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Comment by danschumann | Hacker News Reader

What I want is an MVP house (room + bathroom + kitchen), which I can expand ( extra rooms, extra bathrooms, etc ). Normally with construction, when you add stuff, you need to break stuff, but if there could be a modular housing system that would let you expand without destruction, while being competitively priced, I'd do that.

In Elon Musk fashion, it would have to be better than a normal house, right? A modular house ( like a mobile home ), which is expandable, which is simultaneously better than a normal house. Maybe for my next startup idea ( since this is a problem I have and I would use ). The end goal would be a transition from a tiny house to a mansion, with each state being as good as a comparable house, and about as cheap. Maybe some panels they could sell back?

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Part of the problem is the foundation. You either need to pour a large foundation ahead of time (that you won't use for a while) or pour it as you go. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it does make it more difficult. Although if you decided to build up instead, by just adding more floors you could avoid that problem.

It’s certainly worth considering. A 20x20 concrete slab can be poured for a few thousand US dollars by a professional concrete contractor, and you could include radiant heating in the slab. Seems to be at least an straight forward option.

Is pouring more foundation next to existing foundation problematic and difficult, or is it just more expense to get the concrete guys back out to do more work?

It can actually be very problematic and difficult, depending how how easy the new slab location is to access now that you have a building in the way and presumably landscaping you want to preserve. This can end up adding a considerable amount of expense to a job compared to a bare site.

Protip: use piles

I grew up playing The Sims so my ideal housing situation is essentially the same as your comment.

There are companies that build custom manufactured houses, like Carina Construction[1] in Ithaca, NY. I haven’t looked into how modifications like those you mention might work, but the prices are competitive and the modular customization is pretty extensive. All-in-all a good deal, if you don’t mind a house that looks slightly plastic.

[1] https://carinaconstruction.com

If you have land and looking at somewhat high-end: https://www.bluhomes.com/homes-landing/origin

These are popular in Tahoe and Napa.

2 Bed, 2 Bath with a combined kitchen and living room, all for the low, low price of $330k? For what is essentially a double-wide with fancy siding and big windows? Haha, nope. If I had land, I could easily build something twice the size or plop down a mobile home for 1/10 of the cost. But that is the true issue with housing these days: finding affordable, available land in a desirable area.

I’ve thought about this type of thing a lot and it is something I’d like to build eventually. There’s an existing market and room for improving manufacturing processes.

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