When you have a developer interested in the exterior appearance of the homes, and a manufactured home retailer interested in the functionality and appeal of the interior, the resulting designs are bound to turn some heads.
The same architectural standards that provide Baywood with its one-of-a-kind image also presented some of the greatest design considerations. Embracing the challenge was New Dimension Homes of Long Neck, Delaware – a division of Michigan-based retailer, Suburban Home Sales Inc., and the exclusive on-site sales agent for the Pot-Nets Communities.
President, Jim Kuhn applied his 30 some years of industry experience to create homes for Baywood that were as appealing on the inside as they were on the outside.
It wasn’t an easy task. Window placement interfered with both functionality and engineering. Entire rooms were moved to accommodate the exterior designs. Every detail was exhaustively reviewed to ensure it met both architectural guidelines and manufacturing specifications.
Also incorporated were many features not commonly found in manufactured housing, such as trayed and nine-foot ceilings, ceramic tile floors, recessed lighting, Corian® countertops, Jennaire™ ranges, Whirlpool® tubs, see-through fireplaces, and Berber carpeting. The end result was a series of homes that not only exceeded the expectations of all involved, but also won the overwhelming support of the public and local officials – many of whom found it difficult to believe that these exceptional homes could be built in a factory.

The vision of Robert W. Tunnell, Jr., principal of Tunnell Companies, Baywood is a community that has been nearly 10 years in the making. It took the knowledge, skill and determination of many people for many years to make it a reality. Baywood Homes reflects the talent, dedication, and most importantly, the spirit of many fine staff members. As a testament to that determination Baywood was named the Best New Land-Lease Community in the United States by The National Manufactured Housing Institute in 2000.
Tunnell had always known and believed in the sense of neighborliness that exists in manufactured home communities. To truly capture this feeling, the next community would need to exemplify some of the key concepts of traditional neighborhood design – homes placed closer to the sidewalks, grand porches where residents could sit and talk with their neighbors, and a style of architecture inspired by a less hectic, more relaxed time. Rob Tunnell had found his vision.
The inspiration to combine it with golf came from a most unusual source: the local convenience store. A customer had casually suggested that with all the residential development going on in the Long Neck area, someone should really build a golf course. The opportunity to combine the two was irresistible.