By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com
Jo Layne McDow and Gordon Martin may like small homes, but their newest project caused a big scene last week in downtown Yachats.
Their new home’s arrival involved a massive crane and flatbed trailers hauling two modular structures and placing them carefully on a foundation at 312 W. Fourth St., where workers quickly attached trusses and roofing plywood.
The Eugene couple have owned the lot next to the Yachats Lions Club parking lot since 1993, and recently decided to “put on it something we believed in — small homes,” said McDow.
At 630 square feet, with one bedroom and one bath, the modular isn’t, strictly speaking, a “tiny” home — those max out at up to 500 square feet — but it’s certainly on the small side. Designed by Portland architect Amanda Petretti, the unit had been stored in two pieces in the warehouse of MODS (Modular Organized Development Systems) of Portland.
The couple was trying to figure out what to put on the 50- by 100-foot lot when McDow happened to see a photo of the house online, jumped at the chance to buy it and then went about getting permits and foundation work.
Martin and McDow’s modular home was used as a model for the 2019 International Builders Show in Las Vegas and because of that it has many upgrades, according to MODS chief executive officer Nathan Young.
“The insulation in the walls, the weather-resistant wrap on the exterior, the appliances … they’re all upgrades,” he said.
The units are built in a controlled factory environment in modules, and then transported to the homesite. Young estimated that the Martin-McDow home would list at “about $180,00-200,000 with all the upgrades” while lower end MODS homes start at about $150,000.
“If that house were site-built, it would cost about the same,” said Young, principal builder at MODS and a past president of the Portland Metro Homebuilders Association. “At the coast, you’d probably pay more, because there are fewer contractors.”
Young said his company, in business for 24 years, built the Martin-McDow house in about 45 days. Site-built, he estimated, the same house would take at least four months.
Like most houses built to withstand coastal weather, the builders used plywood on its exterior walls and all exterior metal is stainless steel.
“This came complete with refrigerator, stove, washer/dryer, Daikin ductless (HVAC) system, modern bath and more,” said McDow, a retired financial planner. Martin is an independent investment adviser with Eugene Private Wealth Management.
The couple, whose full-time home is in Eugene, plan to use the house themselves when they’re in Yachats, and also host family and friends there.
Directly behind and to the south of the modular house is a 1927 cottage at 317 W. Third St. that the couple also owns. That’s where they’ll live — in 300 square feet — while finishing the modular, which still needs siding and front and back decks.
