image via Connor Homes
Shortly after we finished building our house in 2008 I became aware of a Vermont company called Connor Homes. I noticed their striking ads in several home magazines and Russell Versaci, author of New Old House and one of my heroes, mentioned modular housing as a great alternative to stick built houses in a convincing Washington Post article about modular housing.
In the custom home market, stick built houses (which is what my house is) have traditionally been preferred to shop built houses because of superior craftsmanship. But today, companies like Connor Homes are changing the playing field for builders. They are able to build the same quality of house as stick built at a lower price and in less time.
The Connor Homes product is architecturally significant shop built houses that are shipped and assembled at the home site. From their website:
At Connor Homes we are proud to stand as the building company who is redefining how homes will be built in America. We have gathered an impressive slate of architects and designers whose inspiration is rooted in traditional architectural forms, and assembled a building team of highly skilled craftsmen and carpenters, all of whom work side by side at our state of the art manufacturing facility in Middlebury, Vermont, to build homes in the manner that was once done by the great architects and builders of another century. This new collaboration, along with the efficiencies of a modern manufacturing facility enables our company to offer homes of exquisite beauty at a cost that is affordable to all.
As you peruse our website, you will notice that the many homes depicted here do not look like the new homes that are commonly seen built in America today, and we take great pride in being the company that is reshaping how the American home can and will be built now and in the future.
I was immediately fascinated with the product (it looks so good) and called to talk to them about their services. They have many houses that are already drawn and you can buy those houses as "kits," or Connor Homes can work with the homeowners' architect and build a "kit" from those drawings and have it shipped to the site. Connor Homes has builders that it recommends to assemble the houses on site, or the homeowner can find his own builder to put together the house.
Please go spend some time on their website (I have spent hours perusing the houses and architecture) and get on their mailing list if you are an architecture buff. Their portfolio of work is beautiful. And this may just be the wave of the future...
The Process:
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Kind of changes the whole idea of modular housing, doesn't it?
All images from the Connor Homes website.
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