jwstewar
Elite Member
I know exactly what you are going through Andy. We lost our house to fire September 28. Like you, we are blessed. No one was home when the fire happened and we were able to save most pictures. As we've told people, the four of us were OK, the firemen didn't get hurt fighting the fire, we got our pictures, and other than that it is stuff. We'll get new stuff.
We were able to go back in and get a few things, but ended up still throwing most of it away as it was either melted or rusted or we were afraid of it because we didn't know how hot it had been and didn't want to take a chance.
We had a double wide/modular whatever you want to call it. It was a nice house with 2x6 walls and good insulation, but there were some things about it that we didn't like where they skimped. When we started looking again we looked at everything available be it modular, a mass builder, a custom builder that did multiple homes at a time, and finally individual/custom builders that did one at a time. Modulars had a BIG STRIKE against them as we just had a cousin that had built a 300k one and had tons of problems. So much so that they ended up suing and got all of their money back. Needless to say, we were skeptical of going down that road. We finally ended with a custom builder that typically is doing 3 - 4 homes at a time. They had plans that we liked well enough to start customizing and we felt we could trust the builder. Ironically the builder we chose we almost walked out about 15 minutes into the conversation, didn't like "what he was telling us." But after listening to him a little bit more we understood where he was coming from and he wasn't feeding us a line of bull just to tell us what we wanted to hear. This had to do with a house layout that my wife found at another builder and was "set" on getting, but I didn't like the looks of the house. He basically was saying what others said that he couldn't "build the other builders house because of copyright laws and ethically he wouldn't." He was able to take one of his plans and take the kitchen layout that she really like and adapt his plan with that kitchen/dining room/great room layout with just enough of a tweak that it is ours and not the other builder's.
Currently we are living in our driveway in a 14x70 trailer that insurance rented for us. Let me tell you this thing doesn't even come close to what our "double wide" was. But at least we are on our property to "protect" our garage and we can see our new house be built. They dug the basement last Monday & Tuesday, poured the footer Friday, yesterday they installed the footer drains and dry well for the sump pump. I'm assuming today they will start installing the forms for the basement walls.
You are moving much faster than we did if you already know a layout. We took about 6 weeks to get a layout and builder. 2 weeks to close because of the Thanksgiving Holiday and then we got held up a bit because of the weather. Hang in there it'll be alright. BTW, our goal is to move in before Monica's birthday - June 1st. They said 4 - 6 months and we are expecting/preparing for the long and hoping for the short. Just to compare, we ordered our moduler August 1, 1999. We moved in November 1, 1999.
BTW, I plan on letting the builder do everything except wire TV, Phone, and Computer. Monica and I are also going to do the painting but we are having the trim stained at the mill based upon advice from the builder.
We were able to go back in and get a few things, but ended up still throwing most of it away as it was either melted or rusted or we were afraid of it because we didn't know how hot it had been and didn't want to take a chance.We had a double wide/modular whatever you want to call it. It was a nice house with 2x6 walls and good insulation, but there were some things about it that we didn't like where they skimped. When we started looking again we looked at everything available be it modular, a mass builder, a custom builder that did multiple homes at a time, and finally individual/custom builders that did one at a time. Modulars had a BIG STRIKE against them as we just had a cousin that had built a 300k one and had tons of problems. So much so that they ended up suing and got all of their money back. Needless to say, we were skeptical of going down that road. We finally ended with a custom builder that typically is doing 3 - 4 homes at a time. They had plans that we liked well enough to start customizing and we felt we could trust the builder. Ironically the builder we chose we almost walked out about 15 minutes into the conversation, didn't like "what he was telling us." But after listening to him a little bit more we understood where he was coming from and he wasn't feeding us a line of bull just to tell us what we wanted to hear. This had to do with a house layout that my wife found at another builder and was "set" on getting, but I didn't like the looks of the house. He basically was saying what others said that he couldn't "build the other builders house because of copyright laws and ethically he wouldn't." He was able to take one of his plans and take the kitchen layout that she really like and adapt his plan with that kitchen/dining room/great room layout with just enough of a tweak that it is ours and not the other builder's.
Currently we are living in our driveway in a 14x70 trailer that insurance rented for us. Let me tell you this thing doesn't even come close to what our "double wide" was. But at least we are on our property to "protect" our garage and we can see our new house be built. They dug the basement last Monday & Tuesday, poured the footer Friday, yesterday they installed the footer drains and dry well for the sump pump. I'm assuming today they will start installing the forms for the basement walls.
You are moving much faster than we did if you already know a layout. We took about 6 weeks to get a layout and builder. 2 weeks to close because of the Thanksgiving Holiday and then we got held up a bit because of the weather. Hang in there it'll be alright. BTW, our goal is to move in before Monica's birthday - June 1st. They said 4 - 6 months and we are expecting/preparing for the long and hoping for the short. Just to compare, we ordered our moduler August 1, 1999. We moved in November 1, 1999.
BTW, I plan on letting the builder do everything except wire TV, Phone, and Computer. Monica and I are also going to do the painting but we are having the trim stained at the mill based upon advice from the builder.
