6/13/02 5:37 PM Eastern

Lauren says we should be landing in Cleveland in about 40 - 45 minutes. I just woke up from an unintentional nap. Where was I?

After having a quick look around Granite Falls I plotted us a course back over to Everett, where we planned on stopping to have a look at a manufactured homes sales center. We hadn't decided until the day before that this activity was going to be part of our trip, but since we had the time we decided to go ahead. Hey, we've been researching them for weeks now, so it was good to get some firsthand experience.

We found the first place in Everett pretty easily and pulled into the parking lot. In case you haven't visited one before (and I suspect most of you haven't), a manufactured homes sales center is essentially a large gravel or paved lot with several homes up on it and a permanently sited office in front. We went into the office expecting to have to wait for a salesperson to be available to take us around, but got a pleasant surprise instead. Moments after walking in the door we were back outside with a map of the grounds and all the model homes, sans salesperson. So instead of being led around we got to guide ourselves and move at our own pace.

The map they gave us was great because for each home it listed what the total cost of each home was and how much of that figure was additional items or improvements in the home. That was really great. They could have put the base price and then had a bunch of hidden costs for the extras so that you would think the prices were lower than they really were, but instead they told you the cost of exactly what you were looking at. The first home we went into was one of the two largest and it was the most expensive one on the lot. Let me just say HO-LY SHIT. This was a manufactured home? We knew that they were going to be nicer than we expected one could be, but this was a lot nicer than most site-built homes we have seen. There were plenty of rooms with lots of space. The floor plan was incredibly open and very strangely laid out, but in a way that made the home more accessible rather than less. There were exciting angles. There were several features that must be looked upon as built-in cat play areas. The kitchen was huge and the master suite was incredible. We were stunned and flabbergasted and hugely impressed.

Over the course of the next 70 or 80 minutes we visited another dozen or so models, including the one that was larger than the first one, if not quite as fancy. I liked this one a lot. All of them were nice and more than four were truly exceptional. The main thing that we came away from the visit with was that these beautiful homes were tens of thousands of dollars less than they would have been if they were site built, and that we could afford every single one of them.

After we finished looking at all of the models we went back into the office and talked to a salesman. From him we learned the following things.

1. Any of the designs could be sited over a basement with no trouble.
2. Any of the designs could be completely gas, completely electric, or a combination of the two.
3. The super-efficient insulation in the walls not only kept heat and cold where you wanted them, it also could reduce the noise of a next-door airport to a quiet murmur.
4. The models we had looked at were examples and starting points only. All finished homes were custom designs to one extent or another.

All of this together had us driving away from there excited out of our minds for buying a home.

We're coming in for a landing now so I'll be putting my notebook and pen away until later.