Home Plans And Home Designs - Unconventional home wanted.

Any recommendations for good web-sites for less conventional house plans, or modular homes?

So, the spouse and I are looking into buying a vacation home now and down-sizing the primary residence some years from now [five years? ten?]. We will live in the small and sensible condo, and escape frequently to our dream home in the country.

Having done some on-line and a little real world research, I found our options are a shack on a nice piece of land, or a cookie-cutter 'open concept' place with all the interior charm of a high-rise condo on about as much land as I have now.

I want to go with the land, and replace/build an addition on the shack later. [I don't want empty land, because I want an existing septic system & well.]

I think I want a modular/manufactured home [I don't deal well with contractors], but I do not want the standard suburban tudor ranch [with an open-concept floor plan] that I see everywhere. Nice houses, but totally wrong for this application.

Unfortunately, I've developed an ideal home in my head [it's a Craftsman cross between Bad Eng and a yurt], and I have to return to the real world now.

Any tips on where to research custom designed homes?

Don't know if it's what you are looking for, but I have liked alot of floor plans found in "earth-friendly" home designs. They tend to have that nice open feel to promote airflow and take advantage of natural light and whatnot, but are definitely not cookie-cutter. You may want to look into passive solar, straw bale, or even "not so big house" designs on the web. A few of the log home manufacturers have small-ish "weekend cabin" designs with open floorplans that are plenty big for regular living - we think our log home may have been a getaway cabin at one point, but it's more than big enough for two humans, two dogs, and two cats. Maybe you can find a kit or something that wouldn't involve so many contractors. You mention yurts, and I recall oogling the custom yurt designs by a company in Oregon (I forget the name of the company but a google search on yurts brought them up).

Have fun in your dream home search!

Here is something to think about. I would go to a company who sells manufactured homes. They may be prefab or module (different type of construction). Sit down and look at some floor plans in the size you want. You will probably not find the plan you want, but you can probably find one close. Then have the home custom built for you. Some structural things cannot be changed, but most of the home can be customized. Make sure you get the Idaho insulation package. It is an upgrade, but worth every penny. It keeps you both cool and warm. Good Luck

I'm not sure if Jack meant to say go to the modular place and get a plan or to have them custom build you one. Modular homes arn't the best choice. You would be better off going with a custom home builder and having them make you a stick house. You will get a better quality home(I've seen some the 'inspected for quality' homes they make, altho maybe you will get lucky and get a REAL quality modular home) and they can make it so you can add on to it later. Don't think its going to be a lot faster to get moved in just because they make it and deliver it either. Be sure to get all the fine details with the items you have to supply(like the foundation, plumbers, etc).

First, green in mandatory, ideally both in materials and design, as is energy efficiency. I just don't think that out of control consumption is going to be an option for much longer.

I don't want 'manufacturer'; that's an upscale mobile home and I will not live in a trailer. Unless it is a 1930's vintage Airstream.

Why modular:
The building season is not very long. I've seen how quickly modular homes can be put up.

The design is done, and has been field tested. A 100% custom designed stick built house is going to have problems during construction; I don't know what kind, because I have never done this, but I know that it will.

I think that exposure to contractors will be lessened and easier. This is MY flaw; I go from 'Sure, no problem, no problem, no problem ...' to 'My lawyer will contact you in the morning, if I let you live that long, you lying thieving bast ...' with NO middle ground. This is NOT how to get a house built.

Unconventional building materials:
I don't believe they really work in harsh environment with great temperature changes.

Log cabins:
I would buy a good one, but not build one. City people building designer log cabins in the woods just irks me. [Yours is lovely, though, and you have made a delightful home of it.]

Web-sites:
I've found a few, but ... what I want is not out there.

I know of someone who recently decided to do the modular open. A year and a half later he STILL didn't have it and the first company he chose went bellyup. He had to choose the second company, give more money and still recieved it a few months behind schedule. They make it seem much more easier but they still have the same bumps. Its your choice. Make sure you find a good modular builder who doesn't put crap in the house and claim its middle class when its low class.

Oh, I know things can go really badly; if I ever decide what I want, I will be back asking how to best check out the suppliers.

jhomeowner, where are you building your home? We live where the "building season" is only about 5 months and our temperatures range from -20 to 90 F Someone down the road put up a house with insulated concrete forms in about 3 months - from foundation to roof. They were working on the inside for another several months, but the main structure was totally done. The insulated concrete houses are super-insulated and eco-friendly.

I giggle at your compliments of our log home. I *completely* agree with you. We've had three "McMansion" log homes go up on our rural road in the last couple years, and I laugh at them. One is our next door neighbor, who happily showed off her spacious custom home built to sell (funny it's still on the market two years later!), and all we could see was wasted money and shoddy construction. We love ours because 1) you can't see it from the street 2) from the front it looks like a one-room cabin 3) it's a "not-so-big house" that feels nice and spacious on the inside. Definitely a country-mouse house for a couple of country mice!

I hope that you did not take my earlier response the wrong way. I was talking about modular homes, not upscale mobile homes. Modular homes and prefab homes are built inside of large buildings. I don't know where you live, but I would bet that within 200 miles of you there is one. They will build it to your specs (within reason of course). You can get them in 2x4 or 2x6 construction. The 2x6 comes with the Idaho Insulation package. You could not tell a modular hoe from a stick built home. In fact they are the same. the difference is one is built on site and the other is built off site and moved on. Good Luck.

You may have already looked at www.fabprefab.com - if not check out the fablist on this site, it has a lot of examples of firms that specialize in what it seems you are asking about. Most are "unconventional" in a modern sense and may not suit your style, but it will give you an idea of what is on the leading edge of this building type. Also many incorporate green building practices.

Most of your modular builders can customize the _interior_ of a plan with some effort, but the structural elements can't be changed as the home, as designed, has met the requirements and received engineering stamps.

As Jack says, the only difference between a modular and a site built is where the home is assembled. The final result is the same. You can go from a site with only a foundation to a site with a home ready to move in to in less than 8 hours.
The homes are constructed indoors, there are no rain delays, no inspection delays, no waiting on sub-contractors that don't show up, etc and because the homes have to withstand road travel and being picked up by a crane, they are typically _better_ built than site built homes.

The key is follow up, ALL new homes have issues, no matter how good the builder, make sure any contract you sign spells out how long you have to report issues, how long they have to fix reported issues and includes a penalty for not doing so.

I'm involved in another issue right now, but will be back.

The homes are constructed indoors, there are no rain delays, no inspection delays, no waiting on sub-contractors that don't show up, etc and because the homes have to withstand road travel and being picked up by a crane, they are typically _better_ built than site built homes.


We must have crappy modular builders in my area. You DO need to have a electrician and a plumber show up to hook everything up. And homes CAN show damage when traveling down the road, usually just drywall issues. Homes CAN get damaged while being placed. And of course, everything has to be inspected onces its in place(not to mention plumbing being jammed and broken, thats a pain!). Then you have the great plumbers in their cozy indoor factory do their lovely plumbing job that the final plumber has to deal with. They put things where ever they want and hope you can figure it out later. I've never seen a modular ready for ocupation in 8 hours, unless its being organized by the people in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Don't let anyone fool you.

if you want something "green" that is pretty vague term so you might need to be more specific. green or environmentally sensitive design does really depend on climate, use, and when it is used. For instance, if you live in Arizona you will be designing very differently if you were to be in Wisconsin but yet some of the same principal would be carried through.

You might want to think more about when exactly it will be use and what the average weather is like at the point of time. Not knowing how "green" you would want your house and your climate you might look into some construction techiques like straw bale construction, green roofs, water collection/resuse, which are very sustainable.

Dwell Magazine has some homes that cleverly use space and place. http://www.dwell.com/homes

the concrete form house is an awesome choice. can be built to just about any design you want easily, super insulated, no termites,no wind worries, proven design as many have been around for a long time,can be added onto easily, can be customed both inside and out,go up fast, can even have a concrete roof poured same time as walls so it's one solid piece of concrete, super strong. Absolutely a green building. Put it in the ground, not on top of it.

Jemayes,

I will check out Dwell. I gather I did not specify New England in the post; straw bales will not work here. The area I am interested in uses leaching fields and wells, and we have plenty of water here as long as we don't dump it into a sewer system.

Green in New England primarily means energy efficient, although lowering water usage is getting more important in built-up areas.

I would like a well insulated building, to lower winter heating costs, and good cross ventilation, to lower summer cooling costs. The best design for N. E. is a central heat source with high thermal mass, with the windows lined up to promote good air flow.

Oh, when I mentioned a yurt, I was refering to design, not construction.
[And I meant Bag End, not Bad Eng]

Tae,
The concrete form house sounds interesting. Ugly, but interesting.
I am interested in the possibility of adapting conventional construction will a full basement that can be used a living space year-round. All the basements I've been in that were converted to living space were musty.

Concrete form is just the inner structure... you can make it look like whatever you want. The house down the road that did concrete forms looks like a conventional home with lap siding. You could do any type of exterior finish on it.

Thomas Edison & Frank Lloyd Wright built concrete homes. do a google for "concrete homes. You will find about all the info you can ever need. You can straight,curved,round,square,windows and doors can be placed anywhere. It requires a whole new way of thinking, and planning. With a basement, find a reputable company to do it, and make sure nothing is skimped on. They can be great living places if done right.

Concrete is definitely a superior home. It is also very green because you can let the trees mature and collect all the CO2.

logcabincook -
I showed a group of 15 Russian architects and contractors a "McMansion" model home that was for sale for several years. - Their comment was "Why would you build a fine home out of firewood?" They were in love with the Frank Lloyd Wright "Prairie School" arcitecture an many Russian are.

Dick

Hey folks

I'm new to this type of chatting .... hope you folks haven't already coverd this.
The wife and I are buying lakefront property in Nova Scotia ... I have been looking at some unconventional type homes on the web. The one that interests me the most is made by www.rotatinghomes.com . Since it is built in Northern Canada I know it will withstand our harsher climates. I can't tell you about prices / costs yet as I am still waiting to here back from them. You can also try www.domespace.com . It's pretty much the same house .... just a bit more information.

hope this helps.

Deltec also has some interesting looking homes as well as Mandala .... but both of these look rather expensive to build.