OOTB was formed in 2000 by a group of friends who found themselves continually asking the same questions about housing and new construction in their community. Why, with all the progress of modern technology, was it so expensive to design and build a modest, beautiful home? Why was traditional construction getting to be so expensive, and why did the modular alternative seem to be so unappealing? Was there something about the manufacturing process which dictated that pre-fabs had to look that way, or were the designers and manufacturers just not thinking out of the box?

What OOTB discovered was that in the absence of a design vision, the appearance of prefab housing had long since succumbed to the bottom line: wood had given way to vinyl, charm had given way to anaseptic character, and a sense of community created by traditional porches and warmth of materials had given way to bunker-like ranch houses sitting awkwardly in tree-less lots.

Happily, in researching the pre-fab process, OOTB discovered that there was nothing about the technology itself which prevented one from creating a design which was beautiful , affordable, and even sustainable. To the contrary, the technology and conditions under which pre-fab homes are built are ideally suited to the task, resulting in consistently higher quality and lower cost.
In a next step, OOTB began searching for the best modular manufacturers for the purpose of forming a collaboration. After two years of research and development, we are proud to present the first fruits of that labor: the Modern Farmhouse; a portfolio of homes which combine a respect for history with technological innovation to result in a line of affordably different
homes.