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Sean and Mandi Ehman wanted a home fast, but they also wanted it to be contemporary—so they told a modular home company to leave off all of the traditional trimmings.
Sean Ehman fell in love with Mandi, the girl across the street. In 2002, he married her. And together, the Damascus, Maryland, couple developed a dream of starting a family, finding jobs that allowed them to spend time with that family, and building a dream home. But getting there took a lot of “trying on” before finding a house that fit, and then a lot of customization of the house they chose.
After living in Maryland and then Utah, the couple decided to move to West Virginia. "Ultimately, the open space and mountains drew us back," Mandi says. "Our dream has always been to be able to spend lots and lots of time together as a family, traveling, discovering new things locally, and really just enjoying each other. Moving to a more affordable area made that possible."
They sold their house in Utah and moved in with Mandi’s mom in Maryland. Sean spent almost two months driving around West Virginia and looking at lots before choosing two-and-a-half acres in a valley near Capon Bridge, with grassy hillsides and few neighbors. Originally, the couple had planned to stay with Mandi’s mom while their house was being built, but “the strain of living in a dark basement with a toddler and a newborn got to be too much,” Mandi says.
That’s when Sean suggested going modular—a house built in a factory that is delivered to the site in pieces and assembled. “At first, I was really skeptical,” Mandi says about the process. Sean is artistic with a background in graphic design, and “he had these strong ideas of what he wanted in a modern home,” Mandi says. He convinced her of his plans for turning a generic house into a home custom tailored to their desires, namely for a clean, contemporary space.
Since modular homes tend to be anything but modern in style, Sean asked Cardinal Homes to do something unheard of—leave the house unfinished. He instructed them to leave off the flooring, doors, trim, stair railings, bathrooms, and kitchen. “We didn’t want the standard modular home feel, but we wanted a home fast,” Mandi says. In the summer of 2007, workers built their 1,980-square-foot, three-bedroom home in three weeks, disassembled it, and then drove it out to their land and re-assembled it in two days. For another two weeks, Sean and a subcontractor installed the plumbing, basement, outdoor stairs, porch, bathrooms, and kitchen.
The blank slate the Ehman family was working with consisted of an entry on the main floor that accesses a bedroom, bathroom, walk-in closet, walk-in coat closet, basement and one large open room with a living area, dining area, and kitchen tucked around a corner. From the living area, one can walk up the stairs to the second floor, with a shared office-homeschooling room, a guest room, and the master bedroom suite. Sean and Mandi gave the master suite to their three oldest girls, now six, five, and three, and sleep in the first-floor bedroom. They turned the first-floor walk-in closet into a nursery for their youngest daughter.
Sean had some experience with construction, but for this house, he had to learn a lot about the finishing work as he went. “I’m not afraid to try anything and redo it if I have to,” he says. First, a custom birch plywood floor in six-inch planks went down on the floors. Sean and his dad, who helped with much of the work, stained it a dark brown. Then they designed sliding barn doors out of 10-by-1-inch pine planks to replace conventional doors that when opened took up valuable floor space.
Most of the furniture was built by Sean, including the entertainment center in the living room, the side table that attaches to the sofa, the Ehman’s platform bed, the desks in the office, and Mandi’s favorite object—an artistic wood tree with angled branches for hanging seasonal ornaments.
The kitchen, with its white, stainless steel, and frosted cabinets, comes from Ikea; the lower drawers are deep enough to store pots, pans, and baking supplies, and two garage cabinets over the countertop hide appliances, office supplies, cookbooks, and recipes. An extra-deep stainless steel sink is ideal for dishwashing as well as bathing toddlers. Sean found the sink and the glass-tile backsplash on eBay; the appliances are from Electrolux.
The Ehmans wanted a house that would be big enough for family members to spread out, but small enough that it would still be easy to clean. “We always wanted a larger family, so having each of our children having her own room was never on our radar,” Mandi says. “Listening to the girls chat at night or giggle in the morning is really a sweet sound that I'd hate to miss out on if we had more space.” They also wanted a light and airy open-floor plan, so that Mandi could be near the family while cooking or cleaning. The benefits of the house go beyond suiting their aesthetic and spatial desires. Because they live away from the hectic pace of a major metropolis, they can better afford life and can maintain more flexible schedules. Mandi works from home, doing blog consulting and running her own blog, “Life Your Way.” Sean is a stay-at-home dad after selling a Tastykake franchise last year. Together, the couple homeschools the girls. “Our goal was always that we would have a business and live life as a family,” Mandi says. “We really are kind of country people at heart.”
Cleaning
So how do Mandi and Sean keep a 1,900-square-foot house clean with four little girls, while working from home and teaching their kids at home? “Because we have less stuff, it’s easier to clean up,” Mandi says. The Ehmans clean up toys and books every day before lunch, and then after dinner, they work as a family to clean up the main areas of the home. They divide tasks according to skill: Sean vacuums and washes dishes; Mandi does laundry, organizing, and filing; the girls put their things away and help carry laundry. “We’re all working together,” Mandi says, “and we all know what our job is. It’s just a really nice picture of what it means to be a family.”
