Our New House is On Its Way

[Gerowen]

So my wife and I have bought a new double wide (manufactured home).  The first half was delivered on Friday and the machinery these guys have to put these houses where you want them is crazy.  I recorded some video footage of the event and posted it to YouTube.  The second half should be here tomorrow and they should have it blocked up and put together either by then or maybe on Tuesday depending on how long it takes them to get the 2nd half scooted into position.

 

 

[adrynalyne]

Neat!

 

Side note: that is one of the last places I would expect someone to have Internet access

 

[Hum]

congrats.

 

hope you don't get any tornadoes ....

[Gerowen]

14 minutes ago, Hum said:

congrats.

 

hope you don't get any tornadoes ....

The hills shelter us from most of the severe weather that comes through the area.  We've had one tornado in the past 30 years and it literally jumped over this holler because it was too narrow for it to touch down,   What's weird is that the wind we do get goes the reverse direction that it does in town.  The wind comes across the ridge line, hits the eastern hillside and basically makes a big loop/vortex, so while the wind at the ridge is going west to east, wind in the holler goes east to west and at a greatly reduced speed.

Edited December 19, 2016 by Gerowen

[Nashy]

These transported houses are a massive deal in New Zealand too.  I never understood why.  Is it cheaper to build them like this?

[Gerowen]

55 minutes ago, Nashy said:

These transported houses are a massive deal in New Zealand too.  I never understood why.  Is it cheaper to build them like this?

I don't know about there, but at least here in Kentucky nowadays they have to be built to the same minimum standard as a regular house; 2x4 wall studs, 16 inches on center, R33 insulation, etc.  Additionally, if you don't put it on a concrete pad you at least have to have concrete footers poured for the blocks, steel straps and stakes to tie them down in case of high winds, etc.  The way ours is going to be set up they're going to take the axles, tongue, etc. and it will be legally considered a "house" instead of a "mobile home".  Just moving one can run thousands of dollars.  We live in a 14x70 single wide right now and I was quoted $4,000 for a guy with a truck, a spare axle and a jade to haul it literally like 3 miles.  The advantage for me as a consumer is that I just went to a lot, picked out a house I liked for a price I could afford, they built a new one for me in two pieces with the colors and things I wanted and brought it up here and put it where I wanted it.  They pour the footers, install the plastic sheeting on the ground, deliver it, block it up, etc., and when it's all said and done they come back around and do a walk-through and replace anything that was damaged in transit (they'll owe us for a handful of shingles from tree limbs).  From closing to delivery was less than a month, and since these people build these professionally they can churn them out faster and cheaper than if I bought the components and paid somebody else to build it for me on site.  I'll still end up paying almost $60k for a brand new double wide, delivery/setup, utility hookups, etc., but I would have been out a decent chunk of that just to move this one we live in now and it's 20 years old and needs a 3rd bedroom built on, so I just traded this one toward a brand new one that already has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms so I don't have to do any building after the fact, plus it'll be on land I own so no lot rent or anything.

 

Another advantage is for poor people they can buy and own the home they live in and just pay lot rent for land to put it on.  There's a trailer park about a mile from me full of people who own their house and just pay $50 or $100 a month plus utilities for a little patch of dirt to put it on.  If they buy a piece of land later all they gotta do is hook up and go.  If the landlord wants them gone, they can move the house to another piece of land without having to load all of their belongings up in the car, find a new house and everything.  Some of my next door neighbors at the place we're currently living just had to move and they literally just had a guy hook onto their house and drag it to a new lot, and another guy came by a few days later with a flatbed for their porch and took it to them.  Lot rent or, worst case scenario, a few thousand every few years to move is cheaper in the short term for poor people than paying for a piece of land, and you can find used trailers with about 1,000 square feet of floor space for $5,000-$10,000 around here.

Edited December 19, 2016 by Gerowen

[Gerowen]

2 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

Neat!

 

Side note: that is one of the last places I would expect someone to have Internet access

 

I grew up on this property and all we could get was 28k dial up all the way until I graduated.  At some point mom was able to get DSL over the phone lines, and about 3-4 years ago they finally ran fiber optic cables up the holler.  I don't know what kind of speeds I'll get, but it's gotta be better than the 28k I grew up with there.  I get 15 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up through the same company here, so I'm guessing that's what I'll get there.

[Yogurth]

Congrats on the house...but what is with the arsenal on the windshield?

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Really interesting video. I do think it's crazy when you say people just pick their home up and move it!

 

How long would you expect a house like that to last?

 

As someone else mentioned it does look like the last place you'd ever be able to get broadband, but nice and quiet

[MikeChipshop Member]

Great video mate. Not really a thing here in the UK but i certainly would consider it if it was.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Cool video, look forward to seeing the second part  

[Cnónna]

4 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

Neat!

 

Side note: that is one of the last places I would expect someone to have Internet access

 

I'd be expecting to see the deliverance banjo kid on the front porch before I'd expect internet access.

 

Congrats OP, best of luck with the new home.

[Cnónna]

32 minutes ago, InsaneNutter said:

Really interesting video. I do think it's crazy when you say people just pick their home up and move it!

 

How long would you expect a house like that to last?

 

As someone else mentioned it does look like the last place you'd ever be able to get broadband, but nice and quiet

there are prefab houses built near me just after WW2, they are still standing and going strong, most folk in them have built brick around them now so you couldn't even tell they where prefab.

[adrynalyne]

2 hours ago, Yogurth said:

Congrats on the house...but what is with the arsenal on the windshield?

I see one rifle. Hardly an arsenal....anyway...plenty of wildlife in an area like that that are tougher than you. 

[adrynalyne]

3 hours ago, Gerowen said:

I grew up on this property and all we could get was 28k dial up all the way until I graduated.  At some point mom was able to get DSL over the phone lines, and about 3-4 years ago they finally ran fiber optic cables up the holler.  I don't know what kind of speeds I'll get, but it's gotta be better than the 28k I grew up with there.  I get 15 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up through the same company here, so I'm guessing that's what I'll get there.

That isn't bad considering. I have a lot of extended family in Kentucky that I've never met. Thanks for the video, interested in seeing part 2. 

[Gerowen]

4 hours ago, Yogurth said:

Congrats on the house...but what is with the arsenal on the windshield?

Windham Weaponry AR-15 in 5.56 NATO/.223.  It's back there as a "just-in-case" for wild hogs, mountain lions, etc.  I also use it to deer hunt when the season is in.

 

3 hours ago, InsaneNutter said:

Really interesting video. I do think it's crazy when you say people just pick their home up and move it!

 

How long would you expect a house like that to last?

 

As someone else mentioned it does look like the last place you'd ever be able to get broadband, but nice and quiet

If you take care of them they'll last a lifetime.  The one my parents live in is an old as dirt single wide, built in the 70s.  It was used and had been abused and neglected when our house burned in 2001 and they bought it with cash just to have some kind of roof over our head.  Over the course of the next couple years it was my job as the oldest teenager to help dig the ditch to the well for water line, re-do the floors, walls, and ceiling, put in fresh insulation etc.  The biggest enemy you have to these and pretty much any home is water entry.  If you see a shingle missing, or a rust spot starting to form if you've got a metal roof, replace the shingle or re-coat your roof immediately.  A roof can leak small amounts of water into the insulation and stuff for months or years before you notice any effects inside, and by then it's too late; you've got mold to kill, wood and insulation to replace, etc.  One thing I did in this trailer we're in now was put 4 inch rubberized base-boards in the kids' bathroom with mold proof silicone sealant around the edges so that when they splash and play and get water in the floor, it can't seep in between the floor and walls and set up mold in places that I can't see.

 

Just got in from my morning bus run and they've got a substitute driver for me this evening, so I'm gonna get ready to roll out and get up the holler before they do.

[xendrome]

5 hours ago, Yogurth said:

Congrats on the house...but what is with the arsenal on the windshield?

That AR-15 should be standard issue when in an area like that, there are way too many animals out there that get hungry during the winter to even think twice about not being prepared.

[margrave]

Gratz!

[Yogurth]

1 hour ago, Gerowen said:

Windham Weaponry AR-15 in 5.56 NATO/.223.  It's back there as a "just-in-case" for wild hogs, mountain lions, etc.  I also use it to deer hunt when the season is in.

 My country does not allow wild animals hunting outside the few hunting zones and only in season. Beside that it is also forbidden to use automatic and semi-automatic weaponry for the task. I naively assumed it is some sort of word wide chivalry rule : D

[adrynalyne]

12 minutes ago, Yogurth said:

 My country does not allow wild animals hunting outside the few hunting zones and only in season. Beside that it is also forbidden to use automatic and semi-automatic weaponry for the task. I naively assumed it is some sort of word wide chivalry rule : D

Better prepared than dead. There is nothing chivalrous about being killed by an animal because you couldn't fire off enough shots quick enough. 

[Gerowen]

9 hours ago, Yogurth said:

 My country does not allow wild animals hunting outside the few hunting zones and only in season. Beside that it is also forbidden to use automatic and semi-automatic weaponry for the task. I naively assumed it is some sort of word wide chivalry rule : D

Here in Kentucky you still have to follow the hunting seasons and bag limits and such (so you can still only hunt deer during deer season, etc.), but if you own the property you can hunt with no license or tags or anything.  It doesn't make sense to basically punish people for feeding themselves in my opinion.  I understand the need for some regulation to make sure populations are not decimated by un-regulated trophy hunters, but I hunt for food.  For the cost of one bullet and a few hours of my time I can get well over $100 worth of meat for the freezer.  The reason for semi-auto is not really for hunting, but if some critter on the hill decides one of my small house dogs or kids would make a tasty snack.  We've had more than one dog in the neighborhood killed by black bears, mountain lions, etc.

 

Anyway, the second half is in place right now.  There's another guy coming over tomorrow whose whole job is going to be blocking it up and connecting/sealing the two halves together.  I've got some video footage to pick through and edit and I'll try to have it rendered and leave it uploading while I'm in bed.  Here's a photo from today.  They had to use that little man operated track vehicle and panels on the ground to move it off the driveway and into position because the ground was so soft from the rain and higher temperatures that everything was siding everywhere, but they got it into position and ready for assembly tomorrow.

 

[ctebah]

These houses are a great deal but sadly here they are not allowed within the city.  Smaller towns have passed bylaws that allow for RTMs.  

[Gerowen]

Video editing in progress at the moment.  I got a little bit more footage today, and will hopefully have more of the house actually getting put together tomorrow.

[Skiver Veteran]

I understand if you don't want to answer this but, just for the house along, not land or cost of shipping etc... how much does something like that cost?

 

I have to admit your video made me chuckle a little, I don't think I could have described a more stereotypical American... dressed in camo, with a massive gun, driving a truck

[Arachno 1D]

Thats an awful narrow road down to the homes are there passing places build in?

Oh and having not seen that type of build before do you remove the underlying wheels and axles once finished or leave them in place in case you want to move again?