new fortino underway

Construction has begun on the next big thing in small living. "fortino" by ideabox explores a new design direction. A little more modern, some new materials, fortino continues our quest of offering green built energy efficient prefab homes that are all about an active lifestyle.

The two pictures show a section of the "fortino" floor in its early stages of construction. The 2x8 floor framing is being insulated after the engineered insulated duct work and plumbing lines have been placed. While the floor was being built, the interior and exterior walls and the roof were under construction in another location. The second image shows the same floor, now with the walls and roof in place.

A couple quick observations... note the lack of waste material. At every opportunity building materials are ordered to length and size with little to no excess. Being built to ENERGY STAR and eco-rated standards, the insulation is carefully placed and will be fully lofted before sheathing is placed.

Keep checking - we'll continue to add images as the house comes together.

ideabox booth at portland's fall home & garden show

While we won't have a house with us at the upcoming Portland Fall Home & Garden Show, (September 10 - 13, at the Portland Expo), we will have a cool booth with big graphics and renderings of the new "fortino" model, as well as drawings of all our houses.

We are very excited about the new fortino house. Completely new, fortino offers terrific "urb" appeal, an urban loft like lifestyle anywhere you want to be. Retaining ideabox energy & resource efficiency, the new design lives inside out, equally perfect for a small urban lot or a country view property.

The Portland Fall Home & Garden Show will be the first time we show this new house in any form. Kind of a "soft" unveiling. We'd love to show it to you. And if you're in the market for a new house, come see us about introductory pricing.

The whole thing is fun, forward thinking, and we're looking forward to sharing the new fortino.

the next generation

reaching out

There is so much going on in the world of ideabox. As indicated in the previous blog post, we're excited by the continued interest in our houses and the very cool applications and projects people have for them. What is more interesting to me is all of the cool things our visitors are doing, what they're about, the places they are going or have been to, the lives being lived. It's a very cool world.

So this is a quick blog entry to simply say we are working on sharing all of this cool stuff via the web social communication stuff. The website is a given, so we added this blog. We're a little late in the blog game, but in short order it will be cool. We've also become part of the facebook community. And now the twitter community.

We're hoping to build the same experiences we have here at the ideabox world headquarters on the web. The sharing of cool stories. The amazing things we all do.

Stay tuned - there is some cool stuff coming from ideabox in the very near future.... But more on that later.....

A Summer of Possibilities

We want to thank all the people who are coming by the ideabox world headquarters this summer. It's been a little warm in the heart of the Willamette Valley, making it very "cool" to see all of you. Keep coming!

What a summer it has been. With the range, diversity and creativity of projects we are working on, it's exciting to see all the possibilities out there. From Southern California to British Columbia, and some incredible locations in between, ideabox offers unique product applications that perfectly adapt to a wide variety of lifestyle solutions. It's exciting.

All this activity speaks to continuing trends in lifestyle choices. We're seeing more people who are realizing there are better, cooler, more interesting ways to live. At the center is where people want to live, how much "house" they want to manage, and how the definition of space is more important than how much space... all the stuff ideabox has been focusing on for years.

It seems everywhere you look people are caring more about where things come from. We want to know what went into a product, who created it, what was the thought process, why is it cool.

There seems to be a renaissance of meaning, a value system to make decisions by. In this age of instant information via electronic delivery systems, it's the human element reasserting itself.

"Meaning" speaks to the questions and observations we experience at ideabox. People are finding value in the "how" ideabox came to be - that it's an effort that grew out of a desire to blend architecture, energy efficiency, green materials and methods, and prefab construction. Another observation we hear a lot is an appreciation that ideabox is a small company - not some large corporately owned entity following a market trend.

Anyway - it's the "Summer of Possibilities!" It's very exciting!

speaking of summer

Sometimes you go to places and realize just what a great thing life is. Imagine waking up to this view! And on a business trip no less. Should you ever want to go fishing in Canada, let us know and we'll steer you here! I'm on Vancouver Island, in Beautiful British Columbia, on the western shore. Summer in Canada - they tell me it's like this all the time! I'm telling you, this ideabox thing goes to amazing places....

Report from Orcas

Summer + ideabox + Orcas Island = Amazing! The Pacific Northwest is a special place. Nothing exemplifies this more than Orcas Island. For ideabox, we feel privileged to have the cottage house located on this idyllic site. The design works perfectly, capturing the incredible views of the waters and islands beyond. Add the expansive deck, the house literally extends the living space beyond the walls. You become a part of your surroundings, and being on Orcas Island that's a great thing!