Couple Build Amazing Shipping Container Home For Debt-Free Living

Building Dreams from Shipping Containers

Meet shipping container homeowners Jaimie and Dave, a couple who decided to make their dreams come true and build a tiny house out of shipping containers. You can follow their amazing tiny house journey on their website where they tell the whole story of what it takes to build a tiny home. Their tiny house dreams started after realizing that no matter how many hours they worked, or how much they saved, the constant challenge of keeping up with the people around them just weighed them down. They realized that they just didn't want to do it anymore, so the couple made a radical, life-changing decision to rewrite how their story was going to go.

Setting Goals for Mortgage-Free Living

The initial goal was to be mortgage-free after building a tiny house on their new property. They had a little nest egg saved and some basic skills. Dave is a fabricator, so metal was right up his alley, and Jaimie is an accountant/controller, who has never been afraid of a challenge and loved the thrill of problem-solving and thinking outside the box. They told themselves they could do it, and thus started their journey.

The Challenges of Research and Planning

They spent months searching the web and reading every available piece of information on how to build a shipping container home. After months of research and learning, they found they were almost exactly where they started. The couple knew next to nothing about how to build a shipping container home. They found the internet to be somewhat helpful, along with a couple of resources from other DIYers, but nothing that worked with what the couple wanted to do. So they thought to themselves how hard could it be to put two metal boxes together and make them livable, thinking that it couldn't cost that much.

The Reality of Construction

The truth of the matter was it was hard and expensive too. The couple doesn't sugarcoat what it takes to build a shipping container home on your own, without a lot of experience or a large budget. They say that it was really, really hard and very, very expensive. It wasn't until they starting going through the building process that they realized exactly what it would take to get their home built. Things they only realized through living through a build, which is true of any type of home construction. The build took a lot of dedication and patience, working on the shipping container home every evening after work, every weekend, every vacation day, and holidays too, even Christmas.

Perseverance and Pride in Their Journey

The good news is that they weren't quitters. This build was their dream and they weren't going to let anything stop them. They also say that they had their pride too, as so many people said their dream was silly and crazy and there was no way they could live comfortably in the same box you see on the bed of a semi-driving down the road. The couple refused to let anyone see them fail. While the building process wasn't easy, in the end, they made their shipping container home dream come true and learned a lot about building and themselves in the process.