I fell in love with the Buckeye!! It was the first mod I looked at before building. I did want to do some customization on the floorplan, and was assured at the first meeting it could be done. A month later, I was told they couldn't help me but would be glad to sell me a standard floor plan. Don't believe their customization claims, they basically don't. And do a lot of research, The internet can be one of your best friends here. They shut their site in Matthews NC down shortly after I looked at them, and I heard they were having some financial problems. Not sure if that is in fact true, but I would check it out carefully. They do have nice floor plans and some nice features. The construction seems to be basically good, nice materials and good workmanship on the ones I saw. I ended up after looking at Discovery, Ranell, Champion,more plans than I can remember, and several stick builders building a Cavalear. I love the house, floor plan. It was exactly what I was looking for and I must have reviewed close to 500 plans! This was a 2 year process for me just to decide on a manfacturer. The issues I've had have been pretty small on the grand scale. Service has been slow, I'm still ironing the last two items out from Feb. 2007. But overall, I'm very happy with the house. No matter who you go with, get a professional home inspection at closing, keep good notes and stay on them for service after the sale. The only place I see mods failing in the building arena is on service after the sale and lack of detail in their workmanship. For instance, butt joints should not be used on 3 inch crown mouldings. But it can be worked around and this house is a very good value and structurally sound. Like I said, overall I'm very happy with it.

One of th emain things you want to do is find a manufacturing facility that's within 200 miles of your lot. There are many such places in the northeast. Going halfway across the country to find a manufacturer can be costly as far as transportation goes. Find a company that has a rep in NJ and start there. Also decide if you just want the home delivered and you'll do the general contracting or if you want the dealer to be the GC also. I had the dealer handle everything since I was in PA and the lot was in VT. And they did a very nice job.

Ummm plllog, you are still wrong there. My cabinets are all custom (the legal definition is "built to individual specs"). There are pieces of solid wood cabinet face (which is what I think you are calling a filler) which were cut on site to exactly fit the space (because no kitchen is level. Plumb and square if it is in a house sitting on piling). Putting some cute gadget against the wall six feet up would have been stupid, but a half inch"filler" which is actually half inch on one end and 5/8 on the other allows the elaborate door style to open or clear trim. They are basically invisible, but still there and my kitchen and baths are definitely custom. As to the op....isn't your husband involved in this question? Cuz if you took this to court he'd look like an idiot. Contractor law does have definitions for these things and given the wording, your contractor actually did meet the specs provided. Custom dies not mean dove tails It could mean applied with silly putty if you don't specify and the more informed the protestor is supposed to npbe the less wiggle room you have to complain. You signed a contract with assumptions...you know the sarcastic definition of that word right? If you want dove tails you include them in your contract, just like special glides etc. That's custom...built to defined specs. You didn't define enough, you got someone elses idea of what the undefined areas are normally with your defined specs added. Such is life when y ou don't read or define a contract.

I was just looking at this website. http://www.deckhouse.com/ There is a discussion about these homes here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/own-a-deck-house-say-hello-dsvw-vd~688363