Meet Angie and Matt With a homesteader’s spirit and a love for the outdoors, Angie and Matt dreamed of having their own small home in Vermont. When first embarking on their journey, they wanted to buy an existing home and […]
Benefits and Challenges of Building on Islands Constructing a new home on an island, whether near freshwater or surrounded by ocean, presents unique benefits to […]
Unity is a brand of Bensonwood, a pioneer in the home-building industry since its founding in 1974. We not only share the same building systems […]
Are you thinking about building your own home? It’s a big step—exciting, but also a bit daunting. You want a home that’s just right for you and your family, a place where you can feel comfortable and happy for years to come. At Unity, we’re all about helping you create a high-performance home that is uniquely yours. With Unity’s easy-to-use software, you can mix and match different pieces to design a floor plan that fits your needs and style. […]
Choosing the builder, or general contractor (GC), when building a new high performance Unity Home is one of the most important factors for a successful outcome. This is why we provide clients with pre-vetted options for builders based in their area, so they can choose from a curated list and avoid the stress of finding a builder on their own. Each project needs a local builder to join the team as they install the foundation and finish the home after we assemble the weather-tight building shell and interior partition wall framing. While clients have the final decision as to which pre-vetted builder they ultimately work with, Unity makes the process easy by providing a list of trustworthy builders with specific experience building high performance homes. […]
When a project is too distant for Unity to general contract, we and our clients team up with a local builder who preps the site for Unity’s arrival, and finishes the high performance shell that Unity assembles on site. This scenario allows Unity and the local builder each to do what we do best. […]
“Where is Unity able to build?” This is one of the most common questions we receive, with folks nationwide wondering if building one of our […]
With all the dire headlines and uncertainty relating to interest rates, inflation and energy costs, why would anyone start planning to build a new home now? As builders of high performance homes, we at Unity have been pondering that question. We’ve come up with a few reasons why now is as good a time as any to plan for your new home. […]
We’ve recently visited several Unity projects where the owners have done much of the work, and that has us thinking about owner-builders: clients who either general contract the construction of their own home, or perform much of the hands-on work themselves.
Is Unity a good fit for owner-builders? The answer, as with so much in life, is “it depends.” While it’s easy to see the advantages of being an owner-builder, there are also significant pitfalls, some of which may not be apparent to an inexperienced owner who “doesn’t know what he/she doesn’t know.” […]
Siting a home properly on the building lot is one of the first and most important tasks of building a new home. Because the siting of the home will affect construction costs, the appearance and performance of the home, and even its resale value, we strongly encourage all of our clients to engage a professional site designer to assist with the process.
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One of the more common questions we’re asked by prospective clients is whether Unity can send someone to help evaluate potential building sites. Generally our answer is “no,” because we simply don’t have the bandwidth, but we do have practical suggestions for assessing land on which you’re considering building. […]
Until Covid arrived, in-person events were a mainstay of Unity’s marketing. During the warm months we’d host open houses that would allow visitors to experience our homes firsthand, and chat with the homeowner about what it’s like to work with Unity and live in the home. We’d also host gatherings that would combine education about Unity’s design-build process with tours of our production facilities and show home.
Covid changed all that. […]
The housing industry has been dramatically affected—in both negative and positive ways—by the Covid maelstrom that has been upending every aspect of our lives. Back […]
Installing wall panels for a Xyla on a slab foundation The choice of foundation type—slab-on-grade, full basement or walkout (“daylight”) basement—is critical to the design […]
Although Unity is continually striving to make the design-build process simpler and easier for our clients, there are certain aspects of each project that are outside of our control. Project financing is one such aspect. It can be a complex and time-consuming process even for conventionally built homes. […]
In combating climate change, reducing carbon emissions from building operations is critical, because they represent such a large percentage of global CO2 emissions. […]
Anyone who follows national housing trends knows that insufficient affordable housing and a lack of skilled labor are two of the industry’s biggest challenges. These issues are related because without enough workers to build new homes, housing starts have lagged behind historical norms and current needs. Given the limited options for getting homes built, builders and developers have understandably been focused on more profitable higher-end projects, as opposed to affordable housing. […]
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