3 Good Things (Fab Pre-fab edition)

Last weekend we made our way down to Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island to attend the open house of two new Evolution homes from Blu Homes. We were delighted by the light and open spaces which made the 1200 sf pre-fab house seem much bigger. The efficiency and economy that comes from building the home inside of a factory instead of on-site allows these houses to be completed in weeks.



These cost about $300,000, not including the $100,000 of site work and foundation.

Then I saw this:



This powerpod from PowerHouse Enterprises (which now seems defunct) is truly tiny, appropriate for a vacation home only, but at 500 sf for $100,000 delivered, it has some pretty cool features like radiant heating, active solar energy collection and passive solar heating, and water collection.

That they are green is incidental to me. That they are energy efficient and just plain cool looking is pretty attractive. And these builders are in my own backyard!

Finally, I just got this month's Dwell magazine and it has 42 pages of 32 modern prefabs, mostly out of California.

I love modern pre-fab design.

Comments

Lynne said…
If you have a teeny tiny house, or just love space-saving ideas, you might enjoy these.
November 16, 2011 at 1:38 PM
Stephen Bourque said…
My reaction to visiting the Portsmouth Abbey was that I could move into that Blu Homes house tomorrow if it were placed on a stretch of land that met our vision. I loved it.

The fascinating part about my reaction, however, is that it came despite the house missing two things that I regard as essential in New England: a fireplace and a garage. Of course, a garage can always be built separately, but the lack of a fireplace is a problem. (The Blu Homes representative did say that the design accommodates a wood-burning stove.)
November 23, 2011 at 10:51 AM
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