We are planning our new mobile home park in the South Okanagan.
Details are still being worked out however it is anticipated the first homes will be delivered in spring of 2011.
If you are intersted in more details or would like to register for updates please email jim@somhomes.com

jim

The Top 10 Reasons Why Modular Homes Are Better Than Site-Built Homes
For centuries people have built homes one board at a time. This is slow. It’s also expensive. Now, using the latest technology and construction materials, you can combine your spirit of individuality with breakthrough building methods like Modular Home Building that save time and money.

Sterling, VA (PRWEB) May 28, 2010 — For centuries people have built homes one board at a time. This is slow. It’s also expensive. Now, using the latest technology and construction materials, you can combine your spirit of individuality with breakthrough building methods like Modular Home Building that save time and money.

10. State-of-the-art quality is built in – in half the time
For centuries people have built homes one board at a time. This is slow. It’s also expensive. Now, using the latest technology and construction materials, you can combine your spirit of individuality with breakthrough building methods that save time and money. Taking virtually any home design you can dream up and building it in a clean, modern factory means we can finish your very own custom home on just about any lot, anywhere. Quickly.

All things considered, the modular process just makes sense. Custom modular homes provide far better quality, speed, performance, and overall cost savings.
9. Your materials and workers aren’t stuck outside in all sorts of weather
Check out a stick-built job site–in the heat, snow or rain. Yep, that’s mud on the sub-floor. Yep, that’s wet lumber, dead bugs, and mouse droppings. Modular homes are built in clean, climate-controlled plants where workers are comfortable and they’re supervised daily by quality control managers from the company they work for and by third-party inspectors. This isn’t typically the case with workers in the field. (Anybody see the builder today? This week?) And really, how can one builder single-handedly oversee every phase of construction? Modular builders have supervisors and inspectors that specialize in each area of building your new home, so your home gets a great deal more attention during construction.

8. Shorter, more predictable time line
The modular process eliminates most of the uncontrollable forces like bad weather, the infamous “family emergency” worker and equally clever material delays because your home goes from foundation to 80% complete in one day. Alternatively, a stick-built home might drag through two or three stormy, snowy, or sweltering seasons – don’t forget about all your materials sitting out there in the muck – your modular home is built in about 2 weeks in the clean, dry factory, where the production schedule is virtually unalterable.

7. Built stronger
Because modules are transported and placed by a crane onto the foundation, they are built as tough, six-sided structures. That’s a couple more sides than a stick-built home. The results are stronger and more stable than with platform-style structures. This also explains how modular homes come from the factory with plumbing, electrical, drywall, and even cabinets and tile complete! And remember, every step of the way, every component of your home has been inspected and re-inspected.

6. Reliable Quality Control
Speaking of Quality Control (QC), modular home builders undergo frequent inspections of stringent quality building standards. Modular homes are built in factory settings by skilled workers who have the same managers overseeing them every day. Each modular plant is also inspected by third party inspectors regularly. Modules undergo strict inspections in the field once they are set to ensure the connections are made correctly between modules and to the foundation. Remember, local home inspectors are not inspecting for quality, they’re merely looking for building code compliance. Quality versus compliance. Big difference.

5. More pre-construction planning, fewer surprises
Stick-builders admit that time and time again some details of the plan end up “not working” in the field. That’s because the person who draws the plans is not a builder and vice-versa. The design world collides with the practical world. Often. With the modular process, your home plans are examined before construction begins by both the builder and the modular plant managers. Builders who use the modular process study plans much more closely than they would in a stick-build process because their crutch of “figuring it out in the field” is not available.

4. The environmentally-friendly choice
Worried about the planet your children and grandchildren will inherit? Us too. Modular construction creates far less landfill trash that stick-building. Waste from old construction methods can fill up dumpster after dumpster. Take a look next time you drive by a home under construction. See all that good, unused wood thrown out by framers? What a waste. The environmentally-friendly modular construction process generates minimal waste; it also reduces the disturbance to your site’s natural resources. This keeps costs down and helps save the planet.

3. ENERGY STAR® – it’s not just for appliances anymore
ENERGY STAR ratings can be applied to your whole house! But it will have to pass some pretty tough inspections. Many, if not most, modular homes consume 15% less energy than homes built to typical building codes. With ENERGY STAR and many other “green” certifications, you can be sure your new modular home will outperform the energy savings of typical stick-built homes. That saves you on your utility bills year after year!

2. More bang for your buck
Because modular homes are produced in state-of-the-art facilities that buy materials in mass quantities and benefit from lower rural labor rates, they tend to be less expensive as comparable stick-built homes built to the same specifications. A modular home will typically give you high build quality, 15% energy savings over a stick-built home of the same price, in less time, with less hassle!

1. It just makes sense
All things considered, the modular process just makes sense. Custom modular homes provide far better quality, speed, performance, and overall cost savings. Just ask your bank. It doesn’t differentiate between modular or stick-built for financing construction loans. Modular homes make sense for banks, builders, the environment – and most importantly – you!

About Us
Matt Morse is the President and Co-founder of Dovetail USA, A Boutique Custom Homebuilder based in Vienna, Virginia. Dovetail USA, builds ENERGY STAR rated custom modular homes to fit the lifestyles of today’s families. Dovetail USA custom homes will help you create the setting for memories that last a lifetime. Dovetail USA focuses on homes in Northern Virginia’s Great Falls, McLean, Vienna, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, and Alexandria areas.

We are introducing an updated line of Park Models June 1, 2010.
More standard features and lower prices.
Watch out for new plans on our site shortly.

jim

What is Universal Design?
Universal Design is a growing movement in residential construction for universal access. Modular and Mobile Homes are perfect fit for universal access homes. The costs are substantially lower when designing from scratch.  Some consumers think it is just another way of describing “handicapped-accessible” construction or wheelchair accessibility, Universal Design is actually a much broader concept, intended to create houses that are usable by all people.  By incorporating features such as level – stepless – entrances, wider hallways, and larger doors, a Universal Designed home becomes easier to navigate when pushing a child in a stroller or moving furniture in or out of a room.
Building a house with universal accessibility standards – one that can be entered without having to climb steps, that allows someone in a wheelchair or with a walker to circulate easily, and that has a full bathroom on the first floor adjacent to a room that could be used as a bedroom – makes it possible for an aging parent to move in some day. Given the astronomical costs of nursing homes, this is often the only viable option for families. Such Universal Design features also allow visitors with a wide range of physical abilities to feel welcomed and comfortable.
Modular homes can readily accommodate the principles of Universal Design. South Okanagan Modular Homes staff can modify most standard plans to enlarge the doorways, hallways, and bathrooms. Universal access may require us to change the shape and size of some rooms, but this usually will not present problems if the floor plan is large enough, and it is unlikely to cost much.
In addition to changes in the floor plan, universal home design incorporates user-friendly items like lever door handles and faucets. If you want to build a home that is usable by all of your family and friends, consider including some of the following Universal Design products and options in your home.
Some Universal design products and features now available.
• 36-inch-wide exterior doors
• 36-inch-wide interior doors
• Lever-handled interior door handles
• Extra wide 42″ hallways
• Easy-to-reach thermostat location
• Task lighting for specific activities, such as cooking, reading, and shaving
• Varying height kitchen work surfaces
• Extra maneuvering space in the kitchen and bathrooms
• Knee space at the bathroom vanity for a chair
• Offset tub/shower anti-scald controls
• Curbless shower with a flexible water dam
• Hand-held showerhead
• Blocking for grab bars at toilets, tubs, and showers
• Bathroom grab bars

When designing your next home , take the time to consider Universal Design home feature.

Jim

The provincial government announced last week that they are increasing the new home rebate to $525,000. They also announced that the rebate will also apply to the “HST”.
The effect of this means your Modular Home will not increase in price due to the HST.
Jim

We have had two meetings so far and in each case the time flew by. The group is very engaged and lots of good ideas are flowing. The first meeting was really just a introduction style affair, but soon took off with no lack of opinion or comment. After calls to the participants for a chairperson, Pastor Phil Johnson bravely stepped forward to take on that task.

The next meeting, held  Thursday June 4 , we were joined by consultants Noha Sedky and Linda Allen of CityScape. Once again the time flew by as we got a framework of the work , how they would be working with us and the challenges before us.  The conversation quite often comes back to  terminalogy or framing the debate . What exactly is affordable housing? Who is our target market? These questions keep coming up over and over again in one form or another. I think there is a general consesus that affordable or attainable housing  cannot be easily categorized , but should be broad enough to capture everyone who needs or wants it.    That’s all for now.

jim

The Osoyoos Affordable Housing Task Force is having their first meeting next week. The 11 volunteers on this task force are charged with coming up with some ideas to provide solutions to the shortage of affordable housing in Osoyoos. Now , affordable housing means different things to different people. For some , it means providing low income rentals , for others it is providing affordable homes  to purchase. I think the point is not what is the definition, but rather how to solve the problem. Perhaps a more appropriate term is attainable housing. Here’s my 9 point starter suggestion list.

1. Rezoning initiatives. Small homes on small lots. Mobile home developments
2. Energy efficient, sustainable neighborhoods , building green.
3. Public Private Partnerships
4. Mixed communities
5. Transportation requirements
6. Developments must encourage business opportunities
7. Time is of the essence
8. Beauty
9. Community support

jim

This is an article from the San Fransisco ABC News Website:

Houses made on assembly lines are turning up all over the Bay Area and they are smaller – and much greener – than the average new home. The days of McMansions appear to be over. The average size of new homes under construction is down.
Consumers want more from less – smaller houses that feel big – and are easy on the environment.
Bay Area architect Michelle Kaufmann says that is a perfect recipe for pre-fab houses.
“A home that’s actually made in a factory, as a series of modules, shipped to a site, attached to a permanent foundation, and it allows people to have a green home with a lot less waste, with a lot more quality control, and a lot less time,” Kaufmann said.
Kaufmann is an emerging star in the new world of pre-fab homes. Her houses are a far cry from the ones people might find in a mobile home park.
One of the big advantages to this kind of house is it cuts down on waste dumped in the landfill.
“Through building in a factory, we can actually achieve 50 to 75 percent less waste by having the precision cutting, by having the storage capacity and reusing materials,” Kaufmann said.
Almost 20 percent of California’s waste comes from construction, making that a big savings.
Kaufmann has built close to 20 modular homes in the Bay Area.
Kay Wilson just bought a single-module home for her lot in St. Helena.
“I love how it showed up and we unwrapped it and it was beautiful, and we didn’t have construction going on for days and days and months, years,” Wilson said.
The house is about 760 square feet, but it feels larger because of all the windows and clever design features.
The home comes filled with environmentally-friendly features. All the wood is from sustainable sources; a bathroom sink is made of concrete with recycled porcelain from old sinks and shower tiles are made of recycled glass.
Wilson first saw a model of the home a couple of years ago, when it was trucked in for display in front of San Francisco City Hall during a green building conference.
“I saw this house and I walked in, and just like, my knees went weak,” Wilson said.
The homes arrive with most of the fixtures and appliances already installed.
There are solar panels on the roof. The house is so efficient, Wilson has no electricity bill.
Kaufmann and her husband still live in the first pre-fab house she created five years ago. It is made of two modules joined together; 1,300 square feet for the main house with another module added to create an office.
The home has two bedrooms and two baths. Kaufmann says one key to making a small space feel large is eliminating clutter.
“We designed this storage bar where we have all of our objects behind it, and we can use it during the day, but when we want a visually quiet moment, or when people come over, we close it and voila, we’ve cleaned house,” Kaufmann said.
The house is in Novato and there is no air conditioning, but it still stays cool. The fan is powered by solar energy and windows near the ceiling let hot air escape. Sliding wooden panels create shade, but still allow the breeze to circulate.
The pre-fab homes can be fitted with a range of energy and water saving fixtures. Kaufmann’s house uses only one-third the water of the average home in Novato.
She believes her modular homes will encourage people to live green because someone else has done all the homework.
“It can’t take any more time than a non-green home, it can’t cost any more than a non-green home, and it needs to be easy,” Kaufmann said.
Not including the site, the pre-fab homes average about $160 per square foot, about the same as a traditional home of similar quality.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/drive_to_discover&id=6811743

Yes , it true. The economy is slow and some jobs are at risk. That’s the bad news.
The good news is the prevailing sentiment from all our modular home customers , past , present and future is positive and upbeat. Many of you have been through economic cycles before and know that valleys are followed by peaks.
South Okanagan Modular Homes view is that we can help lift the economy just a little by providing great value to first time buyer or empty-nesters.
Our show home is in Osoyoos. Our SRI factory is in Kelowna.

SOMHomes can deliver and set-up to Penticton, Castlegar, Abbottsford, Grand Forks , Cloverdale, Mission, Vernon , Kelowna, Prince George , McBride, Chilliwack , Keremeos, Princeton,Trail,Oliver, ….OK…OK everywhere in BC!!!.
Cheers,

jim

Modular …Mobile … Park Model.
What’s the Difference?

Many people are confused by the terminology surrounding the terms used in the Manufactured Home Industry. Let’s try to clear some of that up.  The Manufactured home is a term used in the industry when discussing factory built homes.  All Manufactured Homes are built in an enclosed, controlled environment using precision tools and equipment.  There are generally three types of homes built by Manufactured Home Companies: mobile homes, modular homes, and park model homes.

Mobile Homes:
These homes we are built on a steel frames and are placed on some type concrete blocks or pilings. They are usually skirted and are built to the Z240 building code. You would usually associate these homes with Mobile Home Parks or on private land as a second residence.

Modular Homes:
These homes are built to be placed on concrete foundations, either a crawl space or full basement. They have a engineered wooden floor system and are usually craned onto the foundation.  They are built to the same building code as site built homes (A277 building code).

Park Model Homes:
These homes are a hybrid between a Mobile Home and RV. They are typically placed in resort parks or communities and are built to a different building code Z241A.

Each type of home has its own special features and options which can be found on the homes section of our site.