Prefab Home

I've known of moduler homes for a long time and have basically rejected them as sort of a house trailer without wheels. Then a few years ago I regularly passed by a lot on which a house was being build. It followed the traditional pattern: earth work, foundation, and so on. One day as I drove by, I noticed a lot of trucks with big house components parked by the site, and a big crane. I was busy so I didn't stop. The next day the whole house was there and it didn't look like a house trailer at all. I stopped by to talk to them. The contractor, a specialist in this type of construction asked me: "Do you notice what you don't see around here." "No," I had to answer. "A big dumpster - Modular houses don't produce the waste of a stick built house." "And all this stuff just fits together," I asked. "Yup! It's all built inside a factory where they have jigs and fittings to hold everything to square angles and exact dimensions." Then you look at buying in bulk rather than just a few sticks at a time, and it's substantially lest costly. This is the first book I've seen that goes into this kind of construction from start to finish. It covers every question I could think of to ask from start to finish. Anybody thinking of building or buying a house of any size should start with this book

As an interior design "hobbyist," I subscribe to many home magazines and read many design books. Michael Buchanan's PreFab Homes was no run of the mill book with lots of pretty pictures though. It was a breath of fresh air because it taught me something new. I was unaware of the potential for building (or redesigning) a true dream home, but on a budget within my means. Michael tells you where you should spend money, and where you can cut corners, to achieve a look that evokes a "wow" factor from friends without sacrificing comfort. His useful design advice is applicable to either your existing home, or new construction. If you are thinking of building from scratch, however, this book is a must read. I, like many I fear, was under the erroneous notion that a prefab home was some sort of modular, plastic-like trailer-home; good target practice for hurricanes, perhaps. Boy was I wrong - all prefab means, is that the home was constructed inside a factory first, instead of outside on site, and then shipped in large blocks to the site. Site built and modular are both constructed in the same manner using the same materials - stick built using wood, concrete, drywall, etc. Building inside a factory, by contrast, brings all material and workmen together in one location, taking weather totally out of the picture and bringing volume discounts in. That means giant cost savings to me, the home buyer. After reading about the author's successes and learning curve with the prefab medium, it's easy to see how this methodology can be used to create dream homes for americans that have realistic budget constraints. And, yes, the pictures in the book ARE pretty AND instructional, a rare find. Thanks