Home Depot Debuts Line of Cottages

BY JUDY STARK

St. Petersburg Times

Now Home Depot is getting in on the cottage act.

The home improvement giant introduced its own line of modular housing at a home show recently at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

The homes, with cottagey features like shutters and front porches, will be offered at first only in Louisiana and other regions badly hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, including the Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., area. They are for sale now only at three Home Depots in greater New Orleans.

The homes are similar to the Katrina cottages that competitor Lowe's started marketing in February in Louisiana and Mississippi. Designed by architect Marianne Cusato, they have been hailed as a model of affordable, hurricane-worthy, attractive and dignified housing.

But spokesman Don Harrison said Home Depot's modular housing plan has been in the works "for 18 months or so" and was not a reaction to Lowe's move.

One way in which Home Depot's modular home sales differ from Lowe's is that Home Depot will take responsibility for the construction of the house, once it arrives "85 percent built" from the factory in Texas, Harrison said. "We will not let go of responsibility for it until we are sure you can get your utilities hooked up and a certificate of occupancy."

He contrasted that with the Lowe's plan, which delivers a kit of materials to buyers, who then must find their own contractor to assemble it.

Home Depot has not decided whether to expand sales to other markets such as Florida.

There are nine models, ranging in size from 680 square feet (one bedroom) to 2,100 square feet (four bedrooms) and are base-priced at about $95 a square foot for the smaller models and $90 a square foot for the larger.

The builder is Homestar Homes, with headquarters in League City, Texas.

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