MHNE Update
The time’s come to really start fulfilling some goals on Modern Homes New England, and there’s a place in those for you.
As has always been the plan, this site’s objective is to provide a community platform for modern, prefab, or sustainable architecture in New England. If you’re a DIYer with a project underway or taking your first steps in the planning process, we’d love you to chronicle your progress here. If you’re an enthusiast who takes photographs of sites in the region, we’d love you to contribute. If you’re a professional who can provide a guiding voice to inform readers, we’d love to provide you a featured space.
We’re going to start small and build things up. The next steps won’t fully open the doors to sign up and get started with your own blog. You’ll have to get in touch so we can set you up. If you’d just like to get notified when we get things rolling, sign up for email updates.
We’re excited about building a user-sustained community and online magazine for the future here, and we’ll be happy to have you join.
Tom said,
September 2, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
Love modern architecture - and MK is a personal favorite. But am sorely dissapointed in the lack of delivery on the promise of pre-fab. Think about it - you can buy a new house with land in Northern NH for just about 275k with over 1400 sq. feet. MK’s houses may be well priced for the California market - but how is it a builder can build custom for around 125 a foot - and it costs MK 275 a foot and up? Where are the savings from lack of material waste, site travel, scheduling of different resources? I’d love to see a NE take on modern pre-fab. The shed was a nice start - but I’d love to see more modern interpretations of NE style homes - that also fit a New England style budget.
Mark Reeves said,
September 2, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
Thanks for the post. I’d love to see more prefab that’s appropriate for NE as well as affordable for more of NE. The Dwell Homes by Empyrean are, I believe, built in Massachusetts, so there may be cost savings there. MK’s work was one of the first examples of modern prefab I came across and liked too, but that I also ruled out based on price. I think she suits a different tier of customer, that is partly CA-based. Rocio Romero’s LVL homes are much more amenable pricewise and allow you to leverage local on-site work and proportionate costs.
When I was contemplating Southern NH and an LVL Home, I figured on a 1700+ sq ft home, on land at around $100k and the build at $150k-$200k. That’s pretty close to the budget you described.
Finally, I’d like to point out that just as all of California is not San Diego/LA/San Francisco, not all of NE is VT/Nor. NH/ME. The New England footprint to me includes the Boston Metro, Western Mass, RI, and often-pricey CT, as well as reaching into the Hudson Valley and Adirondack regions of NYS. Hey, I grew up in the lower Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks have a lot in common with VT. Relatively speaking, in many of those areas, a $200k build is a pretty good deal…once you find the land.