My wife and I have now been living tiny for several months. For those who don’t know, tiny homes (living units under roughly 200sq’) have become increasingly popular in the past couple of years. When we researched many options for different types of tiny homes, we found a lot of information — but very few first-person accounts of the experience.

And, after all, that’s what tiny living actually involves — a fundamental shift in thinking about consumption and space utilization — the rest (what type of tiny home, whether its mobile, how its built, etc) is all just details.

Our Shipping Container from LEED Cabins, in Place, with the Completed Porch and Privacy Fence

Given the increasing popularity of tiny homes I thought it might be valuable to someone out there considering the same to read some of my thoughts on what this experience has been like for us.

In our case, this isn’t a tiny home, so much as a my home-office. But we decided to place this small office structure on the land first, before building our home. Our land is 30 miles away from the nearest town (where ‘town’ is quite loosely defined; we’re literally 20 miles away from the nearest service at all, which is our post office), which makes development quite challenging. So we started small, so we could establish a base of operations without too much trouble (that it took us a year to even get this far, is an entirely separate story).

We invested a good deal of effort in learning about the various options for tiny housing (you’ll be amazed at the variety that’s available). We purchased Jay Shafer’s book on Small Homes, and even went so far as to get the plans for his tiny Tumbleweed Popomo, before we decided to go with a pre-fab option to simplify our initial move.

Our Solution

After considering our goals, we opted for a tiny structure built from a used cargo shipping container. The benefits of a shipping container, in the context of the remote Oregon forest, include that it is rust-proof, water-proof, highly wind-resistant, bear-proof, fire-proof, and resistant to damage from downed trees — all of which promised to make our initial setup easier, and expedite the process of building our full home.

The Semi-Raw Container

We located a firm named LEED Cabins, and Dan Sokol created a pre-fab office structure for us, converted from a 20’ used cargo shipping container. We had it shipped up to our land, placed into position, and secured by high-tension cable to concrete blocks in the ground (laid during the excavation of our driveway and homesite).

The Container Being Delivered to Site

This structure is 160sq’ total, with about 135sq’ of internal usable space. In other words, it’s very, very small for two people. Not to mention our pair of dogs and the cockatiel. But again, this is temporary, so we figured we’d give it a whirl and see how we do.

(For those wondering, our full home will not be tiny; though, at approximately 1,000sq’, it will be quite small by contemporary American standards.)

We have a fair bit of external storage space. We placed another used shipping container on the land, to function as our garage. We rented a PODS to help hold our excess furniture, and we have some Suncast outdoor storage cabinets and chairs in the yard. Not all of the storage is so conveniently located (our garage is 200’ away, up a steep driveway, where our full home is to be built), but it means we are able to safely store all of our possessions, even while we temporarily occupy a tiny structure.

Our "Garage" Being Delivered

Before too long, we also extended the living space of the office, by adding a deck, and then placing a lean-to greenhouse on the deck to form a (more-or-less all-weather) porch. At 98sq’, the porch represents approximately a 72% increase in living space (as well as an effective source of passive solar heating most days) — and, more importantly, provides a second room (so that it is possible for my wife and I to both be in the structure, but be in separate rooms — a luxury that everyone really takes for granted). As soon as weather permits, we’ll build a second deck, add a second, smaller (24sq’) porch, adjacent to our other door.

So, while in many ways this is tiny living, we’re using much more space and many more resources than you’d find with other tiny home dwellers.

Lessons Learned

If it’s not already clear, my wife and I took on multiple, separate challenges: living tiny, settling remote land, trying to develop on that land, all while continuing to run my company in Los Angeles — and taking this all on in our first year of marriage! As a result, we’ve been forced to learn many lessons, across many different aspects of life. I will try to focus this post specifically on those aspects that relate to living tiny, but there may well be some spillover.

And with all that by way of introduction, we have some top-level lessons-learned for anyone else who may be considering a similar lifestyle:

First, one of the key benefits is the low level of power and utility consumption. This is in part due to our efforts to go off-grid. We have only electrical service to the property, with a generator back-up for when storms or downed-trees take out the power lines. We have no gas service, and we provide our own water from a gravity-powered, spring-fed system on the land.

Utility Consumption

The Power Box

That said, all of our life runs on electricity. In addition to standard electronic equipment that you’d find in any home, all of our kitchen appliances are electric (with an electric convection oven, an electric range, an electric hot-pot, and an electric rice cooker), we heat the structure with electricity (shipping container homes are too tiny and air-tight to safely use indoor wood or propane heating), and we use halogen for most of our interior lighting. And, all told, our power bill (which is, you’ll recall, our only utility bill) is under $50/month.

It might be obvious, but it is still nonetheless striking: living tiny is just much, much cheaper.

Consider What You Really Need and Want to Use Regularly

As I explained above, we have a good amount of external storage. But most of it is not so conveniently located — especially given the precipitation in Oregon. When living tiny, you just don’t have that much interior storage space — almost none, when compared to what you’d find in a standard studio apartment, much less a home. In fact, a tiny home is approximately the size of some walk-in closets that I have seen in houses in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

So, living tiny means really considering what it is you need to function on a regular basis. Which clothes do you want to wear regularly? Which pots, pans and dishes will you need frequently? Which parts of your medicine cabinet do you really need on-hand?

Beyond the basics, you’ll also want to ensure that you have some comforts (which have to be tightly budgeted, given space and storage constraints). In my case (especially given our remote setup) that includes ensuring I can make a nice fresh cup of coffee every morning, which requires a grinder and coffee maker. Which books do you really want to read (as opposed to those you have around just for show)? My wife and I have taken to playing the Wii quite a bit, so that made the cut. We chose which of our board games we would want to play regularly. And, given our remote location and frequency of bears and cougars, we needed to ensure space for our gun safe. The weather here requires that we have a dehumidifier running.

And so on, and so on. You’ll make your list, realize it’s too big, and then you’ll be forced to really make decisions about those objects and items you really wish to use regularly — even more so, if (like many tiny home dwellers), you don’t have 200sq’+ of external storage.

Smart Design

It may be difficult to understand (though many residents of Manhattan will immediately recognize this as true) how a functional interior design becomes more important, the smaller the quarters.

In a standard house or apartment, you can buy a chair and put it somewhere. If you need a cutting surface, there’s one around. You can place a nice, large bed in a bedroom and forget about it all day long. You generally have a single, large water heater, that’s easily placed somewhere on the premises.

Container Interior, Immediately After Move

Instead, when living tiny, you need to spend a great deal of time reflecting on how your interior space functions, down to minute details. Your bed needs to be a loft, or to fold-away. In general, folding furniture is great. As are multi-purpose items (such as our Suncast patio seats that are also all-weather storage; our bed, which is a couch during the day; our IKEA PAX wardrobe, that has full-length mirrors for the doors; and our printer, which quadruples as a copier, scanner and fax).

Some people (like Jay Shafer) believe in sculpting the interior space, with walls and in-line storage. After serious consideration, we opted for a structure that was almost an empty box (with an IKEA kitchenette pre-installed), so that we could maintain flexibility with how we furnished and utilized the space over time. In either case, you really need to consider the design of your structure, and how you wish to utilize it to the greatest effect.

Interior Line-of-Sight

Many tiny homes (though not all) are under 8’6” wide. This is so that they can be easily transported across roads and highways, without special permits or traffic provisions. Once that structure is insulated and drywalled, you are left with an interior width of, at most, 7’. Interior storage space, furniture and appliances all subtract from that very low starting number.

If you are like us, open spaces are important. Being able to see 10’ in front of you, is much nicer than seeing only 4 or 5’ in front of you; being in a room that is 7’ wide is much more comfortable than being in a room that is only 4’ wide. And, if you are building tiny, there are many tempting opportunities to cut into the limited (and precious) amount of open space you have.

As you do this, consider the importance that you ascribe to your interior line-of-sight. If you are like us, and maximizing that internal distance is important, this should be considered a design directive (this is one reason we opted for the open, rather than sculpted, interior design).

Multiple Entries

To build to code in most localities around the country, your structure requires two entries (in case one is blocked during a fire). Still, many floor plans and designs that we’ve seen for tiny homes incorporate only a single entry.

The Patio Doors

Because of code issues (and per Dan Sokol’s advice), without thinking much else about it, we opted for installing two entries in our tiny structure (a main door on one long side, and double patio glass doors on one of the shorter sides). It was only after experiencing life in this container (and a few months in which only one of our entries was actually usable), that we really appreciated the emotional impact of having two entries. Even now, as I write this, I find it difficult to express just how this improves quality of life, but it does. It gives you options on how you want to enter and exit. It allows you to establish two separate, easily-accessed outdoor areas. It allows for easier cross-ventilation of the structure. It makes it feel more like a ‘home’.

In short, having two separate entry-ways adds a lot of value to tiny living.

Outdoor Space

One significant factor in our decision to move to this remote area was to spend more time outdoors, in nature. Of course, this means hikes and fishing and similar activities. But if you plan properly, it can also just mean lounging in the yard, regardless of the time of year.

The Porch Deck, In Progress

Of course, having nice outdoor space, or a yard, adds value and comfort to any property. But, when living tiny, it becomes more important. Being able to step outside, and spend time comfortably, is just a lot more important, when your interior is very small. Even having a small covered entry-way helps in minimizing dirt and mud that can get tracked in. This is why we built the porch (and will be adding a 2nd smaller one later this year), have all-weather furniture in the yard, and have covered a portion of the yard (temporarily, with a tarp; we will replace that with a trussed roof that extends over the yard, later this year). The more outdoor space you claim as your own, for easy use, the happier you will be.

Installed Fixtures and Outlets

Of course, planning which fixtures (particularly lighting) should be installed is an important part of any home design process. But, in the context of tiny living, it is important to remember that installed lights take up no floor space (no space at all, in the case of recessed lighting), and do not consume any outlets. For this reason, you should plan to use built-in lighting as much as possible in your tiny structure. In ours, we have only installed fixtures for illumination — no floor or desk lamps.

Installed Fixtures and Outlets

Along the same lines, it is quite easy to underestimate how many outlets you will need. Tiny structures require a denser allocation of outlets than a standard structure — particularly if all of your appliances are electric. And don’t forget! You want outlets on the outside of the structure, as well, for your power tools, or for a light to enjoy your yard, or whatever the case may be.

In short: built-in lighting and electrical outlets are not areas in which you should seek to save money or be stingy. You’ll want a healthy amount of both.

Clean Immediately

One main benefit of tiny living is reduced maintenance — there’s less space and less stuff, so caring for it takes less time, effort and cost. And, by and large, this is true.

But, on an individual, case-by-case basis, cleaning can take much longer. Again, there’s just nowhere extra to put anything. Cleaning means moving and shifting around items, accomplishing one set of goals, then moving more items around, to accomplish your next set of goals. Just washing a normal amount of dishes can take much longer when living tiny.

As well, once you’ve decided how to design and furnish the interior, and actually move stuff into the tiny structure, everything will have its place. And I mean that very literally. Everything has a specific, allocated place. If you take something out and use it, you must immediately return it to its place when you are finished.

There is just no room for messes to accumulate — and, in a tiny home, any item outside of its place constitutes a mess. Once messes occur, they rapidly become overwhelming (a small mess in a tiny home is a big deal). And if we’re talking about, for example, dishes and utensils, you just don’t have enough of them for any to lay around dirty.

The solution is to clean immediately, as best as you can. Don’t let any dishes pile up. Wash them as soon as you are finished (which also means ensuring that you have space reserved for a drying rack that is always out). If you trek in dirt, clean it up instantly. And so on.

As well, the garbage has to go out immediately. There is just no place for it. This means having adequate (in security and capacity) outdoor containers for your garbage, recycling (and, in our case, composting). We do have a small indoor garbage can, and kitchen composter, but other than that, garbage goes out immediately (to a series of bear-proof trash containers, steel-bolted to trees in the driveway). There’s just nowhere for normal quantities of waste inside of a tiny home.

Along the same lines, you have to finish jobs that are started, before moving on to anything else — there’s simply nowhere to store a work-in-progress on multiple projects. So you must pick your projects (and battles) wisely, and then get them done as rapidly as possible.

So, there’s less to clean, but cleaning can take longer, and requires more discipline.

Small Problems Can Get Big; Big Problems Can Be Simple

Exploded Sediment Filters, Part of Our Winter Plumbing Escapades When living tiny, small problems can get big — very quickly. As a case in point, earlier this winter one of our plumbing pipes exploded from the freeze, leading to a tiny rupture in the pipe leading to the sink.

Exploded Sediment Filters, Part of Our Winter Plumbing Escapades

Of course a tiny hole in a pipe, leads to a relatively tiny leak, which persisted for about 60 seconds before I could run out and cut-off water to the structure. And so our tiny leak — a leak that would be an inconvenience in a normal-sized dwelling — turned into a flood of the entire container. So that was no fun.

At the same time, it took only a few hours to clean up from a flood of our entire structure, using 1-gallon Wet-Dry Vac Micro — you can’t say that about any normal-sized home. Similarly, we can repaint the entire structure in under a day. We could rebuild all of the interior walls for just a few thousand dollars. We can execute projects on the structure — projects that would take significant lengths of time in a normal-sized dwelling — in a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost.

Got Friends? Visit Them, Instead.

With a very few number of exceptions, we have not hosted anyone at our container. We have a cute yard, so once summer kicks in, that will change. But for most of the year, outdoor hosting in Oregon is not possible, and so we forgo having visitors over. And when you do have visitors, you can really only have one or two at a time — there just isn’t space for more (again, unless you have outdoor appointments and nice weather).

It’s obvious once said, but it was one aspect of tiny life that we hadn’t really considered in advance: you won’t be hosting all that much. And, unless you tell your friends why, you risk offending them.

Love the Ones You’re With

Again, it’s obvious, but when you voluntarily occupy tiny quarters with someone else, you really need to love that person. You are continuously exposed to all of each other, all of the time. There is very little privacy of which to speak. When one of you is in a mood, the other knows it instantly. And when tensions increase, there’s not really room for either one of you to blow off steam.

In short, don’t go tiny with someone else, unless you are very confident in your relationship with that person. This includes those of you living tiny by yourself; you’d better be comfortable being with yourself, in small quarters, for extended periods.

Our Biggest Sacrifice

We’ve discussed this subject many times, and my wife and I both agree on what has been the biggest sacrifice accompanying our choice of living tiny: the kitchen.

Now, most Americans have kitchens that are far larger, and more capaciously appointed than we think is necessary for our needs; I’m not saying we need or want that. And, in creating kitchenette plans for a tiny container, not everything has been a sacrifice — for instance, we’ve adapted to living out of a ‘dorm’ fridge quite easily (we have a separate, all-weather freezer outside for meat and other frozen products).

Still, my wife and I both love to cook, and tiny living doesn’t make it easy to do the type of cooking we enjoy (it doesn’t preclude it, either; it just makes it much more challenging). Except for bar-b-q’s and other outdoor food-prep, there’s too little work space to comfortably create, say, a Thanksgiving meal — or any meal in which there are multiple hot courses. We only have one burner, and a small convection oven, which makes for a lot of swapping out of pots and pans during meal prep.

We still cook (we have no other options, living where we do) — but it’s just harder, and not as fun as it used to be.

Our Container Structure, Ready for Winter

Though, enjoying our meals — on our porch, which we built with our own two hands, in the middle of a national forest, with the creek running just across the neighbor’s field, in the shadows of a tree-covered forest mountainside — that’s a lot more fun now, than it used to be.

Again, living tiny is not a permanent state for us — it’s a temporary solution to the challenge of building a full home, out here, in the remote wilderness. As we hoped, it has been an invaluable process for us, learning what is important to us in home and interior design, as we begin the process of building our full home.

But, more than that, living tiny has proven to be a great (sometimes overwhelming) learning experience about ourselves, informing us about our relationship to the spaces we inhabit, the items we fill them with, and how we consume and utilize those items — not to mention, of course, how we relate to each other.

All in all, we’re quite comfortable these days, having acclimated to, and begun to enjoy many of the benefits found in, this life-style. Fortunately, though, we’re still just uncomfortable enough to ensure that we don’t slack too much on building our full home.

You can follow R Blank at his blog http://www.rblank.com/

Us On Our Land

I started my container business because I wanted one for myself. My goal was a practical, well designed, cost-effective living space. Being an interior contractor, I had the skills for the finish work but never worked with a shipping container.

Everything I saw online was either an extremely expensive “one off unit” or renderings of proposed containers. My research didn’t yield enough useful construction information so I learned as I went along and made a lot of mistakes. The learning curve was a wonderful experience and, after building several containers, am still learning and experimenting with different components and designs.

A shipping container, used as the primary construction unit, has almost unlimited possibilities for any living environment (desert, mountains, forests, etc.) Although the
housing industry is in a major transition – along with our country – I believe there is a future for small, energy efficient, well designed living.

After building a container cabin for myself, I now build for others. My site is www.leedcabins.com and I am located in New Hampshire. I have customers in Oregon, California, Mississippi and New Hampshire.

The 700 square foot retreat is constructed of two shipping containers, timber strips from old bunkers and weapons boxes and used railway sleepers. It is designed to embrace the views and climate of the surrounding environment, and create a place of relaxation and beauty while using already available resources.

Photos by Logan MacDougall Pope

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

Hybrid coined the term cargotecture to describe any structure built partially or entirely from recycled cargo containers. The c-series consists of five models ranging in price from $29,500 to $189,500. The home featured at the Sunset show was the c192 nomad which costs $59,500.

The prices of the c-series include:

• Recycled ISO cargo container with new paint
• Soy based spray foam insulation
• Aluminum clad wood windows and doors (one 10 feet long opening and one side door)
• Bamboo finish floor
• 5/8 inch drywall ceiling and walls
• Panelized wet room bath with redwood decking.
• Duravit bath fixtures
• IKEA cabinets and kitchen fixtures and lighting
• Summit appliances
• 30 gallon electric water heater (gas if available on site)
• Convectair Apero heat
• Factory plans, State L&I permits and inspections

Green and off-grid options are offered including solar panels, composting toilets and “green machine” sewage treatment and roofwater harvesting.

All the models are insulated about 15 percent above IBC and UBC building codes in the floors, walls and roofs. The building can be placed in cold climates as well as moderate to hot climates. The recycled plastic and soy sprayed-in insulation creates R24 walls, R44 ceilings, and R32 floors. The roofs can handle 60psf snow loads.

The HyBrid homes are shipped complete. A local contractor will need to be arranged for electrical and sewage hook-ups as well as foundation work. In many jurisdictions, if your project is less than 200sf there is no permitting process required. HyBrid has completed residential and commercial cargotecture projects in California, Oregon and Washington and has designed over 20 projects on 5 continents. They will ship their cargotecture homes worldwide.

Photos courtesy of Hybrid Architecture

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

The shipping container was chosen specifically for its bright color. Shipping containers are a readily available resource for building because they are usually abandoned by shipping companies. The architects mounted the container on recycled telephone poles, and the floor and walls were covered with bamboo. Sliding doors, windows, heating, air conditioning and an 8 foot by 4 foot bathroom with a composting toilet and red sheet metal walls were also added. A garden storage room was also added at the end of the container, which retains its original access doors. A patio with a cantilevered overhang was added to the front of the house and a rooftop garden with a drip system was installed by Madrone Landscape Architecture.

Poteet Architects is a 12-year-old firm based in San Antonio, Texas. Jim Poteet opened the office with the hope that the firm could further the sustainable revitalization of downtown San Antonio. The firm’s portfolio of completed work includes residential, commercial and institutional projects, but is perhaps best known for the sensitive adaptive reuse of existing buildings and a fresh, rigorous approach to modern interior design. The Container Guest House won a 2010 Design Award from AIA San Antonio.

Photos courtesy of Poteet Architects, LP

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

1953 School bus, 1981 cadillac (Albany, Oregon)

1953 chevy school bus house car with old dodge front fenders and hood. mounted on top is a Volkswagon van cut in half. inside is a small antique wood stove and full size stainless kitchen sink and cabinet. queen size bed platform above storage compartments in back and a small deck on back bumper. v8 engine 1965 283 chevy, remanufactured in 1985, balanced. 12 volt system. Needs break work, as is. $3000.00 or Offer.

$7500/1br – Floating home

Floating home is a fixer but has potential. Must be moved. Home is currently owned by our moorage and is being sold for the back rent. A good opportunity for the right person to gain “sweat equity”.

Price slightly raised due to prep work done for a potential buyer, but the deal fell through.
Houseboat is a one bedroom, one bath around 700 sf excluding decks.

40 foot shipping container – $1600 (Morris, IL)

40 foot shipping containers. Several to choose from. Also have a few 20′ containers. $1600 for both 20 and 40 foot containers. Contact me at 312-543-5155

A 20ft standard ISO shipping container converted into a small apartment.

A shipping container with a giant unfolding door. The size of the opening of the unit can be done with several options depending on the client’s budget.

We will be installing the motor next month, so for now we are using a long cable and my truck to open the sidewall.  A 12V wench should lift the 1000lb sidewall. This is the total  weight of the cutout, the reinforced steel and the wooden deck.  With this particular project, we are going with a pulley system most commonly used for small bridges and very large doors.

These small tiny homes sell for $15,000, not including international transportation.

The items included in the container home is:

• Insulation and wallboard.
• Electric connections and fixtures (240 volts)
• Finished Kitchen (sink, counter, shelves)
• Finished Bathroom( shower,toilet,sink)
• Glass sliding door.
• Louvered glass window
• Lights.
• Finished floor.
• Wooden deck
• Painted inside/outside
• All Labor and Local Taxes

The estimated time required to build this home is 6 weeks.

The future of our 20ft home is “Off the grid”!

1. Solar power, Being used with low energy appliances and a conservative use of electricity. Propane refrigerator.
2. Rain water catchment systems/  Water from  air converters.
3. Incinerator toilets/Composting toilets.
4. Wind power.
5. River water generators.
6. Location of the container home to maximize wind exposure and minimize sun exposure.
7. Placement of fast growing trees and Bamboo for sun protection.
8. The use of high RV factor paint and proper insulation.
9. A-frame roof system and space creation between insulation and wallboard to minimize the heat.

Thanks Jimmy for the update and good luck with your new product. For more information and pictures of this home visit Jimmy’s website Container Homes.

Jimmy gives you a video tour of the new model.

Are you looking to become an expat in Costa Rica? How about living in a shipping container? You can do both in one tidy package from Container Homes by Jimmy Lee. Lee designs and delivers surprisingly airy and open shipping container homes with a full kitchen, bedroom and a small bathroom.

Visit the video gallery

Jimmy Lee and his shipping container home

Each of his homes is earthquake, fire and hurricane proof. And since they do stay within Costa Rica, you probably don’t have to worry about heating the place. He is selling a 45 x 8 x 9 foot finished home for $17,000, and a land and home package for $60,000. You can also order the raw containers from his company and build your own house. A 20 x 8 x 8 foot container sells for $2,700 and a 40 x 8 x 8 foot container sells for $3,600 to $4,100. Transportation costs are extra, but he can have a home delivered to you in 3-5 weeks.

This might be the best time to purchase one of these home/land packages. Costa Rica is no longer an undiscovered paradise. When I visited the country about 10 years ago it was just starting to cater to travelers, and now it’s a refuge for American and European expatriates. Prices are only going to go up.

Before opening up his business, Jimmy worked as a Greenpeace team leader for six years in Washington, D.C. He left Greenpeace to study to become a chiropractor. Weeks after receiving his Doctorate he moved to Costa Rica where he has been established for ten years as a chiropractor in the town of San Ramon, Costa Rica. He is also a yoga instructor.

He believes that shipping container homes are the most environmentally sound form of home construction on the market. It’s been estimated that 85 percent of the building materials used in each shipping container home have been recycled. Also, the foundation design is less expensive, uses much less material and is faster to install. The infrastructure for transport already exists, so the container homes can be easily moved by ship, truck or train. This component reduces the amount of transport time. Everything is delivered in one trip. You don’t have to pay for multiple deliveries of separate construction materials. Additionally, no building permits are required. Because the unit is on its wheels, it is referred to as a “non-permanent” structure.

The 45 foot container home includes:

• The wheels. This unit is attached permanently to its base
• Total insulation on all walls and the ceiling, backed by fibrolite board
• All bathroom fixtures. Shower, toilet, sink, mirror, shelves and tile
• Kitchen counter, sink and faucet, shelves, breakfast bar with two benches
• Bedroom rug, shelves and bamboo curtain rod installed
• All windows and doors are equipped with metal bars
• Ceiling fan in master bedroom and lighting
• All electrical outlets and light switches
• Interior and exterior paint

The home does not include the following. However Jimmy’s company could supply the following for an additional cost:

• Furniture and appliances
• Second bedroom if requested
• Transportation to your destination
• Solar power
• Rainwater catchment system
• Hot water pump
• Bamboo roofing (the container naturally has its own roof, this would be on top of that)
• Deck

The first step to ordering from Jimmy is to visit the prototype and decide what changes you would like to make. If you cannot visit, and wish to place an order, you can do so and then as soon as the model home is picture ready he will send you the photos. A deposit of 50% is required to begin the building of your portable home. Estimated time to completion is between 3-6 weeks.

By Christina Nellemann

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Magoline Hazelton is used to people driving by her home just to take a look. She’s also known as the “house lady” by her fellow residents in North Charleston, South Carolina.

From the outside, Hazelton’s home doesn’t seem much different from the rest of the neighborhood. But there’s one big difference. Her house is made from cargo shipping containers.

Using containers to build homes has increasingly become a trend in the past several years because it can be cheaper and faster than using traditional construction methods. There are also plenty of containers at most major ports. Read full article »

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Shipping Containers
‘Dream’ Homes for Thousands

I was planning on writing about composting toilets today but came across an article on the CNN website that I just had to share with everyone. So toilets will have to wait for another day.

It was a side trip through a destitute, ramshackle neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that detoured Brian McCarthy from building houses in Albuquerque to an idea to offer the very poor a chance to own a home.

PFNC stands for “Por Fin Nuestra Casa.” Translated in English this simply means “Finally, a home of our own.” These words are the foundation of PFNC, whose goal is to provide housing to those who most desperately need it around the globe.

PFNC utilizes surplus shipping containers resulting from the United States’ consistent trade deficit.  These containers serve as the building block of PFNC housing, but go through an extensive conversion process to make them a home.  PFNC offers an affordable housing solution that is scalable and fully portable. Each PFNC unit includes 1st world amenities for a price of less than $10,000 (US).

Though considered sparse by American standards, these tiny houses have everything a person needs to live a simple life. I personally would like to promote this company for what they are attempting to do and I hope they have great success. I am contacting them to learn more on how to help get these to people who really need a new home.

To learn more go to the PFNC site. Watch the video NBC has put together on PFNC and watch the walk through video as well. I would encourage you also to read the CNN article.

Floorplan

Prototype Construction

Exterior Construction

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bedroom

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