A seven-piece modular home was assembled with a lot of fanfare last week in Oak Bluffs. Bill Potter, a general contractor with Squash Meadow Construction Inc., got his friends together, held an open house on Thursday and began to share the story about how Bruce and Renee Balter got their new two-bedroom house.

The work on the house began months ago. Back in February, Mr. Potter said, his customers weren’t thinking that their 2,400-square foot house would be built somewhere other than on the corner of Gorham avenue and School street. But once they had a design created by Terri Hayes, they sent the design along to the modular home builder Westchester Modular Homes Inc., in Wingdale, N.Y., for their response.

The modular home company, which has assembled a number of homes on the Vineyard, came up with a way to build it. Construction costs would be as much as 10 per cent below the cost of building the house on-site. That included trucking the seven pieces 215 miles from the factory to New Bedford and putting the seven pieces on two Tisbury Towing barges. The barges crossed Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, where they were offloaded in Vineyard Haven and delivered by truck to the new foundation.

Each year, about 15 modular houses come across the water in pieces to become homes on Martha’s Vineyard. A few years ago, when the economy was better, the number was three to five times that. Modular houses have been coming to the Island for more than 30 years, and they come now from a dozen or more companies.

The Balters plan to move into their finished house in October.

Last Wednesday, the sight of the Baxter crane placing the pieces together brought together an interested crowd.

Charlayne Haynes, a summer visitor, watched with interest: “I can remember when no one would touch a modular home.”

Ulysses Lear, a resident of 24 School street, used the opportunity to sit out on a front step bench to watch. One truck would show up with a module. A crew working with a Baxter crane would put the piece in place. Less than a half hour later, the truck would reappear with another trailer in tow, loaded with another module.

Inside the partially assembled house, many of the features of a finished home were already done. The cabinets for a kitchen were already secured to the floor and wall. A chandelier in the dining room was already hanging from the ceiling.

Mr. Potter said each module is designed to withstand a trip at a speed of nearly 100 miles per hour on the road, traveling by truck, by barge and being set on a firm foundation. “You don’t see a crack in the drywall. That is a strong house.”

Mike Heiney, of Westchester Modular Homes Inc., wore a hard hat and a bright yellow shirt. His hands cut the air, guiding the crane operator in the effort to bring the three-dimensional puzzle together.

Each module coming out of the facility already has a floor and a ceiling. Second floor modules already have the roof. The end result is that when the pieces are stacked on top of each other, the second floor of the house ends up being made up of two parts: the floor of the second floor, on top of the ceiling of the first floor. This means there is plenty of opportunity for soundproofing.

Space created in the ceiling allows for a quieter house. “You won’t hear anybody walking around upstairs,” he said. The ceiling space measures about 14 inches in height and gives plenty of room for sound insulation, preinstalled plumbing and wiring.

Mrs. Balter is an artist. Her husband, Bruce, is a retired psychiatrist. The two designed their home together.

“I finally get an artist’s studio,” she said. Plus, she said, “It has northern light.”