Virginia's first certified modular "green" home built in Newport News

[Blue_Tires]

Frances Cowles and her family moved in Saturday to the state's first modular home certified by EarthCraft House.

This is the first house the mother of five has owned. Being certified as an EarthCraft home means it is energy efficient, which will help the still-struggling family — Cowles' children are age 3 to 22, and four still live at home — with bills.

Cowles, who has been living in a Newport News apartment, will save between $360 and $480 dollars per year in energy bills, estimated Bob Congdon, the builder on the project and an EarthCraft technician.

Using modular technology is "like a puzzle," Congdon said. The pieces — completed flooring, walls, roofing — are built off-site and transported to the home lot where they are fit together.

This puzzle, a three-bedroom, two-bath house in southeast Newport News, took between 45 and 60 days to assemble and cost as much to build as a non-energy efficient home of comparable size. It cost $125,000 to build.

"This house proves one thing. ...That green, energy-efficient housing can be built affordably," Congdon said.

Congdon said many people associate modular building with being poorly made or cheap, but he says it's quite the contrary.

"It's as well built a house as you will find in Newport News."

Modular technology is heralded by the National Association of Home Builders as "typically built to stronger standards than conventional homes."

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_greenhouse_0731jul31,0,2998676.story