With 'i-house,' manufactured housing goes chic

ABC News ^ | August 17, 2018 | Duncan Mansfield and the Associated Press

[2ndDivisionVet]

From its bamboo floors to its rooftop deck, Clayton Homes' new industrial-chic "i-house" is about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player.

Architects at the country's largest manufactured home company embraced the basic rectangular form of what began as housing on wheels and gave it a postmodern turn with a distinctive v-shaped roofline, energy efficiency and luxury appointments.

Stylistically, the "i-house" might be more at home in the pages of a cutting-edge architectural magazine like Dwell— an inspirational source — than among the Cape Cods and ranchers in the suburbs.

The layout of the long main "core" house and a separate box-shaped guestroom-office "flex room" resemble the letter "i" and its dot. Yet Clayton CEO and President Kevin Clayton said "i-house" stands for more than its footprint.

With a nod to the iPod and iPhone, Clayton said, "We love what it represents. We are fans of Apple and all that they have done. But the 'I' stands for innovation, inspiration, intelligence and integration."(continued)

[Jonty30]

You can probably get one customized to your specifications. I can’t see, offhand, why they couldn’t accommodate you.

[Pelham]

Tornado dome protects mobile home residents

[DaxtonBrown]

“What someone did to the mobile home, someone should do with the ‘57 Chevy ... do the same thing with modern materials.”

I own and drive a 57 Chevy.. Built like a brick outhouse. As I restore it, I like the engineering more and more. I also have a 67 Camaro, not nearly as solid. And forget the new cars, can’t work on them at all.

In some ways I’m doing what you suggest. The one weak spot is the brakes and I am about to replace the fronts with Wilwood discs. The engine and transmission are early 70s 350 small block and Th350 tranny. But with a magnetic pickup distributor, headers, the new Edelbrock carb with an annular venturi, and roller rockers it runs like a top. Plus, everyone loves to talk about and it is huge inside.

Sorry to vent, but yes, you are correct.

[setha]

Which would be just as bad as a mobile home when a tornado hits.

[familyop]

On energy efficiency, a small, rectangular building shaped more closely to being square is more potentially efficient than a long, skinny building. Also, a hip roof is potentially more resistant to rains and high winds than a gable or shed roof. Such a structure can easily and relatively cheaply be built to a 160 mph wind load (or much more with the right doors, laminated glass, steel shutters and steel over the studs).

Only an argument for conventional framing here except for one more thing. A house plugged into the soil with a shallow, frost-protected slab foundation is also potentially more energy efficient.

And it could be built for about the same cost as a manufactured house of about the same effective roominess and comfort, if the builder actually participates in the work with his hands. It’s sad, that the real builder generations of more honest men are gone with the moving of so much manufacturing to foreign soil.

[knarf]

My next door neighbor picked his up in '62 when he got out of the Army.

He's 73 or 4 now and still drives it.

Best as I can figure, it's all original except engine and tranny and he dropped the column to the floor shift, but still three speed.

Oh and some kind'a cherry bomb muffler that sounds horny as hell.

[LostInBayport]

I have long wanted a concrete dome home. One level, mostly open floor plan for my golden years. In a red state. That’s my daydream anyway.

[ghostkatz]

My first car was a 1956 chevy turquoise and white 4 door. Built like a tank, heavy duty. And it never leaked water into interior when it rained like my last 3 ford product cars. And it was like a small home on wheels. If I stayed out late and got tired I would pull into a pasture somewhere, crawl into the back seat and sleep. If the weather was warm I would throw the back doors open and enjoy the breeze and night sounds.
One time I pulled over in an old country church yard to snooze. I was awakened the next morning by the sound of a large vehicle next to me. I raised up to see what was the deal and an enire schoolbus load of kids were staring at me. I waved and laid back down/ Boy was I embarrassed. But I loved my Chevy.

[Valpal1]

That’s a shelter for people. It doesn’t protect their trailers. They will be alive and homeless (or living in a FEMA trailer).

That said, I have raised a family of 4 in a double wide and have no real complaints. I have friends with really nice stick built homes twice the size of mine, but half the children.

They have had to juggle jobs, kids and spouses to pay for their McMansion. I am the stay at home wife of a mechanic. We have 10 payments left on our “house”. Then we are going to buy another one in a retirement village with a golf course as a second home.

[mythenjoseph]

That place is TINY....absolutely NO storage . Don’t get me wrong I am all about modular built and I am a carpenter by trade (electrical/plumbing/flooring/siding/roofing/windows doors etc... If you really want to do this I house on the cheap buy two or three old cargo ship conatainer’s and set them how you want then constuct what you want....I saw the price and it showed 85 K ..85 thousand for a one bedroom fancy trailer...heh no wheels either !

[2ndDivisionVet]

We have a brand-new 3 bedroom, 2 bath double-wide at 1,475 square feet that we paid about $46,000 for. You’re paying for novelty and stylishness here.

[familyop]

"Tornado dome protects mobile home residents"

From the video,...

"The cost of inflation is a small price to pay for safety. And with the help of a FEMA grant and matching funds from a local businessman, a tornado dome that doubles as a community shelter went up in Pataskala...The shelters cost about $229,000 dollars, but..."

This country is seriously messed up, and the mess began to show itself at the local levels during the 1970s. The regulations... They burn.

[Songcraft]

Maybe they should considering expanding their design choices a little, perhaps patterning some of them after some of these homes...

[BipolarBob]

Well . . . sure. I . . mean yeah you could put up a tornado dome and put your mobile home in it and be safe but you’d never see daylight. And I doubt resale value would be much because most people want to see out their windows (silly people). But you’d be safe. No doubt about it.

[plain talk]

A 1,000-square-foot prototype unveiled at a Clayton show in Knoxville a few months ago was priced at around $140,000.

LOL. Well Obama did tell us we need to settle for less.

[2ndDivisionVet]

See my post #31.

[plain talk]

We live in a modest home by choice as I chose to scrimp and save for 40 years so I could retire comfortably. Based on what you said one could buy 3 of your double-wides and somehow connect them together for a little more than the cost of one of these ridiculous looking i-Houses.

[Nik Naym]

Those houses are only for old women with many children.

[Songcraft]

:-)

(And there's a lot of them around!)

[katana]

"i-House" ... Somebody dropped the "S", the "h", and the "t".

Watched the video. Basically, a "luxury" double wide being marketed on the basis of its "greenness", with its supposed affordability (never heard a $ per square foot mentioned, but had to skip some parts to avoid a projectile vomit) an afterthought. Only genuine Liberals would think environMENTAL is the linchpin on which to hang a marketing campaign. My main thought about the unit they showed would be its outstanding air worthiness in anything over a 60 mph gust.