Ignore the mess. For the passed 2 weeks families been up from Tucson and the containers been used as guest house a kitchen, and storage for vast amounts of building supplies that slowly disappear into the structure then get replenished after frequent trips to home depot. Picture above is of the front wall.
All walls done with foam insulation
Electrical is all run except for the bathroom, which Ill build once I get the duct work in the attic done.
In the very early stages of the build I had no plans of windows just small tube skylights, but after much consideration I believe I would have gone bananas not being able to peer outside at the approaching storm.
Days of scouring the internet for the perfect window for the container I came up with nothing. All were far to big, and the ones that were small enough were pretty flimsy. Eventually figured just build my own.
Several hours of thinking, and trying to muster up the courage to cut a big hole into beast. Finally broke out the angle grinder, and begin to slice away. Slap together a couple short 2x6's a couple coats of paint a small sheet of some pretty thick plexiglass for less then $15 I had a window.
Yes my caulking skillz have lots of room for improvement, but this will work for now. 2x6s made it flush on the inside and extended out of the rigidness of the container
Porch window is a screened slider will be mounting a large fan somewhere in the back for air exchange.
Brings in a fair amount of light at this point another window or a skylight are still up in the air.
Gingy helping out the delivery folks with 16 sheets of large insulation.
In the original design the first 8ft were gonna be used as a shed/storage area, but after many nights of enjoying a few cold ones out there, its been determined it works much better as a front porch for now, and it does face west to enjoy some wonderful Arizona sunsets.
Now I just gotta figure out what to do with the other 256 square feet, which is smaller then then most folks family rooms. However it's still about four times larger then what I am accustomed too. Plenty more then what I need.
Ginger wondering why the hikes have took such a dramatic decline.
Been pondering for quite sometime. Just how does one lift up on 8500 pound 40ft steel beast? Turns out was a piece of cake. Dig a hole insert jack, and up it went. Throw a couple concrete blocks under the corners Viola! Perfectly level shipping container all inside of about 10 minutes. Yes that is Gingys nose consuming the lower left portion of the picture. Heres a few more pics.....
Enough room to run any needed hoses or wires underneath now as well.
Attics up, and that is my future front door leaning up against the wall.
Walls are finally framed up, and turned out pretty good! Considering my carpentry skills were pretty much non existent, but have been rapidly improving day by day. All those little black spots is where I've wire brushed some very minor surface rust, then applied a rust converting primer. Heres a few more pics....
Been a bit leery about cutting into the steel beast not whole lot you can do to reverse the process, but finally managed to make my first incision. This particular cut will be for attic ventilation, which I think will be much needed took a reading on the steel when it was 70 degrees out, and the steel 117. Come mid June it will be a very nice feature more on that later.
Rooftop view looking west. Some pretty serious rust in two of the corners, but still very solid. Whole roof will get a nice coat of white paint to cool it down.
Looking east. Gingers out there somewhere chasing the Easter Bunny. Thanks for visiting!
Many months of contemplating between a shipping container, large shed/cabin , or a travel trailer. Obviously choose the container for a variety of reason's.
Its super secure I realize nothing is impenetrable. Definitely take a pretty ambitious thief to break in.
Able to insulate it extremely well. Keep it a comfortable temp year round.
No quick moving grass fire will harm it. About the only kind of fires we get around here.
Add some stairs and you have a instant roof top patio!
Gonna be alot more work to install windows and such, but at the end of the day will be well worth it.
Heres a few more pics.....
Took about 125 ft to unload
Got the 9'6" High cube. Good thing I did because the inside dimensions are much smaller.
2245 days ago I moved into the Turtle, and within the next couple of months I will be moving out. After many months of pondering, and thousand of hours of research. I've decided to hang up my nomad ways for a few years. To give homesteading a shot.
Ultimate goal is too build a little off the grid cabin, that cost close to nothing to live in. Electric by solar. Water by catchment. Heat by wood. Eventually throw a few chickens, and a garden in the mix to cut down on the food bill a we bit. Would be nice to be completely self sufficient, but taco, and beer seeds are hard to come by.
I shall continue to post here with updates. Most of the techniques that are going to be used to build cabin will be useful for nomads as well.
My gypsy gene is sure to resurface again. When it does I will have myself a great little mountain retreat. Heres a few pics of my stay up in Madera Canyon before I left Tucson...
Sorry for my Darth Vader like breathing but its one hell of hike
Kent spring the goal for the hike, not the most rewarding but the hike was good!
Ginger enjoying her time up one the Mesa. Rabbit patrol last from dawn to dusk.
