Palladio’s Escape Cottage

I spotted this incredible little house on Facebook recently. It’s the creation of Ricky Newcomer and a prototype for a prefab building system he’s developing that could be built by a contractor or owner-builder. The cottage you see here is 412 square feet and the shell would cost in the neighborhood of $29,000 to build with new materials. There are several photos so continue reading past these drawings.

Here’s what Ricky told me about the project:

My mission has become to truly help people “escape the matrix” of mortgage debt. The plan for accomplishing this mission is to produce a series of dignified small houses which can be purchased in whole, or more interestingly, by the prefabricated part. The parts, which bolt together on site, should be manageable by hand (installed with a boom or crane truck), easily stacked and stored until assembly and buildable by anyone with the basic tools, reasonable carpentry skills and a sufficient work space. The plan allows for people to buy house parts of varying amounts as budget and timing work out for them – in no particular order, with no credit required and no interest added. One would order and pay for an awning bracket, floor, wall or roof panel, etc. Then we’d build and ship it. 100% of the money goes directly toward house principal!

As an architectural designer and part time builder for over twenty years, I’ve worked with literally hundreds of really fine people to make their dream homes become a reality. Maybe it’s midlife, maybe it’s the state of our economy, perhaps it’s my own personal experience causing me to think that the truth is, most of the people I’ve tried to serve, now have a long term financial burden in the Classical, Colonial Revival or Craftsman Style. If someone had shown me the way, even as a teenager, how to work toward not having to get into the mortgage bind…I would have done it and saved so much time and wasted money.

This cottage actually started out to be a shipping pallet design before I got the chance to deconstruct a huge wooden warehouse. You’ll notice that there are four sections measuring 4′ x 10′ placed around a center void of 10′ x 10′. These dimensions work well with 40″ x 48″ pallets. The cottage is 412 square feet. It has a full kitchen, large bath sleeping loft, two pantries, two closets and space for full size washer and dryer. The exterior wall and roof materials would be chosen and installed by the owner. Also, the interior plumbing, wiring, finishes and appliances would be chosen and done by the owner on site. The basic shell to the blacked-in stage is what we could offer for now. The price using new materials is $ 29,000 with delivery being extra for the whole package. If someone is interested in buying plans or getting started buying their house parts they could contact me (until our website is finished) through our page on Facebook.

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