Building a Modular Beach House
Years ago I was successful in buying a modest home at the shore, by modest I mean a unimproved Cape Cod style home, two bedrooms one bath, but it was on the water. The years passed quickly and family and friends helped us fill up our pleasant memories file at the "Beach House". My wife and I enjoyed receiving the tax bill every year and laughed when we saw that our municipality evaluated our home being valued at 10% of the market value...with the land making up the rest of the valuation.
As grandchildren came along we reevaluated our needs and decided to build an addition.
(Step 1 ) We proceeded down the call small builder, call medium builder, call large builder route, all to no avail. Small builder said our joists were not 16" on center as they should be, Medium builder said our foundation would not support a additional level, and our ceiling heights were too low to accommodate 42" kitchen cabinets and on and on.
( Step 2 ) Call in the high priced architect, which we did and after preliminary elevations and budget discussions we put it out to bid with a handful of local builders.
( Step 3 ) Bids came back four times the budget. Upon architectural review the architect said "well what do you want to do", my response was "nothing" for now!
Apparently my timing was way off, every builder on the island had more than enough work and their pricing was reflective of that simple fact along with the fact that everything in our zip code came with a surcharge, if you know what I mean. However, I put my time to good use by investigating modular design and construction. I discovered that most modular companies lived up to their collective "old" reputations of being cheaply constructed and designed with site work to match.
After many Goggles, phone conversations and tours I was successful in finding everything I was looking for by way of a modular company. I marveled over the many and varied options available to me in the modular design process. The modular company used "green" building technologies, and was designed with my input via CAD/CAM.
I have what is referred to as a Superior Wall foundation formed in precast sections with steel rods inserted along with foam insulation and aluminum joists. The plan also included a Unico HVAC high efficiency air handling system, 9ft. ceilings, 12" on center floor joists, 2" X 6" exterior framing, screwed and glued flooring, a elevator, etc., and came in on budget.
The house was set on the foundation the first week in February and we moved in the first week in July, plus my home has never been rained or snowed in! I'm glad we went modular.
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As grandchildren came along we reevaluated our needs and decided to build an addition.
(Step 1 ) We proceeded down the call small builder, call medium builder, call large builder route, all to no avail. Small builder said our joists were not 16" on center as they should be, Medium builder said our foundation would not support a additional level, and our ceiling heights were too low to accommodate 42" kitchen cabinets and on and on.
( Step 2 ) Call in the high priced architect, which we did and after preliminary elevations and budget discussions we put it out to bid with a handful of local builders.
( Step 3 ) Bids came back four times the budget. Upon architectural review the architect said "well what do you want to do", my response was "nothing" for now!
Apparently my timing was way off, every builder on the island had more than enough work and their pricing was reflective of that simple fact along with the fact that everything in our zip code came with a surcharge, if you know what I mean. However, I put my time to good use by investigating modular design and construction. I discovered that most modular companies lived up to their collective "old" reputations of being cheaply constructed and designed with site work to match.
After many Goggles, phone conversations and tours I was successful in finding everything I was looking for by way of a modular company. I marveled over the many and varied options available to me in the modular design process. The modular company used "green" building technologies, and was designed with my input via CAD/CAM.
I have what is referred to as a Superior Wall foundation formed in precast sections with steel rods inserted along with foam insulation and aluminum joists. The plan also included a Unico HVAC high efficiency air handling system, 9ft. ceilings, 12" on center floor joists, 2" X 6" exterior framing, screwed and glued flooring, a elevator, etc., and came in on budget.
The house was set on the foundation the first week in February and we moved in the first week in July, plus my home has never been rained or snowed in! I'm glad we went modular.
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