Learn To Contain Yourself

For years I have been very interested in the idea of modular homes.  Whether that means prefab rooms built at a warehouse, or in this case, used shipping containers.  A company by the name of Urban Space Management has built a “Container City”.  The original project checks in at 3 stories tall, includes 4,800 sq. ft. of living/working space, is cost effective, only took 4 days to install, and claims to be constructed from 80% recycled materials.  So they’re lego houses.  I want one.

At first glance, this may not seem very tech-related, but I think novel foward-thinking ideas of this nature reflect and perpetuate some of the greatest advances and advanced minds of our time, so bite me.

I’ve decided to dream a little dream and decide how much it would cost to build one of these homes for myself.  First things first, I need some land.  I’ve found a 0.41 acre (18k sq. ft.) lot in my home town of Omaha, NE for $12,500 bucks.  It’s not the cheapest plot, but it’s gigantic, and I like my space.  So lets assume a round $15,000 for all the fees and crap to get this land signed over to moi and ready to build.  Next up, I need some containers.  Containers come in all shapes and sizes for all different types of situations, but for my house, I want to use a combination of 40 ft. containers and 20 ft containers.  They’re going on ebay for about $1800 and $1300 respectively.  I’m thinking I’d like a 3 story house with a basement, and about 4,000 square feet.  Each 40 ft. container is slightly over 300 sq. ft., and the 20s are 150 sq. ft.  I’m gonna go with a combo of 10 40 footers and 6 20 footers.  That’ll give me a square footage of roughly 3,960 sq. ft.  Plenty of room for little ol’ me.  I’m a loner Dotty…..a rebel.  OH PEEWEE!

So, my total so far for my giant dream mansion is just under $41,000.  I haven’t included shipping prices for the containers, but lets assume I can find them locally and it’s $100 per container to get ‘em to my site.  So we’re looking at about $42,500.  Here’s a quick(and I do mean QUICK) model thrown together in sketchup to give a sense of scale.  We’re talking 4,000 square feet on an 18,000 foot plot.  This is gonna be huge! 

So my next step would be plumbing, electrical work, drywall, flooring, windows, etc.  I’m no contractor, nor do I have the time, effort, or need to actually research these costs.  Instead, I can just estimate high and then be pleasently suprised when I later find out that I’m well under budget.  So lets assume $100,000 to pay for all this stuff.  I’m talking toilets, trim work, a driveway, sod, and all the other bits and pieces that make a bunch of boxes into a home. 

So we’re done here.  We’re looking at a house that’s just south of $150,000 and is literally twice the size(or more) of anything else in it’s price range.  One note, I left out the basement.  With 4 stories and 4,000 square feet, I figured it wasn’t necessary.

When you factor in the stability, durability, efficiency, and versatility(just call me Jessie Jackson….or is that Al Sharpton?), I can’t imagine why anyone would NOT want to build this way.  Assuming you can throw up a facade to make your container house appear from the inside and out to be just like any other house out there, this seems like a no-brainer.  One day I will be on the market for a house, and atop my shopping list will be a custom built container house.  Mark my words.