THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505040277
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Most of the oceanfront vacation home owned by Tom and Lois Shedlock was built in six days on an assembly line at the Nationwide Homes factory in Virginia. If the contractor, Joe Rhodes, hadn't run into delays with the in-ground swimming pool, the house would have been finished two weeks after delivery.
That kind of turnaround time might sound like the next best thing to a miracle. It ain't necessarily so.
Planning to build a home is hard work for the average homeowner. Those who aren't architects or builders have trouble visualizing what blueprints will look like translated into two-by-fours and plywood.
Clients who believe they know exactly what they want when building starts are surprised to find their ideas evolving as the house progresses. Experienced builders expect it.
Closets planned for one place work better elsewhere. Rooms that worked fine on paper with one window need two in real life. Colors and textures that looked great in small showroom samples don't work in big rooms.
You can bet that many a homeowner is thankful that the 12- to 24-week schedule for the average, site-built Outer Banks dwelling allows plenty of time for change.
Modular homes usually arrive 90 percent complete. A two- to four-week on-site schedule barely allows homeowners time to get acquainted with their creation before it's finished. Changes almost always mean additional cost and delays.
The Shedlocks understood construction better than most homeowners. Lois works for a contractor; Tom is a commercial painter. Even so, once their house was delivered they began to see little things they wanted to change.
In some cases - like the wall finish we discussed in last week's column - they didn't realize there were factory options. And they didn't realize until they saw the walls that they wanted something else.
In the last couple weeks, the Shedlocks have rethought other decorating decisions. They've repainted the front door. They may repaint baseboards in one bathroom. They didn't like the sheet goods used on the backs of cabinets forming the breakfast bar and replaced them with solid tongue-and-groove panels.
These were all things that could have been done differently at the factory.
The order form for a Nationwide home has more than 150 blanks to be filled in by the builder. But at the factory the instructions expand to 30 pages of detailed specifications. Many of those hundreds of details can be customized if the builder and homeowner know what to ask for.
The Shedlock house required more customization than other modular houses Rhodes had built. To build the house his clients wanted, he needed to do about 20 percent of the work on-site.
Rather than asking Nationwide to do more, the factory was asked to do less: Leave off the ceiling in the great room, leave openings in the exterior walls for glass block windows and a fireplace, don't put the siding on, put vinyl flooring only in the downstairs bathrooms, don't install the carpet.
In an assembly-line setting, it's just as difficult not to do something. If anyone questions whether a modular house can be a custom house, they only have to look at the Shedlock job, says Rhodes. ``If the factory could get this all right, they can do anything.''
Because the Shedlocks' house is an investment property, most of their decisions for custom features were based on getting the best return for their money. Decorating decisions followed the tried and true formula: Think beach.
Walls are white. The carpet is a deep-sea blue-green. When you ascend the stairs and look out the great room toward the ocean, the carpet blends right into the water, Lois Shedlock says.
Kitchen cabinets and the matching ceiling fan are a pickled oak. Bathroom walls are papered with colorful fish. Vinyl floors are light.
Diane Strehan, interior designer for Village Home Furnishings, helped Lois chose furniture for the rental house. ``We look for durability,'' Strehan says.
The dining room table for 16 was built by a local cabinetmaker with light sea-green Formica to match the kitchen countertops.
Some of the rooms are decorated with wicker. ``But we chose good pieces with sturdy wood frames and metal guides on the drawers,'' Strehan says. ``If things don't operate easily, they get mistreated.''
Many owners don't realize that vacation homes don't need as much furniture as a year-round house, she says. ``I recommend that they cut back on the number of pieces and use the extra dollars on better quality. You can accessorize heavily to fill in the gaps for that homey feeling.''
Outside, the Shedlocks added a fish cleaning table and a built-in grill. There are outdoor showers but there is also a ground floor indoor shower. Paving tile floors in the ground floor hallway and bath will withstand gritty sand. A private swimming pool and hot tub are key features in boosting rent and prolonging the rental season.
The first tenants were expected today. The house is almost finished. Next week we'll see how it turned out. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW WILSON
Billy Simmons of Manteo makes calculations for a fence around the
Shedlock pool.
Contractor Joe Rhodes with a carpet section made from recycled
containers.
by CNB