two-and-a-half years ago i decided tomove out of the city and build myself a shipping container cabin. i drew itup on the computer first and then once i saw this site it just came together reallyquickly. the cabin is made of three standard20-foot shipping containers. i've done some modifications to them so you can walk through all three containers. this is my washroom. i had a roughed in toilet that i never used. i used the outhouse instead. this was my bedroom. living room, kitchen, and then i guess... second living room. this is where i primarily spent all my time. either infront of the fire during winter or most likely outside enjoying the sun in
the summertime. all of these doors arestandard issue shipping container doors. they're actually sealed when they're locked and i initially designedthe cabin around containers on the premise that once the doors are sealedand locked you can walk away for several weeks at a time. if you go traveling you can close up your house and you don't have to worry about it. this is my utilityroom basically it was a a propane fired hot water tank that fed the in-floorradiant heat system and also provided hot domestic water. there's 17.4 millioncontainers in the world and three-quarters of them are sitting emptyand so they're readily available and they're relatively inexpensive and alsothey provide a great deal of structural
properties. the largest challenge was toinsulate the cabin i was hoping to stay here for fourseasons. i came up with insulating the interior walls with spray foam and thenthe openings where the steel doors are insulated with bats. i was able to get anr-value about r22 for all the walls which makes surviving the winter more...iguess more enjoyable. water sources were an issue. my neighbors were kind enoughto let me fill up my water tote so i would either drive my tractor over andpick up the water or make arrangements and travel into the closest town andfill up my water so i trucked all my water in. for the energy side i designed a twokilowatt solar system. i use the outhouse
as my primary washroom. after watching manypeople before me make tiny houses i i really liked the idea of downsizing andsimplifying your life. by moving to a smaller space it forced me to selectwhat mattered in my life. i grew up around off-grid systems...my grandfatherbuilt his first hydro site in the 40s to power his house and hisbusiness and my father did the same and i wanted to do something similar so iguess it's been in my family for three generations so it just felt natural. i enjoy simple well-thought-out thingsand this incorporates a lot of my interests into just a smaller spot. ifeel that being responsible and
sustainable goes hand-in-hand withwell-designed systems. my passion is design and having a holisticlifestyle is also passion of mine and they just they marry very well. i justgraduated from school so i am starting my own business in the solar renewableenergy field trying to, i guess, empower people to to do similar things that i'vebeen doing. i lived in the house for two-and-a-halfyears full-time. the cabin is 355 square feet and most people would consider that small ortiny. to be honest i didn't spend that much time inside the cabin. it's where iprepared and ate food, and slept, and then
read most evenings but when i was homei'd be outside where i prefer to be, in nature. living here by myself fortwo-and-a-half years with just me and my dog... some people might have thought it would have been boring or quiet but i was never bored. there was always something fun, or interesting, or new to discover, ,or to learn. the time i spent here was kind oflike meditation... it was a time to reflect on my life, so i really enjoyed my timehere.