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Yea, I know it is a manufactured Home, that is partly why I am having a hard time shaking the bad rap that they have and the
negative opinion of other around me. So far it has been a good house, held up to some really nasty storms with no damage what so ever.
Maybe as time goes on, others in my life will see that it is a good house and can take a beating.
I have been a part of the "housing decorator" business for 35 years, have worked with dozens of home builders, walked through 500+ open houses and toured maybe 50 new housing developments in CA, AZ and NC. I have seen thousands of stick built homes of all sizes and shapes both new and re-dos.
MH homes are well built with little or no wasted space because they are generally well designed by engineers to get the best use of every square inch. Many or most stick built homes are designed to be the most economically built by architecural firms and end up having drawers that can't be used in the kitchen unless you open the dishwasher door, bedroom doors that open the wrong way, odd shaped livingrooms so normal furniture won't fit, and then are finished with cheap appliances and bathroom fixtures. Typically contractors / builders have no idea how a kitchen needs to be designed to be useable for baking or cooking, follow blindly what they think is the latest trend in bathroom cabinets, wall colors or countertops and just want to get the house built quickly and sold before even finished. MH homes are built tough because they are Federally mandated to do so...and thank god they are.
I have lived in many poorly built traditionaly built homes and two MH homes (and a 37 ft. 5th wheel trailer for 2 1/2 years)...When I can afford my little 2 to 3 acre piece of heaven I'll be putting a MH on it. More bang for your buck! Here in NC, the MH homes have to withstand category 4 hurricanes.
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Wow! thank you for your post. I have to agree with you on the whole design flaws of site built homes. My parents just built
a site built home and have had the biggest problem with light fixtures going bad and other cosmetic issues that are just annoying.
I have been in my house which is 16 years old now and have not had any problems with any of the fixtures. Our house in the
winter is even warmer than their new site built home. They have a slab so the floors there are always ice cold no matter
how warm the thermostat is set.
With all the good enginereing that goes int MFH I still have to wonder why people think so negatively of them. I am beginning
to think that it is possibly the lack of education on the industry that is operating and building the homes of the 21 century.
Getting ready to purchase our MH...hope to be in it by Christmas! No worries on what others say or think...as long as you are happy and pleased with your place that's all that matters. We just purchased 2 acres that backs up to a creek filled with Trout and our own Mountain in West Virginia. I couldn't be happier having our new MH... plus it will be paid for in a few years. That's what really matters! I've had the big custom home and the big payment that goes with it...I was miserable! As long as you are happy, let go of the worries.... I could live in a cardboard box as long as I have my family and I'm happy
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I am so happy for you I do wish you the best in your new home. How many square feet is your new MFH? Your property sounds to pretty,
sounds like a piece of heaven if you ask me.
Our payment is very reasonable and by no means is any strain to us at all. Even when we had hard times our house payment
was never an issue. I am so glad that I do not have a large house payment I would be miserable just like you mentioned with your
payment.
That is awesome to be able to move into your home by Christmas talk about an awesome Christmas present.
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hmmm. I live in a double-wide with a 40' screened back porch, a 12' front deck, and a barn, all on a chunk of acreage. My horses are right outside my back door now and my chicken coops are behind the barn. It cost a fraction of a brick house but at the time we bought it (right after Katrina) the soonest a contractor could build us a conventional house was a 2-year wait. So we opted for the double-wide and have never regretted it. If we had built that house, we would have lost it when the economy went south. Instead we are sitting with a mortgage we can comfortably afford even though we lost our entire savings in the crash. Sure, sometimes here lately the food is a bit scarcer than we would like, but we can still cover our bills and the mortgage is in no danger of not getting paid. I would not go back to conventional.
The first year we were here, we built ourselves a tornado cellar into the north-facing side of one of our hills. It's only 10 feet square, but there is enough space for us, the dogs, and the parrots. This year we invested in a generator.
Oh, and I don't give a flying leap about what people may say. In fact, any gossip is more likely about our being pagan and gay than about what kind of house we live in.
Rusty
Wow! your place sounds really nice. I would love to put in a screen back porch, that is on our long term plans.
How much did it cost to put in your storm shelter? We are looking into that. After the out break in April we are thinking
that it might be nice to put something in. We have never left our house due to a storm but the outbreak in April did
spark a little interest in us to possibly leave till the storms were past. We ended up at the fire station at the end of our
road along with other people from the area who did not have besements.
Like you I am not sure if I would really want to go back to coventional housing. Our manufactured home is really comfy
and warm in the winter. Our house heats better then the brand new house that my parents just built a few miles away.
Their house is on a slab the floors for some reason always stay cold.
Thanks for your post.
Well, it is built into a north-facing slope about midway up. My son did the excavating for us, but the block walls and slab floor were basically pretty cheap. The rebar we reinforced the walls and floor with was the biggest out-of-pocket expense. We installed drainage so that any water that might seep in during a storm just runs into a floor drain and back outside below us. The ceiling is heavy PT plywood with about a foot of the hill on top of it. There are no windows, just a couple of shelves across the back wall and a couple of chairs. Space for the dog crates and I sit the parrot cages on top of them. The outside door would probably have been the most expensive part, but we scavenged it off an old refrigerated delivery truck. It is heavy and secure. I didn't want it getting sucked off or anything.
All told, we've probably got less than $2,000 invested and it's kinda rough, but for peace of mind, you cannot beat it! Built into the side of the hill like that, you can't really even see it unless you are down in the pasture and looking up at the house and even then all you see is the steel door, so it is not an eyesore or anything.
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I'm going to read wayyyy too far into what you've said so far and give you my blunt opinion. It sounds to me like someone is jealous! How could anyone refer to a place that looks like that as 'trailer trash'???? Maybe they're trying to drag you down a little because they wish they had a place like that. Maybe they can't afford something nice, maybe they're just jerks......whatever the reason they are hurtling insults with absolutely no merit! It's a beautiful home. You have the sense to live within your means and NOT drown in debt trying to keep up with the jones's. I don't think they actually believe it's not a stable home. I think they're just pulling out every negative thing they've ever heard about MH's to get to you. I think they're just being spiteful.
Some people actually feel better about themselves when their tearing others down...and I think you've run into one of them. I'm sorry you're going through all this!
Someone said a few pages back about how you are supposed to leave a mobile or manufactured home in the event of a tornado, and that is true. But, if you ever notice, only people that live in trailers see UFO's. Something Jeff Foxworthy said one time.
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I'm going to read wayyyy too far into what you've said so far and give you my blunt opinion. It sounds to me like someone is jealous! How could anyone refer to a place that looks like that as 'trailer trash'???? Maybe they're trying to drag you down a little because they wish they had a place like that. Maybe they can't afford something nice, maybe they're just jerks......whatever the reason they are hurtling insults with absolutely no merit! It's a beautiful home. You have the sense to live within your means and NOT drown in debt trying to keep up with the jones's. I don't think they actually believe it's not a stable home. I think they're just pulling out every negative thing they've ever heard about MH's to get to you. I think they're just being spiteful.
Some people actually feel better about themselves when their tearing others down...and I think you've run into one of them. I'm sorry you're going through all this!
You pretty much said it, I have most defintely run into someone who thinks that MFH are dangerous to live in, a fire hazard, a tornado trap and
not a real home over all. It does really hurt when some has these opinions of your house that we bought simply because all the site built houses
that we looked at were really in need of major repairs. What really makes me mad is that the media backs them up. They get all their facts from the media then
remind me how many people die in MFH each year due to tornadoes. I am basically becoming scared to live in my own home. A strange feeling I may add.
But, thanks you for you post, I think you have shed some good light on the situation. The truth is we are not in dept at all. Others who are pointing fingers
at me are up over their heads trying to pay off their nice new site built home.
Thanks MuranoFarms I appreciate you comforting words
