This California Family Home Was Built Entirely in Three Months
Partner Story
When Faisal and Sindhu Arabi decided to build a new family home in Walnut Creek, California, they recalled the prefab office they had previously constructed in their backyard. Impressed with the convenience and sustainability credentials of their cozy home workspace, they began to explore prefab housing and soon discovered L.A.-based Connect Homes was exactly what they were looking for.
Faisal and Sindhu Arabi live in the Connect Homes’ Connect 10 home with their 7-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. Connect Homes was founded in 2013 and has built more than 100 homes in the past decade.
"We visited one of the homes built by Connect Homes and the design and aesthetic was very much in line with what we wanted for our home," says Sindhu. "The environmentally friendly construction, optimal footprint, and quick build time were all deciding factors. The additional convenience of not having to deal with the traditional build process and the challenges that come along with that was also appealing."
The covered porch is furnished with comfortable seats that allow the residents to engage with neighbors, while the timber screen helps maintain privacy for the interior.
Connect Homes is on a mission to elevate the everyday living experience by making beautiful modern design more accessible, and the company describes its clever prefab homes as "designed and built more like a high-performance automobile than a traditional home"—think precision manufacturing and efficiency, a sleek contemporary design, and high-end finishes.
The glazed entrance leads to a small sitting room in front of the dining area. Interior Designer Jennifer Runkle has furnished the space with a focus on neutral colors and natural materials—including a live-edge timber dining table and hanging timber shelves.
There are 15 different Connect Homes models to choose from—ranging from a 420-square-foot Connect 1 to the expansive Connect 10—and each one is suited to different site conditions, lifestyles, and budgets.
Following an in-depth consultation with the Connect Homes team, the Arabis decided on a Connect 10 model with a deck, which offered plenty of space for their growing family, as well as room for visiting family. Comprising 10 prefab modules, the 3,200-square-foot home features five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and a 400-square-foot garage. Most importantly to the Arabis, the efficient footprint of the home allowed the family to increase their living space without sacrificing their backyard space.
The living area features 20-foot-high ceilings with glazing over the full height. This kind of generous and expansive architecture is not often associated with prefab homes and is testament to Connect Homes’ mission to redefine the prefab living experience.
The living area leads out to the back garden through large glazed doors, framing a view that changes with the seasons. Interior and landscape designer Jennifer Runkle has created a refined interior scheme that offers an elegant backdrop to the vibrant outlook.
The full kitchen features a breakfast bar and is open to the dining and living areas, making the home perfect for entertaining. The kitchen also overlooks the back garden.
The prefab modules are seamlessly interconnected to create a dynamic, light-filled interior with an open floor plan and soaring double-height spaces. The ample glazing invites the landscape inside and offers a constant connection to the garden.
The landscaping—designed by neighbor and designer Jennifer Runkle—took six months to complete, and is designed to complement the architecture and extend the living area outside in warmer months. "One of my favorite things to do is to watch the kids play in the backyard while working in the kitchen," reveals homeowner Sindhu Arabi. "The glass doors and open kitchen facing the backyard is perfect for this."
"We love spending time outdoors and we wanted it to be easy for us to do that at our home," says Faisal. "The Connect 10 design brings a lot of natural light indoors and the outdoor spaces blend easily with our home when the sliding doors are all open."
The home and surrounding garden encourages connection with the neighborhood. The furnished front yard, for example, features integrated planter seating that marks the entry pathway.
To complement the clean, architectural lines of their new home, the couple enlisted their next-door neighbor, interior designer and founder of Runkle Designs, Jennifer Runkle, to create the interiors and landscaping. "We love the modern design of our Connect 10 home," says Faisal. "We worked collaboratively with Jennifer to incorporate a neutral color palette and natural materials to highlight the bright, open layout of the home, while keeping it warm and functional."
One of the couple’s favorite features of the home is the floor-to-ceiling glazing in the primary bedroom, which overlooks treetops in the lush garden. A feature wall adorned with graphic wallpaper adds visual interest to the otherwise minimalist interior design.
The children's bedrooms are located on the second floor, alongside the primary suite. A guest bedroom on the ground floor offers privacy for guests.
Beyond beautiful design, one of the biggest benefits of a prefab home is the relatively stress-free, efficient construction process. While most new home builds drag out over months and even years, the Arabis’ Connect 10 model was built in just two months on the Connect Homes assembly line and set on site in less than five hours. Within the following three months all on-site work was complete.
A 2,000-square-foot Connect Homes can be built in just six days at their LA-based factory. The homes are delivered to site 90% complete and installed in a matter of days. This process costs less than 50% of a custom build and there is no additional cost for architects. A Connect Homes model also results in up to 60% less waste than traditional builds. "The overall build experience was great," says homeowner Sindhu Arabi. "The team at Connect Homes were very helpful throughout the build process and we worked closely with them starting from initial design and choosing the materials, through the final on-site assembly and finishing process."
"It has been close to two years since we moved in and we love our home as much as we did on day one," says Sindhu. "We especially love the openness and bright airy feel. We also love opening up all our sliding doors during summer evenings when we have friends over. We still get compliments from friends, neighbors and passersby, so we are very glad we chose Connect Homes."
Learn more about building your dream home at connect-homes.com.
And check out the more premium and more flexible Design Series, and the more standardized and more affordable Pro Series.
Project Credits:
Architecture: Connect Homes
Construction: Connect Homes
Interior Design & Landscaping: Runkle Designs
Photography: Connect Homes
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