This fascinates me: 'It's really a shed with windows': Single mother builds $4,000 home using an ol

[Flaxbee]

(and yes, I know The Daily Mail is trashy .... )

It’s one of the most innovative uses of a shipping container ever seen - but this single mother’s only child hasn’t quite yet made her mind up about whether she likes living in what is essentially a shed.

A California woman calling herself Lulu has created an astonishing 160 sq ft home for $4,000 after turning the structure into a living area with insulation, windows, cabinets, doors, water and heating.

The mother decided she needed a bit more space and so she also built a bedroom for her and her daughter on a flatbed trailer from which she can watch the moon rise, reported faircompanies.com.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067694/Single-mother-builds-4-000-home-trailer-shipping-container-recycled-materials.html#ixzz1fM3x5DVt


I really like the idea of repurposed shipping containers as building blocks for homes. I see a lot of companies promoting them, yet still charging in excess of $150-200K which is absurd. There should be a way to make decent, affordable, WELL MADE and attractive housing using these containers for $50K or less. Including plumbing, electricity, etc. Homes are ridiculously priced these days, as are most other things ... and should NOT represent the sum total of a person's financial 'worth'. Homes should be well-made, well-insulated, last a long time, and be useful and shouldn't take you 30 years to pay for.

This home is perhaps too primitive for most; I'd not be happy in it, and she doesn't own the land, but the idea is good and I respect her desire to not be lashed to a job just to pay rent while her child grows up ...

[LeftyMom]

1. That's a shack.

It's a shack with some Ikea furniture in it, but it's still a shack.

[Flaxbee]

8. yeah, true. But if you take the concept, toss in maybe another $25-30K

it wouldn't be a shack.


This one is made from four, though I don't know how much $$$. I suspect too much because everyone is so damn greedy, but still - the building blocks are there: http://www.bobvila.com/articles/316-home-sweet-container/pages/1

[Xipe Totec]

13. Très gauche , n'est-ce pas? nt

[elleng]

2. Fascinates me, too.

'I showed this to my brother in Argentina and he said: “You've always like poverty with a lot of style. Always like elegant poor”,’ she told faircompanies.com.'

[Lucinda]

3. The video was fascintating. Thanks for the link.

I've been giving a lot of thought to downsizing and simplifying my life...a lot of what she had to say reflects my thinking.

[Xipe Totec]

4. This belongs in GD, so it can be recommended. nt

[Flaxbee]

9. Should I?

I'll be happy to do so ... I just usually hang out almost exclusively in the Lounge :)

[Xipe Totec]

10. What... could... possibly... go... wrong...?

:hide:

Seriously, I think this article deserves more attention. But GD, IS a crap shoot in more ways than one.

[Flaxbee]

14. I think I'd be skinned alive for the very source alone -- the Daily Mail

Horrors!

Maybe I'll do it tomorrow, though. :hi:

[RebelOne]

17. The Daily Mail has some very interesting stories. n/t

[madinmaryland]

5. using an ol...

olive garden recipe??

:hide:

[Flaxbee]

7. yes!

:hi:

[Arctic Dave]

6. Designers have made some incredible homes from containers.

I am about two years behind on the one I want to do. I am making a summer cabin out of them.

[Flaxbee]

11. Link to article "12 Amazing Shipping Container Houses"

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html

[Flaxbee]

12. dupe-deleted

.

[Flaxbee]

15. kicking this again ...

:)

[RebelOne]

16. Really innovative concept. n/t

[pitohui]

18. we wanted to do this but couldn't find any place it would be allowed

the zoning must be different in california, we couldn't find any place in louisiana or mississippi that we were going to be able to put up our shipping container/alternative home, it wouldn't for us be a full-time home but more of an evacuation/vacation country place

but zoning wouldn't allow it except a small part of mississippi zoned agricultural that smelled too heavily of people raising chickens

would love to build a small toy cottage one day but in the south, i think that day will never come, there is just no place left to put it

i don't think many would like this for full time living, such homes would be too far away from jobs, stores, and neighbors because neighborhoods are zoned for bigger/standard houses to protect right wing republican real estate agents and contracts, but many would love DIY homes for vacation/puttering around places, sort of a country cabin but not the same old country cabin kitsch

[krispos42]

19. The cost is in the land and the services.

There's a big outlay of cash to hook up water, sewer, electricity, cable, and telephone to a new parcel of land, plus the cost of the land itself.

Even if the land is only a couple of tens of thousands of dollars, you're still looking at more tens of thousands of dollars for all the parts and labor to get the parcel suitable for living.

:shrug:

The town where I live (affluent suburb), there's a decrepit, boarded-up house on maybe an acre of land. The yard is a jungle, there's a chain across the driveway, etc. It's a real eyesore, especially since the surrounding houses are quite nice and kept nicely.

My boss, last year, called the realtor to find out what the place cost.

$750,000.

Three-quarters of a million dollars, and you have to tear down the house, build a new one, and re-landscape the yard. In this housing market!

But it's almost literally across the street from a private university, and apparently, that's enough for the owners to keep the price high.

It hasn't sold yet, shockingly.

But that's the real-estate market for ya.

[provis99]

20. look what this Welsh guy built for £3,000

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039719/Simon-Dale-How-I-built-hobbit-house-Wales-just-3-000.html

In America, we build shipping container shacks for that price; in Wales, for that price they build beautiful Hobbit-style homes.

So much for American Ingenuity.

[Flaxbee]

21. I love the hobbit house! But also think that the zillions of shipping

containers sitting in ports all over this country could be put to much better use as modular housing - inexpensive modular housing. Not cheap shit, but well made, well insulated, attractive homes.