Letter of thanks from the owners

We are very happy living in our wooden home from MODULOS, and we are highly satisfied. What we appreciate most: the speed and precision of the work, the cost-efficiency of the living arrangement, and the excellent communication with MODULOS.

OUR STORY:

In 2017, we managed to purchase a plot of land—a garden without utility hookups—in the Luhačovice region, with the plan to spend weekends there, for my wife to enjoy the garden, and to be closer to our daughter and grandchildren.  We initially set up a caravan in the garden along with an outhouse, a few solar panels, and internet connection so that we could sleep peacefully there and spend the summer holidays with our grandkids in nature and at the nearby swimming pool.  We fell in love with the area, so we started thinking about settling here permanently when we retire.  For financial reasons and due to our dwindling energy, we contemplated having a steel container house built using two or three shipping containers—similar to the ones we had seen in the neighbourhood.  However, we couldn't find a reliable contractor, so we kept looking until our son-in-law came across MODULOS, a company that makes various wooden modules that can be assembled into the desired home, either as a turnkey solution or for DIY self-completion.  The advantages of such an arrangement were evident, but it took us some time to come to terms with the idea of a wooden home, as it initially gave us the impression of something unstable or unreliable—we had both only lived in brick homes or panel buildings before.  However, all doubts we had quickly disappeared when we signed the contract, which took place in one of their office modules—it was sturdy, and while it was hot outside, the non-air-conditioned module was pleasantly cool.

We took out a reverse mortgage on our three-room panel flat and used those funds to have a turnkey house built, made up of two modules on moderately sloping terrain.  The home was built on ground screws, but the construction took place on site, contrary to expectations, so that our neighbours' wouldn't have to be cut down.  The area of the home roughly corresponds to that of our former flat.  The main room consists of a living room with a kitchen featuring a large window and access to the terrace. There are two bedrooms – a master bedroom for us and a smaller one for guests, a hallway, a bathroom with a toilet, a small toilet, a dressing room, and a large pantry. Heating is provided in three ways: with electric heaters, a combination air-conditioning/heating unit in the living room, and a wood-burning stove.  This allows us to optimise costs and thermal comfort.  The roof is a classic gable roof (at the architect's request), with a huge plus being the large storage spaces it provides.  The entire construction, including the kitchen and bathroom installation, took three months (even during the COVID lockdown). We've been living in our new home for three years now, so we can evaluate the pros and cons.

About MODULOS – a reliable company and great to work with – we designed the layout of the rooms, and with some minor adjustments, everything turned out exactly how we wanted or better.  Communication with the company was excellent, and we appreciated their proactive approach to solving problems. Originally, the plan was to bring the completed modules and assemble them on-site, but due to the narrow, sloped access road with trees around, the construction had to be done directly on-site rather than in a hall. The building had to be protected with a waterproof cover, and the metal roof was installed during a two-day window when it wasn't raining...

The interior finishings were done meticulously—kitchen and bathroom fittings, heaters, lights, electricity, water, waste, flooring. All exactly as we agreed.  The construction speed was impressive even with the non-standard approach.

As for the wooden structure itself, its thermal insulation properties are excellent, making it very pleasant to live space.  Even at current energy prices, the cost of heating and hot water (with an electric boiler) is less than in our previous block of flats when the rates were cheaper. Down to around -5°C, the living room can be heated with air conditioning, and for colder temperatures, we use space heaters or the fireplace when we're home (no need to use the fireplace at outside temperatures above 10°C unless you're a fan of sauna-like conditions). As far as sound insulation is concerned, it's perfect from the outside, you can hardly hear the nearby church bells (100 m away). However, footstep noise from our barefoot grandchildren running around can be a bit louder than it was in the block of flats.

What’s new, different, and what we might have preferred had we thought of everything in advance:

We initially wanted the roof to extend a metre beyond the walls to prevent rain and sunlight from hitting them—looking back, we might have opted for an even larger overhang.  The window in the living room and the doors leading out to the terrace face west, so during peak summer (about a week each year), the room heats up in the evening. We temporarily solved this with a large sunshade on the terrace, but exterior blinds would provide a more permanent solution.  Our house and roof were put to the test two years ago by a tornado that tore off several metal roofs in nearby Luhačovice and knocked off a few tiles from most houses in the area. Our home survived without a scratch, despite hail the size of cherries pelting the large window and façade horizontally. Nothing was damaged, though our car did end up with some dents.     

Thank you so much, and we wish you lots of success with your business and in your private life.

Markéta and Jan Pospíchal, Pozlovice