My New York garage/house build

[Pate]

It's not nearly as impressive as the builds posted here, but figured I would post my build. I've spent countless hours reading threads here and tried to do the best and biggest the town would allow.

The house is modular construction, just under 3K and the garage (the important room) is 22' x 32' with a 12' ceiling. I live on a corner and the setbacks rules wouldn't allow for a deeper garage.

The original house was about 1200 square foot on a slab with a one car block detached garage, so anything we built was a huge step up.

Here's what was left after demo day.

Here's the start of the big dig!

Footings

Forms

 

[santagary]

Welcome and it looks like you have a well thought out plan and are really good at execution of that plan...keep the pics coming.

 

[Pate]

The amount of dirt that was dug out caused some serious site issues. They were forced to rent a pump truck for the job.

Concrete

The basement is 9' deep and the contractor used brand new forms on my job. Turned out nice and smooth.

 

[Pate]

All backfilled and ready for the house and garage to be installed.

The house was delivered on my birthday. Perfect timing.

 

[dare23]

Cool!! Keep us posted.

 

[Pate]

Garage

 

[el Pedro]

Thats amazing! Wish they would look at modular homes here. How long does it take them to build the home off site?
Look forward to updates.. thanks for sharing.

 

[Pate]

The house was built in 6 days total. It's about 85% finished inside when it's delivered complete with mouldings, paint, kitchen and baths. I didn't post many of the house pictures, because it's all about the garage.

The entire house and garage walls were set in one day. The crane was setup by 8:00 am and was gone by 3:00 pm. We lost an hour or so for rain, but the roof was raised and done be 6:00 when the set crew left.

Here's her dream kitchen. (as delivered)

 

[ConcreteAce]

That has got to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I would love to live in an area that has basements.

 

[7th Kahuna]

That's really something. How much freedom did you have in the design, versus picking from ready designed components? In other words, how did it compare with the traditional approach of hiring an architect and building onsite?

I think I speak for most here when I say this is a curious bunch. We are just as happy to see what's going on with the house as with the garage.

 

[Zengineer]

I like it! More details please!

 

[PEDDRO]

Thats amazing! Wish they would look at modular homes here.

We're not THAT much of a backwater! Modular homes have been around for years in Australia.

 

[el Pedro]

We're not THAT much of a backwater! Modular homes have been around for years in Australia.

Have you seen the modular homes throughout Europe and most of the northern hemisphere? And we still build the majority of our homes in brick veneer.

 

[HOTFR8]

Thats amazing! Wish they would look at modular homes here. How long does it take them to build the home off site?
Look forward to updates.. thanks for sharing.

Have you been hiding under a rock ? Modular, kit or transportable homes have been a big thing here for years just that brick has been more popular.

Bond Homes http://bondhomes.net.au/ is one company name that comes to mind as they have been popular for a very long time.

 

[Pate]

That's really something. How much freedom did you have in the design, versus picking from ready designed components? In other words, how did it compare with the traditional approach of hiring an architect and building onsite?

I think I speak for most here when I say this is a curious bunch. We are just as happy to see what's going on with the house as with the garage.

You have the option of picking a house from one of their models and make any changes to the house needed. We had originally found a house that we thought would work for us and they happened to have a model of it built up in CT. We drove up and were disappointed in the size of the house. We started fresh and with many revisions arrived at the house we had built.

You can take standard builders grade on everything or upgrade EVERYTHING like my wife and I did. The house meets Energy Star standards, so a lot of money was spent upgrading the insulation, windows and mechanicals to meet the standard. Everything I've researched and discussions I've had with other Energy Star homes locally makes me confident the money was well spent.

We did look at buying a new house locally and that's the main reason we went this way. The houses in our area at this level start at 750k and are built poorly. I was shocked at some of the garbage I had seen in that price range. We had a house, but it was just too small and the property is worth 5 times what the house is worth, so building makes sense. Modular construction worked for us because of the 3-4 month build time.

 

[Pate]

Almost have a roof.

Microllam headers delivered.

 

[audifirst]

nice ..

 

[Pate]

Some progress today.

Got the roof finished.

Microllams installed.

Ready for concrete.

 

[Munich77]

That is pretty awesome - I bet since the modules were built at a factory they are probably of high quality. Hopefully better than my house where the 5 foot something painter decided not to paint the top of some trim or doors!

 

[99LeCouch]

Awesome!

More house shots, please! Have to know what's keeping the wife happy while enjoying the garage, you know!

 

[The J]

Wow, can't wait to see the finished product. The house is impressive. I must admit, when I read 'modular' I came in expecting a double wide but with a huge garage. I've crawled out from under my rock in the meantime. It looks great so far.

 

[Pate]

Wow, can't wait to see the finished product. The house is impressive. I must admit, when I read 'modular' I came in expecting a double wide but with a huge garage.

I must admit that I had the same thoughts until I went to work in a house a few towns away. The house was 5000+ square foot and really nice. It had a 4 car garage and a 68 Chevelle covertible in the garage (which I also have). we started talking about cars and I mentioned how nice the house was and the owner said that it was modular and he had it built a few years before.

That conversation really opened my eyes to what was possible. The upside is the house SHOULD be move-in condition in 3 months from demo to final inspection.

The company doing mine is building a 38,000 square foot monster currently. I have house envy....

 

[neonnblack]

if you dont mind what was the cost, roughly of the house. just the house no concrete work.

 

[Pate]

The house was priced as a package, so I don't know the cost minus the site work or cement off the top of my head. I can figure it out as I do have a line by line quote. I can tell you this much. The house was originally priced at 330k with the site work and basement. It comes with everything needed, but with low end everything. We upgraded EVERYTHING and things that I never even knew could be upgraded. We upgraded the kitchen cabinets, granite, wood floors, tile, crown moulding, garage, siding, roofing, windows, heating & AC, lights, porch, oak steps, 9 foot basement & 1st floor, insulation, garage doors & closers, electrical, basement steps, demolition, etc....

All the options pushed us up another 125k for a grand total of $450K. I bought the house we crushed for 330k 10 years ago, but the property is worth 75% of the cost at this point. We went to our max considering resale values of similar houses in our area at this time. The bonus is we love our hood and neighbors, but the house just wasn't cutting it.

 

[HOTFR8]

I am enjoying this topic.

 

[jonahbones]

That is amazing.
elpedro is right most prefab homes in aus manage to look like demountable prefabs where as yours looks like a house not an oversize caravan with eaves.
I would imagine that the process would give a guarantee of quality as well.
They just completed a house across the road after more than 6 months, I reckon the blokes working until 3am trying to get work done at a cuthroat price were not concerned with quality

 

[Pate]

Here's some pics of the house on trailers. Gives you a good idea how it's built.

 

[Pate]

Some pics from our tour at the factory to see it.

Last time I'll ever be face to face with this window.

A lot of new homes waiting to be delivered.

 

[99LeCouch]

Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to see it all come together!

 

[FlyBy]

What part of NY is this in?

And is it just me, or should an ice & water shield like Grace be going up the side of the house on the left where it meets the garage roof? Doesn't seem like the flashing goes that far up.

 

[Pate]

What part of NY is this in?

And is it just me, or should an ice & water shield like Grace be going up the side of the house on the left where it meets the garage roof? Doesn't seem like the flashing goes that far up.

The house in Rockland County just north of the NJ border. I don't know how far the flashing should go up, but I will certainly mention it to them before the siding gets done.

 

[Pate]

The combo heat and hot water system is installed.

200 amp service installed. (100 amp sub panel going in garage)

Main floor air handler

 

[Pate]

Garage floor done.

Gas line for garage heater installed.

 

[MacmanSW20]

Very cool, I haven't really seen to many modular homes built so its interesting to follow along on this thread!

 

[zporta]

Do you get many cracks in the drywall from all the moving and flexing of the modular during the move and install?

 

[Pate]

Do you get many cracks in the drywall from all the moving and flexing of the modular during the move and install?

Not one. They actually use glue along every stud as well as screws. The glue helps keep the screws from popping. I do a have spot in the dining room where a foot cracked the ceiling. I'm guessing it happened when they were setting the 2nd floor.

Some detail

This is the ceiling between the 1st and 2nd floor. Pretty sturdy.

 

[Justanoldguy]

Very cool build.
We have had Modular building here in NZ for decades
but truth is, they never really took off as expected.
Could easily have been a quality issue.

 

[Pate]

We have good and bad quality modular builders here also. I looked at a few and was far from impressed. The company we chose has a great reputation and had built some homes in our area. We were able to talk to owners and tour the houses through friends of friends. None had a bad word to say about the company we chose. Some had been in their house a few years and some had been 10+ years.

 

[snipes]

Thanks for posting, it is very cool to see other ways of building a home/garage.

 

[Pate]

Thanks for the compliments. Truthfully I didn't think anyone would have an interest in it.