Nine years ago, I decided it was time to move out of my parent's house. I was 27 and had saved enough money for a good sized down payment on a house. I wanted to buy a house or buy land and build a house. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for, but I figured I would know it when I found it. I scoured all the home for sale advertisements. A few houses here and there were interesting, but nothing solid. There was one listing for 38 acres of land with electric, water and basement included. It was really cheap, about $25,000. I sent off an email, but never received a response. A few weeks later, I saw the ad again and gave them a call. The place needed a lot of work. There was a falling down trailer and trailer sized basement. A few large dirt piles. There was no yard, just a big weed patch. It had lots of potential though. One good thing was no close neighbors. It was a lot of land, which was all woods, at a cheap price, so I bought it. Turns out the company I bought it from, buys land, logs it off and then resells the land cheap.
My significant other worked for a contractor, so I hired him to build a house. We had gone to modular home dealers, but they weren't any cheaper than a stick built home. They didn't seem to be any better quality either. We came up with our own floor plan based on a few different floor plans we had gotten from the modular home dealers. It was an open floor plan with a cathedral ceiling and loft overlooking the dining, living room areas. Ash floors throughout and a post and beam design, so the ceiling is all wood beams.
The outside is red pine wood that is stained. It looked really nice when it was new. A couple of years ago, my significant other, re-stained the siding. The dormer areas are a problem though. A few boards are starting to rot. Based on that and the requirement to restain the siding every few years, I kind of wish I had gone with a vinyl siding. There is a simulated vinyl wood siding that is nice. It looks nice and there is less up keep than a real wood siding.
Someday, I will probably replace the wood siding with a simulated wood siding. I'm in upstate New York, so I will have to check around for companies and pricing. If you are in New Jersey, you might want to check out Tri-State Window and Siding. They offer siding new jersey. They offer free estimates and even build sunrooms. I have an area on the side of the house where I would like to build a sunroom. I may have to give them a call sometime, since they will also come to New York.
My significant other worked for a contractor, so I hired him to build a house. We had gone to modular home dealers, but they weren't any cheaper than a stick built home. They didn't seem to be any better quality either. We came up with our own floor plan based on a few different floor plans we had gotten from the modular home dealers. It was an open floor plan with a cathedral ceiling and loft overlooking the dining, living room areas. Ash floors throughout and a post and beam design, so the ceiling is all wood beams.
The outside is red pine wood that is stained. It looked really nice when it was new. A couple of years ago, my significant other, re-stained the siding. The dormer areas are a problem though. A few boards are starting to rot. Based on that and the requirement to restain the siding every few years, I kind of wish I had gone with a vinyl siding. There is a simulated vinyl wood siding that is nice. It looks nice and there is less up keep than a real wood siding.
Someday, I will probably replace the wood siding with a simulated wood siding. I'm in upstate New York, so I will have to check around for companies and pricing. If you are in New Jersey, you might want to check out Tri-State Window and Siding. They offer siding new jersey. They offer free estimates and even build sunrooms. I have an area on the side of the house where I would like to build a sunroom. I may have to give them a call sometime, since they will also come to New York.
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