Cross Country Homes is a building contractor that builds homes to order for customers on their own land. In this regard, Cross Country Homes are exactly like any other building contractor, the only difference is that the home is built in an environmentally controlled factory space then shipped to the site where it is assembled on a permanent foundation.
All the preparatory work on site which includes the permit applications,footings, foundations, temporary electric and water outlets as well as the finishing work, which can include the addition of decks, porches, garages, septic systems and driveways, is done by Cross Country Homes personnel or subcontractors.
We offer several plan books with suggested floor plans for Ranch, Cape Cod and Two Story homes. However, it is possible to take any of these plans and adjust them with additions, subtractions and changes to make them a true custom home reflecting your ideas and desires.
The first stage is usually the selection of a design for your home in conjunction with our in house design consultants who can help you include all the features that you want and advise on the cost implications of your choices.
Once the design has been finalized, the next stage would be to provide you with a detailed cost estimate. This may trigger further adjustments, but when finished the final design is sent to the factory for the production of the Engineered Drawings or Building Plans and their final pricing.
When these drawings return you have one final chance to change things, then the order to proceed with production is sent to the factory. A few weeks later your site will have been prepared and the date for the arrival of your new home will be known. On the day appointed, the home arrives on site along with the setting crew and the crane. Assuming that we have good weather, your new home will be sitting on its foundation and be weatherproof by the end of the day.
We don’t set homes on rainy days in order to maintain the dry condition of the materials used to build it. This ensures that your home remains dry and the walls and floors remain straight and true.
Over the next few weeks, the internal finishing is carried out and the site additions of Decks and Porches are completed. The septic system is installed if necessary, and the various inspections are called for until the home is ready for the final walk through and its Certificate of Occupancy. The day you have been looking forward to has finally arrived, you can now move into your new home and start enjoying all the features you have built in to it.
Cross Country Homes guarantees your home for one year and remains in touch with you and responsible for anything which may need attention during that period. You then have a further nine years guarantee covered by our Bonded Builder Policy. In addition the individual component manufacturers warranty covers doors, windows, roofing, siding etc. All of this data is presented to you when you take possession.
During this building process we get to know each other pretty well and we look forward to adding you to our extended family of Cross Country Homeowners. We try very hard to make all our clients feel comfortable during this period. We know building a home can be very stressful and we do everything we can to help you enjoy this exciting time.
At Cross Country Homes, all our clients become ‘one of the family’.
"WHY 'MODULAR HOMES'?"
Cross Country Homes could build your home the old fashioned way, but they decided that factory built offered the best mix of quality of product, variety of design and on time performance to satisfy their clients.
One of the attractions of building in this way is the speed of construction that can be attained due to the efficiency of using factory systems to move large components around and assemble them without the limitations imposed by site conditions.
Another big attraction is the quality control and consistency that can be obtained in a factory environment.
Finally, there is the elimination of the effect of weather on the structure during the construction period. This contributes enormously to the quality of the finished home.
"WHAT'S IN A NAME?
These homes have many names used to describe them. The most common is ‘Modular’.
This refers to the fact that they arrive on site in several sections or modules. So this term is accurate as far as it goes. However, double-wide homes built to a much less stringent code also arrive in modules and are referred to as ‘modular homes’. So how can you differentiate between homes that all claim to be ‘modular’?
We refer to our homes as ‘system built’. This recognizes the fact that the home is built up from many different systems in the factory. Our homes are customizable to a great extent; they are built using conventional wood frame construction and are assembled on a conventional, permanent foundation. They are all built to meet or exceed local codes for normal stick built homes and pass the same inspections as stick built homes. They are also considered to be ‘real’ property, not personal property as in the case of manufactured homes.
The North Carolina Department of Insurance considers all factory built homes of modular construction to be equal to conventionally constructed site homes, provided they are built to the same codes. They recommend that any concerns about the appearance of these homes should be addressed by placing appearance type restrictions in the local zoning ordinances and not a blanket restriction based on where they are built. As you will discover, if you do not already know, it is possible to have a system built home that is impossible to tell from a stick built, thanks to the customization and site built features.
So you can invest in one of our homes secure in the knowledge that you are getting superior product that can compare favorably with any stick built home and is treated in every way as though it were a site built home.