Recession leads Bainbridge Island couple to Perfect Little House designs
Sep 17, 2012, 10:27 AM | Updated: 4:18 pm
"The Willow" design from Perfect Little House Company at only 780 square feet offers a fireplace, dining nook, bedroom, and potential to expand at the stairway. (Image courtesy PLHC)
(Image courtesy PLHC)
The recession and slam on the real estate market has some thinking more conservatively about housing, and a Bainbridge Island couple is proving going smaller doesn’t necessarily mean less comfort.
“Perfect Little House Company homes favor design quality and comfort over excessive square footage,” says their website.
Perfect Little House Company is the brainchild of Peter Brachvogel and Stella Carosso. The company offers home designs for housing arrangements from around 300 to 2,100 square feet.
Brachvogel tells Real Estate Today host Tom Kelly the designs are based on a pre-World War II style.
“The idea behind it was to deliver to a market good quality design work that was commensurate with a look, feel, and flavor of a time that had us feeling better about the places in which we live.”
PLHC currently has plans for around 30 small home designs available for purchase. The plans include foundations, floor plans, electrical, and framing plans and can be used anywhere, says Carosso.
“They’ve gone all around the country and we get clients who write in and ask, ‘Can we put in a daylight basement? Can we alter the foundation to adjust to sloped topography?’ We can do all that.”
The homes can typically be built anywhere from $100 a square foot on up, says Brachvogel.
“You can upgrade that with anything you want in terms of siding and windows and trim and mill work.”
Plans are available for purchase for under $2,000 and give the purchaser license to build the home one time.
Carosso says they’ve been surprised by the wide variety of people interested in the product, from young families to empty-nesters, to folks looking for vacation homes.
“They’ve all come to the website with interesting stories and looking for this kind of square footage.”
Listen for more info on Perfect Little House Company:
Real Estate Today can be heard on 97.3 KIRO FM on Sundays at 9 a.m. Available anytime ON DEMAND at MyNorthwest.com.
By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
