0518 U House - EcoSteel version

About a year ago, long before the stock plans for the 0518 U House were complete, we had an inquiry about making an EcoSteel version of the house.



The U House is one of my favorite designs combining the elements of two different design themes in our house plans: The shed roofed bar as you see in the 0242 Plat House and the 0357 Steel Case House; and the low slope roof box as you see in the 0380 Cube House, the 0367 Porch House, and more recently the 0738 Palo Alto (both the Porch and the Palo Alto are hybrids in themselves as well).

The bedroom wings of the U House were designed to make them easy to build in a modular factory. The intention was to make it easier to build the house quickly, and support the opportunity for people to grow into the house by building one wing at a time. But at first blush I was not so sure that the house lent itself to the EcoSteel system.



I knew the living/dining/kitchen wing would work as its construction is similar to the Steel Case House. I had already looked closely at the conversion of the Steel Case House to EcoSteel, and its a no-brainer. But the bedroom wings? Sometime after this we did a design study for a pair of house designs in Desert Hot Springs, CA. These were to be oriented on a narrow lot along the long dimension. Those designs were previously posted here. Suddenly those design studies shed light on making a long narrow wing for the U House. Now it all made sense, and the geometry of the bedroom wings complemented the house.



We didn't get to build this one but it occurred to me that I should show it here on the blog. Maybe the person looking for that EcoSteel U House is reading this right now.

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0518 U House Construction Prints Done

Done, available, and the first set out - to someone like you

A few weeks ago I posted that the U House Construction Prints were almost done - and neglected to return to announce that they were finished. If you were watching the catalog page you would have seen the "Buy Now" button go live, but no excuses - I dropped the ball! The first set has gone out to a customer in Utah and we are hoping to see it going up. If so, we will share it with you.



My hat is off to the brave people willing to follow their vision against the status quo.

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0518 U House Construction Prints

Construction Prints for our latest design are nearly done

Now that its not so unusual for a house to be under construction, I have been posting more about construction process than design process. I don't know if people who read the blog care, but if you do, by all means let me know. If you want to see actual houses then I'll keep the emphasis there. If you like watching the progress of new designs I'll pick that up again.

In that spirit I'd like to report that I've been working through October and November to complete the Construction Prints for the 0518 U House design. A glimpse below of some of the construction sheets in progress. Many people have been interested in this new design, so I've buckled down to get it finished. I think it will be done by the end of the month for sure.

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0518 U House Design Prints available

The design of the new plan is done.

The Design Prints for new U House plan are complete and available immediately. A new web page for the house is posted at our site.

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0518 U House model done

The model of the house is done,

now I can move on to creating the Design Prints. I have to add some "props" to the model and export images. Design prints should be available next week.

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0518 U House living wing begun

The framing of the living wing is being modeled now.



The frame of the living room wing is complete leaving the walls, windows, doors, and kitchen fit-out to complete. I had originally intended to document this house with a steel frame, following the construction method of the 0357 Steel Case House but I am concerned that the steel frame is still intimidating for most people. Since the 0404 Pump House will be documented with a steel frame I decided to document the U House with a wood frame. An alternative version can always be created later if you steel frame fanatics come beating down my door.

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U House Progress

The master bedroom wing is modeled now as well.



The master bedroom wing also contains a study which can also be used as a guest room. The master bedroom has a small porch off the end which you can see here. The bedroom wing in the background has two bedrooms and a utility/laundry room.

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0518 U House starts production

I've begun working on the design representation for the U House.

I am developing the 3d model of the U House which will be used to generate the Design Print Images. The bedroom wing is already complete.



And here an overview where you can see the bay windows.



And reposted here the small sketch that has been on the Remote House Group page for several years now!



I've not forgotten about the Pump House. I plan on working on both of them, however there have been several requests for this house, and I thought I should move it along.

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