It's our birthday!

Today we turn 1. In addition to that, it's also the 50th post on the blog!

 I don't really know what to write, but I do want to thank our family and friends who have supported us so much through this. No one ever called us crazy or said we couldn't do it, and we've shown that they were right not to.

Alan and I adore our little house, and each and every time we come home it is an absolute joy. It is such a comfort to be living in a space designed and built with your own hands, to fit your exact needs and wants.

I asked Alan what he was most worried about going into this project; transcript follows:

A:  "I don't know. Probably just the concerns that most people would have about living in close proximity. You know? I don't know. I guess I didn't have any worries, but I can't really say that. Does that make sense? Okay, let me think. I don't know! We always had, for two people, a big place, living on our own. So the adjustment...I was worried about the adjustment. And like previously we spent a lot of time in separate rooms, you know? And I didn't know if we were going to be able to have our separate spaces in such a tiny place. I guess."

R: "What about now? Do you think we have our own spaces?"

A: "No. I don't believe we do. Not physically, but we give each other mental and emotional space when it's needed, which is harder to do than just leaving the room. Does that make sense?"

R: "I guess. Have your worries changed?"

A: "No, in that I don't really have worries about it now. It affirms my want for a small house in the future."

R: "What's been the best part?"

A: "From a practical standpoint, probably the fact it's easy to clean. Intangibly, I think since living in some place this small..the kind of constant exposure [to one another] requires you to be very honest, I guess. We can't hold argument for a week, it's impossible. We're still learning about each other, even after 8 years. That comes, I'm sure, from talking more, which I think is a direct result of proximity." 

R: What's the worst part?

A: "Um. I don't know. I mean, there's storage concerns, but that just helps us get rid of shit we don't need. I miss our old furniture. I miss having a couch."

R: "What about intangibly?"

A: "Well, there was a lot of stress, just family goings-on that would be stressful no matter where we lived, but the kinks basically seem to have worked themselves out."

R: "Is there anything you'd like to add?"

A: "I don't know. That's really hard. I don't see this as special anymore. It's just a house. I guess it's hard as far as becoming more insufferable as it comes to sustainable and greener living. Now I've done it, and I know how easy it can be, so there's really not an excuse for everyone to try."

All of what Alan said goes for me too. I can tell that over the past year we've synched up a bit in a lot of ways, because we absolutely have been communicating more. Though we do still have arguments over the color of the kitchen (I wanted Sonic Lime). We both agree that it doesn't feel like a year at all-- everything's gone by so quickly!

 I had to add a chickenwire fence around the garden, since it was besieged by rabbits. It also gave us a place to put my Sulcata tortoise for the summer, who eats the crabgrass and other weeds, and is supplemented with hay.

 On the south end I've planted four hops rhizomes, which seem to be doing well. The hope is to train them up to the top of the container and provide some shade for the south wall, which does get pretty warm.

And the inside, as of 5/12:

 The bedroom is the same as usual, and had laundry on the bed, so no pictures!

Our to-do list, for the whole property. It's a doozy!

But, I will promise, right here, under threat of..nothing.. that I will finally post pictures of our bathroom by the end of the month. And I promise it will be completely underwhelming after all this time!

Later this week I'll be posting links to the blogs and webpages we got our information from, and some wonderful new designs we've seem lately. 

Spent lots of money today!

Alan hanging out with our new neighbors, the goats.




Today we had our only actual contractor come out, as he is the one doing the electrical and plumbing. He did work on the big house on the property, and is familiar with the layout of the utilities and things like that.

We had a not-brief moment where it was unknown if the gauge of wire we needed to run (6) for the 220 appliances would fit in the existing conduit. The run is going to be almost 180' in one direction, so there's no way we could go with smaller wire (you lose voltage over distance, and could end up shutting off your computer every time your fridge kicked on if you wired things poorly). What we're going to have to do is pull out the existing wire, then re-run the whole thing in order for it all to go. So, my advice...do this from scratch, or use 1" conduit everywhere instead of 3/4"!





Alan unveils one of our piers while standing in our utility trench.









All of our piers are poured, and conduit laid out. I made it a goal to have a different dog in every picture, so let's see if I can do it!














This is what we spent money on today. Top to bottom: Medicine cabinet/mirror, pocket door, pocket door frame, and shower pan. Back left is the wire (almost $300 by itself..), and a pipe for..some reason. We also picked up the vent fan for the bathroom and a light fixture. The budget in the sidebar has been updated! We're definitely going to go over the 4k mark, but it's not a matter of necessity. We're just making things a little nicer/over-engineered than we need to, and that's going to cost. Luckily, since it's going on Alan Sr. and Marie's property, they're helping us with the stuff that they're asking for (like a carport, and how we're doing the deck).






The door and window frames are tacked into place, and we're ready to start building up the bathroom tomorrow. We're having to wait on our welder to do a lot of things, unfortunately.






This is the end stud wall and the steel end cap wall (two 4'x10' sheets that will be welded together and trimmed). The stud wall isn't done yet, it still needs fireblocks. Alan built this buy himself, as I was very sick that day. To the right is some of the steel for the window frames.

First Leg

The conex was moved today into the shop where everything will be finished. The windows will be roughed in, but not installed until the container is on the piers. Aside from that, it will be ready to go the moment it's in the final spot.

The guys who moved it were amazingly skilled, and made it look damn near easy. Not that I'd ever volunteer to move one, of course..

Not much more to say, but lots of pictures and video of the final touchdown.

The container was put up on temporary blocks to better allow the truck to get under it.











First, they winch the leading end of the container up, then move the blocks around so they can drop the tail end of the trailer underneath.












Then a roller is placed under the container, the tail end is angled up, and the container begins to be winched into place. They alternate between rolling the container forward and lifting the tail end of the truck to reposition the roller.







Liftoff! It only took about 15 minutes to get the container completely on the truck.









Now the hard part.











































It fits!










Getting it off of the trailer is the same as getting it on, just in reverse. Simple...except these guys were doing it with 5'of clearance in the back, and about 3' on one side. And they did it beautifully! It was VERY noisy and nerve-racking though. The shop cat was quite upset about all of the fuss.









Somewhat anticlimactic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmgOFGakMlE










Fortunately, there was nothing interesting underneath the container in it's old resting spot.


Nothing living, at least...

Piers

5/10:





Here we see the pier forms with rebar inserted.















The southeast corner pier form over its corresponding hole, rebar inserted, with tie-ins to the concrete skirting that will be placed at a later time. This is not the final position of the form, and the vertical rebar is not in place yet.











5/11:

The rest of the forms are placed, squared, leveled, and in the corners, the 3/8" wall 2" square stock attachment point is centered and clamped into place.


5/13:

We then start mixing the concrete. All told, 6 piers will take 4.5 tons of six-sack concrete (capable of supporting 4000psi)-- slightly more than the container itself. And it is all hand poured. If I never hear a cement mixer again...
Concrete cures to 25% of its hardness every 7 days. This means that the piers will be ready to go right around June 15. This means that until then, we get to work on the interior and exterior of the container itself.

We'll be moving the container into the shop on-site to have easy access to welders, plasma cutters, and all of the tools we'll need in construction. This will run us around $200 to have it professionally moved.

Paint colors have been tentatively chosen for the interior, and doors, windows, fixtures, appliances, sinks and the toilet have been picked out.



























































A very poor panorama of the site.

Foundation

Under the arrows are six 2'x2'x4' holes. Two on each end of the conex, and one in the middle of the long side. The string you see running off in the foreground is not the border of the container, it simply marks the corner of the fence line you see in the corner.



On top of these holes will go the forms to the left.















And into those, 18" diameter rebar reinforcement.







The conex will not simply be resting on these, it will by tied into the structure and rendered, for most values of earthquake, earthquake proof.

The short ends will be facing north and south, with the 'open' end facing north. This allows us to place the front door and most of the windows on the west face of the container, which is sheltered from the direction of the prevailing wind.

This was all accomplished this weekend, and construction is now on hold for the work week. I believe we are pouring concrete on Wednesday, May 11 in the afternoon. I will update with pictures then, and will try to get an update in with our tentative floor plan and design.

One of the challenges that we face is that because of how flexible container building is, no two builds are the same.

Home Base

Well, here it is. Alan is standing in the doorway of what is to become our new home.

The container (may also be referred to as a conex, The UltraShed, or the crapshack) is in very good condition, with a little surface rust above the door (as you can see in this image).
Why a shipping container?

There are over 17 million shipping containers on earth, in a multitude of lengths. These containers are built to last for many, many years of hard use, incredible structural strains, and arduous travel by sea, train, and road. Building a home from shipping containers not only makes use of the incredibly strong structure of the container, it allows you to reuse a precious resource: steel.

This isn't exactly a new idea. The conex has been used as emergency shelter for many years, but the idea that you can make modern, comfortable homes from them has really only emerged in the last couple of decades. Since then, the idea has taken root with many architects, and several amazing projects have been born.

For instance, Keetwonen student housing. Using 8'x8'x40' containers, deKey created a beautiful, modern student living area that offers individuals their own showers and kitchenette, and separate living and bedroom spaces. There are 12 buildings in the complex, each 5 containers high, and varying in how many containers per building.

While the Keetwonen project leaves the industrial roots of the container very visible for visual effect, that doesn't have to be the case. Nor are you limited to just one container-- far from it. Well-planned container housing is very modular, and during construction multiple containers can simply be welded together.

ZeroCabin has some amazing examples of the modularity and design possibilities you have with container buildings.

In addition to the sheer neatness of the idea, a container home is very cheap to heat and cool. After all, it's only 320 square feet. Not only that, they can be made into hurricane proof homes, offices, stores, and medical centers in places like Haiti and Costa Rica, and erected quickly in an emergency.

This is all ignoring the most obvious reasons of 'why' a container home: It's cheap, and it's custom. You can create a floorplan that best suits your needs, decorate and install windows and doors wherever you would like, and all for whatever budget you have for the project.

While this, admittedly, would likely not pass muster in an HOA controlled neighborhood, it seems to me that someone interested in building a container home is also not interested in a home like all the others. We aren't either.

We have had discussions about our future housing plans, and always said we could handle living in a small, well-designed home. Of course, at the time we were talking about homes clocking in at about 1000sqft. This is going to be a bit different.


The Timeline
Our lease is up on June 30, 2011. The shipping container must have been rendered at least habitable at this point-- if not very comfortable or polished. Luckily, as we are all students and teachers here, we are all free for the summer beginning June 1. This means that from Friday, May 6, when the preparations started, we have 7 weeks to design, engineer, and build a house.
The area where the container is going has already been graded and cleared, and the basics of the foundation have been laid. Please see the next update for pictures and an explanation of how it's going to sit.