My husband and I are interested in moving and hopefully living in some sort of modern housing in the Austin, Texas area. The Sunset Glide house looks wonderful - though with construction and land costs maybe a little expensive for us. I wonder if there's anyone out there who has any information on modern design/prefab/housing that is going on out in the Austin area?

papirnik,


There are a lot of us in the Austin area. Take a look through the Austin geographic forum. There are lots of folks there looking to do the same thing. While lot costs are quickly rising in Austin, construction budgets are nowhere near what they are in LA. Since that is the case it sort of means that quite a few of the on the market modular products are more expensive than doing a custom project in Austin.

Should you like to discuss this issue further feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,
Mark Meyer

Hallo Mark
Thank you for your help. I've just waded through the Austin page and am thrilled there is so much interest. I don't know Austin or the surrounding area but it sounds as if leaving the city limits brings you greater potential with land/views etc and kinder pricing. We definitely want a view, a garden and some water??!! -what the heck we're newly-weds from New York, may as well shoot for the moon.. I'd be very interested in hearing your views on what is realistically possible with regards to designing our own house with a view to pricing. I had a look at some of the modern designs out there and wonder how the ones with no porches or overhangs and all that glass/steel etc. cope with the heat in the Summer? They look like they'd be giant cookers.
Thanks for your help,
Philomena

Papirnik

Welcome to the area. My wife and I were in a similar position to you three years ago. We built on 4 acres in georgetown, around 30 miles north of central Austin. She works in Round Rock so its only a 25 min. commute. Our lot was only around $40k. But it is very heavily wooded and near the lake.

Our house is not pre-fab but it is very modern. It is 100'x22' w/ 12' ceilings, clad in corrugated steel and tan cmu. I designed it myself (I am a retired intern architect). I did all of the finish work on the house. Because I did the work myself we were able to splurge on all of the finish materials.

We managed to keep the building cost with land under $150/ sq ft. At that price we have a Viking/SubZero kitchen, 18x18 travertine baths w/ the finest Kohler fixtures, and over 150 linear feet of cabinetry (quartersawn white maple plywood, very modern). The bedrooms are large with built-in wardrobe walls. All of the doors are 4'x8' transluscent plexiglass sliders. It also has top of the line casement windows.

If you would like to talk about the process and potential pitfalls please e-mail me or better still give me a call. We will probably be putting our house on the market soon, if you would be interested in a turnkey house in Georgetown.


Stephen

(512) 864-1425
Bghyde@earthlink.net