Monday, August 29, 2011

Shipping Containers

On Friday I read an article about converting shippint containers into liveable homes. Yes, I am thinking again... lol. I have spent a lot of my weekend reading up on this. Turns out they can make really cute homes, and are very cheap. they can be converted in a matter of weeks and require more labor than money. I just need to find some vacant land for cheap and then let my imagination take off. Containers run less than $1000 each. Since this is a "green" idea, wonder if there are grants for this. I would love to figure out how to do a spec home and let this be a launching pad for a green construction and get hubby back on fire construction wise. He is really good at it, but his heart is elsewhere. I think the constant losing of money and the haggling at the end is really getting to him. If he could come up with a great idea (well, I already have) the difficulty is in making it work. Fortunately, with imagination and space saving ideas (and hubby knows how to build custom and wall-to-wall units) these can be very practical and affordable. I read where one guy created his home for less than $50,000. Being married to a contractor, it could possibly be done cheaper. Now, how to find financing... I hope there is a grant type idea out there because walking into a bank and asking for a loan for a shipping container home may cause the banker to break out in hysterical laughing. If I could figure out how to get a spec home done, hubby and his on again/off again partner could have ideas to pitch in areas that need to be rebuilt. I could see lots of work in the future if this is doable.