hiveMODULAR

A Fence of the White Picket Variety

info@hivemodular.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:42:00 GMT

More on the “what we do in our free time” series… I’ll be posting a few updates on DIY tips and other details about the renovation of my new-to-me old house, but before I expound on the trials of repairing crumbling plaster - here’s a fence. The house is sort of a cottage-y cape cod and I figured a fence of the white picket variety would suit it well (and serve the necessary function of keeping Rudy, the dog, from running away… again).

Not being a bland white picket kind of guy, I wanted the design to be a little modern and different. Also, I hate painting, so it had to be content to be on it’s own in the world.

Classic white pickets alternate from traditional point-up in front to elevated and upside-down in back. I laid out the posts and gate to coincide with the front picket sequence so to not visually break the rhythm. Gate is in the middle.

Our friends at Loll Designs graciously milled the pickets out of their special Loll HDPE. Aluminum tube posts and rails make for a dressy industrial structure.

Oh, and it’s like, really green cuz the aluminum and plastic is all recycled and recyclable…

Hive Modular on Facebook

info@hivemodular.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:41:00 GMT

Hive Modular is now on Facebook! Click below to become our friend and get the latest updates on our newest projects.

Hive Modular on Facebook

New window

info@hivemodular.com — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:16:00 GMT

I know it has been far too long since the last post. I hope to make up for it this summer as we are hitting the cabin pretty hard again (do not want to spend another winter in there without insulation...).

Three weeks ago Sarah and I welded up the frame, sashes and jamb. Then the following week we added the finer details like hinges, hardware and paint. So last week we finally did it. We cut the hole. It seemed like this day was never going to come and when it did we were apprehensive to do it. It is hard to cut a hole in something so pure knowing that there is no looking back. So after many iterations of measuring and marking and making certain “this is where we want it” we jumped in. Like everything else the actual cut was simple and anti-climatic.

Once the cut was complete, wow! completely transformed the space on the interior and the exterior seems to come alive.

After sitting and staring at the new hole we had to get back to work as the rain was coming.... Prepped the new opening and fitted the window assembly and began welding.

Once all the welding was complete we primed the whole deal. No sooner did the primer dry did it start to rain. Anxious to complete the project that weekend we tented the window off, dried everything and continued to paint.

We had to leave the tent up overnight as it was too humid for the paint to dry and the rain never stopped...

Sunday morning came and we took down the tent and masking and installed the sashes. After a long day on Saturday it was nice to see the progress complete.

Up next, framing the interior of Red....

Container Architecture

info@hivemodular.com — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:23:00 GMT

If you haven’t already heard, Paul’s shipping container cabin has been featured in yet another publication! Check it out, along with many other amazing projects, in Jure Kotnik’s newest book Container Architecture.

Pallet Barn "Continued-Still..."

info@hivemodular.com — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:58:00 GMT

Progress has been slow on the Pallet Barn. The summer slipped away with little warning. In August we were able to finish up all the framing and start on the roof (you can see it if you look closely). We started to install the drip edge but found it will be easier to do once the siding is installed so please bear with the incomplete appearance of the roof edge.

There is something very compelling about this elevation, it is so pure and simple.

The interior was really something to see at this stage. The filtered light and rustic feel of the pallets was so soothing even in the scorching summer sun.

In October we were able to get a hold of some siding compliments of my bro Scott. We struggled between the clear and the milky fiberglass siding. Security is obviously an issue given the remote nature of the land and we will keep moderately valuable items in here so we wanted to make certain we were not advertising our goods for all to take. So we initially opted for the milky but once we had a few pieces installed we determined that the front and other end we will go with the clear. The clear will allow us to read the pallet structure while still giving us the protection we need. It is a bit more expensive but should be worth it.

We also built some overhangs over each of the doors to give a bit more protection to the opening when open.

In the weekends between the roof and siding we built two lofts to accommodate all the extra building materials we have lying around. We quickly utilized them in order to clean up the property. You can see what the milky siding looks like from the inside.

Hopefully come early spring we will wrap up the siding and get the doors on. Like all the projects money has been the driving force of progress on this one. As always we will keep you posted on the progress. In the winter months I hope to get in the cabin and get some more interior work done.

Pallet Barn “Continued”

info@hivemodular.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:23:00 GMT

Memorial Day weekend we started back up on the project again. It was tough to let it idle for so long but we needed bodies to make any progress, as the pallets are super heavy. Two people can stand them up but the roof panels take a great deal more effort.

Enter my Uncle Doug, my cousin’s Father-in-law Dale, my cousin Mark, friends Jae, Ben, and my bro Scott. Standing the walls up were a breeze, progress went very quickly.

You can see we had to use the truck to rack the panels square (the yellow strap connected to the truck) before we set the roof panels on.

Setting the roof panels proved to be a bit more difficult. It took a couple of beers and some discussion to all come to agree on how to tackle this phase. We ended up setting the first one by using ratcheting tie-downs and brute strength.

Once the first one was set we were able to tie the two walls together and stabilize the whole thing. The following roof panels went very quickly once we established a system.

After a pretty intense afternoon we called it done for now (yes it really only took a long afternoon to get this far) and retired for the weekend.

The following weekend Sarah and I headed up and poured a couple more footings so when we head up over the 4th of July we can wrap the structure up and start cladding it.

Stay tuned, structure wrap up, cladding and doors next....

Pallet Barn “The Beginning”

info@hivemodular.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:05:00 GMT

Late last summer I was having some conversations with the guys at loll and they were talking about their waste and what they do with it. Turns out they receive all their flat raw material on large pallets and once used up there is a perfectly good pallet. So we got to thinking, we need storage to continue the container project and we do not have a ton of money soo...

Enter the Pallet Barn. Two weeks before Thanksgiving last year my wife Sarah, my cousin Mark, and me headed up north to start the project. We rented a flat bed trailer and headed into Duluth to rendezvous with Greg of Loll to get the goods. The payment, a couple growlers of Surly Furious (you can see the handoff was kept on the down low as this stuff is rare and tasty).

We made two trips consisting of 12 pallets each trip.

We were hoping to carry more at a time but they weigh about 200 lbs and the roads were slippery.

Once we unloaded everything...

we did the layout and dug some holes.

The footings went very quickly.

We had hoped to get up the following weekend and continue but mother nature put an end to our project for the year, it snowed about 12” that week up there which makes it near impossible to get a truck back there with any tools. So unfortunately that ended the project for the year.

ReadyMade

info@hivemodular.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:02:00 GMT

On Monday January 21 my brother, Jackson and myself had a photo shoot at the cabin for the magazine ReadyMade. The high temp Monday was somewhere around 5º F. Really, really cold.

The driveway was only plowed to the gate so we had to bring everything needed in on sled the rest of the way, about 1/8 of mile through about two feet of sugar snow.

The loll guys and Frank joined us and brought some furniture along to spruce up the space.

We shared some beers while trying to stay warm...

We had a good time and wrapped it all up around 6:30. Watch the March issue for a little story and a photo or two...

Mod bathroom

info@hivemodular.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:27:00 GMT

A little news from our sister office (the site built stuff) MA Architecture. A modern master bath we did for a nice craftsman house in Minneapolis will be appearing in the March issue of Midwest Home magazine.

[photos by karen melvin photography]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

info@hivemodular.com — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:12:00 GMT

Is this a sign that we're doing something right - or just not charging enough for our houses?

A local architect apparently toured a Hive house and hired the same contractor we use for buttoning up our Minneapolis modular houses. Notice any similarities? (i.e Hive is on the right!)

I guess it's true that there are no new ideas in architecture. Thanks for the compliment Karl, I hope the house sells cuz we can use the comp!

Hive Modular enters Canada

info@hivemodular.com — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:43:00 GMT

Hive can now reach Canada and will showing up in Calgary and Edmonton...

Meet the guys of Hive at the Calgary HomExpo at the Roundup Centre in Stampede Park, January 11-13.

And at the Edmonton Home + Garden Show April 3-6 at the Northlands Agricom.

Holyoke Cabin

info@hivemodular.com — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:22:00 GMT

My father and his brother bought the property for hunting in 1970. The purchase consisted of two 20-acre lots split between the two of them. More recently we began leasing an adjacent 139 acres. The land is about two hours North of the Twin Cities in a very small community called Holyoke. The land has several ravines and hills with equal amounts of fields and prairie. Hunting was my father’s and uncle’s original intention for the land. As my cousins, brother and I grew up the land started to take on different uses for all of us. At a young age we all started riding motocross bikes, creating trails, jumps and tracks. Once we got a little older the land was too small for the bikes we were riding and the kind of riding we were interested in, we used the land as a home base for all the single track in the area. More recently we have been slowly restoring and rehabbing the land to bring it back to a natural state, we still have bikes though but with the construction of the cabin and everything else we have little time to get out and enjoy. I will save the topic riding for another post.

Since my father’s passing in the early 90’s my brother Scott Stankey, his wife Krista, my wife Sarah Nordby (girlfriend at the time) and I decided to build a new cabin/weekend home as the 1940’s trailer home is literally falling apart and being taken over by nature. The trailer was very cool, all birch interior with nice built-ins, but time took its toll. We started researching different building methods and materials with the focus on reuse and longevity as the budget was nonexistent and we wanted it to last. We also were looking at solutions that would be able to handle the wild seasonal changes and the intolerable rodent problem. Sarah and I lived near a train yard with stacks and stacks of shipping containers. As we would talk we could not help think of the possibility of shipping containers for a structure. I started looking into the purchase of a container and realized how affordable it could be. So once the initial research was completed I approached my brother with the idea. He was intrigued and we pursued it further. I started doing some drawings and some space analysis of what will actually work in an 8’ space. and running them past everyone and Scott called around and found two 20’ used containers for $800 each. Before the design could be completely hammered out we needed to solidify what we really needed in the cabin. We came up with a rough program consisting of really just rooms, we were not really concerned about size too much as we were coming out of an old trailer. The program we came up with for the cabin was to include a kitchen, dining room, living room, wash and clothes area, and two queen beds.

Once we all decided this is the way we wanted to go and had a pretty good idea of what this was going to look like we had to come up with a way to get them from Minneapolis to Holyoke. At the time I had a beat up Ford diesel truck that I thought could do it. I rented a flatbed trailer and met my brother at the train yard. We loaded up the first box and made our way up. My bother followed me in his truck running defense in traffic. We made it up in one piece and with little trouble. Once on the property we needed to unload the 5000-pound box. We first tried to pull the container off the trailer by me pulling forward and with my brother’s truck pulling the container other direction; this resulted in my truck pulling my brothers. We then devised a system using heavy gauge pipe and a rope. We jacked up the boxes high enough to get the pipes between the bed of the trailer and the bottom of the container. Once we had about 15 pipes under the full length we tied the container to my brothers truck again but left his truck in park with the handbrake engaged. I started my truck and proceeded to drive forward thus pulling the trailer out from under the container. This resulted in a loud noise but a successful drop. The second container was a snap as most of the details were worked out after dealing with the first one.

Once we decided on the exact location we rented an excavator and dug the footings. The following weekend Sarah, Scott and I formed, mixed and poured the footings and piers.

Two weeks after we began the process of moving the containers on to the piers. We aligned the containers with the pier locations and jacked them up on used railroad ties.

Once the containers we cribbed up to the appropriate height and aligned with the piers we used the same techniques we used to get the containers off the trailer.

We attached one end of a come-along to a tree and the other to one of the containers. Under the containers we used the pipes as wheels again and slowly moved them into place.

We moved a container a weekend. Once they were in place we removed the cribbing and welded them into place. From there the rest is pretty self-explanatory(photo loft).

A couple things to note about the whole process and the current state; we have no electricity, we used a generator or hand power, and we have no running water so mixing concrete was achieved by pumping water from our creek 1/4 mile away and trucking it to the build site and mixing in an electric mixer powered by a generator. All windows and hardware were homemade; we set the insulated glass into frames we welded on-site.

When complete the interior walls and ceilings will be finished in birch plywood, to match the trailer’s original feel and look. We will have a full 12v lighting system with a gas light back up. The 12v system will be replenished via a small array of PV’s. The downspout will be hooked up to a cistern to collect all rain from roof. This will supply us with a gray-water system.

I will continue to update this project as we pass major steps in the process.

Hive in Madison

info@hivemodular.com — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:18:00 GMT

Hive Modular has added another house to its X-Line portfolio. Set on Wednesday, October 17th in Madison, Wisconsin, this customized version of an X-Line 001 exemplifies the Hive style. For more photos of the set, check out our Picasa photo site

Clara Cabin

info@hivemodular.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:44:00 GMT

Alright, my turn for an installment of "what I did this summer". Eventually we'll get around to some insightful and inspiring observations of our trade, but for now a little more about how we spend our free time...

This past weekend was my wife, Anne and my last visit to our northern Minnesota cabin until next spring. It's an emotional weekend because aside from a mid winter snowshoe hike in, we typically don't return for 6 months.

Aside from the roaming hunters and endless rain, the late fall is an amazing time of the year to be in the woods. Honestly, each season is fascinating, but by October the leaves have dropped, migrating animals departed and the woods eerily quiet. What was once impenetrable foliage now offers distant views and sounds from crisp trees flexing in the gusty winds.

We spend the short days working on the last few projects of the year and nights around the fire dreaming up new ones for the spring. The cold and damp weather makes us long for a sauna building, but since we still cook outdoors, the priority has to be a kitchen structure.

The idea to build a cabin came about over 10 years ago when Anne and I had recently completed architecture school. Anne’s family had owned the remote lake property since the 60’s and happily camped without electricity or running water, building only a small storage shed. We were anxious to apply our education and get our hands dirty and decided to design and construct a building that would not only protect us from the weather and mosquitoes, but would capture the spirit and traditions of the encampment.

As lifelong campers, we love being outdoors and wanted the cabin to provide minimal shelter and amenity. We consider it to be a glorified tent - a primitive room in the woods. The concept for the design was inspired by Anne’s ritual of sounding an echo off the lake upon our typical late Friday night arrival.

The idea found form in the methodology of manipulation of the cabin doors to adapt to different views, sounds, uses and weather conditions. Large doors and a birch plywood interior transform the static box into a dynamic space, animated with inhabitation.

The 220 square foot “room” adapts to our basic needs through flexible storage devices such as a folding bed and pivoting storage devices.

The only technology incorporated is a 12 volt lighting system powered by a solar charged marine battery. Two sides of the building open to draw in the adjacent national forest land and allow views to the lake. Three bi-folding doors operate independently, allowing the user to open just one or all, thus converting the interior in to a stage-like volume (and a chapel, since we were married there). Small aperture-like windows contrast the large openings and provide framed views of the surrounding wilderness.

When closed and vacant, the building transforms into a mute box and blends into the quiet winter woods.

Corsica?

info@hivemodular.com — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:33:00 GMT

Every summer I get the chance to go on vacation with my wife’s family, I know “get the chance” but wait, up until this past year we have been going to Nantucket, which is an amazingly beautiful island off the Cape in Massachusetts.

This year the house we normally rent was not available so we changed it up, we went to Corsica instead. We spent a week there with a 1-night stay in London on the front and back end.

I now, like many I had no idea really were it was. It is a very large island (about 180 miles long) just south of the French coast and just north of Sardinia in the Mediterranean.

We stayed in a town on the south east side of the island Porto Vecchio.

For lack of a better description the terrain is similar to northern California, it is pretty dry and scrubby (low brush and rugged trees).

There are 6000’ tall mountains in the interior that look like the Tetons in Wyoming,

beautiful fresh water streams

that lead out of them to the sea and vistas that seemed to go on forever.

Some of the rivers had stunning pools that offer great cliff jumping.

Apart from getting together with the family the biggest reason for the family vacation is relaxation on the beach. Of course it being an island there were plenty...

Some more crowded

than others

but all of them had their own special beauty. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us, most days were cloudy and cool but still, we were in Corsica!

We all felt like we did not get enough time to explore the island, there is a ton to do and see. We did spend some time exploring a couple of the towns the busiest and the most beautiful being Bonifacio.

At this point I do not know where we are going next year but I now know that Corsica offers an amazing amount of opportunities for a good time.