Some comparisons of renderings to the box as it stands now:

Finishes

I've gotten some great feedback from people emailing and asking that I address issues they are interested in. A few people have wondered what the quality level is of the finishes. So I'll detail a few here:

Windows are Anderson 400 series, sliders are Anderson Frenchwood Patio doors;

Daltile white subway 3x6 tile in the shower (we looked at the much more expensive glass tile, which we both liked a lot, but decided against it), Daltile black and white mosaic 1x1 tile on the bath floor (instead of slate or other nice stone products);

Zodiaq synthetic black countertop in both the bath and kitchen (instead of some more expensive natural/synthetic stones);

Merillat maple cabinets (nice maple doors with less expensive plywood boxes);

5/8" strandwoven bamboo floors from Sustainable Flooring;

Lutron Maestro dimmer switches;

Lightolier recessed lighting;

Kohler sinks, toilet, bath fixtures (though nothing outrageous).

As I said, compared to a lot of the finishes you see in Dwell or even in some of the Res4 projects detailed on their site, ours are modest and genuinely cost effective (and of course largely unspectacular).

More about the Factory Visit

As usual, we were well received by the folks at Simplex (last time I was there they put my name on the marquis on the highway). We had asked Jason beforehand if it would be ok if our kids tagged along and they were happy to oblige (though they kept us out of the factory). It was really great to actually step inside of the box and feel what the space was like. When we were first looking around at the different prefab options, we had no real perspective on what 14' wide or 16' wide would be like for the whole length of a house - those are both obviously fine dimensions for a single room, but how does it feel to have a whole house fit into that width? When we first met with Res4, we were lucky to learn that they had a project on Long Island that had recently been set that was right around the corner from my mom's house. There were contractors on the job, and we met with the foreman one afternoon last summer and walked through. It was an enormous house - I think it was four modules. But we were really able to see how a single bar would work just fine for what we wanted. So yesterday it was reassuring to actually stand in ours and feel how open and comfortable the space is. The soffit feels like it extends a bit further into the middle of the house than I was expecting, but it certainly has the anticipated effect of forcing one's attention to the sliding glass wall and it certainly exaggerates the height of the butterfly. Of course, as you can probably tell from the pics, the boxes in the yard are all stacked pretty close together, so the view was of some lumber and other materials. It'll be nice when it's a view of trees, sky and valley.

The finishes, for the most part, looked terrific. One of the real upsides of designing this as a second home/rental is that we aren't nearly as obsessive about the finishes as I'm sure we would be over a place we'd be living in full time. That's another of the paradoxical advantages of prefab (or at least the process as we've experienced it): constrained choice. Res4 has done this so many times now that they've identified a limited number of finishes that they think work. We picked cabinet and floor material/color, tile selection, sinks, faucets and appliances from a small set of options they recommended. They did the rest. So walking through the box I'm seeing things for the first time (like the brushed aluminum recessed lights, which we never discussed, but which look awesome). I'm sure we would have wanted more say over those types of finishes if this were a fulltime house, and I know I would have hated that process. (In a previous life I was a lawyer and I was involved not too long ago in a litigation over a $1.5MM custom home between the original builder and the owners. Reviewing the email and correspondence was really enlightening; having to pick every finish detail in a 5000sf home is an overwhelming task.) As a result, there are of course some things that wouldn't be my first choice - the windows on the uphill side of the house have white hardware, while the sliders have a much more attractive silver, for example. (I asked about that today, and John at Res4 said that Armstrong charges a hefty premium for the silver and Res4 doesn't think it's worth it.) So those are the kind of tradeoffs you're talking about when you cede control over the finer details. I'm happy with the tradeoff on the whole.

One big surprise (and it shouldn't have been, because both Res4 and Simplex talked to me about it months ago) is that we are going to have to paint. One of the realities of prefab travel and setting is that drywall inevitably cracks. I had reviewed this with everybody a couple of times; we discussed that Simplex will not be responsible for fixing any of it. But it turns out that, because of this inevitability, they don't do finish painting - just a white prime coat. And the sliding doors come unfinished as well. So that's one more thing to do on the back end. Not a big deal, but one more thing (and not a fun one, either).

There's also the fact that not everything's perfect at this stage. Wrong size cabinet here or there, mismatched door hinges, little things. The last apartment that we owned (in a wonderful old cast-iron building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn - man did it kill me to have to sell that place) was also new construction, so we were used to the idea that there are always things that get missed/need to be fixed. That's something I think anybody who's doing this process for the first time should be prepared for. The key is to have good communication and a good process for how that stuff gets resolved (and between Res4's very high expectations and Simplex's excellent responsiveness, we've been very happy with that part of this process).

Sarah says my posts are always too long, so I'll stop here. But more about the visit soon.

Today's Factory Visit

Well the house is coming along great. The EPDM is on, bamboo floors are in, bathroom is being tiled, trim is being fitted. It was great to see everything in person rather than pictures...

Simplex seems to be keeping up with Res4's attention to detail, and it's great to know that both of them are as excited as we are about getting everything done right. I hear some of the guys at the factory have even been checking in on this blog - if so, thanks for all the hard work.

On to pics. I'll just put them up and say a bit more about the visit tomorrow...

Gotta wear your hardhat:


Looking up at the peak of the butterfly over the master bedroom:


Open windows of the downhill side of the bedroom:


From the inside of that bedroom:


Clerestory window above the stairs:


Double windows and tile in the bath:


Close-up of bath window and tile (the sills are sloped toward the shower, which is a nice touch - thank you Simplex):


Bamboo floor (darker than you usually see):


Close-up of the bamboo:


Sliding mechanism for bedroom pocket door:


Brushed aluminum recessed lights (look very sharp):


Trim in the living room (just tacked right now):


Kitchen cabinets (I was worried about how the sloped ceiling would look above them - I wanted a soffit to come flush to the front of the cabinets; I was convinced otherwise and I'm glad. The slope of the ceiling is pretty dramatic with the shadowing here):


Front door hardware:


Sliding door hardware (same finish as the front door, but the light is different here):

I should be grading papers right now, but instead...

...more pics from the factory. These are from last Friday. We'll be at the factory tomorrow, where I understand they installed the floors today and began the tile. So more pics tommorrow night.

Toward the master bedroom:


The entrance side:


Toward the kitchen:


The shower stall (to be tiled with white subway tile):


Looking at where the stairs will be (this plywood will be knocked out and stairs will be build on site; the factory would build them and ship them loose like they are with some other items, but being off at all with the foundation height would create problems):


Down the hall toward the bedroom (these floor-to-ceiling cabinets are across from the bathroom):


The corner windows in the master bedroom (which I think is my favorite part of the whole house):


Framing the cricket in the roof (EPDM is going on at the end of the week I think):

Budget

I've begun to post hard numbers for our budget here. I've posted a permanent link to that page on the bar on the left. I've tried to list site costs first, and house costs second, but the whole science of calculating $/sf is lost on me (I don't know what gets included and what doesn't). If anything is unclear or if there are costs I've missed, shoot me a note (lostrivermodern AT gmail DOT com). I'll be doing this piecemeal, so bear with me.

Rendering

No pics from Res4 today, but here's another rendering from Res4 with a fuller perspective (the windows on the corner will actually have another set underneath them):



They've also updated our status page, so people can see our project on their site (along with lots of other great Res4 homes). We'll be headed to the factory on Tuesday and we'll definitely have some pics as soon as we get home.

Too Hot in the Hot Tub

I know it's probably blasphemous, but Michael and I occasionally sing it Godfather style.

Anyway, anybody have one of these? We're scouting out hot tubs and it looks like a lot of different people are selling these barrel stave cedar ones. Please leave a comment if you know anything about them...

Res4 Factory Visit

John was out at the factory today and said things are moving along. All the windows are in and they were getting ready to start the floor and tiling. They've got the box out of the assembly line and into the yard, so the pace of work is no longer dictated by the boxes in front and behind of ours in line. Sounds like they've slowed the pace down a bit to accommodate our concrete hold-up, which is nice. I think they're shooting to finish the box around the first week of June, and to deliver it the second week (after final inspections, punchlist items and signoff).

Should have some pics tomorrow. And Sarah and the boys and I have an appt at the factory next Tuesday afternoon for our first walk through, which should be very exciting. So lots more pics next week.

Insulated Concrete Forms

Just a note about our foundation. As you can see from the plan for the house, the foundation is kind of an "s": the three walls of the house (the fourth wall is panelized in the factory) and two retaining walls for the parking pad. We explored using an ICF like Superior Walls, which seem to have some pretty good upsides, but because they can't be used as retaining walls we still would have had to pour concrete (or come up with another option like Allen Block). So it didn't make sense for us. (A cost comparison is difficult - the ICFs cost a little more, but they give you better insulation and often come studded and ready for drywall.) But you can read more about why it might be a good choice at GreenOptions (with some different opinions down at the bottom).

Context for our $/sf

I want to give some perspective to the rough $/sf numbers that correspond with what I posted below. One of our goals when we designed this project was to keep the costs down. We were originally looking at just a single bar design, the most cost effective option, but that was pretty cramped. We talked about a double decker; we talked about a double decker with a half box for the second floor. Res4 was completely attuned to how to maximize space for the money, and walked us through which aesthetic and design elements meant how much money. A pitched roof, clerestory windows, decking, external stair modules - each of these has a pretty identifiable $/sf effect; the Dwell House, for example, has design components that correspond to additional costs that we won't have.

So by way of comparison of our house to something like the Dwell House:

-our module will only be one box, and it will sit on a walkout basement that has the same footprint. This minimizes the button-up process - literally just siding and constructing the stairs. The more modules, and the less footprint shared by the modules, the more "sewing" is needed to bring them all together (interior and exterior);

-our box is coming finished on the interior - floors, cabinets, trim, the works. There is literally nothing left to be done on the interior except appliances and the stairs (we were hoping it would even come with exterior siding, but no luck). Bigger projects will need to have the modules joined on the inside where appropriate, meaning the floors, trim, drywall, etc. need site work (though I get the sense from Res4 that they've got some bigger projects than ours in the works that are really maximizing the finish-level out of the factory);

-Res4 designed a "modified butterfly" roof for us. Instead of a separately constructed module unit that would come on its own trailer and need to be put together on site (with all the post-set work that entails), we've got a roof that is being built in the factory on top of the box. That means we need to live with an 11' height profile (max allowed on the roads), and lower ceilings in the house (9' ceilings on the interior at the highest part of the butterfly, and 7' at the lowest - there's a soffit that runs the length of the house). This reduced our cost significantly - the Dwell House's roof module prices out now at about $30/sf (but you get a wonderful 14' ceiling);

-the walkout basement really helps keep the cost down, and it's half the square footage of our cabin (though this is a smaller project at 2000sf, so a bigger building envelope would spread the fixed costs like the well, utilities, etc. over more square feet);

-our finishes are modest by comparison to what you see in a lot of the high-end modern stuff that's out there. Nothing "cheap," but certainly cost-effective.

That's all simply to say that our $/sf is probably a very low baseline for purposes of comparison to other Res4 projects.

More Factory Pics

Here are the latest pics from the factory. John Kim at Res4 took them during his visit to the factory on Friday, May 11; sounds like they going slow (for them). They were planning on being finished by tomorrow, Wednesday, May 16 - doesn't sound like they will be. That is fine with us, as we could use a little buffer to get our foundation walls up.

Looking from the kitchen toward the entrance door:


From the entrance back toward the kitchen:


The uphill window in the master bedroom:

Architect's fee

So someone has wondered whether paying Res4 an architect fee for what is such a simple design was worth it. I think that person was an architect and was being snide. (And I'm sure Res4 would say "what do you mean, simple?") But I'll answer it because I'm sure other people must wonder the same thing.

I was ambivalent about the return on that 15% in the beginning of this process and I can only say that it was an educated leap of faith. You don't know exactly what you're going to be getting for that money other than what your architect tells you and what you can learn about their process. I was satisfied on both counts before we signed up with Res4 that we were going to get our money's worth, and we have. We've taken up more than our fair share of Res4's time and resources over the last year, and been through quite a few designs (and iterations of this design) to get to where we are today. They've encouraged (and enabled) us to be our own GC. They've been spot on with all cost estimates, and they've delivered what they told us they would. They've more than earned their fee.

But more importantly for us, they were the best option (fee included) for the process we had in mind. We looked at the weeHouse, the LV, MKD, the Empyrean offerings, at stock plans that we could stick build. And at the end of the day, for the house we're getting, at the cost we're getting it for, in the time its taking, Res4 made the most sense for us.

Homesite update and some issues we're dealing with

Yesterday I met with the contractor who's coordinating the set, Mark Wratchford. As you can imagine, West Virginia has its fair share of modular construction, and Mark's been setting traditional modular homes for a while. I met with him last summer before we had even found our land; he spent the day showing me around his various job sites in the Lost River valley (which has a pretty energetic second home boom going on). The guys at Res4 had told us that anyone with a good modular background would probably be good for our job; the trick for them has been finding competent people to do finish work when necessary. Because we've got so little (and such uncomplicated) finish work, the finer points of modern architecture and finish work that can slow a bigger job down shouldn't be too much of a problem (crossing fingers).

We're dealing with lots of little logistical questions at the moment. First, we got the structural engineer's report and third-party stamps a couple of weeks ago. (As I've said, Hardy County has what I'd call a "buy your permit, build your house" ethos when it comes to this process. This is another thing that makes this project a little unique for those trying to learn from our timeline - with a PERC test and a well permit you can get a building permit here; we dug the holes for the PERC last Thursday and expect to have our building permit by the end of next week. And there's no inspection process or certificate of occupancy req't; all this is likely to change as the county reacts to the construction boom.) The original design gave us the option for either block or poured concrete walls for the foundation, and Mark had planned on using block (which his crews can do). But the engineering report, apparently to reduce the complexity of the strap/hinge combination that will tie the box to the foundation, decided we needed to have poured concrete. Since Mark doesn't do the forms, he needs to sub it out and the subs are all booked for a few weeks (again, I imagine this project is unique in that changes like this, though causing a small delay, are not traumatic). So we need to figure out what to do with the manufactured box in the meantime (it's supposed to be delivered around the time the concrete walls will be poured). One option is to park it at the bottom of the road for a week while the concrete cures (not my first choice). Another is to ask the factory to hold it on their end (which is not ideal for them, but probably what will end up happening).

Second, we need to figure out how, when the box is delivered, to get the trailer around the 150 degree hairpin turn on our driveway. That's the scariest thing we're dealing with right now. Bulldozers can do lots of pushing and pulling of trailers, and there are special hydraulic dollies that can move them sideways, but it won't be pretty. And since I'm technically the GC, there's a little question about insurance (and who's responsible for the box from the time it's unhooked from the truck to the time the crane picks it).

Third, how can we minimize the clearing of the site to maintain as much of the trees while still accommodating a crane (which needs a 30'x30' pad below the foundation) and the house, which both Mark and the crane guy want on the other side of the crane? Our road comes into the house on the high side, and these guys want about 50' of room and a road on the low side as well. In our minds, we were imagining a quaint little driveway that bends into the house so you see it all at once. Instead, at the moment we've got a 60' wide road that holds very little in the way of suspense. These are the realities that we are getting used to, and one of the (minor) disadvantages of prefab - you need a bigger envelope than you would if you stick built in the same place (bigger road, bigger clearing for the homesite, etc.).

Today they finished clearing the site and dug the foundation (though I had to head back to DC before they started the hole). Here's where they were when I took off:




And we got a "911 Address" - though we wish they hadn't spraypainted it on the poplar tree:

At the site today

Just a quick post - I'll recap later. But I wanted to put up a couple of pics of the Lost River valley - pretty nice this time of year.