I dream of the full off the grid self sufficient life style and love a good article; so when I read this I thought it was worth a share. My climate isn’t exactly conducive for connex homes without a few major modifications (and my wife would never go for it anyhow), but regardless this is pretty cool and quite inspirational. I also love seeing an innovative connex home that is not off of a meme saying something clever like “redneck mansion.” This article and pictures came from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3107676/Pictured-beautiful-self-sufficient-home-built-inside-set-old-shipping-containers-Canadian-man-expensive-bill-month-phone.html
Jon
The house that really is ship-shape! Canadian man builds self-sufficient home from old shipping containers – and reveals how money-spinner means his most expensive bill is now his phone
- Joseph Dupuis, 29, built home 35 miles west of Ottawa in 2012 after working up to 14 hours over three months
- He has added to home after buying three containers for $3,400 each and hopes to add fourth container bedroom
- Solar panels on roof help power the house, which has heated floors and is comfortable in the -44 degree winter
- Renewable energy research says it is ‘giant science experiment’ and wants to help others built similar homes
A Canadian man has built a beautiful dream home inside three ugly shipping containers and now pays next to nothing when living in his secluded woodland getaway.
Joseph Dupuis, 29, who does renewable energy research at Algonquin College in Ottawa, has created his cabin in woods roughly 35 miles west of the city with shipping containers from Asia.
The engineer and entrepreneur bought the containers that brought goods to North America for $3,400 Canadian each, and has fashioned them into a self-sustaining home on a plot of land owned by his family.
Solar panels on the roof of his nearby workshop power the home, and Dupuis told Daily Mail Online that when at the cabin his most expensive bill each month is his phone.
He has now moved closer to Ottawa after two years in the home, but says that he is going to continue adding pieces such as a fourth container on top for a bedroom and glass ceiling with a view of the stars.
The owner of business, A Working Title, added that ‘When I’m done with it, it will blow people’s minds’.
Japhet Alvarez, a photographer who lives in Ottawa, said that he is jealous of his friend Dupuis’s serene environment that cost less than $20,000 to make.
He was surprised by the beautiful interior of the house after seeing the containers, which create 355 square feet of interior space, from a distance when approaching by car to take photos.
‘It looks completely normal and then he opens up these huge doors and you see it,’ Alvarez said.
Some who have seen pictures of the home say that the metal containers must become unbearably hot in the summer and frigid cold during Canadian winters that reach minus 42 Celsius (-44 Fahrenheit).
However, Dupuis outfitted the containers with heating and a cooling system during three months of 2012 when he worked up to 14 hours a day by himself.
He keeps the floors heated to around 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) and supplements with a wood stove.
‘It’s like a giant science experiment so I’m observing and making modifications,’ he said.
Dupuis, who comes from a family of machinists and whose father is in the renewable energy business, said that he had been working on his idea since before Internet users began ooing and ahhing over container houses around the world several years ago.
‘There are 17.4million of them sitting empty in the US, Mexico and Canada,’ he said of the sturdy boxes that became his home after they were delivered from the port of Hamilton, south of Toronto.
Dupuis also used two more containers to make the workshop near the house where he works on motorcycles.
He uses an outhouse in the backyard and the home is not connected to utility companies’ water supply, but he borrows it from a neighbor and keeps flowing into the house from a holding chamber behind the kitchen.
Dupuis is able to access the Internet from his phone, and says he uses the money he saves to go on trips.
‘I am surviving on next to nothing income and I have a very happy life,’ he said.
Though he keep busy with various engineering projects and his bikes, Dupuis also spends some of his time in the winter chopping wood and hanging out with his German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix Beatrice.
He said that he wants to help others, especially young people with debt, get hooked up to solar energy or build similar homes.
Leave a Reply