Over the past several months, our family has been on a journey. For the first time, we are building a home. I was looking through all the pictures taken along the way and thought I would share our adventure. We started by clearing out an area to enjoy the occasional bonfire, but we were quickly ready to move on to the next step.
We opted for a Ritz-Craft Modular Home. While reluctant to pursue this route at first, after touring the factory, I was impressed with their product. I won’t go into too much detail, but here are a few reasons why we purchased a Ritz-Craft Home:
1. All materials are stored in a climate controlled environment. The home (built with 2×6 construction) is also built indoors.
2. The home is usually delivered, set on its foundation and sided and shingled within 2-3 days, limiting exposure to the elements.
3. We were impressed by the shop’s efficiency and quality of materials, the windows, cabinets, fixtures, siding, etc. The combination of efficiency and the cost savings from producing more expensive products like cabinetry allows Ritz-Craft to offer competitively priced homes. I’m not sure we could have “stick built” this home for less.
A memorable road trip, touring our home during the building process…
The foundation…
The delivery of the house…
The crane setting the house, worth a day off work and a picnic to watch the excitement…
24 hours later…
The contractor worked around us, so we could paint some of the walls while he finished the house and provided assistance when I did things like accidentally paint over an outlet.
Lots of landscaping to do, but this is home 🙂
NOTE: While we are satisfied with Ritz-Craft’s product and the quality of the builder, the one weak link in the process was the individual who drew up our plans for the builder. I’m not sure if he was incompetent or dishonest, but he frequently failed to save the appropriate documents and failed to forward the proper docs to our bank, which caused problems. While our builder did a fantastic job, I would love to share this builder’s talents, but I cannot due to the office manager’s neglect.
Thanks for reading and sharing in our journey!
Cairn Hill Farms, LLC 
Drive by Ritz Craft every day. I might have seen your home being pulled out of the lot. Cool.
Congratulations on your beautiful new home! The campfires are sure to bring happy memories!!!
Thanks for sharing!
Looks great. from the pics I would never have guessed it was a modular home.
Doug
Hi Maggie,
We are happy to know that you have had such a positive experience with us – it has been our honor to help you achieve the American Dream of home ownership.
Thank you for choosing Ritz-Craft Corporation!
Thanks for sharing your adventure. I can’t wait to see it next week.
Love you all.
Congrats on your new home. We are planning to get one from Ritz Craft also. Can’t wait. Did you put a basement in yours?
Yes, we opted for a walkout basement. Good luck with your project!
How long after it was delivered did it take to finish the work inside and out?
We moved in 8 weeks later. However, I was nudging and campaigning for that move in date. Not sure if that made a difference.
Looks very very nice…enjoy.
What an exciting journey! Congratulations! Many blessings to you and your family in your new home!
Congratulations Maggie! I’d love to take a look at it, once you’re settled in.
We’ve been looking at building with Ritz… Which model did you end up choosing?
We started with the Cozy Cabin and added a mudroom/office (and made a few internal changes, laundry room moved to mudroom, so we could have His/Her closets, added/moved windows, etc) Good luck with your project!
I’m very happy for you and I hope you really enjoy your new home! I love the backyard campfire area we are also going to do that in our back yard as well. Thank you for sharing. Hugs!
Its been a few months how are you liking your home? We are looking into a RC home but would love to hear others experiences throughout the process. Is there anything you wish you did/didn’t do along the way?
Yes, we still enjoy our new home-very much. Now that we are settling in, I have noticed a few things that will need attention:
1. The marriage lines have all cracked and need to be re-mudded, sanded and painted. Our builder failed to mention that this would happen, but apparently, this should be expected.
2. The trim paint does not hold up well with water. For example, I left my coffee mug on the window sill, and the small amount of water underneath crackled the paint.
3. The carpet is wearing quickly in the main traffic areas, and we have been careful to leave our shoes by the door most of the time.
4. I wish I would have Googled the names of the builder and other staff that we worked with on a regular basis. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
On the whole, we are quite satisfied with our new home. Ritz Craft produces a quality product. My advice is to choose your builder carefully! Look at several, take your time, and insist on a copy of the final contracts to take home and go over carefully. Make sure the non-Ritz Craft portion of the contract, in particular, is detailed. Exactly what they are installing, what is expected at clean-up, etc.
Good luck!