Free Republic

On a quiet cul de sac in suburban Los Angeles, the installation of Martin Guevara and Grace Kuo's prefab accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, caused quite a stir in the neighborhood. "It was like a block party," said Guevara, 68. "All of our neighbors came out to watch." Guevara was referring to a prefab ADU designed and built by Villa Homes; the 850-square-foot home was craned over the couple's existing home and placed into position in their backyard in the South Bay last year. "It was in two halves," said his daughter Melanie Guevara, 33, who lives in the ADU...

The future of U.S. homebuilding depends on more people like Cyndicy Yarborough, a 26-year-old former Wal-Mart clerk with no background in construction. At Blueprint Robotics in Baltimore, she works in a factory that builds houses like cars, on an assembly line, using robots that fire thousands of nails into studs each day and never miss. Yarborough operates a machine that lifts floors and walls and packs them onto a flatbed truck, the final step before delivery to a development site where they’ll be pieced together. “I like being a part of something new, on the cutting edge,” said Yarborough, a...

For those who've always wanted to build their own home, the prospect may now be more realistic than ever, thanks to a new wave of kit homes.

This is a shipping container. It’s used to transport large amounts of goods on boats and on trains. By itself, it’s pretty boring. But with a little imagination, the shipping container becomes a cheap, reliable building block that can be used to build chic little getaway homes and castles of majesty alike!

Is it just me, or has the median age for post-postmodern rock stars been getting younger? How else to justify all those fawning profiles of suburban scofflaws Sum 41 making out like they invented disorderly conduct? Sure, it all comes down to what the marketing execs call "positioning," like how the Sums' video for the hooliganistic "Still Waiting" carves into the Strokes/Hives/Vines, while their concurrent spoofs of mid-'80s metallic bombast seem lost on the band members themselves, let alone their desired audience. If "rock" is indeed "back," who can tell the difference between the mooks and the mockers? Part of...