(Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the November 2004 issue of Mammoth Monthly magazine. Subscribe here.)

When Adrianne Phillips' house pulled up to her Mammoth driveway on wheels two years ago, she had no idea she would be one more number in an exploding modular housing phenomenon.

The longtime Mammoth resident had recently married, and after a decade of cramped living, it was finally time to replace the half-century-old, ailing, 8x35 travel trailer in which she'd been living.

All she wanted was something she could afford on her and her husband's Forest Service paycheck, and, equally important, something that looked good, both inside and out; nothing fancy, and not too big, maybe 1,500 square feet.

"We went looking and the cheapest thing we could find on the market was a 700-square -foot studio condominium, for over $300,000 dollars," she said. "There was no way we were going to be able to afford anything conventional, we aren't going anywhere.

"So I went shopping."

Phillips and her husband, Briant, ended up doing what more and more of those with more sense and taste than money are doing in these days.

She bought a manufactured house, also called a modular house, not to be confused with a mobile home.

Although there has always been a market for modular homes, they have often suffered from the "tacky trailer" stigma, sometimes deservedly.

It wasn't until 2003, when San Francisco-based Dwell magazine challenged sixteen nationally-recognized architects to build an attractive modular house for no more than $200,000, that modular housing took off. The contest triggered a wave of demand for modular housing, and along with it, a tremendous increase in the styles and choices available.

When the Phillips' house was shipped from the dealer in Susanville, it arrived in two giant pieces, complete with light fixtures, carpet, microwave, and even an optional washer and dryer, which they decided to replace with their own brand.

The two-bedroom, two-bath 1,500-square-foot house with a den, vaulted ceiling and huge bay windows cost the Phillips well under $100 dollars a square foot. And that included the shipping, as well as the set -up of the house. That's less than half the going rate of $250 dollars a square foot for conventional "stick–built" houses.

The house is undeniably attractive. Large, roomy, with clean, strong lines and nine-foot high windows open to the pines, the house looks like any conventional house.

Though the walls for it were built in a factory (hence the name modular house), they are of the conventional "tape and texture" (sheetrock) construction, and the house has personalized architectural details throughout, such as tile edging on the kitchen counters, solid alder wood cabinets, and a skylight. In other words, the Phillips had almost every option that an owner of a custom built house would have, except for the fact that modular home buyers are restricted to choosing from available, selected floor plans.

"This house would have cost two to three times as much if we had it built custom," she said. "This way, we got so much more for our money. And we love it."

The Phillipses aren't the only ones in the Eastern Sierra to discover modular housing. Out in the burgeoning Tri-Valley area at the foot of the White Mountains, Danny and Valerie Maddock say they will soon offer 200 acres of subdivided land for sale, each parcel complete with a special "chalet-style" modular house, built in Germany and shipped across the Atlantic.

Even with the shipping costs, Maddock knows he will still make a profit, because nowhere else in the Eastern Sierra can you get land and a modest-sized home for around $300,000 dollars.

"It's pretty simple," he said. "They look great, they function as well as any house, and they are affordable. What's there to argue?"