The Friday Gathering – More houses Edition

By glblguy

The roofers should finish up installing the new roof on our current home today. It’s made a huge improvement to the look of our home. I didn’t realize how bad our roof was until I came home from work and saw the new one. Wow!

Which reminds me. We ended up hiring a painting company to repair the chimney, fix all of the rotten wood, and paint the house. I shopped around, received several bids and then selected the company I was comfortable with doing the work. I challenged their offer and practiced some negotiating tactics. I saved $1000.00 off the initial bid. Here’s the best part…the bid was low enough that we didn’t need to borrow any money! We were able to pay off the entire repair with our emergency fund!

This weekend, we’ll be traveling back up the mountains to look at some more homes. Our buyer’s broker has about 5 homes lined up for us and from the pictures we’ve seen, they are just beautiful and all have awesome mountain views. I can’t wait to see them!

Now I just pray that the timing of all of this works out or that the seller of whichever home we decide on will take a contingency contract. Another option we are also considering is just buying some land and either having a home built, or having an upscale modular home installed. Anybody familiar with the pros/cons of modular housing? I’m not referring to double wides, but to homes that actually look like stick built homes. Would appreciate any insights you may have.

Important Stuff

The Gathering

Here are my favorite article picks from this week:


12 Responses (including trackbacks) to “The Friday Gathering – More houses Edition”

  1. Pinyo Says:

    Wow, you are quick. I just got email about blog action day this morning. Good luck with the house hunting and thank you for showing off my new site design to your readers!

  2. No Debt Plan Says:

    Exciting times, man! Good luck with those mountain homes. (Are they near Boone or Asheville, NC?)

  3. Patrick Says:

    Good deal negotiating! I’ll be sure to participate in Blog Action Day again this year. I think it’s a wonderful thing to be able to bring attention to a cause that has worldwide effects.

  4. Frugal Dad Says:

    Thanks for the link to my article. Hope this house hunting trip yields some results. Oh, and thanks for the heads up on Blog Action Day–off to check it out now.

  5. Bri Says:

    My husband and I considered purchasing land also, and we had planned on doing a “panel built home”. It is basically something that comes in a sort of kit and can be installed by your or a contractor. They are fairly inexpensive (as homes go) and come in a variety of styles. This is the site we looked at http://www.ameripanel.com/. I also came across this site in my search, though I haven’t checked them out much, http://www.valubuild.com/. Good luck!

  6. That One Caveman Says:

    Good luck on the house hunting. It’s gotta be exciting to be chasing a dream like that! Thanks for linking to my article and thanks for mentioning Blog Action Day; I hadn’t heard of it before.

  7. David Says:

    I cannot wait to hear about your new mountain home, we are on such similar paths right now. Good luck, and thanks for the mention!

  8. Monroe on a budget Says:

    Hey GLBL, thanks for heads up on Blog Action Day. That’s a perfect theme for the money blog community to get involved in.

  9. Steward Says:

    The Blog Action Day looks pretty interesting. Thanks for posting this here. Now I can check it out!

  10. ChristianPF Says:

    Gibble,
    thanks for the mention – oh and BTW, I made the top 20 with PT too!! I am hoping to make it to the top 5!! We shall see…

  11. Twinsmom Says:

    My ex-husband and I had a modular home built about 15 years ago, and I just loved it. We went through Unibuilt and couldn’t have been happier. Their houses are stick built homes, just built in a factory, so the interior studs and such are never exposed to the elements. They are also constructed much quicker than on-site homes; we were in our completed home in about 4 months. While we chose a standard plan, they were more than willing to work with us should we have wanted to change any layouts. Our contractor also was very good in advising us on things we could change to lower the cost without sacrificing quality, i.e., 3″ door and window frame moldings versus 4″, local supplier for carpet instead of from the factory and so on, and there were many options available to choose from. Should I ever be fortunate enough to build again, I would definitely go with Unibuilt. (No affiliation, just a happy customer.) Email me if you have any specific questions.

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