Now that we finally have park approval, we’re in the process of designing our manufactured home. The first two steps required a ton of paperwork; income statements, pay stubs, taxes, credit scores, bank statements, etc. This step is the fun step, though we’ve had to tweak some of our ideas to fit within our budget (a little less than $200K). That might sound like plenty for a manufactured home, but not in California. Even with manufactured homes, it all comes down to location, location, location. *In a separate post I’ll also go into financing a manufactured home which falls into a financing category of its own when you don’t own the land.
Since our budget is modest, we’re starting with a Golden West beachfront model that we’ve tweaked a bit. Below is an illustration of what we are trying to accomplish using a standard floor plan that is offered. You’ll notice that bedroom #2 has been changed quite a bit and converted into a den. We specifically changed this to accommodate our mini-movie theater. Bedroom #3 will be our office and the master will be our bedroom. Our dream deck off the master will probably be built down the road and will be a concrete slab for now.
Goldenwest Limited Edition Beach Front
Flooring is a bit tricky as well since this is a double wide. We’ve learned that in order to cover the gap between the two structures, we are limited to how we lay flooring. For example, you can’t lay linoleum throughout or you’d see the gap between the two structures and staples. We’ve chosen laminate since it can begin right down the middle and cover the small gap. This also changed our vision of the flooring for the living/dining/kitchen area as well. Originally we thought we’d want stone-looking laminate in the kitchen/dining area and wood laminate in the living/den area. We are now rethinking this idea and choosing one look for the entire front half of the house (wood is our favorite right now). The back half of the house will be carpeted with laminate in the bathrooms and laundry room.
In our modified version, we are also eliminating windows where the garage will be, so our solution (as long as it’s ‘in our budget’) will be a skylight and if that’s not in our budget, a solar tube which is less expensive than skylights. I’m very excited to be designing the home that will match our needs. Working with a manufactured home gave us some flexibility that we would never have had if we bought a preexisting traditional home; not only in terms of design, but also location within the community. We were able to choose the vacant lot we liked best, butted up against a mountain with a hillside at the back of the house (the photo of the land at the top is our site). In about four to five months, we’ll be moving into our brand, new home. Stay posted for more details!
Interested in the process of buying a manufactured home? Check out my previous posts:
An Option for the Home Hungry
I’m Buying a Manufactured Home
Step 2: Waiting on Park Approval