It was Thursday about 10:15 p.m. as I stopped at El Monte Road and Foothill Expressway and waited for the light. Suddenly, my attention shifted to the Valgardson & Sons truck turning onto the expressway. The flashing lights and the "wide load" banners were very noticeable. But mostly, it was the giant flatbeds carrying the very big boxes that caught my eye.

VERY BIG. One of the trailers was 55 feet long.

At first I thought the circus was coming to town and I had missed the notice. But the cargo was draped in white, weatherproof coverings, carefully protecting—and concealing—the contents. (Later I thought that they should be painted with a single red exclamation mark to give expression to the excitement.)

Suddenly, I wasn't tired and decided home could wait. I needed to follow the trucks. Slowly—ever so slowly—we made our way through Los Altos, across El Camino Real and into the parking lot at Sears. Of course! Where else can you park mechanized behemoths?

The man directing the maneuvers said the cargo was a modular building to be assembled on Lassen Street in Los Altos the next day. Indeed, Friday, the Valgardson crew—which has moved houses since 1948—and their 250-ton crane practiced its proven routine: "Swing, set and bolt," as each of the massive eight boxes was hoisted from its flatbed, lifted over the trees, set onto the foundation and bolted together. Within hours, a beautifully designed and built modern triplex by award-winning Southern California architect Ray Kappe was assembled on its lot.

On Friday, watching and chatting with the owners, the builder and curious neighbors proved the adventure to be better than imagined.

As the pieces hovered in mid-air, Steve Glenn, CEO of livinghomes in Santa Monica, told me about the precise fabrication process used by the manufacturing company, IronTown Homes, based in Spanish Fork, UT. I was most amazed that the modules are more than 94 percent complete when loaded on the trucks—with windows and sliding doors, appliances and even grouted tile already installed. The remaining 6 percent will be finished on site in the next few days, and then the landscaping goes in.

This is not your normal 18-month construction site. 

Three new residential units were installed in Los Altos in just two days. IronTown Homes performs the turnkey service, installing a small graywater system and the landscaping. One unit is a 1,594-square-foot home with three bedrooms, three baths and a 380-square-foot private deck; a second is a 540-square-foot ADA-adaptable studio home with one bedroom and one bath, designated to be an affordable-housing unit. The third is a 1,685-square-foot unit with three bedrooms, three baths and a 186-square-foot private deck.

The building is expected to receive LEED's platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council—one of only a few in all of California. This means the building has the highest green-building rating using criteria for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Kudos to the planning commission and City Hall for making this possible. 

For more information about these innovative modular homes, visit livinghomes.net

To get an sense of what it looked like on Thursday and Friday, here is a video of the installation of another livinghomes project.

 Los Altos Patch Editor L.A. Chung contributed to this article.