Upstate Style: A New York Prefab by Way of Austria - Remodelista
Photography by Matthew Hranek. Matthew Hranek, Yolanda Edwards, and their 11-year-old daughter, Clara, are a traveling trio. Kauffman gladly accepted his first (and, to date, only) US prefab order–he and his team even traveled to the site to survey the possibilities. Four days later, the structure was standing. Yolanda, Clara, and their dog, Charlie, in their customary morning perch–in front of the 40-foot windows that overlook their meadow. “I was actually more anxious about the idea of having a house built from the ground up by local contractors, because I knew the price and the finish date would be constantly moving. Instead, it was a fast and easy process.” The open-plan main room–39 feet long and 24 feet wide–has oak floors with radiant heat and built-ins fabricated by master cabinetmaker Heinz Ruscher. The kitchen, with its white Corian-topped island, is the hub, and Hranek is the designated cook: “I’m completely sold on Corian... ...it’s indestructible. The only thing I’d do differently in this whole place is put in a double kitchen sink,” he says. Hranek had the pendant lights made to his own specs by “a copper guy out West.” The couple supplied their own appliances: “We shopped online for the most affordable options from restaurant supply stores; the range is a commercial model by Dynasty.” (For a kettle like theirs, see Object Lessons: The Great Japanese Cast-Iron Kettle.) Books do furnish a room–even one shelf. “At one point I was very into European pottery,” says Hranek. A French tin holds Champagne caps from many weekend celebrations. Hranek and Edwards found the Haida prints over their sofa at the gift shop in the Museum of Natural History in Vancouver “for about the price of a poster at Spencer Gifts.” The ceramic lamp is a 1950s Martz design. A Hans Wegner 1960s daybed with a snowy view. Family craft books from the 1970s on the daybed’s wool-felt mattress from Johannes Mohr. The raised one-story house is entered via stairs. The wood paneling continues in the house’s three bedrooms. “The house is like an elevated shoebox that has a glass wall on one side,” says Edwards. All told, the project rang in at about $336,000–$236,000 for the turn-key house (“We got a good deal because Kaufmann is a friend,” says Hranek), $12,000 in shipping costs, and the rest for site prep and other work done by the local crew, including electrical installation.