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Pre Fab Home Plans Make Building Your Dream Home Easier

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

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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.

Can Alaska Kelp Help Washington Crops Beat the Heat?

Can Alaska Kelp Help Washington Crops Beat the Heat?

A Ketchikan company is working with WSU researchers to see whether its kelp-based biostimulant can help grapes and berries withstand environmental stress.

From the floatplane, reddish-brown kelp traces the edges of the small islands between Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island like brushstrokes on the surface of the water. Up close, on a rare 70-degree July day in Alaska, the kelp is glossy and beautiful, though the wind coming off the water makes it nearly impossible to…

PlantCon Is Coming for Seattle’s Windowsills

PlantCon Is Coming for Seattle’s Windowsills

The nation’s largest gathering for houseplant lovers makes its Pacific Northwest debut this August with 200 booths, hands-on workshops, and a DJ.

My house is full of plants, enough that I’ve lost count. Houseplants have the same suspicious math as tattoos: One is rarely the final number. I propagate cuttings in jars of water, regularly rearrange corners of the house in pursuit of better light, and like to imagine the entire collection is improving the air. That…

Noir Lux Lights Up Fourth Avenue

Noir Lux Lights Up Fourth Avenue

The Seattle candle brand’s new two-level pop-up brings workshops and community gatherings downtown through September.

It’s often said that good things come in threes, and for Colina Bruce, founder of the lifestyle and home fragrance brand Noir Lux, that’s certainly proving true. With a flagship shop in Belltown and an outpost in Ballard, Bruce is rounding out a Noir Lux trio with the opening of the Noir Lux Collective on…

Better Together: This Take on Co-Housing Emphasizes Quality and Community

Better Together: This Take on Co-Housing Emphasizes Quality and Community

The Seattle project presents an out-of-the-box model, where investors are also residents, and the design focuses on longevity and tenant retention—not profit.

Growing up in rural Detroit, Chad Dale spent many after-school and weekend hours playing with neighborhood kids in an open lot near his house. It’s an experience he always hoped his children would have someday, but by the time he became a father in Seattle, land was at a premium: either already developed or prohibitively…