Business helps pair return to Maine Newport firm sells modular homes

NEWPORT – Kate Burgess and John Rush had to go far from home to meet, fall in love and then realize they needed to come back home again. The young couple recently opened Evolo Home Center LLC on busy Route 7 in Newport, the Moosehead Trail.

The center sells high-end luxury modular homes, a new business that became the couple’s ticket home from Connecticut. Their story is as much about coming home as it is about creating homes.

Both Burgess and Rush are Maine natives – Rush from Aroostook County and Burgess from Newport. Both graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Burgess has an MBA from the University of Hartford. Their roommates in college even dated each other. “We had the same circle of friends,” Burgess said Saturday. “But we never met.”

It wasn’t until they both began working at a major aerospace company in Connecticut that they met and fell in love. Almost instantly, their conversations turned to finding a way to come home to Maine.

“The driving force behind Evolo was that Kate and I wanted to move back to Maine,” Rush said. “We’ve been working on this for more than two years and it let us come back here, to be by our families.”

While researching their options, the young couple saw a void in the pre-made home market in Maine. There were plenty of mobile home dealers and many modular home dealers but no one was targeting the luxury home market.

Together with Burgess’ father, John Burgess of Newport, a new company was founded and a model home brought to Route 7.

“We are targeting the second-home buyer,” Burgess said. “We surveyed the area and there are virtually no new homes on the market. That was surprising in this area where growth is exploding.”

She said the intent was to offer something that doesn’t look as if it was made in a factory, a home where “corners aren’t cut” and there is price predictability.

During a “friends and family” open house Saturday, the model home on Route 7 was filled with well-wishers and, because they saw the full parking lot, strangers stopped in to see what the home had to offer. A sale might even have been made, Rush said.

With a mud room, vaulted ceilings, crown molding, hardwood flooring, skylights and custom additions such as walk-in pantries and closets, the Evolo home impressed those visiting.

There are hundreds of floor plans to choose from, ranging from 1,176 square feet to 2,300 square feet and turnkey homes are available.

Kate Burgess explained that the homes are built in Canada to a stricter energy code than Maine’s. The insulation rating is 25 percent higher than required. “This creates a warmer home with a lower heating bill,” she said.

The quality is better than stick-built and the cost is comparable, said Rush.

“People have been so positive and encouraging,” Rush said.

“And the bonus is, we are our own bosses and we are surrounded by family,” Burgess added.

The model home will be available for inspection after March 21, from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

More information on Evolo may be found at www.evolohomecenter.com.