Pine Grove and Colony

[Lisa Welch]

Thanks so much for this forum!
I just found it the other day, and I'm already learning so much. My husband and I are looking at purchasing a used doublewide in upstate NY, only because the cost of a new home is little out of reach for us right now.

We've been looking for about 2 months now. I'm ordering Randy's new book, to help us in our search. Right now we are leaning towards two brands, Pine Grove and Colony (made by Commodore). Any one had any experience with either of these manufacturers?

[Richard]

Randy's book is a great place to start. Be sure the 'model' of that manufacturer is the construction and material listed in the book. Some manufacturers will build a price leader and give you poor quality materials and workmanship. Be sure that you know what the costruction and material is on the exact model you purchase.

[Lisa Welch]

Thanks for you input Richard. We really want to make an educated choice, since there are folks who have had terrible experiences. (But I guess you can have the same problems buying a site built home too.)

I'm wondering how you go about finding out the type of materials that were used in a particular model that is 5 or 6 years old. The Pinegrove homes will be easy since they only have one manufacturing facility. But I don't know much about the Colony homes except that they are made in Pennsylvania.

[Cara]

Lisa,

[Cara]

Lisa,
Look under Colonyfactorycraftedhomes.com they have one of the best sites of all mfh. We just bought a Colony Home. the largest that they make 28x80. Aurora series. Great house for the $$$. We looked for 2 years and always went back to Colony. We were able to upgrade roof pitch, have all drywall,and alot of other options.... for about $80k. Hope this helps, it is alot of info to digest... also search under colony homes in the forums.. i have written before about them... Cara

[Babs]

We have been in our Colony Laurel House for a little over a month and so far so good. We live in upstate NY and we have not been able to put our skirting up because we are using split face block and it has not been warm enough for the concret but our heating bill has been under $100.00 that is how well insulated it is.
Our home is 1859 sq.ft.and with the way the wind has been blowing up here my husband and i are very pleased.Our home is beautiful and with a few upgrades our home was $ 60,000.

[patrick]

what was the web site for colony?

[Babs]

colonyhomes.com

[Phoebe]

Hi,

I just thought I would put my two cents in regarding how lousy I thought the Pine Grove Homes looked when I saw them two weeks ago.

One of the Models that truly magnified the bad workmanship had an a Cedar interior options package installed.

The trim work was unsanded, rough, splintery,

The Cedar beams were not matched (extreme different shades) and so badly joined that you could see the wedges coming out.

Molding was not connected properly so there were 1/4 inch gaps from trim to trim in many places through out the home.

Kitchen counters, the tile trim was badly sawed off

Cheesy looking cabinets

Salesman said that the molding was "all wood". Yeah, all mystery wood with a photo of wood laminated over it.

I am also looking at Colony and Patriot and look forward to a better experience.

I have heard many, many good things about both companies.

Regards,

Phoebe