Long journey with lots of pre conceived ease in the beginning. I hope some of the information that I will talk about will take some stress away for people looking into this form of building. We have in modern society created an ‘ housing affordability problem ‘ which in my brain is insane when balanced against the ease of material scheduling, supply chain, transport , technologies, labour etc etc. Will try have my first detailed video up next week about planning. It will go for a while as I have attempted to make it short but failed. Hoping everyone feeling good. Thanks Sean

Bit of a time line vid.

Only words no photos. I am currently in Austin Texas from an invite from a company from nothing more than offering free advice on container sites in the hope of helping people's journey in the underrated difficulty of shipping container construction. The journey got a little more interesting as have been invited to become part of a team to tackle the perceived housing affordability crisis in Austin. Perceived due to the grossly disproportionate problems my own country is facing. Being in a large city that has the vision to show impetus to even look at and support a program of addressing of a growing need is cool and refreshing, although another country. Containyourselfaustralia is going global, exciting, nervous and hopeful that many years of hard work, stress and sleepless nights may help people somehow.

No photo only words. Life has a tendency to throw a curve ball sometimes. At present I sit having a beer I Austin after being invited by a company, through no more than attempting to help people with advice on their journey of container construction. The journey gets even more interesting as will working with over the next few months with a team / group / mentor program created by developods to aid the perceived housing affordability crisis in Austin. Coming from Australia I say perceived crisis from

Container building does not vary a great deal from conventional building. The time and cost involved in the details will always be needed to be calculated into the building design. We live in a world that celebrates the quality of building based upon the finish, this finish takes time , thought, skill and experience even for a simple project. When you throw a new product into the equation ( shipping container ) you add a whole new skill set required. You cannot just pop down the hardware and ask for a truss connection system to put a roof on a container etc . I feel very proud to have had the opportunity, ability, belief and help to build this project . It has been a steep learning curve in the challenge of expense/ time/ materials knowledge for custom projects. I am now inspired to bring to the world and share my knowledge of how to reduce confusion and ease the complexity of container building. I believe there is a way to do it, we just need to create the process. Thanks Sean

Gable ends complete and veranda ceiling lined. Installing gutters and facia , eave linings on house now. For anyone building on steep ground be aware of the extra time/ expense when working high , it takes longer because it's a pain in the arse crawling around on scaffold and dangerous on a ladder.

EXPRESSES OF INTEREST SORTED:- Contain Yourself Australia is currently in the development stages of a simple engagement platform for anyone planning a project with shipping containers. We are searching for people / business operators with prior experience or interest in this growing industry to join our co -operative based networking model. The skill sets we require to ease the traditional difficulty of container building are as follows:- • engineering ( structural, geo technical , electrical) •town planners/ experience in town planning •architects and building designers •independent certification businesses • builders •tradesmen from all fields •material suppliers •shipping container supply businesses •logistics business operations ( cranes, trucking etc) • fabrication specialists(onsite/ offsite) As you can see the range of skills required to create an affordable process of building with a container are very similar to traditional building, we are attempting to create a platform that connects clients to experienced professionals to solve and facilitate their chosen project to create an affordable outcome. Please personal message me if you may be interested to learn more thanks Sean . Contain Yourself Australia/ oneknottwo

For everyone who is about to embark on the journey of cutting and welding opening in a container some advice from experience- • a shipping container wall will have tension in it due to its inert strength for what it was designed to do ( carrying vast amounts of weight) . The more damage, the more tension. This tension, depending on the size, location, height, how many cuts will react differently . Sometimes compress , sometimes expand. • support your bottom rail whilst cutting as once you remove the strength of your side walls the the weight of the subfloor will pull down and create movement in various ways • choose your cutting tools for the job well, as you are cutting steel you are limited by choice ( plasma , grinder 4 inch 5 inch 9 inch, oxy , cold cut saw blade , reciprocate saw with metal blade etc) they all have their advantages/ disadvantages. I highly recommended a standard circular saw with a metal cutting blade and a screwed on straight edge/ guide for horizontal cut as you will stay true through the depth of cut due to saw foot. Do not try to plunge cutting with this you need to create a starting point with a grinder •. Be careful when using plasma cutting for accurate cutting as the heat introduced tends to distort steel more • do horizontal cuts first, leave small tags of uncut walls for vertical cutting and remove these last ( heaps safer) Hope this helps and good luck, it's not that easy to do as you will learn especially when a quality weld is required ( 2-3 mm max gap

Finally had to put some scaffold up. Roof on an one gable end all done, sealed and painted. Time for facia , gutters and eaves.

The view from the bottom of the hill. On the left is the garage built from 3 20 ft containers. The house is on the right and has 8 20 ft containers. The use of 20 ft containers was necessary due to the slope of block and ease of cranes ( cranes don't like lifting on slopes) . The exterior covered deck area comes in around one third of the total roof area , but with a view like the one from the outside living area it would be hard to go inside.

A bit of rewind. I have spent most of my life creating custom furniture / fit outs from recycled materials. This build was one of my first attempts with a shipping container. The insight into the difficulties of containers started here. How do you connect, how do you cut, how strong is a container etc. So nearly 3 years later and a lot of work/ r and d have created a system of modification that reduces 2/3 of labour content, stress and engineering problems. I understand I always say will show and open source soon but am trying to ensure I can at least recoup the debt I have gained through this process.

Lots of timber on top of containers . These 12 mtr trusses are all installed without welding. Be aware if your thinking building with high cube containers and doing off site modifications that you cannot add much height to the container, 50mm max . This due to transportation height restrictions.