Logical Homes

Logical Homes re-purposes steel cargo containers as the jumping-off point for designing modern, environmentally conscious homes. The homes start with features such as energy star appliances, LED lights, and glazed windows but the company says that it is happy to work with customers to include solar panels, gray water systems, or wind power. This California company is limited currently to the American southwest, but I like the thought of re-purposing the containers and some of the other innovative ideas they have such as airplane hangar doors. It sounds great for a place with pleasant, low humidity weather. The houseplans that could accommodate a family of five are the Catalan 3000 and Seto 3000 series. Also great is that the plans include a garage integrated with the house and lots of windows. The costs for the homes I just mentioned are all above the half-million mark. At least Logical Homes gives you a clear price list and explanation of what is and is not included in that price.

Clayton Homes i-House

This highly publicized i-house is made by Clayton Homes, a company with a large percentage of the manufactured home market. The home has a contemporary, modern feel. The model house uses IKEA cabinets and other furnishings. The house has an open floor-plan with one living-room/kitchen and various bedroom configurations. The basic model has one bedroom. There is an optional 2nd room that is a detached, small building of its own. Or in the i-house II models, the house can have 2-4 bedrooms between the two buildings. The i-house has "green" technology such as dual-flush toilets, tankless water heater, solar panels, rain collections system via butterfly-roof, no-VOC paint, etc. The best thing about this house is probably the distribution system that might actually make it reasonable for people to have a modular house built and shipped to their home site. I think that making modular accessable and acceptable is one of the major obstacles facing us who want a modular home. I like that the home can have enough bedrooms for a family, but, since I have young children, I would like the additional bedrooms to be connected to the main house. Rather than a deck, I'd like an entryway/mudroom. The price is average for a modular house - probably a good price since it has sustainable technologies that are still expensive to retrofit into a pre-existing house.

Hive Modular Homes

What is great about Hive is that they designed houses big enough for a family, which is rather rare. I particularly like the C-Line Large since it has 4 bedrooms and a garage. Another great thing about Hive designs is that they offer the same floor-plan with multiple facades. While you can choose a modern, square facade, you can alternatively choose from two more traditional facades that would fit in many residential neighborhoods. Hive also offers architectural services for customizing their modules or a totally custom design. What I really like about their designs is that they de-emphasize the rectangular shape of modular units. Hive also offers modules for multi-unit construction in various configurations.

Hive does not incorporate innovative sustainable technologies, but they plan to start using green building materials and low-VOC paint. If you want solar panels, rain water catchment systems, etc this is probably not your house. Hive's prices are competative with other high design modular homes and more expensive than several other companies (whose houses are not as aesthetically pleasing). The Hive website explains their pricing and provides these numbers for baseline cost of the house construction: $160 per sq foot in the US Midwest and $215 per sq foot in the mountains and coasts (i.e. everywhere else in the country?).