Hom4Me Sim-XK-E

   The New York Times, April 24, 1996, p. B5.


   Little House on the Market: Homes for Everyman?

   By Evelyn Nieves


   Tolland, Conn.

   Even Dennis Davey has to admit the house he designed for
   posterity hides its charms well.

   Take away the shutters, the flower box, the white picket
   fence, and the model he built behind his office looks like
   one of those backyard storage sheds sold in flat boxes at
   home and garden centers. When people first see the house --
   and lately, they've been coming to see it in droves -- the
   reaction is usually something like: "You have got to be
   kidding."

   But Mr. Davey, a proud architect, takes no offense. "That
   reaction," he said, "is only when people see it from the
   outside."

   He is not fooling. Inside, it's another story. The entire
   wood-frame house is about the size of your average suburban
   den -- 15 x 15. Yet, oddly, it seems spacious. There is
   space above the white melamine kitchen cabinets, space next
   to the bathroom for a walk-in closet, and space below the
   pitched roof for a loft bedroom.

   The house, obviously, is not for everyone. For several
   months after he built the model, Mr. Davey received few
   calls about it. But recent publicity in newspapers and a
   trade magazine has worked magic. Lately, he has been
   fielding calls from would-be buyers around the world. "Take
   a look at this," he said, showing off two large fistfuls of
   letters. "I can't keep up."

   Would-be little-house buyers and distributors have decided
   that Mr. Davey just may have come up with the most radical
   idea in homeownership since Levittown. Unlike other modular
   houses, Mr. Davey's 225-square-foot house is the first
   component of what he envisions as an expandable space that
   would eventually grow to become a standard-sized house.
   Buyers pay $9,950 cash (the introductory price) for the
   first unit. Instead of feeding a bank a mortgage payment
   each month, they could pocket the savings until they could
   afford the next module, which doubles the space. With all
   three modules added, the house becomes a square,
   four-gabled model of 900 square feet. Its cost,
   mortgage-free (assuming the buyer owns the land to put it
   on): about $40,000.

   While Mr. Davey designed the house, marketed as Hom4Me, as
   a primary residence, people are calling who are interested
   in using it in ways he never anticipated. A woman in
   Unadilla, N.Y., bought one to put behind her own house for
   her elderly father. An artist in Greenwich, Conn., is
   having Mr. Davey build one as a studio in her backyard.
   After so many queries from people interested in the house
   as a home office, Mr. Davey has designed a model
   specifically for that. (No kitchen; more storage space.)

   The calls from developers are even more creative. A
   developer is interested in building the little houses as
   disaster-relief housing in Hong Kong. Two or three housing
   authorities have shown interest in using the little houses
   for public housing. A builder in Wales is advertising to
   sell the little houses as vacation cottages. "He thinks he
   can build 50 to 100 a year," Mr. Davey said.

   And the most ambitious project for the little houses could
   create a virtual Daveytown. A non-profit veterans'
   organization, Veterans' Creed Inc., is applying for a
   Federal grant to build 5,800 for a National Veterans
   Residency, Retraining and Rehabilitation Center at
   Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field. "Mr. Davey's house is
   portable and it gives the veterans the respect of privacy,"
   said Edward Bernard, Veterans' Creed's president. "It also
   costs less than other options."

   Mr. Davey is tickled at the idea. He has been building and
   designing houses for more than 20 years, specializing in
   affordable, energy-efficient homes. After reading about the
   lack of affordable housing in Mississippi, he was struck
   with the idea for the little house. "It was a moment of
   inspiration," he said. "I sketched the original house in a
   couple of hours." It then took months to design the
   components in a way that would work and meet housing codes.

   He is also proud to say he doesn't skimp on the amenities.
   The house, heated electrically, uses standard building
   materials. There is no way to tell, but he believes that,
   unlike mobile homes, his little house will appreciate in
   value just like a standard house. "I've put this together
   so many times for so many people," he said, working the
   components of a cardboard model in his office as though it
   were a card trick.

   Will people one day brag about owning a Davey house?
   "Gosh." he said, grinning. "Could be."

   [End]