So, I'm thinking once again about doing this. Quite a bit more serious this time though lol. I've been looking for land and looking at prices of containers, and also laid out how I want it to be. Should have a 12 car garage when I'm finished haha, along with a little over 3000sq/ft of living space alone, and a paint booth and wash booth, and also a lot of storage for parts and possibly a spare car or two waiting to be built, and a balcony along one whole side of the house where the master bedroom, kitchen and living room can all step out. I've thought about adding a couple containers for some extra living space, but right now all the containers I'd need should be around $52k. That's not including the concrete slab to put them on, finishing the ends of the garage, the steel beams I'll probably need for the garage, finishing the interior, any of the extra amenities I'm planning on installing, etc.

I've been doing a lot of research lately, but unfortunately money isn't crawling out of nowhere for me just yet lol. I'm looking to refinance my current house and I should have about $300 extra to put on some land if I can find some in the right place at the right price.

Anyone ever heard of shipping container homes or thought about doing one? I'm pretty stoked about this.

like tron?

My dad did it. Bought land and 2 containers in between the containers he build the living room, kitchen and all that. He did all the work. Bathrooms and bedrooms are inside the containers.

I wouldn't mind doing it because I know how nice they can be if done properly, plus good shelter.

iani1.1 wrote:like tron?

Yep lol. Someone told me about this back in 2008 already and I started looking into it, but I figured I'd never be able to do it so I just gave up. But now I'm becoming interested again because I REALLY want a 12 car garage LOL. Actually there are so many benefits to this.

VRx8 wrote:My dad did it. Bought land and 2 containers in between the containers he build the living room, kitchen and all that. He did all the work. Bathrooms and bedrooms are inside the containers.

I wouldn't mind doing it because I know how nice they can be if done properly, plus good shelter.

Really? That's cool. Do you have any pics of his place, inside and outside? I've been looking for the past couple weeks just getting ideas on how to do the interior and I think I have at least the kitchen/dining room, living room and part of the master bedroom and bathroom figured out. I've also pretty well planned out the garage and work areas too. The cool thing is that I can advertise painting, welding or whatever (once I get some training) so I can put it on a commercially zoned lot, but I know they pay higher taxes than one that's residential.

It's crazy how awesome these are. Most of them are made of Corten these days, which is a type of steel that's way more resistant to rust. They are sturdy as hell, which is why they're building them in Florida now, for hurricanes. They're cheaper to build with than a regular stick home, and I would imagine they won't be near as damaged if there is a forrest fire as a stick home wood lol. They have a certain insulation that NASA uses and it is sprayed on the outside, this stuff is CRAZY how well it works. They had a home in the southeast somewhere that had this stuff sprayed on the outside, the ends of the building were still wide open, and it was 10-20 degrees cooler inside than outside. It's also faster to build a home using these than a regular home, takes about half the time.

When you get closer or even now, we can meet and talk about this. I can help you figure out what you will need to do this.

One thing to note is it will be near imposible to get a loan for a house like this.

Make sure it's zombies proof too.

RX-7 Chris wrote:When you get closer or even now, we can meet and talk about this. I can help you figure out what you will need to do this.

One thing to note is it will be near imposible to get a loan for a house like this.

I was looking this up last night and a lot of these homes look awesome. Who woulda thought. I agree a getting a loan would be difficult to get. Just be really prepared and have what you want to build pretty much finalized in plans.

I should jump back into architecture some time. It's stuff like this that got me interested in it in the first place. I wonder how hard it would be to get building permits for something like this.

The best way to see about getting a building permit is to talk to the building department before even starting plans.

I dont have any pics of my dad's house but is nice. The only thing needed is insulation because it gets pretty hot inside the vans, but it nice and cool at night

Cool idea. I'm not sure the 300.00/extra per month will get you property in a very ideal place for you...I am guessing Colorado though. Keep an eye on the plains west of you. MIght be some ranchers downsizing property to make ends meet. Never know. Even in Kansas property varies from about 300/ac to 1200/ac depending on how much smoke the "hunting property realtor" blows up the landowners beehind.

RX-7 Chris wrote:When you get closer or even now, we can meet and talk about this. I can help you figure out what you will need to do this.

One thing to note is it will be near imposible to get a loan for a house like this.

That sounds great. I forgot you did construction work haha.

What I was thinking of doing is going overseas as a contractor after I retire from the AF for a few years and just pay for everything like that, not even getting a loan. And I figured if I at least got some land right now I could start paying on that and just do it in pieces. Or even do the house the same way, since I could either save up the money or start building the place slowly, not really sure if building it slowly is doable though lol. Although, I'm horrible at saving money so that's probably not doable either lol.

GR-8 wrote:I was looking this up last night and a lot of these homes look awesome. Who woulda thought. I agree a getting a loan would be difficult to get. Just be really prepared and have what you want to build pretty much finalized in plans.

I should jump back into architecture some time. It's stuff like this that got me interested in it in the first place. I wonder how hard it would be to get building permits for something like this.

Maybe you should make the plans for me LOL. I have a pretty good idea of how I want it, but it's nowhere near complete or ready for building. There are companies out there that will build the containers the way you want them so all you have to do is hire a local contractor to put them together, but I'd rather do a lot of the work too.

RX-7 Chris wrote:The best way to see about getting a building permit is to talk to the building department before even starting plans.

Yeah maybe I'll check into that first. I'm hoping that with these becoming more popular it might make it easier to get building permits and hopefully a loan if needed too.

I`m Batman wrote:Make sure it's zombies proof too.

That's one of the things I was thinking of actually LOL. I was thinking about using parts cut out for windows to go back over the windows in case of a really bad storm/hail/federal invasion/zombies LOL. Seriously though, I was. Maybe have them mounted somehow like storm shutters.

VRx8 wrote:I dont have any pics of my dad's house but is nice. The only thing needed is insulation because it gets pretty hot inside the vans, but it nice and cool at night

Well I was thinking that insulation might work well enough, but maybe if I finish out the interior that would help. A buddy that worked at a drilling/sampling company also mentioned something about drilling a hole in the floor on the bottom floor and that keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Something like that lol.

speedjunkie wrote:That sounds great. I forgot you did construction work haha.

I didn't just do construction in the past. I'm actually an architect, lol.

speedjunkie wrote:Well I was thinking that insulation might work well enough, but maybe if I finish out the interior that would help. A buddy that worked at a drilling/sampling company also mentioned something about drilling a hole in the floor on the bottom floor and that keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Something like that lol.

Geothermal heating. It is a little more than drilling a hole in the floor, but very efficient heating source. Cost of installation is dependent on how you decide to set up the piping system.http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/energy-efficient/1274631

Land
http://www.loopnet.com/Colorado/Colorado-Springs_Land-For-Sale/

RX-7 Chris wrote:I didn't just do construction in the past. I'm actually an architect, lol.

Well, yeah but I didn't remember what all you did or do LOL. That's awesome though, I'm gonna need your help, a lot probably haha. I can officially hire you if you want haha.

Shadowden wrote:Geothermal heating. It is a little more than drilling a hole in the floor, but very efficient heating source. Cost of installation is dependent on how you decide to set up the piping system.http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/energy-efficient/1274631

Land
http://www.loopnet.com/Colorado/Colorado-Springs_Land-For-Sale/

Yeah that's it. I figured it was more than drilling a hole, but that's all he told me about IIRC because it was a couple years ago already when he told me haha. Thanks for the links!

VRx8 wrote:My dad did it.

speedjunkie wrote:
Really?

How have you two never talked about this??:lol:

Cool idea Eric, I'd love to see this come to fruition.