Well, in this case it is me, or more importantly my land choice. Although I am still talking with Stillwater Dwellings (see Home Again), I wanted to reach out to some of the other modular vendors I’ve been researching and make sure I was exploring all my options. Long story short, rejection is tough…
PROTO HOMES – Originally high on my list, I attended an open house at their LA headquarters and factory, and spoke with the owner about six months ago. I really liked the design and overall ‘core’ concept of having all mechanical/utilities stemming from a single factory built module. I shared my initial aborted property with them and at first they balked, stating their product works best on flat land. When I explained how I was looking to build up to a flat pad, they were more receptive, but increased design and build fees by about a third (which was reasonable given the complexities of building on a hillside). When I reached back out to them with the survey of the property I actually ended up purchasing – it was a flat refusal. They again stated that their system works best on flat land and said my site was impossible to make work for one of their homes.
CONNECT HOMES – Connect gets a lot of play in magazines like Dwell and I always liked the simplicity of their designs. I didn’t see a perfect floor plan for me from what they had online, and from reading their materials, customization seemed more restrictive. I reached out anyways with what I was looking to do and was told they were not interested given the amount of site work required.
LIVING HOMES – I’ve seen several Living Homes in LA, at various home shows, and a custom build was recently featured on the cover of Dwell. Although models I’ve seen at shows seemed a bit ‘cozy’, their site does talk about complex properties not being a problem. My initial back and forth went well, but as we discussed the project, I didn’t get the sense that they would be able to manage the entire piece from end to end. I would have to go get design and pricing for the foundation work, then they could gauge feasibility on whether a Living Home could work. I really wanted someone who could offer a holistic design for the site.
All this rejection made me start thinking about going with a more traditional build, so hiring an architect, general contractor, etc. should my discussions with Stillwater end up like the rest. This will only add cost and time to the project, but I figure researching that route would make sense.