Skip to content

Pre Fab Home Plans Make Building Your Dream Home Easier

Building a home? These predesigned plans could save you money and heartache

By Danielle Hayden November 16, 2018

perch1

This article originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the November 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.

After designing a Texas home in 2013, Austin-based architect Tim Brown says he was contacted by hundreds of people wanting to buy the plans for it. Brown saw an opportunity: “I thought, there’s got to be a way to bring a personal design to someone who wouldn’t hire an architect directly,” he says of the 2016 genesis for Perch Plans (perchplans.com), his line of customizable predesigned home plans.

Buyers can choose from eight designs in two flights, Modern Farmhouse and Maison Provincial (a new flight will be added in early 2019), with plans costing roughly one-twentieth of a custom design fee. Here in Washington, Brown has sold plans for homes being built in Langley, Bellingham and Hockinson; a Bainbridge Island home—built from the first Perch plan ever sold—was completed last month.

Creating your dream home can be stressful enough. Brown hopes that Perch Plans can make the process a little bit easier.

Follow Us

Master of Transparency

Master of Transparency

Award-winning architect Eric Cobb’s work seamlessly meshes glass, space and light

Noted architect Eric Cobb is collaborating on a second-home project near The Gorge Amphitheatre with a former junior high school soccer teammate, embodying a classic Seattle story of connection. The new Cliffe Pointe at the Gorge project located within the Cave B Estate grounds features 60 second homes surrounded by vineyards, natural sage, and rolling…

Sandy Sanctuary

Sandy Sanctuary

Mercer Island couple find bliss with a cabana on the beach

With 8,000 lakes, fifth most in the country, Washington is a happy hunting ground for waterfront lots. Highly popular Lake Chelan, the third-deepest lake in the United States, is not on the top of the list of affordable freshwater options, at least not anywhere near Chelan, where scarce waterfront residential lots start at $2 million….

The Space Arranger

The Space Arranger

Kyle Gaffney and SkB take a holistic approach to building design

To say that Kyle Gaffney backed into a career in architecture may be a bit exaggerated, but he did get a late start. Gaffney, a cofounder and principal at Seattle architecture firm SkB, suffered a devastating knee injury and lost a soccer scholarship to the University of Puget Sound. Instead of college he went to…

Prairie Townhome Companions

Prairie Townhome Companions

Couple remakes Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired property

Place two architects, a hedgehog, and more than $100,000 under house arrest, and watch the magic unfold. Sandy Wolf founded Seattle’s Office of Ordinary Architecture in the belief that beauty is found in everyday objects. She and her husband — fellow architect Daniel Ash — were not disappointed in that regard in their long search…