40ft Shipping Containers Transformed Into Amazing Off-Grid Family Home

in our society we're encouraged to aspire to ownership of a large home but what happens when you own that large home with a tennis court and swimming pool and realized that it's not making you happy today we've traveled to the Hawke's Bay to meet a wonderful and inspiring young family who traded in society's dream for one of their own [Music] hello good to meet you mate yeah a nice visit hi elder oh yeah nice to meet you welcome this container looks great so tell me a little bit about how you actually came to be living and a couple of shipping containers we bought this big fight bedroom house and we were living in and working constantly to and maintain it and we just thought this isn't right yeah we've bought our first house and it was a two-bedroom well one and a half bedroom like little deceased estate in all condon we've renovated that and then we found out we're having another baby and so we decided we needed more space and so we bought a three-bedroom house and we were innovated there and sold it and we moved to Hawke's Bay and the next step was sort of like obviously a bigger house cuz we were going to have another baby and so we ended up with a five bedrooms three bathrooms like formal lounge it was a tennis court in the pool and we sort of thought that the epitome of what you're supposed to do I guess and then after living and working that house for about a year and we realized how much work goes into mowing all those lawns and uh it was just it was took up all of our time effort it was busy and was it was hard work but it was just more the fact that we had like three little children that just wanted to spend time with us and we didn't have time because we had to get these jobs done like that's when I was on YouTube and I saw your channel and like got inspired I guess and yeah it hit it lucky I was like set him down one night we watched a few and he was like let's go and so with a bit of grey paper roughly weeding right designed the home put the house on the market and yeah we were going ho then people thought were nuts but we're really happy it was a bit more than we've ever made yeah well I love to know that I'm partly responsible for this variation because it's really incredible now this is actually two 40-foot shipping containers that have been slightly offset from one another correct yep so they're too high cube 40-footers this one in particular we've cut the roof right out and pitched it up we've obviously used steel framing and then inset with our container cutouts to fill in the blanks and that is made a good high pitched roof and that issue works well because we have our solar panels on the top there cuz off-grid system you know it's wicks a tree and you've mentioned that these containers are off the grid can we talk about that sure can we use a weed basically we have a six kilowatt solar system we've got 18 panels on the roof and then we've got our 8 260 m power batteries here for our storage battery storage as you can see they're low maintenance they're nice and duty we have to go in there this is quite nice so that is actually a huge solar system we've got power tube in yeah that's great we've more power than we need really and if we were connecting back into the grid fit that would be cool but with the way that we chose to live was just to have enough to live and then the company that put the system and for us we were the first and so they were determined to prove that it could be done and it could be done really easily and it has it's been great for us what about water collection here we hit a water boy connection right here so we've plumbed into it so we're basically yeah basically offered so we did the shipping containers come from are they new containers or did they have a life before so these are wind and watertight sticking here in containers so we've purchased these obviously they've got a bit of a history behind them and we've just repurposed them there's a lot of panel reading yes we're pretty lucky that they came in pretty good condition we've had before when doing water tight and they were only just waters height whereas these ones have been really they were really quite good quality when we caught them and the dents we feel just add to character totally I absolutely agree yeah well the containers look amazing from the outside and then really came to get a tiller and see what you've done on the inside Kylene oh so this is the duty into the house and for a tiny house or small house we thought that this was a bit of a luxury but it has intervened it's so practical the linen cupboard and everything fits and enter here and just a bit of extra pantry storage and then washing machine and a little deep freeze which means that like all the dirt comes in comes in here everything just gets washed and popped away without like mucking up the rest of the house and the buddha in the power and everything comes through here so a real practical space for us such a good idea including a space like this because you're right otherwise if you're going straight into the house you don't get that break from the weather you've got nowhere to put sort of muddy and wet yeah yeah and three kids this is really a mudroom but yeah weights well for us Tony does so this is our front door come on oh this is lovely you can definitely feel the additional space that you get from actually having those two containers stacked side-by-side oh sure keen it makes a huge difference a it means that you can have a proper lounge and a full sized kitchen in one space which when you hit them just the width of a single container didn't really feel like good for either so tell me about the design of the container and how you've laid everything out okay so you just walked right into our galley kitchen so as you can see this is our kitchen which is got ample storage you'll notice when you walk throughout the house we've used a lot of copper which we we seem to love in where she feel makes it feel warm so we love it absolutely BETT sink is so beautiful is that an old hot water cylinder yeah yeah was originally it was a hot water cylinder and then we scored it as a big old plant pot I'll just count it down fleet it and put a plug in it and he's our kitchen sink and a tremendous amount of bench space to work on here oh yeah totally having a big kitchen was really important to us cuz I love to cook but we've got a young family in May I'm sharing meals and you know it was kind of one of the biggest design things for us when we were laying out how big the kitchen was gonna be it was it's a luxury I guess but we had to have it and then the way that the whole kitchen sort of slides up against this wall you've created a large open space for your living room yeah it's worked really well as you can see we got a nice good size a comfortable lounge we didn't face the TV we can turn around and face the fire and winter you know a good couch makes Sur makes a difference to good good flow good radius on the corner tells a feeling listen yes good score so how easy was it actually to join the two containers together and how does that work for all of your electrical wiring and plumbing and all of that sort of stuff yeah piece of cake really am because I'm an engineer so it's my kind of trade so it's just a case of having a whole bridging it with some good structural steel in this is this is bolted with it with a bit of a gasket silicon sealant through the flange faces and then we've got a seal over the top and it's made it completely watertight and it's piece of cake really a lot of people are quite worried about thermal bridging when you're dealing with steel structures how does it work for sort of moisture and insulation and everything in this space we do spray from insulation for inside the walls yeah yeah because steel doesn't breathe you have to have a you have to sort out their thermal break so you can't have a cavity in the air where condensation can condensate so you have to use this non porous insulation so it's the only proper way to do it and then you've got the kids room through their AC yeah kids room three kids one room very impressive yeah initially we score all these doors from an old Albert hotel which is an old hotel here in town obviously struck them and split them in half because we couldn't have one big intrusive door and we didn't like the looks of Kennedy slaughters there was too new for us so we wanted use the recycled thing so hints these nice little doors so how did you lay the space out to work for three kids well we've got one girl when two boys so it turned out that the mezzanine in the middle with a door at the top with a curtain that closes gives her enough privacy and she's really happy and content up there and then we made the boys beds just slightly narrower than a normal single bed so that they had a bit of room to sort of tuck their toys underneath and their shoes and want that kind of stuff which means it's least cost our own it's it really does work the kids love it we're a bit worried about having three kids and won't be June but it turns out that they like hanging out together so yeah it works a treat actually yes it works and then what do we have over here so this is a bathroom what can I never look very nice here you can really see the height of the ceiling coming into its own can you Oh totally it actually really works it makes a small space seem big yeah so we've got the air we've got the Japanese soaked up there so we can able all three kids in the bath at the same time if we really wanted to which we quite often do I love how you've continued the theme of all of the copper fittings everywhere because it just brings a lot of warmth and kind of rustic character into space definitely well that particular sink is what actually started us on the out copper you found a nice I don't trade me you know we thought that this would be a good kitchen sink it tuned up and what oh it's a quite small I was a twenty five bucks but it was like the beginning of a very expensive um fitting for the house because I think everything had to be copper because I love so much I wanted to use it and then you've got a composting toilet here as well yes composting loo so not quite a bucket with sawdust one has got a ventilation system and it was what we could find on the market through nearly four years ago now it's been so great it's really a lot easier to use than we thought it was going to be a lot less smelly than we thought it was gonna be and yeah we wouldn't go back should we explore the other side of the house yeah we've got a drying rack above the fireplace and for sake of winter good to dry you your clothes inside and I have only law just freeing up the floor space it makes such a big difference in the house is so warm when you're the fire going that in two hours washings drying job done excellent yeah and then over here is our dining room this was supposed to be the master bedroom but sharing meal at the end of the day us all together was huge for us right yeah and that's why we've been up with a smaller room for us and a bigger dining and both which has like loads of storage it's just leaping bags and blankets and games and a bookshelf and yeah and then we get the staircase which makes for a great wardrobe so will your clothes are stored in here yeah well all the hanging sort of clothes we've got to see the drawers upstairs but yes and tell me about the design of your sleeping loft well there wasn't a lot of design in it because I said we have to have like to put to make it workable and then we went from there but also the clearance from the top from the outside to transport it around had to be like we will only be able to go so high yes so that resists our touch yeah basically there the overall height has set for legal height on a low loader transporter and that's what's it L touching the roof yeah it feels like up the years at like a it feels like a safe closed in space which works well for sleeping and then down here and there's plenty of light and air coming through and yeah it was a good compromise and then you've got this lovely kind of open area to your outdoor space as well yeah we felt it was quite important when you're living a bit smaller to him indoor/outdoor flight because you live quite differently say big bifold doors they're opening by Forbes on the other side and it just creates lovely space so how long have you been living in this home now nearly three years yeah he's right in like three years yeah I was quickly ahead hey is this gone really it's gone really fast as they actually the longest think we'd love to Nene house since we've been married yeah yeah we've been married over T Newseum it's very easy to lemon definitely it's a very easy live low-maintenance simple love it you've moved into this home from a much larger home yeah what was your downsizing process like it wasn't too hard I went to work and also did it we had five we had five bedrooms to downsize into sort of technically one and a half so we trade Mead and gave away and just got rid of so so much stuff and on a whole downsizing was very freeing living in this house has completely changed our lives right oh so here we did it as a test to see how much space we would need and we understood that we it would have to change and evolve as our children got older but what we've realized is that we don't need that massive McMansion anymore like we're really happy to live with less and we and yeah our quality of life is just so much better because of it definitely so what about the cost of building this home this costs us about 150,000 that's all materials and parts that obviously there doesn't include a lot of our labor and things like that so yeah it was nine months of hard slog building it because everything was done like we just we hadn't been inside another container house until we were pretty much finished and I hadn't actually been inside a container and all the ones that these ones arrived at MIT's yard and I opened up the door and I was so hot in here and it's absolutely tiny what have we done but still like made it work yeah totally well there's no doubt about it you have managed to turn these two 40-foot containers into an incredible home for your family thank you so much for sharing over thank you keys for coming thank you for coming yeah looking at a shipping container it really is quite utilitarian it's a cold hard metal box and quite far removed from something that you'd consider homey this couple though have taken a couple of those boxes and truly turned them into something beautiful using salvaged materials and Timbers all to create a wonderful family home [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 4,668,714

Rating: 4.8950586 out of 5

Keywords: container house, container home, simple living, shipping container home, small space, shipping container house, off the grid, tiny house, high cube, shipping container home build, 40ft shipping container home, living off grid, self sufficiency, 40ft shipping container home designs, shipping container architecture, off grid living, small homes, small home tour, small space living, shipping container homes, small spaces interior design, family container home

Id: NI71-qySsrE

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 01 2018