Many of us follow the traditional life path that involves getting a job that we spend 40 or more hours per week just to afford a roof over our heads. Lulu, a single mom in California, decided that this was not the life for her and her daughter. She spent $4000 to build their very own shipping container home.
This Shipping Container Home Cost Just $4000
Single mom Lulu, who had recently gone back to school, knew that there was no way she could afford rent or a mortgage on top of her student loans. Unable to stay in their conventional house, she had to figure out where she and her daughter would live.
A friend of hers suggested that she build something. With no real building experience, Lulu decided to go for it, anyway. She got a used shipping container for free and got to work making a shipping container home for her little family of two.
“I think I’m a little claustrophobic so the storage container was a little daunting, but I got the container for free.” she laughs.
The Build
It took one month and just $4000 to have her shipping container move-in ready. Lulu spent that month doing various things to turn the 8 x 20 square-foot container into a house. These tasks included :
- Cutting windows and doors
- Installing insulation
- Building a kitchen
- Basic plumbing
- Furnishing
The kitchen is outfitted with kitchen cabinets, a propane-powered campfire stove, and an on-demand water heater. She also fit a bed, couch, and bookshelf inside the container.
After some time, she decided that they needed more space. She built a separate building on a used flatbed trailer to act as a bedroom for the two of them.
“It’s really mostly built like a shed. It’s a nice looking shed, but it’s really an 8 by 16 shed with windows in it,” she explained.
Upcycled Everything
Lulu used recycled materials for every aspect of their tiny shipping container home. This includes the:
- Floorboards
- Cabinets
- Toilet
- Bathtub
- Doors
- Windows
- Sinks
Most of the materials she got from the junkyard. She explains how she would go to the yard, look around, and just get creative with what was available. (1)
“When you don’t have money, you just get creative,” she says. “I had to go to the junkyard many times and be like, ‘okay, what am I going to do’ and be like ‘okay, I’ll pick that’ and ‘how can I convert that into a closet’ and ‘how can I make that a sink’ and ‘how am I going to make that fit.’”
The Right Choice For Her
Ultimately, she is happy with her decision. She says that she is not the kind of person who wants to spend hours of her life working a job just to afford a conventional home.
“I mean this was really a choice about, you know, how many hours do we have to our life and how do I want to spend those hours and really about do I want to go and work more than 10, 20, 30 hours a week so that I can pay rent to have a big house so that I can be a healthy normal mom.”
She says her daughter has a mixed opinion. Sometimes she loves their little home, and sometimes she complains that they don’t live in a “normal” home. For Lulu, however, it’s all about living a life that values time over money and material objects.
“Material things, all of it is on borrow right; we’re all just borrowing stuff… None of this is ours, and we try to secure ourselves in these identities,” she says. “I’m sure that I am myself, and it’s like oh no, this house is really a prison, and I’m tied to the bank.”
Keep Reading: Couple Turned Two Shipping Containers Into Beautiful Home In Less Than 10 Months
Sources:
- “California DIY, shipping container tiny home and a cargo trailer bedroom.” Youtube. Kirsten Dirksen. November 28, 2011.