My hubby and I are very seriously thinking of purchasing land near Sante Fe, MN as a vaction/retirement spot. We've been looking at some of dwell magazine's highly touted moderinist prefab homes. We've seen some stuff we like and so far the prices haven't been horrifying, although we've only gotten ballpark pricing. We're not interested in a huge home nor are we wanting to do the typical adobe that you see everywhere out there. We want a 1200-1500sqft modernist home that uses sustainable building methods and energy efficient and/or alternative energy power usage. Our fav of the moment is linked below. Comments? I'd love to hear what you all think...
Hi Olive
I have been to...
Hi Olive
I have been to Santa fe 100 times and i almost bought out there also.
I at the time loved Adobe Homes as I was just getting into my modern conversion. I still love Adobe and own one built in 1915 and completely decorated with modern furniture, it has a great look,
I saw almost No prefab homes in the area , I did notice when i spent time with a real Estate agents that all these small sub divions have restricted conventants about what you can build and what you can't . They will alow
you to use 100 shades of Brown on your Adobe, but they must be Adobe style. I too would love to find out if they would alow a modern home something like you see in Dwell, but i must say those homes are not the best looking coming out of that magazine as they are trucked in and dropped on a gravel pad,
pick up a copy of the new Architectual
digest and look at David Hovey spectacular pre fab home, although big it is just wonderful, and it could give you some real meaningful ideas as he is the best in the field also look at his website and his book you can buy on Amazon.
Thanks for the book tip!
I live is a small subdivision now that has a covenant and I've learaned a fair amount about them since living here. Many of them are simply not legally enforceable, some are downright exclusionist. they have a sordid history, having first been invented to maintain segregationist neighborhoods in the US. One thing I have learned is that they are used in preset subdivisions they usually don't apply to buying raw land that hasn't got a road or power run yet. That's the kind of thing we're looking at...real middle of nowhere type stuff
Buy any prefab you want...
then cover with chicken wire and blow stucco over it. Call it adobe. 🙂
Seriously, do alot of research into how your prefab handles weather. The mount west can get VERY hot and VERY cold. Prefabs made in California or back east may get stressed in certain seasons.
Also, prefabs carry a particular stigma in the west. As you drive along long straight roads that disappear at the vanishing point in the desert southwest there are every so often "trailer houses" with several junked cars and washing machines sitting outside. Wackos are believed to frequent them. They are a stereo type and a staple of movies about city people traveling cross country. A place like Santa Fe is particularly allergic to this image.
Donald Judd Culverts!
A...
Donald Judd Culverts!
A row of precast culverts delivered by truck, pour a slab with a channel cast in down each side and slot the culverts in. You could slide sun shade partitions up and down the length of the slab.
I don't fantasise about sex I fantasise about concrete.
good luck finding some di...
good luck finding some dirt in Santa Fe..... I have spent a lot of time looking, and they are always expanding the area further out. it looks like the Dessert and you think you can get a good deal but a nice barren piece of dirt with no grass at a few out crop rocks will set you back a nice 350 for a 1/2 acre, that is about 10 miles from the Plaza, on a dark road with no street lights and hell to get out of the neighborhood at mid night ,
That happened to me one night when i left a friends house stone cold sober..... I went round and round the mountains and could not figure out were in the hell i was, I wish i had a flare gun, I was waiting for a flying saucer to come and pick up and send me back to my hotel on the plaza . Prefabs look cool in dwell but who ever said they can be rauncy if pre cast was right they can look like a double wide on steroids.
Have you considered Geodesic...
...Dome?
http://bfi.org/our_programs/who_is_buckminster_fuller/design_science/geo...
Hardly double wides...
The ones I've been loking at are very nice looking and appear well constructed. dcwilson, you are correct, I do need to learn more about the insulation and temp tolerances, but my intent is to have a shed roof with clerestory windows to create a passive solar layout. I am also not inclined to do metal exteriors as they are too sensitive to heat loss/gain. I have been in the area in the middle of winter and it really can get pretty cold. The heat there is actually nothing compared to locations like Arizona.
HP- I, too love concrete. Have you heard of my infamous bathtub? Actually using some concrete for thermal mass might be a good idea for this home. Help cool it in summer and hold heat in winter. I'm thinking of high fly ash concrete floors.
LRF, I think you must have been looking for land right in Santa Fe'. We're looking about 30 mins outside of town and the prices are much much lower than what you experienced. We actually want the 'getting lost looking for aliens' thing. The land we've targeted has no road, no public utilities and we'll most likely be living off grid at first. We'll have to put in a well and septic, the whole nine yards. But I still want my doern livin' which is why I am exploring prefabs as a way to get there.
Olive
Have you considered any Michelle Kaufmann designs? I actually used to work for LiveModern answering inquiries about these nice prefabs ... they also have options of solar panels, gray water systems etc.
http://www.mkd-arc.com
Olive
my hats off to you and the hubby wanting to pioneer it for awhile,
I was looking for some close in property and was shocked what they want for that dirt, then the adobe on top put me at a nice $900,000 a steal in the neighborhood as i was contracting it my self,
I met a lovely lady who lived 5 blocks from me and I married her and signed up for another tour of duty in this very quite city, with her and the kids , but we still go to Santa Fe a lot, great place great food, great art, I need to get there and make it a modern place, good luck looking for the last frontier.
Bloggin' it...
That might actually be fun to do...our 16th wedding anniv is this Labor Day weekend and we're going to be out in SFe' looking at 'dirt' as LRF puts it. Maybe I'll report back on that experience. We're also going to be spending a day at 10,000Waves (see the link below). If any of you ever go to SFe' DO NOT skip this place. It is a hedonistic heaven with modern sensibilities. The soaking pools alone are worth a year's salary, yet are actually extremely reasonable in price.
Whitspike, you worked for LiveModern...cool! And, yes, I've looked at Glidehouses, Rocio Romero's LV Homes, KitHaus, PowerPod, Lazor Office FlatPak, Empyrean Dwell homes and lots of others. (www.fabprefab.com is a good resource) Most are quite sustainably oriented , if not LEED certified, but my fav is still Hive Modular. Price per sq/ft, style, flexible floor plan and ease of siting/construction are my main reasons.
http://http:www.tenthousandwaves.com
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com