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| Prefab Cabanas home picture |
Nate Cohen wanted to add on a guest bedroom to his home in Larkspur; instead he added a guest house complete with a kitchenette and full bath in his front garden, and was ready to welcome out-of-town visitors in just a few months.
"Everybody who sees it, wants to come and stay in it," he says of his compact 12-by-25 prefabricated building with knotty cedar siding and a 50-year steel roof.
And why not? There's a shower/tub combo and a tile floor from Tile Stone in San Rafael in the bathroom; a cooktop, maple cabinetry and granite countertops in the kitchen; and floor-to-ceiling windows and engineered walnut flooring in the open living space.
His studio by Modern Cabana, the latest model to roll off the San Francisco company's assembly line, is highly customized, but all models are "green" with recycled denim insulation, dual-pane or low-E coating windows, no or low VOC finishes and FSC-certified wood down to the studs. Because it uses off-the-shelf materials, "we have just a tiny pile of waste - only 5 percent waste compared to usual 30 percent of a site-built project, owner and architect Casper Mork-Ulnes says.
The cabanas are reminiscent of his Scandinavian heritage where small, well-designed family vacation homes historically been passed down through generations but they're also fused with the modern California design sensibility of indoor/outdoor living.
Mork-Ulnes formed the company in 2005 with Marin native Nick Damner (his brother-in-law and an Advertisement contractor) and says it's experienced an annual 60 percent growth with buildings installed as far away as New York and Texas.
Cohen doesn't reveal the final cost of his "tricked out" cabana, but Mork-Ulnes says a "fully kitted-out" basic Studio by Modern Cabana costs about $70,000.
"It's up to the customer to determine how involved they want to be - whether they want us to handle everything from permitting to installation or if they want to handle some aspects of it," he adds.
The Modern Cabana takes only a few days to one week to install. Installation costs range from $2,000 to $4,000 depending on the cabana dimensions; transportation costs $2 a mile - about $60 to Marin - and foundation costs vary according to the site.
At the small end of the Modern Cabana scale is the 10-by-12 unit, a favorite choice for homeowners who want a home gym, office, yoga studio or playroom. Customers can opt for either the standard cabana, with cedar board-and-batten siding, for $11,500 or the upgraded cabana, with cedar tongue-and-groove siding, insulation and a finished floor, for $16,350.
This was the size of the cabana that Iyana Leveque chose for an art studio in her Marin garden. An architect friend told her about it and she ordered one with wooden French doors and customized it by topping it off with a living roof accented with boulders.
Modern Cabana installed it all on a foundation she provided and then built the entry deck. "I love the clean lines of the cabana and the fact that it is constructed of sustainable materials," she says. "It has become a well-lit, quiet and inspirational place to work."
Cohen says he appreciates the construction quality. "They did a great job and made it fit on the property very nicely. A lot of times you hear horror stories from people who get involved in construction projects, but these guys and their subcontractors - the plumber and electrician - were excellent."
What surprised him, though, were the delays and additional costs the City of Larkspur imposed on the project. "It was tough getting permits even though we had no variances."
Mork-Ulnes' working with local planning departments to have Modern Cabana become a pre-approved solution for people who want a second unit.
"There's a severe lack of affordable housing and many counties are encouraging people to install second units for renters. Our whole aim is to be affordable. With Modern Cabana, customers know upfront all the costs and how long it will take. There are no hidden costs and everything from hardware to lighting is included."
Besides, he adds, "the premise of pre-fab is becoming easier for people to understand and the design has come a long way from the 1950s. The whole idea is that these are built to code, like any other building, and they feel just like a home."
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