Contribute to the Project Aside from material contributions, there is always a need for money to get this project off the ground. If you wish to do your part, please make a contribution. Every bit helps. No amount too small. Major contributors will be noted.
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by Terry
The forum has hit the 110-member mark over the course of several months, which is significant because this shows the forum is growing in popularity and people are reading the posts within it! I encourage you to join and present yourself to the world as well as any project(s) you have in progress or in the planning stages. Meet new people from across the world who may share similar interests in shipping container/green/experimental home-building.
The benefits of joining:
- Create a profile that tells the world: who you are as an individual; your affiliations; your projects; your site and much more. It’s up to you how beefed up you want your profile to be. Add links, pics, whatever you want.
- Develop connections that could create opportunities.
- Offer services to the forum to generate connections and income.
- Get free advice from people from all over the world.
- Show off your project(s).
- Have fun chatting about cool topics like container home building and going green.
Get on board! Register, create a personal profile and post an introduction in the forum. Help me build it up. Many benefits could result. I’ll see you in there.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN FORUM
“Register” once you are there.
NOTE: Some of you may find that your auto-generated password isn’t landing inside your inbox. Please check your email service’s spam bin for the confirmation email. There are links in the confirmation email and this may trigger “spam” filters for your email service. Thanks.
by Terry
 I think I may have found a sort of Shangri-La for those of us dreaming of doing anything we want with a piece of property–building what the heck we want without kissing the asses of the building department to push an idea through. Oh yes… This is a really good find I am going to share with you…
This past winter, I drove from California to Florida not only because I am nuts, but also because I love to drive and see what this great country of ours (if you are American) has to offer. On my way, I made it to El Paso from Los Angeles in about 11 hours I believe, but had no intentions on staying there because El Paso isn’t on the top of my list of favorite cities. No, I kept driving. Eventually, I stayed in Fort Stockton, Texas, which is about an additional three hours of driving beyond El Paso on Interstate 10. So unfortunately on the first pass, I totally missed seeing the wonderful would-be Shangri-La for containerists and alternative home builders–it was about 10 P.M.
Two weeks later, my drive back from Florida was different. It was daytime when I drove through it: Hudspeth County, Texas. It was not the Texas we picture when we think of the state. No cows. No flat, ugly brown dirt-laden stretches of land. No tall grasses. No oil rigs that I can remember. No junky homes or trash strewn about. The landscape was rather beautiful. Mountains, clean air, and gorgeous shrubbery and flora. Quite possibly one of the most ideal places to build whatever the hell you want without any worries, and never regret it. No snoopy neighbors, bad terrain, traffic or any of the things that could hinder one’s creative inner builder… oh, and hell yeah, no building inspectors! Hudspeth County, Texas has NO BUILDING CODES.
It that it? Was that all I had to say? Nope. How many places in the U.S. can you get a 10-acre parcel for about $3k? Not too many. You can start a ranch, compound or even an off-grid community. There is so much land for sale there that you can do whatever you want! Hell, start a town and name it after yourself. Grow crops with the abundant underground water in the area. Amenities? Nah. If you had amenities of a normal city, you would likely have codes, so take your pick. It’s not that bad really. You will have to drive a bit to get the things you need. El Paso is near, so there is your answer.
Well, I thought I would just share this with you, the present and future containerists like myself. I love fanning the flames of inspiration. I want to get your imagination flowing with the following link to some land in the area. Have a great time dreaming and wishing:
Cheap Land in Hudspeth County, TX (opens new window)
Here is a sample Craigslist ad for shipping containers in El Paso, TX. The container would be about an hour away from your property if you ever decided on a parcel in Hudspeth County. You could have a container sitting on 10 acres of land you own for about $5000 total.
by Terry
 I want to emphasize again as I had first done in my other post about Haiti that I am saddened by the events that have befallen the people there. It’s a tragedy. I really hope things smooth out for the citizens of Haiti; with prospects of “normal” life and a discernible recovery happening in the next few years.
Since the Haiti quake, like the horrid things which had transpired on 9/11, we are scrambling for answers to try to patch up the casualties of the disaster and assist with what we have. I have had several emails regarding the use of shipping containers as emergency housing units and sending them over to Haiti to help. It’s noble to think we can just act on a situation and have it fix things because it seems to address the need. The sad truth is that even if I spearhead a construction campaign using donated resources to build these units and cranked out 100 of them, to actually see them arrive in Haiti or any other place ravaged by natural disasters is highly remote. Why? Because believe it or not, there is more red tape than you can ever imagine. Imposed by whom you may ask? Our very own government, of course.
Katrina was the proving ground for FEMA’s responsiveness. Remember the backlash for the agency’s lack of foresight and responsiveness after the weeks and months that had passed since the unforgiving hurricane slammed the gulf cities? It was embarrassing. In the end, a lot of the temporary housing units brought into the destroyed areas were brand new mobile homes… which cost the government about $15k or so per unit uninstalled; and by the time they were transported and set up, they were about $30k each. What happened to those units? Well, after doing their job of housing the displaced people and exposing them to high formaldehyde levels, they are being destroyed since maintaining them isn’t a viable solution. Basically, “Get out, Katrina victim, and find a home somewhere else!” NY Times Article on what they are doing with the trailers now. Not all of the victims received these trailers, there were a lucky few who had nicer, cottage-like shelters for which they didn’t (and still don’t) want to vacate from because “…they are so nice…”
Guess how many emergency shelter options were presented to the government after Katrina? 5? 12? Try somewhere near 70! All proposals were from different companies vying for their share of money and finding a solution for the next disaster which will surely revisit the U.S. again one day. What did they choose? Which shelter types are ready for deployment to the next emergency? You’ll have to dig that up yourself because clear answers are hard to find.
The indecisiveness of the U.S. government has placed it (and us) in a state of un-readiness for future disasters. So even if there was the magic bullet to solve the problem of housing victims of tragedy on a mass scale, the red tape created and juggling act performed by the agency we call FEMA keeps excellent, viable solutions from finding their way to the victims (future victims–surely an inevitability than a hypothetical).
As for Haiti and getting our vast array of ready-right-now emergency shelters down there, who knows what will make it down there, if anything. I think anything would work. Doesn’t have to be converted shipping containers. Could be tents, plastic domes, giant cardboard boxes… hell, it doesn’t matter as long as there is something besides the unforgiving sun; and relentless flies adding insult to injury–buzzing about the poor, broken-and-battered people strewn around the perimeter of makeshift clinics and hospitals.
We all want to help, but the pie in the sky notion that we can just create shipping container shelters and to Send them off to Haiti! is just a notion that needs to be shelved. Too many obstacles for the idea to be viable in the near future. By the way, there are already at least a dozen companies in the U.S. with a nice stockpile of converted containers, mini shelters and houseboats (some with tens and hundreds) that were made for disasters just like in Haiti, but I seriously doubt even one of those units will make it down there. Sad isn’t it?
Me, go out and create shipping container shelters for Haiti? What for? They will just sit there in the storage yard collecting cobwebs. We are so not prepared for another hurricane on the same scale as Katrina–thankfully, we haven’t faced a Haiti yet. YET.
To help, make a donation by texting “HAITI” to 90999 to give $10 (appears on your bill), or go to redcross.org. My girlfriend and I have given $50 to Haiti (Not much, I know, but it shows you that any amount will do good.) Help humanity… help the tens of thousands of new orphans in Haiti. Give a little. Your heart will feel good after you do, believe me.
by Terry
 I wish I could take credit for being the original containerist, but there have been many before myself with the concept. Our ancestors have been using any and all materials available since the dawn of time to keep them sheltered from sun, snow, rain and cold. They lived in tree trunks, hollowed out bushes, holes [...]
by Terry
 I like technology and mechanical marvels. We have come a long way since Henry Ford developed a way to mass-produce mechanical parts for automobiles, as well as the assembly of cars themselves. Humans are so innovative and come up with some amazing things. Who knows what the next hundred years will bring.
I was picturing how [...]
by Terry
 Ever wake up on any random Monday from an inadequate slumber, hittin’ snooze just a tad harder than last Friday, full-bladdered, and think to yourself: Geez, this sucks!? The daily grind… The same ol’ same ol’… Asking yourself: “Is this it? Is this really what my life is about?” Not being able to distinguish January [...]
by Terry
 First of all, it breaks my heart seeing these poor people on television. It’s hard to watch… surreal in a sense. Sadly, its real and not just some bad nightmare we wake from. Haiti is a stone’s throw from Florida and if anyone wants a taste of reality, hop on a flight and you are [...]
by Terry
 When you have a site that is focused on a certain theme, you eventually attract like-minded people. One fine day, I got a “hey” from a lovely person named Jen patting me on the back for my website, along with a link to a website she operated with a cool dude named Trevor. I kindly [...]
by Terry
 There is nothing more fascinating to a containerist than a currently-being-built container home! Who out there is constructing a container home? I am talking right now… this minute… a site with a container on it, being built.
We all want to know what it’s like and how you feel about it. Please reply to this post [...]
by Terry
 After running this site and communicating with the VAST numbers of people interested in container home building, I would have to say that besides the out-of-the-box thinking (no pun intended) of living inside a converted shipping container once used to ship goods across the world, price is the other key ingredient. Many emails have come [...]
by Terry
 OK, so I have a new favorite container home (till I build mine). I like more of the setting and the artistry than the overall beauty of the home. Either way, wow! This pic is of a 7-container home built by Maison IDEKIT Home, a French Canadian firm.
The home already answers a couple of questions: [...]
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