Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Champion homes ‘Go House’ makes a go at green affordable





An article in the New York Times today, The Rise of ‘Green’ Modular Homes, mentions the Clayton ihouse as leading the charge with affordable modular green, with some other contenders making their first showing at the Las Vegas International Builders’ Show last month.

The Go House, a new green modular (configurable from 1375 sq. ft to 2000+ sq. ft.) by Genesis (a modular division of Champion Homes), is mentioned in the article, so I might as well introduce that too.

The Go House is a green modular which can be configured in the traditional ranch, or cape cod style. The house is cute enough, but it would be fun if they allowed more flexibility in style and size downward.

Even so, with modular design, the ultimate control of the consumer to configure a house the way they want it isn’t far off. Of course, it is here now in more expensive custom homes.

They invite playing around with their online configuration tool, and it is nice to be able to put on a garage(s), but it doesn’t calculate the garage price automatically. By clicking on the “?” in a field when you get to the cost estimation step, it explains how to calculate the extra fees, everything from foundation to contractor’s fees.

"Freight" on this is going to hurt, unless you live within 200 miles from the factory. Finding out where their factories are is another chore not made easy by the website! Okay, I found it. Go HERE to determine how close you are to a Genesis factory.

After a little ado (instead of much ado) I located the PDF of the house specs and basic features HERE.

The more I think about it, I realize why I looked at this before and didn't include it in my posts. It just isn't offering much of anything that is new and seems like too much green washing going on.

Could be a possibility if you live close to a factory though.