What is your home ownership goal? Sadly, for many of us, just being able to say we own a home is the best we can really hope for. With rising real estate prices and cost of living, with salaries that aren’t increasing at the same pace, it can feel hopeless. But one couple managed to achieve a home ownership dream–with shipping containers.
Shipping Containers, Tiny Home
David and Jamie of Cowlitz County, Washington D.C., had a dream–they wanted to have a life free of the shackles of debt. That included a home mortgage. So, they decided to build a tiny house, offsetting that financial burden. “Dave has always been in metalwork, so we thought, how hard is it to stick a couple of shipping containers together?” said Dave’s wife, Jamie. “It’s like Legos!” The house, made of a 20-foot shipping container and a 40-foot shipping container, is completely legal. The couple worked extensively with Cowlitz County, who they say “made it happen in record time.” Dave has done everything himself, including plumbing and electrical work. Additionally, he laid a concrete substructure for the home, to keep it safely in place. (1)
The Upsides To The Shipping Containers Life
“We bought the land,” says Jaimie. So, from the start, they knew that whatever they did on that land was theirs to keep. Unlike apartment living, or renting a home, the ground under their feet was theirs. This also let them “grow out the property and landscape it, so it was an enjoyable place, not only in the house, but outside the house too.”
Also, although the house only measures 406 square feet, it “fits everything we need,” according to Jaimie. Additionally, the way they have placed their shipping containers–with the smaller one on top–allows an outdoor, second-floor deck. That’s not a feature available in most commercially-built homes. (1)
The Downsides To The Shipping Containers Life
On the couple’s blog about their home, “That Tiny Life Love,” Jaimie cautions readers to have a realistic view. “Here is the honest truth,” she writes. “It was hard, and expensive. I am not going to lie or sugar coat this part and tell you that it was no big deal, because it was a big deal. It was really, really hard and very, very expensive.” If you want an idea of how expensive, Jaimie goes into it in their episode of Living Big In A Tiny House. “We didn’t realise to turn on the water was $10,000, to turn on the electricity is $9,000, to put in a septic [system] is $12,000.” Surprisingly, they said they were “almost out of money before we started.” Evem worse, “you can’t get a conventional loan on these type of builds.” (1, 2)
Overcoming Obstacles
If the cost wasn’t enough, Dave had a brain bleed during their project that resulted in a two-inch blood clot in his brain. Despite all this, they finished their home in ten months! If there’s one take-away Jaimie wants people to have, “it was our story of love and perseverance, even when all seems impossible that we wanted to share.” (2)
