WHY WE CHOSE TO BRING IN A MODULAR HOME

After months and months...no wait - after YEARS and YEARS of planning and plotting and dreaming and devising, we had to make a choice...do we "stick build" or bring in a modular home? We determined which modular company we would buy from and then we researched stick built and ICF houses. What we found out for our area was this...when you live in the middle-of-nowhere and you contact a construction company to build your house from scratch, you have to cover the cost of housing and anticipate trip or mileage charges added in to the cost and the list went on. It was rather depressing because we had dreamt of building an ICF home and thought it would weather our North Dakota plains living and the buffeting wind well. But it wasn't a feasible option.

Given the fact we were developing our land and building a house on it - we would have had to come up with upwards of $600,000 to build a basic 1500 square foot home - most likely without a basement. More than half a million for a house on the prairie whose resale potential is extremely limited. More than likely we hope and pray one of our children will choose to settle here after we are gone. 

Then we did some indepth research on modulars vs manufactured and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt we would go with the modular build. We could specify our foundational structure - and went with a floor tress system. I am glad we chose that - because other foundational systems are creaky - this one is as solid as stickbuilt.

We also went with our broker Kopper Creek Homes because I had found a kindred spirit amongst the sales people in this industry. Cayttie was able to dream right along with me and totally understood my desire for a rustic, industrial, chic farmhouse. It was an odd combination of modern and rustic. She nailed it! 

My AMAZING kitchen!

We chose modular because of the timing - we wanted to get things rolling as soon as possible and with North Dakota winters - building on site had about a 4 month window. We didn't anticipate such a mild winter - but it has proven beneficial as we continue to forge up the seams of our home. Something a typical North Dakota winter would not have allowed.

We chose modular because we wanted to be able to customize our home - just as we would have with a stickbuilt. And customize we did - from the kitchen, to the pantry, to the piano room and the masterbath - our home is just that OUR HOME! 

Here's a shot of them setting our modular on 

our walkout basement.

There are some cosmetic issues that are being dealt with - nothing is perfect...but there was still that potential had we done a stickbuilt home. To say that we couldn't be happier with our amazing modular home is an understatement. This place is simply GORGEOUS and MORE than I could have hoped for. We are loving life on the farm and even though my poor husband is working himself into exhaustion trying to be the general contractor and put the finishing touches on our home, we are love-love-loving it! 

SO, if you live in the middle of nowhere, you may want to look into modular over building from the ground up - it's not for everybody, but we are definintely content!