Stunning Modern Small Home Made From 3 x 20ft Shipping Containers

last time we saw brenda she was living in a brilliant 40-foot shipping container home since then she's moved to a brand new town and constructed a beautiful new container home for herself and today we're going to take a look [Music] hey brenda so great to see you again likewise welcome and here you are this time and yet another brand new container yes yeah it's been here about a year now but it's still pretty new so yeah loving it brilliant so can you tell me how you came to be living in this container home now well i found this section in taupo and i just fell in love with it really and i've never been much of a city girl i was kind of over auckland so i thought let's just take the giant leap move to taupo build another container home because i do love my container homes and uh yeah here we are yeah i've never really been a huge fan of city life um i've sort of grown up in auckland because that's where my parents were and i still have family and friends there but the traffic was getting to me uh it was just getting me down i think and when i found this beautiful section on my travels one day it just kind of spoke to me and it just kept chipping away in the back of my mind i thought what's keeping me in auckland you know i can i can do this i work from home anyway i can probably live anywhere and it's like a whole nother world out here and i find it's really been good for both my mental and physical health really just being in an environment where you can just look outside or step outside and just be in nature so what's happened to your container home in auckland at the moment i've got a tenant in there renting it out so that's really good that helps pay the mortgage still and i'm still up there once a month so we sort of open it up as a display home for the business still once a month but no that's going really well as well and i completely understand the move to this section because wow look at these views i know it's incredible i fell in love with it instantly and we've managed to raise the container on some slightly higher piles to make the most of the view and we've got a gorgeous view of the lake which you'll see as we progress in so yeah very happy here now unlike your other container home this one is on the grid isn't it it is that's right my other one was grid tied as well um but this one we haven't actually put any solar panels or anything on this one i'm just sort of seeing how we go a little bit shaded so i'm not quite sure if we'd get enough sunlight to warrant it but that being said with all the energy efficient appliances and the superior insulation my powerball is very low anyway so i'm pretty happy and now this home has been made from three separate 20-foot containers right that's right yeah three 20-foot high cubes and we've connected them in parallel and we've managed to sort of take out some of the internal walls of two of them to sort of create a one and a half width master bedroom and living room which gives a bit more space to sort of walk around your bed and for entertaining and things unlike my other model which is a single container-wise it's a bit restrictive in that sense and so what's the total square meterage of the home it's around about 45 square meters and you've gone and put this really funky paint job on the house as well yeah i have so i thought well containers are funky and innovative by nature and i thought why not do something a little bit different so i actually got a sign writer to do some sort of stickers and one of my favorite colors and i had this sort of pattern and yeah we just applied that to the front of the house just to be a bit different i love it the feedback from the neighbors and my friends they all seem to love it too so yeah it's here to stay for now brilliant it definitely adds a bit of fun and character to the house yeah thank you i think so yeah and it's great as well because the way that you've raised up these containers you've been able to give yourself a really good carport and even a little bit of storage under the house too right yeah absolutely so especially in taupo and winter we get a lot of frosts and it gets rather cold so being able to have my car under cover means it's easier to start in the morning and i'm not having to sort of scrape ice off the windshield so yeah the slope of the site sort of lent itself to doing something like this i think it's worked really well beautiful landscaping here leading up to the home as well thank you yes i had a very good landscape who suggested we just kind of get some big rocks and sort of place them for a natural look retaining and then my dad helped me sort of build these stairs and things and yeah i'm not much of a gardener so i've tried to pick the hard-wearing plants but we'll give it time hopefully it'll all work out but you know i love it and then i see you've got the little sleepout here as well that's right yeah that's a little 10 square metre sleep outcome office so when i have friends stay i've got a desk that converts to a single bed and a sort of couch on the birds of single beds so i can sleep two extra people out there so excellent well i really love what you've done with the outside of the home and i am super interested to see what's going on inside should we check it out absolutely come on up after you oh wow those views are absolutely impossible to ignore aren't they they are they're pretty magical that is just stunning and i love the way that you've sort of orientated the whole living room of the house just to completely take advantage of them that's right yeah i put some nice big windows uh here they're slightly lower than standard to make the most of that view and same with the master bedroom actually i still get the water view from lying in bed so i sort of opened up these two sides of the household to make the most of it and now standing in here there's nothing at all to indicate that this is actually constructed from container homes really is there no that's right so from the interior it just looks like a normal house we've used plywood on the walls mixture of paint and the natural look and you wouldn't know you're in a container to be in here so can you tell me a little bit about how the containers are put together in this home sure so we've constructed using 320 foot so this container here that contains the kitchen and half of the living room is 120 foot and then we've also got another 20 foot here which is the bathroom and the other half of the living room and then one on the end that's our bedroom and the other half of the master so we cut out the internal wall to give you one and a half width for the living room and the mast bedroom which gives a lot more space than your single width models so it's great for entertaining i had 25 frames around for my birthday last weekend and we all fit it in which is something i probably couldn't have done in my other home so it's worked really well from that perspective absolutely and you have created a lovely and very comfortable lounge space here haven't you yeah i love spending time here obviously you've got the view and yeah it's just that size it's a bit less claustrophobic than some other tiny homes so yeah i really love it and the house definitely capitalizes on all of these spectacular views and that indoor outdoor living by the way the living space just completely flows onto this incredible deck yeah that's right so we've got this covered deck area even the kitchen opens out to it with a sliding window so i can pass food out and yeah nice in summer especially i spend a lot of time out there brilliant and now talk to me about the kitchen here yeah so the kitchen's a single container white and we've got space for a full-size fridge with microwave plenty of overhead storage our famous dish drawer compact oven hob range hood combo that always fits in quite nicely very compact isn't it yeah and it's great and the dish draws all you need for one or two people even the oven you can still get two or three racks in there and the two burner stove never in my life if i use more than two pots at a time so that's all i need and then the composite stone bench type which is great you can put all your hot pots and everything directly on it it's not going to damage it um yeah and then the window that opens onto the deck this is breakfast bar seating so i don't have a dining room so i never really eat at the table anyway so i can have breakfast here admiring the view and yeah everything else kind of a nice window at the top to make the most of the bush outside and it's a natural lighting and yeah it's worked really well i really like what you've done here with the aluminium backsplash as well yeah it was something a bit different going for a non-colored look but i think it's worked quite well yeah that's sort of brushed aluminium uh steel look and sort of ties in with the colours of the kitchen it really sort of modernizes the kitchen it does that's right yeah now obviously here in taupo this is a much colder climate than your last place in auckland can you tell me a little bit about the insulation and what you're doing for heating in the home yeah sure so we put the same level of insulation which is one and a half times building code anyway that goes into all our homes we actually upgraded the windows normally we just did double glazed aluminium i've got thermally broken ones here and then we've got a heat pump in which i run a little more often than i would have to do in auckland um but it's energy efficient and i find even just having it on for 20 30 minutes in the morning it heats the whole place and it retains its heat so i haven't really noticed a huge jump in the powerball and i've got a nice warm home so that's great and then what do we have in the doors behind me here so this is a storage cupboard come linen cupboard come laundry right so i've got a washer dryer combo and then space my vacuum cleaner and air dryer and then towels and sheets and everything up above and then what do we have behind that there behind here we've got the bathroom so come on through right great sized bathroom yeah thank you we've got our standard 900 by 1200 shower gel flush toilet 600 mil vanity mirror cabinet for additional storage so everything you'd expect in a normal sized bathroom and it's a really nice product that you've got on the waltz here can you talk to me about this yeah sure it's actually a sheet type fibre cement product so it's suitable for shower linings as well as the bathroom fully waterproof um gives that tile look and feel without the tile price tag or the disadvantages in terms of sort of cracking with movement or the weight so yeah i really love it and modernises the bathroom i think is it that sort of up-market feel so certainly does and then across the way here we have your bedroom we do really nice very spacious bedroom isn't it yeah it is so that's that one and a half container width which gives you the ability to walk around your bed unlike a single worth model so yeah it's just a it's a normal sized bedroom really we've got the full length mirrored doors with a nice uh large wardrobe with built-in storage as well so everything you need and again lovely window opening up onto views of the lake yes i must admit i'm guilty of the odds sleeping we just opened the curtains and just lie and be and admire the view all day so it's really special as well and is this one of your super cool storage beds again it is yes it uh lifts up and there's storage underneath for all the things that i want to keep out of sight but still need access to so your suitcases your my tramping and camping gear things along those lines and you actually work from home as well don't you i do yes so we've actually got a dedicated office come spare bedroom so come with me we'll show you that next all right let's take a look this is a big office space isn't it space is big the desk certainly is and because i work from home obviously i've got three screens set up my printer lots of space um but then the beauty of this contraption is it also converts to a double bed so when i have guests come around um this becomes a spare room for them very clever just really nice to have that option in there as well absolutely it was necessity for me i love to entertain and being in taupo as well with most of my friends still in auckland uh gives them an excuse to come down and hang out and stay for free which is great and should we go have a look at the balcony absolutely oh it really is lovely out here isn't it yeah it's pretty magical it certainly is and then you've got this fantastic entertaining area out here yes absolutely nice and comfy place to lounge in the warmer weather and then just looking out onto this lake is so special isn't it it's hard to believe that that is actually a giant volcanic crater isn't it yeah try not to think about that i can understand why so you've been here in the house now for a year how's everything working out for you yeah really good really good i was a bit nervous about how cold it gets in winter but i found with the heat pump and the insulation levels it's nice and cozy and yeah i mean with this million dollar view it's hard not to just love relaxing it's a little hard to get motivated some mornings you know i kind of feel like i'm see me retired living the holiday dream lifestyle out here but uh absolutely love it it's uh i never regretted it for a single second and especially with your situation being able to run your business from home that does allow you to capitalize on living in paradise doesn't it it does absolutely and it's a bit of a strategic move as well because i have clients from the central and lower north island who want to see a display home and by being located here they're only sort of a few hours drive away so that works really well too from a business perspective now can you tell me a little bit about the cost that was involved in building this home yeah sure so this has become one of our standard models that we retail currently for 180 000 that excludes consensus delivery insight works so for this particular site all those additional extras came to around about 80 000 so that's 260 all up i absolutely love living here i don't think i could ever live in a normal sized home i'm i'm very much set on the small living and the fact that housework takes 10 minutes the fact that you can enjoy your life the fact you don't have a high mortgage and especially living in this beautiful environment i feel semi-retired it's just you wake up each morning and just faced with this beauty and even the neighborhoods just so friendly and laid back and it's i'm like i'm living the dream well brenda there's no question about it you have built yourself yet another truly beautiful home here thank you so much for sharing it with me thanks for coming appreciate it over the years brenda's lived in a few different shipping container homes and it's been so interesting for me to watch the evolution of her designs this is yet another home which beautifully fits into its landscape and perfectly meets her needs brenda says that living here she almost feels as if she's semi-retired and really i think that we can all aspire to a lifestyle that makes us feel that way [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 2,974,648

Rating: 4.9461279 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: k2MO2RDzXXU

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/4077]

I saw a video about this one. The owner is the owner of the company that sells these across the world. It has a really great view of that lake.

[u/SWMobileStorage]

Great walk through of this home and looks like a cozy and perfect environment!

Awesome job!