About 6 months ago the BF and I started thinking about building a second house. He has some land classified as rural living and is about 5 acres.
What we really want is to work towards living a simple life that is fairly self-sufficient and low-cost and virtually debt-free. A massive mortgage is not what we want. We want to be able to take time off work and travel whenever we need to and not feel the stress of making enough for mortgage repayments. Living consciously and ethically with the environment in mind is also part of the plan. Renting out the one I'm currently in to ensure ourselves another asset for financial security.
We started looking around at housing ideas and funnily enough we both we interested in the concept of converting shipping containers into homes. Containers are generally a standard shape and size (the come in 6m and 12m, and special heights too) and are designed to be modular, stackable, weather and vermin proof, cheap to manufacture, and have the strength in their corners thus allowing for doors and windows wherever. It is recycling of old containers and is extremely affordable. More and more people are doing it, and even in our shire, which makes is easier for us to convince the local authorities of our plans.
So, just this weekend, the BF bought our first container! We will be using 12m containers of standard height, beginning with one and expanding as we go to eventually about 6-8, and maybe another for storage (shed). Our first container is partially converted into a dwelling already. It is roofed, floors, insulated and plastered, wired, plummed, partially painted, and has the kitchen carcas installed. We need to do a few things such as the kitchen doors and bench top, cooker, the entire bathroom, and the electrical switchboard, and then we're ready to move in! We want at least a second one before fully moving in and with timing of everything we may have am a bit more progress before we move in.
So today I'm designed the finally layout and working backwards to our modular plan so we know where to position the first container, and then the second and so forth so as minimal changes need to be made once we've already done some work, ie we don't want to be ripping up the tiles we just laid a few months earlier. Also, I have the feng shui bagua to help me with the plan.
We started looking around at housing ideas and funnily enough we both we interested in the concept of converting shipping containers into homes. Containers are generally a standard shape and size (the come in 6m and 12m, and special heights too) and are designed to be modular, stackable, weather and vermin proof, cheap to manufacture, and have the strength in their corners thus allowing for doors and windows wherever. It is recycling of old containers and is extremely affordable. More and more people are doing it, and even in our shire, which makes is easier for us to convince the local authorities of our plans.
So, just this weekend, the BF bought our first container! We will be using 12m containers of standard height, beginning with one and expanding as we go to eventually about 6-8, and maybe another for storage (shed). Our first container is partially converted into a dwelling already. It is roofed, floors, insulated and plastered, wired, plummed, partially painted, and has the kitchen carcas installed. We need to do a few things such as the kitchen doors and bench top, cooker, the entire bathroom, and the electrical switchboard, and then we're ready to move in! We want at least a second one before fully moving in and with timing of everything we may have am a bit more progress before we move in.
So today I'm designed the finally layout and working backwards to our modular plan so we know where to position the first container, and then the second and so forth so as minimal changes need to be made once we've already done some work, ie we don't want to be ripping up the tiles we just laid a few months earlier. Also, I have the feng shui bagua to help me with the plan.
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