Hi,

I live in Bellevue and recently made an offer for a lot in Sammimish (with a partial lake view). I would love to build a fabulous modern home, but it seems almost impossible with the tight budget ($450k). Most of the Seattle architects that I have emailed have quoted at minimum $250/sqft to $450/sqft.

Does anyone have a recommendation on how to go about building a modern home for less than $200 sqft? I know Glidehouse is supposed to be in that range, but is that the only option?

What about builders? Does anyone have a recommendation on a builder who is comfortable building modern homes?

Rich

Rich

We typically deal with 200-250 per square foot projects, and there is quite a bit you can do in that range, but you need to be disciplined to minimize complexity and manage the materials to keep it in that budget. The Greenwater cabin we recently finished, see link below, uses simple volumns, low maintenance industrial materials, some commercial products, such as the windows, to keep the cost reasonable so we could afford some special items, like the custom fabricated steel staircase, 15' full glass garage door between dining room and deck and high finish in the master baths.

http://www.cast-db.com/projects/slideshow/grieger/index.html

Take a look at our website for more projects:

www.cast-db.com

As for recommendations for a modern minded builder, we have been acting as the general contractor and as carpenters on almost all our projects, but have recently hung up the bags to focus on design only, so we are actively interviewing other general contractors (formerly our competition) to find the right fit for our new design projects. If I find anyone that stands out and primarily works the Eastside, I'll post their info for you.

Feel free to contact me if you have other questions or other tactics for keeping costs down at matt@cast-db.com or 206 256 9886.


Matt

Hi Rich,

You can do a great PLACEhouse for your budget - most of our models will come in under your total $450k, and that even includes light landscaping.

PLACE houses are prefab kit houses, designed by PLACE architects as a turnkey solution: you choose your model, tell us what interior package you want and what customizations you need, and then relax we'll construct the pieces and assemble the house on your site. Start to finish we should be looking at about six months.

They're smart, affordable, green, and we're pretty excited about them. The best thing to do is to check out our website first, at www.placehouses.com, and then give me a call or send email if you're interested in talking further about it.

We'd be thrilled to be able to help!

Best,
Heather Johnston
PLACE houses (and PLACE architects)
www.placehouses.com and www.placearchitects.com
206 281 8225