New modular homes nail quick construction, high efficiency, hot design

The architect is known for his talents in contemporary design. The prefab home manufacturer is known for swift, economical construction.

They made a fine team.

"Our whole promise was: Could we do a cool, energy-efficient modern home and do it modular?" says Brad Tomecek, 35, an architect with Boulder-based Studio H:T. "The answer is 'yes.' "

Take a walk through Brad and Christa Tomecek's sleek 2,700-square-foot Barvista Homes house, in the Highland neighborhood northwest of Lower Downtown, and your preconceived notions of what a factory-built home looks like are dashed. Forget safe, neutral- toned Formica and standard finishes. The kitchen features bold black granite countertops, a colorful glass mosaic backsplash, stainless steel appliances and bamboo flooring.

Black-stained wooden stair risers and a smooth drywall finish add to the contemporary look.

Even the master bathroom is chic, with a riverstone shower basin, ceramic denim-colored tiles and black flooring.

From the outside, the long, thin, ultra-modern design is a stark contrast to the more traditional brick homes in the 150-year-old neighborhood.

"The neighbor on one side hates the house. The neighbor on the other side loves it," says Christa, 31.

And as far as energy-efficiency goes, the Tomeceks are in the process of having the home certified with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership and Environmental Design program.

The home's unique blend of prefabricated shell and on-site customization represents a marked shift in a factory-built home market long plagued with stereotype images of double-wide trailers or blah cookie-cutter homes sold off a lot.

In reality, most modular homes today are built specifically for one homeowner and "the sky is the limit" when it comes to customization, says Thayer Long, executive director of the National Modular Housing Council, a Washington, D.C.- based trade association.

"It used to be you could only get a basic colonial or ranch-style home. Now we have modular manufacturers building million-dollar mansions," he says.

In 2006, 38,000 modular homes were built nationwide, and 1,400 were built in Colorado, constituting 3.5 percent of the state housing market.

Long notes that there is a difference between "manufactured homes," which are typically pre-built to national code and sold through retailers, and "modular homes," which are typically built one at a time according to local and state codes.

In the beginning, Tomecek didn't foresee building modular, but after buying a long, 25-foot-wide infill site, it looked like a good fit.

"We figured we could save a significant amount of time and probably build for a little bit less," he says. "As an architect, if I am going to advocate this kind of building, I need to understand what the pros and cons are firsthand."

The Tomeceks concede that while things got off to a smooth start, the process was not easy.

Their home was born July 7 in the 103,000-square-foot Barvista Homes factory near Johnstown, just two days after excavators began digging the hole on the spot where it would ultimately rest, 19 miles away.

Within days, the home's walls were up and insulated, and wiring and plumbing had begun.

Within a few weeks, factory workers were installing cabinets and flooring, a pace unheard of on a site-built project.

On Aug. 16, as the whole neighborhood seemed to look on from their front porches, an enormous crane lifted the two long, narrow boxes (roughly 57,000 pounds) and gingerly set them down on the narrow slot between two other houses.

Their projected move-in date of Sept. 15 looked promising.

But then, for a time, things fell apart.

The roof - a custom, more modern alternative to the one typically shipped with the house - didn't arrive for months.

Water leaked through the tarp covering the house, and because it had come with floor, cabinets and drywall already in, there was plenty of damage.

Then the gas company couldn't get them hooked up, throwing their schedule off by six weeks.

And there were problems with the contractor charged with doing the custom finish work.

In the end, modular proved to be equally susceptible to some of the setbacks that often plague site-built home construction.

It took longer than they thought it would (they finally moved into their new home in mid-December), cost more than they'd planned (between $13,000 and $25,000, depending on how you crunch the numbers) and led to more than a few minor marital squabbles at the breakfast table.

But would they do it again?

Absolutely.

"In a perfect world you are hitting budget and hitting timelines, but I realize that doesn't always happen," says Brad, who believes they got a good deal in a good time frame.

Christa agrees. "I love the finishes of the house. I love the construction. There are just a few things we'd do differently next time."

The advantages of building modular

* Cost: Because materials (including appliances, cabinets and other finish products) are bought in bulk by the factory, a modular home can cost up to 15 percent less.

* Time: Because site preparation and home building can take place simultaneously, it can take less time. Also, because a modular is built indoors, weather is not a factor.

* Waste: Modular homes tend to produce less waste to begin with, and scrap wood is often recycled to make crates for the factory.

* Energy efficiency: Factory- built homes leave less room for error than site-built homes, so they tend to be tighter and better insulated with fewer places where air can leak out.