I must admit that I am caught in somewhat of a homagic.com with my thinking these days. On one had being a child of the sixties, I miss the simpler times. Back when life wasn’t tied to a cell phone or computer. When you didn’t have to drive 50 miles round trip to work each day, when Opey and Andy, Wally and the Beaver were on TV and were actually enjoyed. A time when you mowed the lawn yourself rather then hire it done because you actually had the time.
And on the other hand, I like a lot of the new technology that has come about in the last oh, say 20 years or so. In fact in many aspects of my life, I wish that I had more and better technical gadgets. My imagination can conjure up a lot of things I wish we had but science hasn’t caught up to yet. Modular Housing in more then a small respect is one area where technology seems to be taking the imagined into the realm of actuality in no small fashion.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s (if you can remember that far back) there were a lot of programs, news reels and such that rendered some elaborate but vary fanciful futuristic home concepts. If you see any of that old footage today, you can’t help but notice how much of those conceptual futuristic ideas are actually incorporated into our lives today. The idea of a smart house has transformed into reality. Though not totally common place, more and more it’s becoming a major part of the ideas driving the housing industry.
Modular Homes use to be those two piece homes that you’d see travel down the highway, half on one big truck and half on another. When they got to where they were going, they drop the wheels off, lowering the two halves to the ground and bolting them together and there you have it, instant house. It’s a little more high tech then that today.
With the advent of CAD or Computer Aided Design that simple method of construction bloomed into something far grander. Almost any thing you can imagine can be incorporated into the design of a New Modular Home. Having computer terminals in several rooms of the home now days is more and more common. Wireless LAN is great but hard wired still has its advantages, especially when it comes to control systems within the house.
Honeywell as well as many other manufactures have new computer controlled heating and air conditioning systems especially geared for the modular designed home. Leviton and others offer lighting controls and home automation products also geared toward modular design. Although these types of automated systems are not strictly for the modular housing industry, they are usually more easily incorporated into the design element of modular home construction then that of conventional construction.
Keep in mind that Modular home doesn’t mean just two halves bolted together anymore. Modular design is customizable to almost any conventional home design as well as some rather unconventional ones as well. From ranch and split level modern, to two or more story colonial style. In fact, they are the new custom built homes. And with superior quality control, they far exceed the speed and accuracy of a home that is totally site constructed.
