As a child, growing up with his brothers and sisters around the office of his parents’ mobile home company, Joe Bushey wondered why the factory-built couldn’t be more like traditional homes. “Mobile homes were built with all paneling, no drywall,” says Bushey. “They had aluminum windows and aluminum mobile home siding. I remember questioning why can’t they build them more like a house with drywall and more windows like a house?”

Today, he says those questions have been answered.

Windows are generally vinyl, with double panes of glass for energy efficiency. Vinyl siding is the norm, and the mobile homes, whether single or double or larger manufactured unit, more closely resemble stick built houses, though they are still constructed on a non-removable steel chassis.

The similarity is even greater in modular homes, which are prefabricated in sections at an offsite factory then assembled together on site. “In modular homes, pretty much everything a builder would offer is available,” he says. “That could be Corian countertops, tile floors, Anderson windows and doors, if that’s what the customer wants.”

And meeting customer demand is part of the mission at G & I Homes, a second-generation, family-owned and operated business with five offices serving Utica, Oneonta, Syracuse, Whitney Point, Vernon and their surrounding areas.

Bushey speaks frankly and comfortably about the origins of the family business, selling trailer homes in 1965 when Gerald and Irene Bushey entered the manufactured housing industry as dealers associated with a central office in the Capitol District. “Latham Trailers Sales was the name of the company,” says Bushey, adding, “there were numerous Latham Trailer Sales companies through the state coordinated by one individual. In 1975, (that individual) passed away,” says Bushey. “With his passing, my father said “I don’t want to be tied to this group. I want to be an independent business person with my own company. He changed the name to G & I Homes, with my parents’ initials, and said ‘we’re not selling trailers anymore. We’re selling homes.’”

Changing the name of the business, dropping “trailer” from the name, was an early step toward overcoming perceptions surrounding manufactured housing.

The original office was entrance to the Bushey family homestead, a farm house on the property from which Gerald and Irene sold mobile homes. Gerald and Irene had 13 children, all of whom at one time or another worked in the family business.

Eventually a doublewide was erected on the site and the office moved out of the house and Bushey recalls playing games in a room adjacent the office. The business was always a part of family life.

When the parents were ready to retire, eight of their offspring were working full-time for G & I Homes, and purchased the company for their parents, according to Bushey. “Four of us are directors,” he says. Joe is one the four. David runs the service department, Daniel is a sales manager in Whitney Point. Robert oversees foundations, utility hookups and more for the turnkey packages G & I Homes began offering in the last four or five years.

Four other siblings fill other roles: Jim is a sales manager in Skyler, Matthew is a salesperson as his is wife, Melissa, and Patty works in Oneonta where her husband Lawson Fowble is a sales manager. Ruby works in the service department.

“How the company grew, basically, was my older siblings started to come in full-time after finishing high school,” says Bushey, adding “They were getting married and the business had to support a lot more of the family.” Like the family, the business grew.

In 1984 G & I Homes expanded into Oneonta and in 1986 the company opened in Brewerton, in each case acquiring vacant commercial property to set up model homes and offices. In 1995 G & I Homes acquired an existing manufactured housing business in Whitney Point, and in 1996 it acquired another, in Vernon. “Between those five sales centers, we sell between $30 million and $35 million in factory-built housing. We also have a strong preowned manufactured home market.” The Busheys also own Terrace Hill Estates, a “manufactured home community” in Frankfort. Mathew Bushey is the rental manager.

G&I Homes has also filled nearly all of 27 lots in a subdivision his father began developing before retirement. “There are modular cape cods, ranches and two-stories including a ranch and a two-story model on display,” says Bushey. “Those are spec homes you could come in and buy one, and move right in.”

The company has other move-in ready homes on the market, including one in an area marketed as the Mohawk Highlands, in the Herkimer County town of Skyler. “If you’re looking for a remote wooded location, it’s a beautiful two-story colonial modular home with beautiful views,” says Bushey. “We also have an 11-acre lot and another five-acre lot available in the Mohawk Highlands. If you’re someone looking for a real piece of land, where you want to snowmobile or go four-wheeling or hunt and fish…there’s all kinds of streams and ponds there,” he says.

As the business has expanded, the size and complexity of manufactured housing has too. “Growing up, I remember the crew that worked here would set two or three (mobile homes) in a day. Most are now two to three days apiece to set,” says Bushey. “In two or three days, with a doublewide, we’d be done. With a rather large two-story, four, six or eight-box modular, we’re about two months into finishing it.”

Among the principal reasons some folks choose manufactured housing are cost savings and time savings. G & I Homes presently delivers housing from four different manufacturers, three in Pennsylvania and one in Indiana. “Single and doublewide product can be set up on a concrete slab and don’t need a full foundation. That helps bring down the overall price per square foot,” says Bushey.

These homes are built to meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Code which breaks the country down with required wind resistance and snow load requirements. “All of our product comes with a heavier snow load (rating) than what the Federal Government requires,” he says. “From there you go into a modular home which does require a frost wall foundation system, either a crawl space or a basement.” These are built to meet New York State building codes specific to each municipality, according to Bushey.

Modular homes will cost more per square foot than single or doublewide product, but less than traditional stick built houses. And there’s plenty of flexibility in the finishing details.

If wood siding is important to the customer, siding can be omitted at the factory and added on site, but for the rest of the structure, the owner is still enjoying the benefits of a factory-built house. “Materials are bought in large quantities so there are bulk discounts,” says Bushey. “Any they’re built in a controlled environment so labor costs are substantially less. You’re saving on materials and labor.”

“We’re constantly asked what is better. What is better depends on what your intentions are,” says Bushey. “A manufactured home you can turn around and move it (when) 10 or 15 years down the road things change. Many people have bought a single or doublewide and are going to want it taken off the property for whatever reason.”

Whereas a traditional stick-built home can take months to frame, Bushey says G&I Homes expects a turnaround of from 90 to 120 days from the time an order is placed to the receipt of a certificate of occupancy. Construction of a modular house can begin in the factory while site preparations like clearing, leveling and laying of foundations are underway on the target property, contributing to the overall speed of the process.

“We sell three ways. We deliver and set the house itself, with no utility hookups and the homeowner is responsible for that; about five years ago we began contracting to put the foundation in, the plumbing and heating connections, utility work and driveways, though the majority of customers still buy it where they act as general contractor and line up all the work, and some half and half,” says Bushey.

“With site work, we have more of a limitation (to) where we can work. We can’t cover as much of an area doing all the work, perhaps 60 to 90 minute radius of Utica,” he says, adding “If we’re only delivering and setting the house, we work anywhere within upstate New York.”

“Obviously everyone’s always cost conscious, but the time factor is tremendous,” says Bushey. “People are coming to us and looking at what we have to offer and finding less hassles, it’s quicker to order and move in. We could have a couple come in today, then build them a custom modular home, and have them in their house by this summer. If you go to a builder and work with an architect, it can be three to four months getting plans finalized.

While mobile homes are available as small as 560 square feet, modulars can be delivered as large as desired. “I can build a 10,000 square-foot modular if that’s what the customer wants,” says Bushey.

“We’ve been doing this for 43 years and we’ve had numerous repeat buyers,” says Bushey. Of the preowned single or doublewides G & I sells, many were taken in on trade, he says. “We have parents who have bought two or three homes from us and now the kids are buying,” says Bushey.

“Modular homes are real property to go on a property and will be forever so,” he says. “We’ve had people who bought modulars from us and…have asked if if they can trade those in. Those are not designed to come back. The building codes are revised every few years, and those are not going to conform to the local building code of today.”

Thinking a G&I Homes product might meet your housing needs? Consider attending one of the G&I Homes’ factory-built housing educational home buying seminars. One will be held March 29 in Norwich: call 315 732 6136 for more information.

The company also has close to 75 houses on display across its five sites, including modulars, singles and doublewides, and G&I Homes will host an open house event on April 5 at all locations, with all homes open to the curious public. Typically, the mode homes are locked.

“We’re a full service company,” explains Bushey. “If someone comes to our sales centers we want to make sure somebody waits on them and is available to answer all their questions. It’s pretty much one of the biggest decisions somebody’s going to make and we feel we have an obligation to make it as smooth a process as possible.”

For floor plans, photos, square-footage and other specs on more than a dozen different available modular homes, visit www.gihomes.net, and remember this is only the tip of the iceberg, as custom builds are common practice at G&I Homes.

Or, you can call 315 732 6136 for more information, to schedule an appointment, or to attend one of G&I Homes’ upcoming seminars.