Design Flexibility of Modular Housing

Modular housing construction allows for hundreds of options and design possibilities and your builder will work with you and your home manufacturer to determine the type and design of modular home that best suits your needs. They'll generally offer a wide range of house plans to choose from in a variety of styles. They'll also offer a range of options to customize the home you select. Allowing for state building codes, you can modify or upgrade your general construction specifications, design your own floor plans and elevations, pick the style of windows or siding, choose colors of vinyl, carpet, countertops and bath fixtures. The possibilities are endless.

Benefits with Modular Home Construction

Benefits with Modular Home Construction

A modular home is unique because it is built in a climate-controlled factory. Building in this way reduces the chances of weather related delays or problems. When coupled with the fact that building supplies are stored in on-site warehouses, it also virtually eliminates the chance that wet materials will be used when building the modular home. Read More...

McCoy, Watson fail on modular housing

I've had it with Reps. Billy McCoy and Percy Watson ("Lawmakers check Coast housing plan," Sept. 6). They claim to be House leaders, but they are really obstructionists who wouldn't even allow a vote on Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to reduce taxes on modular housing from 7 percent to 3 percent, the same level as taxes on mobile homes.

The crying need for Coast residents is housing. Modular housing, which is assembled on-site from pre-constructed wood and steel units, is more stable than the FEMA trailers and campers people are living in now. These homes can be assembled much faster than a stick-built house and are much safer than manufactured housing, or mobile homes.

There are many housing needs on the Coast. How dare McCoy and Watson deny hurricane victims a chance to take advantage of this promising technology. Read More

McCoy wants proof of tax benefit to modular home buyers

JACKSON, Miss. Lawmakers' are beginning a second special session of the year today (Thursday) at noon _ five weeks after the first special session which lasted three days.

Governor Haley Barbour says he hopes this session will be brief.

House Speaker Billy McCoy says Barbour needs to guarantee that consumers, rather than contractors, will benefit from his proposed tax cut on modular housing.

The sales tax reduction on modular homes from 7 to 3 percent is the sole issue in a special session.

Barbour says the tax cut could help speed up rebuilding in south Mississippi, where thousands of people are still waiting to rebuild their homes more than 13 months after Hurricane Katrina.

The governor's spokesman, Pete Smith, said buyers would see a financial benefit.

Modular homes gain favor with builders

With tall trees and a narrow lot, the building site on a quiet street near downtown Orlando would pose challenges for many builders. But partners Ron Dieux and Bill Corio managed to slip in a two-story duplex that looks like an expensive single-family home. The two-story house did not take months to build, and there was no need for lots of laborers to crowd into the neighborhood. A crane lifted parts of the factory-built home into place, then carpenters and other specialists came in for the finishing work during the following days and weeks in late summer. "It eliminates 90 percent of the site work," Dieux said, and leaves little in the way of construction debris to haul away. "There are lots of advantages to this." Stephanie King, who bought the 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom, 2.5-bath home for $338,000, said she was pleased with the outcome of her half of the duplex. "It's beyond what I imagined," King said, with granite countertops, crown molding, 9-foot-high trey ceilings, wood and tile floors, and other touches of a custom home. Read More

Builders give burglar cover

Builders working in New Malden may have provided the perfect cover for a burglar broke into four houses in New Malden in one morning.

The burglar, described as a young black man in his early 20s, wearing dark clothes and a dark cap, got away with valuables including a laptop, pearl necklace and cash.

Adrian Holder, councillor for Coombe Vale ward, said: "These streets are in the wealthier part of the area, so I'm shocked. However, there is a lot of building work going on at the moment around Coombe Lane so obviously burglars are taking advantage of the distraction."

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In a city of builders, no growth?

With its yacht clubs, beachfront estates, exotic-car dealerships and five-star hotels, Newport Beach is hardly typical of the overall United States and is a tad unusual even in wealthy Orange County. Yet the latest property-rights battle over a no-growth measure on the November ballot known as Measure X is in its own way reflective of what is going on most everywhere, from other parts of suburban Orange County to urban Portland, Ore., to rural Montana.

Supporters of these myriad anti-property-rights proposals i.e., minimum lot sizes, growth controls, urban growth boundaries, conservation easements, habitat preservation, right-to-vote initiatives gussy up the proposals in good-government language.

They talk about protecting home values and quality of life, about using the democratic process and holding officials accountable, but the proposals are always about the rankest form of self-interest using government to limit others' property rights as a way to "protect" one's perceived quality of life. Read More

Suit: Modular home doesn't fit in subdivision

SANDPOINT -- Ben and Julie Silverman's brand new Cocolalla home has a two-car garage, wood floors and a spacious living room with 9-foot ceilings.But it came with something they were not expecting."We've got built-in neighbors that hate us," said Ben Silverman, who is locked in a legal showdown with fellow Cocolalla Estates homeowners. Read More

State Appeals Court Order To Pay Contractor

State officials are appealing a judge's order to pay $1.2 million that they have withheld from a construction contractor who gave a consulting contract to former Gov. John G. Rowland in 2004 and then resisted a legislative investigation into it. Superior Court Judge Joseph M. Shortall ruled last month that officials weren't justified in withholding the money from C.R. Klewin Northeast LLC on the basis of its resistance to a legislative committee's probe of the $5,000-a-month consulting job it gave Rowland after his 2004 resignation. Read More

Contractor gets another good deal

It looks as though Derry, N.H., contractor John Burke is finally going to start to pay for his part in a scheme to defraud the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in home-repair contracts. But he's still getting a good deal.

Burke, who first pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March 2005, has managed to delay his sentencing until the end of this month. Burke paid about $100,000 in bribes over five year to former Veterans Administration loan specialist Robert Mayer of Salem, N.H., in exchange for home-renovation contracts worth $3.1 million.

Mayer, a former Salem Planning Board member, faked invoices to make it appear several contractors had been awarded the jobs repairing homes the VA was renovating or selling. In fact, those contracts went only to those who paid him bribes. Read More

Contractor distributes fuel additive

South Lake Tahoe electrical contractor Frank Champlin has brought the environmental term "Think globally, act locally" to his hometown. Champlin, who's been in business for seven years, hopes to expand his energy to distributing Ethos, a fuel additive designed to increase gas mileage and reduce emissions and maintenance. He now buys it on the Internet for his four vehicles. After hearing about the substance through a fellow contractor four months ago, he used it in his three work vehicles and household car. In some cases, Champlin has received four miles per gallon more than his prior mileage - with three tanks stretched to four for his company van. The mileage has been so good, he's extended his business coverage to Reno. And once he crunched the calculator upon getting a smog test, the businessman figured he's eliminated four tons of carbon emissions from the air in Lake Tahoe. Read More