Hale County is full of prefabricated mobile homes whose assorted additions make them into homes that are better suited to the climate and individual needs. These additions might be porches or decks, protective roofs or extra rooms, wood burning stoves or even two trailers pushed together.

Six months were spent designing and constructing a large screened porch addition to a single woman's trailer in the Depot Street neighborhood of Greensboro. The porch is an intrinsic element of the southern vernacular as the climate allows outdoor living for nine months of the year. Shade and screen are vital as refuge from the blistering sun and biting insects and form the basis of a large outdoor room which doubles the living space of the trailer on a small budget.

The project reuses an old trailer chassis as its base, reducing the cost of the foundations and allowing the porch to be mobile should the need arise to move the trailer. It is also built as a separate structure with two bridge connections so that the mobile home can be replaced without having to dismantle the addition.

The porch is both open and screened, with a slatted sleeping area, spray-painted screen and a back wall of shelving units for additional storage. It used only readily available materials (dimensional lumber, corrugated roofing, plywood and insect screen) were used, and simple carpentry skills required in its construction.