Drawing closer! An update – 3D drawings

Building a house is not for sissies. Building a house made from shipping containers is…cool, but can be cumbersome!

Sometimes things do not happen as fast as you would want them to. Although it looks like nothing is happening, we are doing a lot of ground work behind the scenes.

Just to give you an overview of what we want to achieve, here are the objectives:

• On “Freedom Land” we are in the process of developing “House Madeline”, SA’s First Off-Grid Luxury House using recycled shipping containers and other material. We believe we have found a solution for the housing crisis in SA.
• We have completed phase 1 and currently have 2 containers on the land. When completed, the home will consist of 6 containers. Our aim for it is to serve as a show / concept house which will lead to a viable building alternative. The house will be opened to the public about twice a week. Its cost is at least half of a conventional brick and mortar structure.

We have secured quite a few sponsors thus far, and we daily invite green initiatives and companies to come on board as partners. We see our project as a great opportunity for companies to demonstrate and visually illustrate the mechanics and features of their products.

We are very excited to finally show you the plans and drawings of the proposed home…whoop!

The 3D view.

Please don’t mind the ugly green facade. Take in mind that we must still add the wood cladding on the exterior walls.

Side elevations

Ground floor

First floor

Here are the generous sponsors who came on board until now: (not in order of importance)

It feels good to know that there are companies and individuals that share in our vision. THANK YOU!

Exciting stuff! Now we are trying to secure funding to complete the project. If we have the funds and all material on site, we can complete this build in about 6 weeks or less! One of the perks of using this system!

If you would like to get involved, kindly contact us:

lizl@lillyloompa.com

Watch this space for updates!

Proposed container home floor plan

Ashley drew up this plan in January this year. So far we are right on track with following through. The only change is that the girls are sleeping in the bathrooms! Eeek! We haven’t done the bathrooms yet, so we use that space as their bedroom.

The plan illustrates how the home will consist of 4 shipping containers on the bottom floor. We have plans to build another floor…but that is only later.

I have highlighted in green the section that is completed.

Living in a container house: Photo essay

Lilly Loompa

It has been 3 months since we moved into our dream home. Ironically it looks far from dreamy right now…but I can tell you for certain…I have never felt prouder. Our dream to build an off-grid, bond-free home, requires patience and sacrifice. Admittedly it is really tough some days without the usual luxuries, but other days you are reminded of the vision and you carry on happily!

I thought I would keep you in the loop with a photo essay:

Empty lot

Window gaps cut out

Bedroom walls are up using the cut-out steel from the main walls

Before moving in

Front facade with polystyrene panels on roof

Side view bathroom windows

Polystyrene panels being mounted

Side view panels up

Front view

Kitchen view

Study

Little hallway

 

Dining area – open plan

Sitting area

TV + lounging area

That’s it for now!  I am hoping to give you another…

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Living in a shipping container house – Moving week

Lilly Loompa

After about 10 days of being on site, our shipping container home was ready to move into. Now when I say ready to move into…I mean liveable, but not near done and complete as we want it to be.

We have big plans to overhaul this building to something spectacular. And with that said, our vision is to do this without a bond (or mortgage). We are going cash all the way. Now to create a warm and cosy home, you will have to provide essential components and rooms within the building. For now, we only have 2 bedrooms (one for us, the other for our daughters, and one big open living space which doubles up as dining room and kitchen. No bathroom inside yet! Eeeek!!!!

Outside bathroom

We use the outside bathroom (with shower) of the adjacent main house which our neighbour occupies. At least it has warm water!…

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Building a shipping container home: Week 3

Lilly Loompa

Although the last few weeks have been extremely busy, it has certainly been the most exciting time of our lives. My husband and I have build numerous homes for clients in the past, and finally we have the opportunity to build our own. A debt-free, off-the-grid house that will be home to ourselves and our children. Now although we have some experience with this kind of build, we still have a lot to learn. Our motto has become: “Trial and error…we learn as we go along.”

The build of a shipping container home should be fairly quick as it is a building block in itself. As a rule, we do not work on holidays and weekends, thus yesterday was our 10th actual day of working on the structure.

In this time we managed to get the house livable. We now have all of the following:

• Running water (pulling from main…

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Week 2

After 5 years of dreaming and conceptualizing, it almost seemed unreal when the containers were delivered last week.

We share the land with another couple who lived on the adjacent land, exactly the size of our plot. During last week, we continued completing the pre-cast wall, to create a boundary between us and the neighbour. We had to remove a tree and some branches in preparation for the trucks to deliver.

The delivery company was scheduled to deliver on Wednesday and when they arrived they realised the truck won’t be able to turn on the land as it had a super-link fitted. The next day we had more problems with the tree in the driveway and to cut a long story short, on Thursday late afternoon, after 2 days of logistical challenges, it was finally in position and level. The work continued during the days that followed with cutting out window openings and making the frames.

My beautiful aluminium window frames was delivered and will be installed today. As a designer I hate the idea of burglar bars on the windows, but due to our unfortunately high crime rate in SA we will have to. So we just opted for a plain design with horizontal bars.

The structure is positioned at a noticeable angle to maximise the northern sun.

We intend completing the building in 3 phases. Phase one consists of two 40’ containers. This will house me and my family comfortably. The home will have 2 bedrooms, 1 and a half bathrooms and an open-plan living area and kitchen. It will be 60 sqm in total. As the project progresses and funds become available, we will add another 2 containers which will double the living space to 120 sqm. For the next few weeks we will use the bathroom facilities on site, while we research off-grid water and toilet solutions. It is not ideal, but its ok as a temporary solution.

If all goes according to plan, we will move in 9 days. Yeah!

Week 1 – Progress

8 June 2015

Progress ~ {Gradual improvement, growth or development}

Any progress is good, albeit little or not according to your plans.

We started preparing the land this morning. I will try and post a progress report weekly…watch this space!

 

HOUSE MADELINE – A CONCEPT HOUSE

Concept:~ {An abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances}

It is finally happening. At long last we are going to build our dream home! At times it seemed like our dream was just going to stay that…a whiff…a dream. But even when all the odds were against us, we managed to persevere and push through.

Our fascination with this build started 5 years ago. Read about it here and here.  We fell in love with a tin can…a shipping container…and knew this was part of God’s plan in sending us to Johannesburg. Container housing was still a fairly new concept in South Africa in 2010, although in certain countries it was already rife and accepted.  The whole concept of debt-free and off-the-grid living immediately struck a cord with us.

Earlier this year we secured a piece of land in Florida, Johannesburg, and if all goes according to plan…our first 2 containers will be delivered next week! I wish you can understand how excited and thrilled we really are.

The land we acquired

At long last we can build a concept home that could be a solution to our country’s dire housing problem. Have you spared a thought to the destitute and homeless lately? I haven’t lived on the streets thus I cannot fully comprehend how bad it must be.

We are humbled. We feel blessed and grateful that God chose us for this work. Everyone has a work to do. Each one of us must fulfill our God-given purpose. I cannot wait to finally start on mine!

I have started a new blog for this specific purpose. It is new…I should upload a few pics shortly.