Three West

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know making a home, hotel, or office, etc. out of shipping containers is all the rage right now and that it’s nothing new. It’s the prefect poster project for the “Green” movement.

However, I’m always surprised when I visit the many “Green” this and “Green” that sites to find photos of container homes draped in wood from top to bottom. What’s green about all the trees cut down to make that happen? It reminds me of the “Lovable Loo” that I don’t find lovable at all. Mass producing wooden boxes with a removable bucket… you mean you killed all those trees to make a shit box? That’s unacceptable.

Many years ago, I read about making shipping containers into homes. I thought it was a great idea for many reasons. However, I didn’t really feel like it was something I really wanted to do at the time. However, upon further review and in light of my recent personal growth, *Smile*, I have decided it is something I’d really like to try.

My feelings are such that I have been steadily working towards being debt free and definitely more self sufficient as a human being. I don’t want to go back to the stone ages as I feel like that’s really not our path. I just feel like we are using what we’ve learned so far about the natural world childishly and improperly. We can have many, if not all, of the luxuries we’ve come to love and depend on in a way that does not kill and harm the natural world around us upon which our survival is truly dependent. Other animals and insects, etc. use what would be equivalent to technology to improve the quality and success of their life cycles without destroying everything around them. We could very well do the same.

So, I would like to structure my life in such a way that I can enjoy total comfort and contribute as little as possible to making a negative impact on the environment if at all. So I have many thoughts and plans in mind. I’ll certainly have tons of fun doing it as well.

First on the agenda is my plan to build a house using shipping containers (second being to convert my current car or a PT Cruiser into an electric vehicle). I will admit this is partly motivated by some of the amazing do-it-yourself projects over at instructables.com I’m dying to try. *Smile* I’ll also say instructables.com is one of the largest contributors of my new found motivation to be self sufficient. I can’t believe some of the knowledge freely available on that site.

I’ll point out some reasons why I would like to build a container home:
1. Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! Yes these containers are plentiful and cheap.
2. I’ve come to accept I’m a nomadic person. These are shipping containers… for a nomadic person, you can’t get any better than that.
3. I love open spaces. Being able to design my own affordable home with lots of open space is fantastic
4. They are made out of steel, will survive most natural disasters and are built to last.

Lets get started on two of the four reasons (#3 & #4 are self explanatory).

Let’s talk about how cheap these things are. I could throw out all kinds of numbers but I’m sure someone will make a comment like “actually, your container costs are slightly off because … blah blah blah, some such foolishness”. *Smile* But I’ll just say this. I have seen 40′ containers for sale for less than $1100 and the most expensive I’ve seen so far has been about $3500. I was on the website of a company who makes prefabbed modular units with all the fixins. Even their deluxe 40′ with the works (full bathroom, fully finished walls, electrical, doors, windows, painted, everything.) was only $6800. I mean come on! I paid over $100K for my current house which is 100+ years old. I paid about $1 for every year this house has existed. There is something very wrong about that. There is something very wrong with not being able to pay off a home in a reasonable amount of time. 30 years is unreasonable.

Let’s say I paid $4000 per container (which includes having it moved to my build site), the home I want uses only 4 containers and to be honest I could very easily be satisfied with a two container home but since it’s affordable and they are ever so stack-able, I can use four. I’m off to a great start. Now, we are getting into the innards; making it livable. I don’t anticipate spending to be to ridiculous in that area as well because there is just so much value in using recycled items. A creative person can make a shipping container look like a fantastic home!

My current home is about 2600 sq ft and is in fact a two family home consisting of two 3-bedroom apartments, each 1300 sq ft. It occurred to me some time ago that I rarely use the back half of my apartment (I rent out the other unit). It really made me think about how much space I actually need. It is an incredible waste of space for me to live in such a big place. In a container home, by design, I can start small and should I start a family, easily add new containers. Sweet huh?

The second reason is, again, that I’m a very nomadic person. It took me a long time to accept that. I think a small part of me felt like I should “want” to live in one place forever but the reality is, I don’t have to and I don’t want to. If I’m someplace that’s really awesome, I probably won’t want to move. But if where I’m at does not provide the environment in which I can be the best I can be, then I’m gone.

I wrote a post a little while ago about my plans to move to another country in this awesome, big, wide world we live in. Having a home made out of shipping containers is perfect! Of course this means making sure you can use this home in whatever country I move to. Luckily enough, it seems like the rest of the world has been using shipping containers for buildings of all kinds for ages!

I am having a great time working out the design of my container home that will allow me to get the most out of the new living space and maintain the function of the containers so they can still be shipped.

So there you have my motivation and thoughts about using shipping containers for a home. I won’t over think it too much. I just see it as a great opportunity to recycle these containers which litter our ports and experiment with self sufficiency!

I’ll keep you posted with updates. I anticipate I will not be able to buy my first container until the end of the year or early next year. This will give me time to really perfect my plans. Also do not be alarmed if there is a long pause in my progress. I’m very much an Aries and my energy is on a very predictable cycle. I may loose interest but if it’s a project that will make my life more fulfilling in any way, I always come back to it and finish it. I already went a round with this and I came back to it. That’s a good sign! *Smile*

I’ve seen tons of container building projects online and while they are amazing, none of them are as valuable to me than this rain-forest research facility HERE. This one is more representative of the do-it-yourself-er.

I can’t help but get the feeling there is a growing push to “get rich” off of making prefab container homes once the “fad” gets more fire. I think this will ultimately drive container prices way up. Sad. It’s almost like an automatic self destruct program or something. Any way, this build was simple, and certainly gave me more inspiration than the elaborate builds which were reporting build costs too near what a conventional home would cost. What’s the point in that?

Also, Global Portable Buildings, Inc. is the company with the deluxe prefab for $6800. I love what this company is doing with their prefabs. I would go with them if I didn’t feel like taking on the challenge myself.

UPDATE - I’ve been informed that you can get shipping containers for free if you 1. do a decent search for companies most likely to be using them and unable to get rid of them and 2. you haul them yourself. A friend’s daughter and son-in-law did get a free container from such a company (she couldn’t remember the name of the company but it’s in Tennessee). The son-in-law is a truck driver and was able to haul the container to their wooded property to be made into a cabin.