TIMELAPSE - BUILDING a SHIPPING CONTAINER HOME with NO EXPERIENCE OFF GRID - VLOG 172

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] probably the three most important aspects of Nicole and I living off the grid are shelter water and food we love to cook and getting off the food grid by growing foraging and catching a hundred percent of our own food is our passion since we prepare every meal our knives are our most beloved and used tool in the kitchen the garden and the ocean we just received our first kamikoto con peki knife set which includes three knives a seven inch nakiri vegetable knife an eight and a half inch slicing knife and a five inch utility knife each kamikoto knife is made with Japanese Honshu steel each knife is individually inspected and goes through a 19 step process and is used by Michelin starch chefs all over the world there's also a lifetime guarantee and the ash wood box it comes in makes a great gift Nicole and I love our knives be razor sharp so we also received the toyishi Wet Stone which has a 1000 grit side and a 3000 grit side for getting that traditional and high quality Edge on our knives [Music] [Music] please check out the link below in our video description for a nice discount if you'd like to check out an order the same knives in White Stone we are using foreign together about a year and a half we decided to retrofit this Delica van into a sleeper our new van bed and go off on an adventure to a new property that we'd Acquired and live in the van as we built the life for ourselves in the middle of the temperate rainforest the only way to get to the property is by boat so we got one of these inflatable Striker boats with a 20 horsepower outboard on it and that was the only way we had to get back and forth from Wilderness to civilization we uncovered an Old Logging Road on our property and that gave us a solid foundation we got our water from puddles of rain at the beginning and we stomped around trying to find a home site amongst the acreage that's beautiful the property was severely overgrown mostly with Alder salmon Berry salal and hemlock FernGully I don't know if you guys have ever seen that movie but I knew that I couldn't have this wonderful girl live with me for long in a van so we brought with us a yurt and we were going to live in the yurt long term that's so cool you're trying to save the Moss this yurt is 30 foot diameter and the yurt itself is a glorified tent of sorts our idea was that the yurt would allow us to pay cash for something Escape debt escape a mortgage and with proper care Yurts can last for decades and decades I had stayed in a year before when I traveled to Mongolia and I really thought they were a beautiful structure humans have been living in teepees and Yurts for thousands and thousands of years or more and we are trying to find some place that would give us a solid foundation that wouldn't sink into the Earth we decided to just continue uncovering the Logging Road and build the yurt we were going to live in in the middle of a Confluence that had three logging roads coming into one these logging roads are put in so that the huge logging trucks can truck logs out of the forest and so they build them up you know six to nine feet above the forest floor so we got to clearing the spot initially we were cutting down as little amount of trees as possible and we brought in a few materials like these concrete blocks that we ended up putting the four by fours and four by sixes that we purchased as the elevated foundation and deck that the yurt would sit on the yurt itself proved to be a difficult structure to build a platform for because of its need to be circular I never built anything circular before and it's quite a different task than building something Square about a month into the platform build we started to put the circular shape together trying to protect the plywood from the rains with large tarps and once we had a perfect circle we were able to begin putting the yurt together we kept the yurt hidden and under tarps to keep it safe from the elements this particular drone shot of the circle platform was a badge of honor for us we felt really good creating this perfect circle four to six feet off the ground in the middle of the forest this would be our home so we wanted to make sure that we had it free of rot and moisture and we were very afraid that over the winter time the property would flood a tremendous amount so we put it up on four to six foot tall stilts this is the lattice wall that you kind of turn into an accordion and open up and that gives your walls and your structure to the actual yurt itself which is basically a glorified tent or Hut one of the hardest things that Nicole and I had done at the time that really tested our relationship was build the platform Not only was the platform itself and its circular nature difficult to build it's also difficult sometimes to be living 24 hours a day seven days a week with your partner and building something with them and the living conditions being in a van with mosquitoes black flies buffalo gnats everywhere lots of rain and the cold nights really tested us but once the year it began to go up it was really a fun process yes this is so nice you like the screen it's so nice like look at this this is a really nice I didn't know it came with a screen yeah a door open all the time and no bugs we have keys to our house we have an idea like oh it's broken I have a home we had a lot of fun putting out the lattice wall the roof Rafters and the different layers of the year which included a inside layer that you would see when you live inside the space a thin layer of bubble insulation and then a top cover that would be the weatherproofing blocking the elements from getting inside those of you who have followed our channel for quite some time have seen us build this year before we thought it was important just to show you the history of what we've been living in the past five years so that you know where you've come from if you notice the yurt is surrounded by foliage Alder Hemlock Spruce doug fir and Cedar we truly are in a temperate rainforest there are tropical rainforests and there are rainforests and temperate climates so the rainforest we live in can get 12 to 20 feet of rain per year but it's also a colder climate where the sun will disappear low in the sky for months on end during the winter time this proved to be very challenging for us in the first two years especially because the yurt had a hard time blocking moisture from getting inside even though we have a wood stove inside the yurt which heats up and dries out the living space our wood was wet and we didn't have enough time to season wood since we were newbies to the area the first two years were very challenging to get a hot fire going that wasn't full of smoke but we did the best we could and Nicole created quite an amazing living space worthy of a viral Pinterest post inside the yurt foreign [Music] as you can see everything is like a studio apartment there's no walls no compartmentalization so the living room the wood stove the bedroom and the kitchen are all in the same space we built a loft to initially hold the bed which we later changed to holding all of our food stores and other items we wanted to store away and we've survived now for nearly five years living in this large 30-foot diameter yurt Nicole and I wanted to start a family together and have kids for quite some time then there was this business of the pandemic which started in 2020. we decided not to wait and we wanted to start our family and when Nicole became pregnant we started to realize that a yurt might not be the best place to raise a child for many reasons one reason being the Sandy of mom and dad it's impossible to have any kind of privacy with a young infant and now toddler running around so about two years ago we decided when family comes to visit us we will turn the yurt into a guest cabin and instead build a more permanent house for our young son Fox and any other future children we may have been around a lot of people who have Built Homes out of recycled sea cans or metal shipping cargo containers and in the back of my mind I always wanted to build an Earthship house that featured recycled materials or materials from the earth like Cobb we decided that we would go for it and design a shipping container house that would enable us to have a kitchen and living room bathroom and food storage area on the bottom floor average sized bedrooms a master bedroom and a kids bedroom on the top floor our design was to include six of what's called high Cube 40 foot long sea cans or shipping containers four of them on the bottom and two of them on top it was nearly a two-year process from design to finding the containers and then having them arrive at our Wilderness location this entire exercise of building a house ourselves out of recycled materials has been a test of patience and a group effort collaborating with friends and other professionals do you see it now for the past year and a half all Nicole has said is I just don't see this ever happening we're gonna always live in a yurt and have nothing else besides that so do you see it happening now I do I'm very excited we ended up finding a company called Victoria shipping containers sometimes calling themselves stlbx steel box the other great thing about building with a shipping container is that we're essentially framing a housing and if we were going to do that out of lumber by the time we're done there would be a pile of rubble and lumber and whatever products to get the mountain craft yeah it's crap this is all going to the landfill and it's not recyclable anything that's left over here you can see over here even the metal pieces that we're left with you're gonna pack those with the containers so I can use them for other projects exactly it seems like a small little on their end it's fully recyclable at the very worst case scenario it should have got recycled yeah yeah like all this stuff behind yeah all those panels they're all good for really cool stuff right building awnings building walls building anything you really want it's just every little bit gets used the other thing I should have mentioned about getting old steel and stuff is that when you buy old stuff from from factories or warehouses being torn down it's just built better they don't make things like we used to it's like that old saying your grandpa says they don't make them like they used to like these doors and you find that they're all better quality when they're when they're older way better quality because they built they're built to last a long time it's not like a five-year door or whatever it's the forever door yeah initially the goal was to have all six containers delivered to our home site and then start on the work plasma cutting and grinding out the windows the walls and combining the six containers into one structure one of my goals when I turned 40 years old was to stop doing everything myself and allow others to help to make some dreams that Nicole and I and fox have as a family become realities we were very grateful to allow Victoria shipping containers to help us cut the windows and the walls and prepare the shipping containers for the voyage across the ocean to our remote home site someone who has become our friend over the years has been the very kind man who runs the barge and if ever there was a project or an item that was too big for our small inflatable Striker boat our friend would tuck our item in the corner of his barge and drop it off on the beach on his way to other customers and clients he's a very skillful boat operator and more and it turns out the job of getting the shipping containers to our home site would be one of the last things he does before he retires this month we were very thankful to have all of his skill and expertise before his much deserved retirement [Applause] please [Applause] [Applause] what do you think is this still a good idea or what yeah I'm very excited you are yeah a couple days away yes man let's go let's go whoa Gekko Echo just your woman we found a tilt deck truck operator who was able to drive the containers on and off the barge up the old abandoned Logging Road which is very bushwacky and barely enough room to fit the truck foreign we had spent weeks beforehand taking some crushed rock that a neighbor had down the way and making a short driveway which would enable the Tilt deck truck operator to drop off a container and turn around and head back down the Old Logging Road to the barge [Music] we had spent weeks setting up those concrete blocks you see which is going to be our foundation spacing them apart perfectly and evenly and giving them a rocky Foundation so that they would never sink and when we place the first container on them the measurements would be just right to support the containers at the midpoints and the corners our friend the barge operator also has a crane and he was able to bring the crane for the two-day project and use it to put straps on the containers and lift them into place Nicole and I both felt very honored to have such amazing friends and skillful people helping assist us in connecting these containers together and putting them up on the blocks and giving them this Foundation we got a couple other nice friends come and help out for the two days which proved to be crucial as I could not have done everything myself look [Music] foxy foxy This Is Us lifting the first container into position the first container was the most strong of all of them since the walls are all intact this container is going to face the North and will be in the shade all the time and thus will be our food storage or pantry the order the containers replace is very important so the team of Sean Phil and Martin at Victoria shipping containers were very good about marking each container plainly so that we wouldn't mess it up this is container 2 going on the top of container one we offset these two containers in order to give us a covered porch and a balcony and Victoria shipping containers was able to weld in two support Corners about one quarter of the way up the top container as you can see in this shot so that they have that solid foundation when you're walking on the top floor the containers also have metal hardware that allows them to lock together Each corner you'll see a piece of metal that twist kind of like a ball hitch on a truck and allows the containers to connect to each other the name of the game for the next two days was just sloth speed going slow and methodical being as careful as possible making sure we use the ropes to pull the containers around and change their angle so that there was no accidents and everybody's person and everybody's equipment but I'll leave as safe as it arrived this is container three and now you can see it starts to get a little bit dicey since the wall of this container is completely removed it was amazing to see how much the containers would Flex based on how much of the wall was cut out and so you can see the temporary support vertical beams that Victoria shipping container is welded in for us so that during the shipping process the container's Integrity would not be compromised stay here I'll show you guys what's going on [Music] okay so we are currently standing in your bedroom what do you think do you like your bedroom and then down at the other end there is uh Jake and I's bedroom so this is just half of it it's going up top today so they're lifting it up and adding it to the one that's already up there then we just have two more to put on the bottom and that's it yeah they're working very hard and so are we we're just wear the support yep for the cheerleaders on the side I really wanted Fox to watch the whole process unfold just wanted to keep him safe from too much sun and of course from the crane in the truck but he really enjoyed seeing the tractor tractor as he calls it as we lifted each container into place one at a time this is the second container going on the top floor and this is a good angle where you can see we lined up things perfectly I really felt such Pride each time we got a container safely and perfectly in position because so much planning and patience and effort went into setting all this up foreign [Music] this container was the scariest of all because it's the middle container creating the open concept plan for the living room the kitchen and the eating area and with all the walls removed this container was not as strong as it should be you can see how again Victoria's shipping containers welded in those support beams that later on we are going to cut and knock out because we have some more permanent eye beams so that we can bolt and weld those in later to give structure and strength to the top floor and to the ceiling of the bottom floor I was trying to remain strong and focus on the outside but I got to tell you I was very much relieved when this container successfully and safely made it into its position one of the most fortunate parts of this whole process was that we chose a couple days to put the containers in position where it wasn't raining I feel that if it was a downpour it would have made everything dirty and muddy and slippery and would have greatly complicated the project we're very fortunate to have great weather with low wind and sun and here comes the final container we had to stay focused to the end I didn't want to drop the eight ball at the end of the project and that's a great shot of the container making the 180 degree turn around the crane truck into position and once we dropped that one down Nicole and I looked at each other and had a moment of Silent celebration as our home was no longer a figment of our imagination but it was a reality sitting there right in front of us foreign we went to bed that night feeling relieved accomplished exhausted and excited and couldn't wait to begin the process of framing the house and turning it into a home there is still so much work to be done we're looking forward to showing it to you guys here on the YouTube channel so please subscribe and follow our journey Let's uh cut away and give you guys a little tour of what the plan is and what the inside of the two different floors of the shipping container home looks like [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh my God you scared me so much I thought something was coming to get us like a T-rex or something yeah we're together here we go yeah here we go okay come here come on you get this half here we go let's go there you go let's go foreign so this is our kitchen Welcome to our kitchen everybody and just for perspective look outside what's outside there in our garden um the new Garden that we just planted if you guys watched our garden tour uh if not definitely go check that out but that's our new Garden that's going to be our Greenhouse are you dancing in the rain hey so where are you in fox running to [Music] I'm gonna get you [Music] this one's cut kind of scary yeah because there's no windows so what's up with this one [Music] canning and preserving and dried goods and teas and everything so that was really important to us was to have a space big enough for a pantry for us to store food this one's Fox's favorite because he can run around like crazy this one you know kind of where Nicole standing is gonna be a mud room and we left this one hanging over the top and we reinforced it a little bit extra there so that we can have this space kind of out of the rain correct yes is that gonna be a mud room right there and then stairs so you come inside to escape the rain mud room stairs and then take off into the house that way yes so thanks to the local neighbor who's been so nice to us and let us use his excavator to help us with the foundation we're back in the kitchen babe I love how it turned out with the walls gone it looks such an open concept what are you doing bro [Music] we have these put in as temporary supports for the shipping process because when we cut the walls of dictators down and weakens them so I'm going to cut and knock these out and they'll go away and then we got some reclaimed recycled Giant i-beams and we have four of them brought in then we'll put four of them two on this container seam and two on this container seam and that's going to pretty much give structure to the Upper Floor to the two containers on the top like Nicole already showed you we've headed this way this is going to be what living room yes and uh these doors do they stay open are they going to permanently seal them seal them and put our wood stove there maybe where the spive is cut like a hole in here and it'll be the flue pipe and we'll have the living room wood stove that we can still cook on top of right actually the same one we have now we're gonna put here yes so I have two wood stoves in the house one will be the wood stove you've seen in the yurt and then the other one will be the cooking wood stove but Nicole mentioned in the kitchen so none of them use electric they all use firewood just off the living room this will be our indoor bathroom which we've never had before this would be very nice we'll have a toilet inside the house we'll have a bathtub inside the house it'll be very nice so you're gonna put some walls up right here yeah so this will be our bathroom right here and then we have our bathroom window and a bathroom window oh hey you're in our bedroom bedroom our bedroom it's a bedroom yes big giant patio like we're gonna we're gonna be out here yes so like baby proof railing yes or we're even talking about enclosing it with glass and having it be like an indoor Greenhouse thing oh like an Earthship yeah you want to do that maybe in the future not right away can I was that my idea or I'm gonna maybe veto that just because the greenhouse will be next door behind where you are yeah so I just feel like if it's a greenhouse I'm gonna be tempted to put a lot of weight in here I don't want all that weight on top how about just like New York style top of the building little cute eating area I love it okay so lock it in heating area and then what about like a ladder up there to the tip top yeah and then what's going to go on the tip top our solar panel solar panels so keep it like this or a roof um we don't know yet yeah we don't know yet let me have the camera I'll give the people a little tour of the bedrooms here hey you're inside the greenhouse all right underneath there all the greenhouse panels and uh on the Second Story here so these are the two containers on top that are making the bedroom and we cut windows out here and then doorway right there so if we walk through the windows this will be the master bedroom here master bedroom kind of does a little bit of a u-shape so we can have a bed or a sitting area here and then we all go around the corner and this will be like a closet so we kind of left the the wall up there in the middle of the container has like a divider so that fox will have his bedroom on that half and we have our bedroom on this half and this is the cutting the floor so we left these beams as supports so I'll cut those beams out to see those two beams just for a little bit of structure for the shipping process we'll cut those away and this open area will be totally open all the way to the floor so I'm going to cut the the top of the bottom container here you see I'll cut that away first tomorrow and then we'll have a staircase coming up here from the bottom so for now I can walk on it so here we are again facing master bedroom and then we turn into Fox's room so cute little room for Fox and uh these are called high Cube containers so they're the maximum height that these sea cans can be high Cube and we have both these doors can open we might keep that feature and maybe when he's a teenager he'll like to open these doors up and zip line out somewhere fun in the forest and they'll put a little step up right here in this window so we can kind of step up and out onto the balcony I'm back to my lovely girl out there with the greenhouse One More Design feature that Nicole was really passionate about was uh the master bedroom has this little Nook so we can have a door that goes out to that container and remember that's the pantry and it kind of sets out there so that we can have little rooftop Terrace like Juliet I'll be your Romeo yeah [Music] that'd be amazing all of God's creation or all of our creation God's creation I'm gonna try that fade one more time what do you think Puma eating compost just ate dinner so what do you think about this idea are you still into it or if you can just do a typical house here we don't have to do this one oh yeah let's send them back or just live in the Europe forever no way no I'm very very excited very passionate about this I think it's cool that we're recycling these and giving them another purpose building uh building a home out of them even just standing in there I just it already feels like home and I know we still have so much to do but I'm very excited Bears wolves cougars you feel more secure in a metal secant house than a yurt yeah what you go around the yurt and um in at least four different spots around the year you'll see where the Bears ripped it open four times yes also during like storms too yeah when the wind hits and the year is like shaking and we have to hide underneath the Loft because we're afraid of because the loft is like a sub structure in the yurt yeah and we think that's like extra strength yeah I don't know it makes us feel better but it's very scary to be in a yurt when the the wind is blowing as hard as it does here and the Thunder and the rain so this being this I will feel more secure and more safe that's for sure you're excited to do all this work well I'm excited no no that's not like I don't I don't I'm not excited to eat healthy food or go to the gym or do this work but I'm excited to have it done and the work just takes care of itself so kind of I'm sfting my way to the victory you know see it feel it trust it so I just kind of already see it being done and so let's just get it done so I can wake up in there and have this um you know it's not a mansion but it's a bigger house than a yurt it's got some bedrooms some privacy and it's got bedrooms on top kitchen down below indoors and walls and an indoor bathroom and more counter space and cupboards and an oven and really nice windows I'm really excited all right well let's do it let's do it

Channel: Off Grid w/ Jake & Nicolle

Views: 5,673,007

Keywords: off grid, yurt, boat, garden, gardening, off the grid, living off grid, alone, yurt life, tiny house, tiny home, solar power, solar, solar panel, solar panels, off-grid, Jake and Nicole, Jake Nicole, DIY, Homesteading, How to, Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Yurts, living off the grid, permaculture, Jake and Nicolle, Bushcraft, shipping containers, shipping container, container house, container home, timelapse, building a house, building a home, shipping container house

Id: vtnjD6agfSI

Length: 36min 56sec (2216 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023