “room of my own” so the lack of privacy didn’t ruin the adventure…it was just “cosy” living.
Spartans had a special appeal, since I saw my first one in ’62 ( I salvaged that same trailer in ’98 when the owners of the tiny water front site decided they needed a bigger mobil, making it my first Spartan). I loved the Aircraft look and clean lines; the all aluminum structure and serious steel chassis made these houses very rehabitable.(don’t worry about the spelling, that’s a new word)
This is the view aft from the mates repose, like all tiny houses it’s filled to the brim with living. Since my Colleen and I are life long collectors it’s also covered, as every surface was considered for potential as display for the many pieces of art we love to look at.
This view of the kitchen shows the meat of the remodel (aside from removing all of the bulkheads forwards); laminate floor from the bathroom door forward, tile aft, with electric heat under kitchen, bath, and bedroom. The original 24″ stove top and it’s associated cabinets were removed and a modern 30″range placed and I built a “side-board” that encloses our garbage/recycle with a narrow cabinet with drawers for utensils and the blender and other kitchen “stuff” that we don’t want cluttering up the kitchen counter. The wall oven is slated to go so that we can have a high-efficiency dishwasher in that location. The counter-tops are Granite and I managed to get the formica up in one piece, eliminating most of the metal strips that usually support these panels.
We started out with his and hers recliners, but have since put in a couch so that we can sit together. We also changed the curtains as the blue was too “busy” (we went with a “dusty rose” solid). I installed the 3 door glass fronted cabinet (just visible, upper left) and put lights in it, to display our sculptural pieces and dolls.
Here is a detail of the bedroom, the wall mounted head-board will get more shelves, nearly to the floor, on either side of the bed; the original window trim was stained and rotten, so the yellow-cedar wood work was a must. The beautiful silk quilt was what my Colleen made for me while she waited for her new house (the work was done in the ’51 Royal Mansion she uses as a sewing studio) along with curtains and rugs.
This close-up is to show-off the gorgeous finish of the black-granite vanity in the bath room, the barely visible curve on the left was so we could get a couple of inches extra mass, without a sharp corner in the door-way. In all, we installed 5 pieces of granite, gifts from Colleen’s oldest son, Arron, a skilled professional stone cutter.
Thank you Raymond for sharing your home with us. If you have a tiny or small home that you would like to share with the readers of the Tiny House Blog, please send photos and a story to tinyhouseblog(at)gmail.com.