Thanks Mac/Fuqua/Silvercrest Customized

[Kris]

Thanks Mac. The problem is that my husband wants a large master bedroom and he is not that concerned about the rest. I however want the other rooms close to ours because the kids will be in the other rooms (I'm more concerned about that than he is, =) ) I would also like a bathroom located between two of the rooms where the kids will be.

Anyway, he wants something about 3000 square feet because he wants a master bedroom (about 600-700 sq feet) that's too large for me but I hope I can talk him out of it because I don't think a manufactured builder will do that.

Mac, have you viewed the new Silvercrest homes floor plans? The Model M7 and the M19 (3683 sq ft) is beautiful but probably way too big to keep up for me with my children. One of the models Silvercrest makes (I think the M20) has this beautiful dining room with pillars around it. I would love this, and also when you mentioned the muddy dog "airlock" what did you mean by that? Is that a "mud room" so to speak?

Oh, my husband wants a utility room (he says mud room) that could be located where a site built garage could be put because he works on cars on his spare time.

He also wants to add the vinyl wood siding because I have read, on this post among on other sites, that real wood siding has to be maintained. I don't even know if Fuqua will do the vinyl wood siding. I have spoken with Fuqua and they seemed really nice but forgot to ask.

I also found Linwood who states they do custom manufactured homes and on Guerdon's website they state the same.

The largest Fuqua home is about 2600 sq feet which is still big to me for one story.

Sorry for the lenghty post.

Oh, sorry Mac I also forgot to add we are on our own land (over 2 acres so we won't have land costs) and also my husband wants to have ceramic tile throughout the house because our land is basically dirt (otherwise known as horse property). It would be tougher to keep the carpet up. So in order to have ceramic tile we will need thicker flooring and I was told possibly 2X8-2X10 in the floor.

Thanks in advance for your response and any advice.

[Ray]

Kris, the Fuqua Polaris floor plan in the Star Pointe series might work for you. The master bedroom is in the rear across three sections so the bedroom/ bath/ closet area is about 600 sq.ft. There are two bedrooms off the master with a central bath.
The "living room" shown just off the front door can be made into a fourth bedroom and another guest bath with shower can be added by eliminating the computer alcove and shifting the walkin closet of the bedroom to this area and using the other area for the new bathroom. The bedrooms are very large and have big closets. There are two water heaters so no cold showers. Also, the home is only 2200 sq.ft. so less to clean. BTW, I am a Fuqua dealer that specializes in customized floor plans. We customize the base plans more than any other dealer because of our location in the pricey San Francisco/ Monterey Bay Area. Silvercrest will customize their models as well, maybe you just need to find a dealer that is used to doing that.

And, as Mac said, the dealer/ contractor should be your deciding factor. A lousy installation can ruin the best home and a knowledgeable salesperson/ dealer can be your best advocate with the factory to get what you want. Good luck!

[Kris]

Does the dealer pick your contractor? Me and my husband are trying to plan a trip to Bakersfield to view the Fuqua homes, we also want to make a trip to Bend, Oregon to tour their factory. He is completely sold on Fuqua!

I am still trying to shop a little to get the best deal. On the Fuqua website the closet dealer to us is Bakersfield. We are in Southern, Ca. so it will be hard (and expensive)trying to get out there if we have no sitter.

I still want to shop around because I searched the BBB and found that the Fuqa dealer in Texas has a less than satisfactory rating with the BBB due to unanswered customer service complaints.

I've seen other posts that state that Fuqua can charge up to $60 per square foot for customization, is this true?

Do you have any information as to which Fuqua dealer is closer than Bakersfield. I'm going to look on teh Fuqua website for the Polaris plan, if you have any additional pictures, please send them to me at [email protected]


Thanks for the info.!

[mac]

You may pick your own contractor, your dealer may recommend one, some dealers contract with others, others do it in-house. The Oregon dealer I went with, which was very good, is Santiam Homes in Stayton and Woodburn, OR. (google for their website). While they're not in your area, I'd imagine they would be happy to answer your questions.

If you want tile, I believe your best bet is Silvercrest with the SuperFloor option. This is 1-1/4" thick flooring, which I think you need to prevent flexing. Mr. Murray may beg to differ on this - Palm Harbor does ceramic; he works for them. Palm Harbor here is a fine product.

The Fuqua stuff in our market is expensive, relative to its competition. I was at the Salem, OR. home show. They had a very nice home set up there, but if memory serves, the base price was about $240K - others of the same size were about $140K. Granted, this home had log siding, rock fireplace, etc. but the rest of it is exactly the same material used in other higher-end homes. We considered them when we bought three years ago - very nice - but decided the log siding was more than we wanted to maintain. To give you an idea, our place is reasonably nice - 2000 square feet, with nice skylights, deck, wall of windows - $90K set on a slab foundation with split-block skirting. Prices have gone up - the house today would be about $120K.

Have fun! Mac

[Kris]

Thank you so much for your response! I wouldn't go with Palm Harbor, though I do like Murray's posts and his advice and insight are always welcomed. The reason is because the Palm Harbor dealers out here are not to me or my husband's likeing. I didn't like the way you have to go through the sales office just to view the homes. And there was this one time when I asked if they would put vents in the walls or ceiling (I had seen it in a Skyline home) and the sales person, got this weird attidtude and was like , "what do you want that for, what's wrong with vents in the floor!" That ruined it for us!!!

So here we are months later, and are still looking!!!!

I like SIlvercrest but he doesn't, I like Fuqua but it's too expensive, he's sold on Fuqua. I rarely see any posts about Skyline and in Grissim's book, which was very informative, I didn't remember them mentioned. The only reason I know about Fuqua is because Grissim mentioned them in his book thought they were not on the top lists. Did you order the home form Fuqua or another dealer? I

You mentioned the log siding, we found the vinyl log siding which would make the house less expensive, but we are also looking into stucco. What do you think?

[Mac]

We ordered our home (Karsten from Stayton, OR. plant) through Santiam Homes in Woodburn and Stayton, OR. The Skyline homes I've looked at seemed quite well built - I think I'd put them high on my list. Your IP indicates you're around Ontario - that's a pretty dry climate, so log siding might not need redoing every year, and stucco would probably work just fine. We live in the opposite climate - it starts raining in earnest about mid-October, and has just recently let up. Humidity is 98% for months on end. Homes here come standard with Hardi-Panel or Hardi-Plank, generally.

I agree with you on the Palm Harbor guys - they're instructed- commanded- to do this - the corporation believes it's the overall most effective way to sell the most homes, I presume. But I got in a debate with a couple guys at other places about subfloor material (cresdek vs. plywood or OSB). I think with ceramic tile, the thicker the subfloor the better. Had I bought again, I'd have insisted on 2x8 or 2x10 floor joists and OSB or plywood. I'll probably never have any problems with our Cresdek/2x6 joists, but... And I would have looked harder at Palm Harbor, too. I was put off also (Mr. Murray, please pass on my comments!) but would push past that, now.

Cheers, Mac

[rmurray]

Sorry you got an inexperienced sales person...All they want to do is give you the best opportunity to buy a great product.... Seems a little silly to take a great option off the table for yourself because of 1 inexperienced housing consultant out of over 500 nationwide...Might a conference with the General Manager been a better route than the elimination of the possible best choice for you...

[Kris]

Thanks for all your advice. I will surely take it into consideration! I really appreciate this forum and I'm glad that I found it. The only thing with Palm Harbor is that I thought there was only 1 dealer where I lived. So when I encounter a rude sales person, whether at a store, gas station or elsewhere, I tend to want to spend my money elsewhere.

I have 3 small children and my time is consumed by them and very valuable. So when I have them with me and the sales person is rude, to me it's time to move on to the next. I do the same when it comes to a store or any other retail place. I've worked in social services, retail, state agencies and when it comes to customer service, I am a stickler for good customer service, no matter what. I was never (and anyone who worked with me in addition to the clients will vouche for this) rude, or condescending. So I don't expect others to be, expecially when I plan to spend thousands of dollars on a home.

But I do like the Palm Harbor floor plans and they are a local dealer. However if I were to buy a Palm Harbor home it would not be from that particular dealer. In fact I contacted another local dealer yesterday who sold Palm Harbor homes so we are planning to look at those hopefully next week sometime.

Thanks again,

Kris

[Anne]

Kris - go look at Skyline again. Quality construction and not alot of useless 'bling' for your buck. The vents are what they call perimeter rather than running through the middle of the floor which gets in the way of furniture, you step on them and they will be a dirt magnet. With three small kids, you would be forever taking the vent grills off to retrieve whatever they 'dropped' in there. Skyline uses fiberglass duct work so you won't hear the popping and cracking that other posts here have complained about.

We know some people with a Fuqua and it seems to be a nice place. The dealer was pitiful but that can happen with any brand. I don't recall if we looked at Palm Harbor in our year and a half search. (Sorry, rmurray, they all started to look alike!) We chose Skyline for three reasons. 1)The fifth wheel we owned was a Layton Deluxe which is made by Skyline and we were impressed with the quality. 2) Skyline had the floorplan we loved and fit our lifestyle. The home came with a 10x28 covered porch on one end. We live on a lake and positioned the house so that the lake view is from the porch side. 3) The dealer. The man was a godsend. I hope you can find a dealer in your area with such integrity. Actually, there is a another reason: any customization we wanted was 'no problem'. No hassle, just tell us what you want and we'll do it. In the beginning, we thought we wanted cedar or log siding but after lots of thinking, duh, we're maintenance free with the vinyl siding. More time to spend on the lake.

Just take your time and research, research, research. Talk to owners of MH in your area. Don't be shy. You'll end up with a pretty good short list. Good luck.

[mac]

A note about customization -
Much can be customized at little or no cost; charges vary by manufacturer. Our floor plan was reversed and some walls moved. The limits of customization are that plumbing and electrical connections still need to be in place between sections, and there are some structural limitations (those can be overcome with custom engineering, but this will cost $3-4K, since no one else might buy that floor plan).
For example, we wanted a shower in the utility room (for dogs), but in our case, it was right on a marriage line and next to the electrical box, so that didn't happen.

Also, manufacturers have a huge variety of floor plans that may not appear on a website, but which can be built.