The picture that I saw was of a shipping container home. Have you seen them? I find it to be an intriguing idea. I like that they'd be more earthquake-safe, and that they are reusing something...you know me, ever the thrifty repurposer :) I do like the idea of not cutting down trees for wood framing. Theoretically it's cheaper to use shipping containers, too, but I'm not so sure about that...a lot depends on how you finish it. (If you add sheetrock on the inside and siding on the outside then I don't imagine that it saves much money to have the house steel-framed).
And some drawbacks are: everything is welded together, so you need to know how to weld. They need insulation, which eats up some of your interior space and necessitates sheetrock (though I suppose some interior walls could be left alone). And lastly, I've heard that the wood floors are somewhat toxic so you need to sand them down and refinish them.
So anyhow, I was so curious about the picture that I saw on pinterest that I spent a lot of time looking at more cargo container homes.
That led to me thinking about what I need from a house...which led to what I WANT from a house...which led to me planning out my dream cargo container home.
I won't tell you how much time I've spent obsessing about this...lets just leave it at "too much." But it has been fun.
So here is what my dream home is:
- classy, artistic, earthy, eclectic.
- A blend of storage container simplicity, craftsman, farmhouse, and Italian villa.
- Not too big--our house now is 2400 sf and it seems big enough.
- Lots of natural light, an awesome library area, and a great master bathtub :).
- I'd like it to be secluded on 1-5 acres, partly wooded, and preferably with a good sized pond.
- Also some big trees that are good for climbing, tree forts, and swinging.
- Brick and stone work, and a courtyard.
- Terra cotta tile roof (though actually Mr. Fox says that they make rubber ones...from recycled tires! yay!). (I do like ribbed metal roofs too, but Fox doesn't).
That leads us to Mr. Fox's dream home:
- "a high-rise condo with a view of the water on one side, and a view of the mountains on the other."
- He has no preferences about the size of the property (he says he's never even thought about having a lot of land), but he would like a hot tub.
So, with that order in mind, I pinned to my heart's content.
And I came up with my plan. Every time I make a significant revision and show it to Mr. Fox he just kinda laughs at me and tells me that we are years away from even buying the land. But he plays games online all the time, so I just remind him that he plays his game, and this has been my game for the past little while.
Now, I'm no architect, and I haven't really practiced forced perspective drawing...so please be indulgent as you look at this. But here is my plan for my dream home.
This first is the layout. Yellow is the first floor, green is the second, and blue is the third. As you can see, it's not a tiny little 8x20 storage container "off the grid" sort of house. It is bigger than what I have now, which I find a little embarrassing, but I can't figure out how to fit everything in a smaller layout.
This second picture is how the floors stack together.
And here is an illustration of one of the views. I drew it before I'd figured out how to avoid a badly placed post...the solution to that problem was to add a conservatory (greenhouse & hot tub combo), so the conservatory is not pictured. Also the roof was the ribbed metal that Mr. Fox nixed, so pretend that it's a rubber tile roof, please. And the windows are not as they will be...I don't have the windows planned out...just that there will be a lot of them!
It is all years away still, but it's been fun to figure out what I want. I'm open to comments-- maybe you see a technicality that I've missed, etc.
And just for fun, here are two pictures from my high school journal...both 1994 (has that much time really passed? CRAZY!)...evidently I've ALWAYS been obsessive, lol. Glad I've since figured out that the pantry should be by the kitchen...what was I thinking?
