After a relatively uneventful winter I returned to my new home. Yes. A shipping container. A twenty foot one at that. I purchased one last year to use as storage for building materials and ultimately itll become a workshop of sorts. The house survived winter just fine and now was the time to get moving on it again. April still saw snow and plenty of freezing temperatures. The container serves as a good half way house of sorts.
I grew rather found of living in the container. I abandoned the idea of building a home out of them, despite all the cool ideas on the internet. Its a trend, like most things. As I looked more into it there wasnt any solid benefits. In fact, there were more cons. Sure its nifty to have a weatherproof shell dropped on your land. Its a nightmare to insulate, completely imbedded with chinese pesticides and is hardly "cheap". I didnt give up on it completely though, last year I began insulating it and finished it this spring. Solid metal shells get very hot and very cold, oh and dont breath at all. A combination of guaranteed problems down the road. The only true answer is spray foam insulation which destroys any hope for cost savings. Since its not a permanent home I opted for my own custom design, an experiment of sorts. I read through a plenty of homestead blogs and figure someone else may come across mine. My advice is unless you can get the containers super cheap (less than $1000) then its not worth the trouble. Unless youre trendy, then have at it.
I basically framed out a box inside the container with an air gap on the top. Each stud bay I used 1" foam board which is suitable for subgrade installation so it wont grow mold or hold moisture. The entire interior was then wrapped in 6mil polysheeting, trapping the air between the foam board and interior wall surface (sheetrock). Unknown to many, air holds a R value, its the moisture and convection that negates it. Dry, still air provides some insulation. 3.6 R value supposedly per inch. Combined with the foam board total R value could be around 12. Who really knows. I dont care. All I know is it works and was perfectly cozy. Took off the temperature swings, heated up quick with the campstove and held the heat. Opposing vents were drilled out and a CO detector installed. Having a fire in a 19x8' space isnt safe by most standards and Ive had CO poisoning before.
On a windy day, with a mostly closed flue, CO levels did rise in the container. Its a real risk, be careful. Funny me saying that but I suppose a two week headache and being scared of falling asleep and not waking up did knock some sense in me.
I do recommend paying extra for the digital readout, kind of an early warning rather than waiting for the alarm to go off when it rises to dangerous levels.
In real time, I (we) are moved out of the container and in the actual house. So now the container will be serving as a workshop/gym. Such an odd sized space made it difficult finding a squat stand thatll fit the space. After months of hounding craigslist, I built my own. Out of wood. Yes. The biggest driving factor in my homestead mission is to have the freedom and challenge to do pretty much whatever I want. I love experimenting. I learn by pain and error. Thus, squat stand needed. Container life aint so bad afterall.
