Sooz, The best thing you can do is look at your modular home as anyone would any house. Do what you would if it were stick built. Sometimes you may find you have a few issues that you have to work around or find another solution to make your project work but most times you should be fine. I think the porch issue really depends on the codes and such where you live. Most places have rules about this sort of thing. We have a single wide mobile home and our porches aren't connected to the trailer but the rooves are. I guess they could have been connected somehow but I guess this was just how my Dad thought it would be easiest at the time. You should be able to find what you need at Lowe's or Home Depot or the local hardware. We buy everything we need at Lowe's, however there are times that it's required more work once we get home...like when we replaced our exterior doors and the traditional ones wouldn't really work because of the porch rooves so DH had to cut the doors down to make them fit (he works at a door company though so it was simple for him! LOL). It was cheaper than a special order! With new windows, we sometimes have to cut the hole bigger or put extra framing in to make them work. The plumbing we've had to work on switching over because it's the stuff they used years ago that there were issues with and it's prone to leaks later on. Bottom line is we've learned every project may end up with extra work because everything isn't square or done in the average sizes that are out there but it will work somehow! Hanging things...anything you want to hang, can be hung! Most of our items are hung up by nails. In fact we have this picture in the living room that's 25 1/2"x 31 1/2" and it's just hung on one nail. It's been moved around the room several times in the last 4 years and it has yet to fall. The really heavy things, DH uses anchors. They're pretty inexpensive at the hardware and it's really just a plastic piece that you put in a hole that you drill in the wall. The tips open up and hold the anchor in place and then the screw that holds the item goes in the anchor. (Not the best description but when you go look for items for hollow walls or ask!) I have some pretty heavy things hung up and again, they haven't fell. Hope that helps! Leslie

Pardon me if I'm doing this wrong- 1st post on the forum. Wow- I feel your pain! Ours is a 13 year old Heart modular- with exactly the same issues you described... and then some! Problem is, the company went defunct, and we aren't the original owner- so no warranty transfer on our issues. Nice. I was told not to waste my time. That a company in class action would end up paying next to nothing after several years of fighting. Before I rant, I would first like to solicit opinions from other owners. I wonder if spray foam insulation may solve a few of the issues you will see below? Any other suggestions would be appreciated as well! I would prefer not to chemically bomb the home, or spend a great fortune, but we do need a healthy home that we can enjoy. To be fair, a lot of the issue is the install. Where the siding meets the foundation is a 2" gap that the critters love. The top of the siding meeting the roof is the same. Under the house, gaps that you can see daylight through. These numerous gaps (top & bottom) have allowed us to play host to mice, bats, red, grey, & even black squirrels. I have tried every means of elimination. We can hear them scratch and thump in the ceiling, walls, & floors all hours of the day & night. This was going on with 3 cats killing them! I have fear they may chew wires & burn the house. I'm sure they have destroyed what little insulation there was. We put plastic on all the windows & the wind still blows through. No window closes completely or can lock in place. None were installed properly. There is frost on the inside of the walls. I added a picture of the roof we replaced this past year. We crawled up to clean the leaves out of the gutters, turns out it was shingle grit filling them- not leaves. It was unfortunate that our family did the work and didn't know enough to add step flashing -now we have leaks, too. We will be removing 3 sections this spring. The roof has no crawlspace or access to insulate, so we have 6 foot icicles & 8" ice damns around the entire roof edge as well. The plumbing has no access panels & no standard parts. It's all factory built. So there are no shut offs in emergency. To do any work, have to shut off the main then cut the pipe. Later, can replace properly with a shutoff and screw on. There are many more issues... but I need to go make supper. Thank you for your patience with my rant. Please let me know if you have had similar experiences.

As no homeowners have come forward, I'll step up to the plate. Since home design is what I do for a large part of my so-called living, visualizing the results comes pretty easily to me and I'm pretty much dead-on (in my mind). However, translating those mental images into graphics that a home buyer can envision is a bit more difficult. Most companies will show you a floor plan and a front elevation and leave the rest up to your imagination. Granted, the vast majority of modular home "stock" plans are not too intricate and a 12'x12' bedroom with 8' ceilings in a model home is going to "feel" pretty similar to the same size room in a completely different plan. But even computer-generated 3-d images are no guarantee that you will be happy with the plan. The only real suggestion I can make is to study hard any plan that you are considering. Start with how it will fit on your lot if you happen to already own one. How will it look as you approach it? Is it inviting? (There's only so much that landscaping should be expected to do.) What is the entry like? Are some of the features being offered, like little reverse gables, simply little more than paste-on clichés or do they add some architectural value? When first inside, are you in a comfortable transition space or in the midst of a Living Room. (That's Ok if you are comfortable with that. It means the Living Room is now to serve as a place to remove muddy boots in the winter.) Are the sizes of the main public rooms adequate? Hard to tell from a tiny floor plan but you need to obtain prints with the actual dimensions and compare them to rooms you are familiar with such as in your current home. When the plan shows a Living Room only a foot or two bigger than your current cramped space, that grand piano you are dreaming of is going to have to remain only a dream. Is the Dining Area large enough for the dinner parties you envision? Is there easy access from the kitchen? Is there adequate wall space for china closets or serving tables. Often windows are popped in, seemingly at random in these plans without regard to furniture placement. (This applies to all rooms in the house, by the way.) How is the kitchen laid out? Are the appliances in a logical pattern for the way you cook? Is the sink to be provided suitable? Do you need an oversized range or refrigerator space? (Standard range space is 30" and Ref. space is 33" or 36" and no amount of wedging will fit that 48" range with grill top in.) Is there a pantry or enough cabinet space? How will you handle recyclables? Will the door to garage suddenly hit you in the butt just as you are lifting the Thanksgiving turkey out of the oven? Is there enough lower cabinets for pots & pans, cleaning supplies, etc? In a lot of kitchens, this is a problem with the area under the countertop taken up by dishwashers, trash compactors, corner lazy susans, the oven, etc. Is there space for a small kitchen table? Is there sufficient distance that an early riser can make a three-course breakfast wighout waking the whole household? Are the baths comfortable? A small window is very nice to have, both for light and natural ventilation. Many plans will have a stock "hall bath" plan which puts the tub/shower along the narrow end along the exterior wall preventing the installation of any but the smallest awning window up near the ceiling. This is usually done to maximize the efficiency of the plan but often creates dreary spaces. Take notes the next time you are in a windowless bathroom. Bedrooms: Adequate floor area? Closet space? Window and door locations as relates to furniture placement? (Sill height of windows also for the same reason.) Relative position of your bed to a plumbing wall in an adjoining bath? Will you be woken up every time one of the brood flushes the toilet just inches behind your head in the middle of the night? Is a bath accesible to all bedrooms without having to go into common areas? Can the kids get up late at night without having to go into the living room where you're entertaining? And how do all the rooms flow? Are there rooms that seem to be little more than a series of paths to get from one space to another? Adequate lighting in all rooms? Phone, tv, computer wiring in all possible locations? Ideally, PVC chase pipes that new wiring can easily be threaded through in the future when new technologies make the current wiring obsolete will more than pay for themselves. A note about furniture placement: In the early stages of selection you will probably be looking at endless simple catalog plans withvery little detail but when you find some promising ones, request drawings printed to scale. That way you can easily make scale paper cut-outs of your furniture and see how they fit into the plan. Obviously, there is a whole lot more to be added here if this were to be a comprehensive list, but it is just to illustrate some of what is not apparent in a floor plan or even a 3D rendering or fly-though. You need to look at every part of your relationship to your current home and other homes you've had and attempt to determine how the new plan will function based on your past experiences. But realize, that no atter how much thought you give the project, there will likely be some aspect of it that may surprise you. Likely not to the point that you will hate it, but just not precisely what you envisioned. My most savvy client went through endless revisions including a complete plan trashing and redesign for his new modular three-story, 5000 S.F. golf course-hugging house. When it was done, he just loved it but there still were things that were different from his expectations. Good luck! Wayne

Thanks a lot! jon1270 Your pointed out the right problems; I don't know the answers for most of your questions. For size, I want about 500 square feet (unless additional will not cost proportionally). Exterior would be wood siding, to match the original. Shape? I would see a rectangle is most possible. Windows need to be good in order to save heating in winters. Interior material and wall surfaces would be just so-so; no need to be great. Floor is wood. Fireplace is not needed in the addition. I have no idea of foundation, basements things unless I ask a constructor to review it on-site to find out what is the best, Yes, it is on and on... I am thinking of paying a GC to be onsite to provide some estimates. Is this a good idea? Again thanks for the reply. Donald.