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Aussie Couple’s Off-Grid Shipping Container Home


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This is the story of a couple’s off-grid shipping container home.

Before, they used to live in a 4-bedroom home with a pool.

But it costs them so much money, that they wouldn’t have enough money left over for other things they wanted to do.

So the couple decided to build a shipping container tiny home with solar power and water collection systems to live off-grid, debt-free and without utility bills.

This is the story of how they did it. And how just maybe, you can do it too. Please enjoy, learn more, and re-share below. Thank you!

Aussie Couple’s Off-Grid Shipping Container Home

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Images © Faircompanies via YouTube

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Images © Faircompanies via YouTube

Video Documentary: Aussie Couple’s Off-Grid Tiny Home

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 17 comments… add one }
  • June 7, 2016, 6:15 pm

    *British couple

  • Michael
    June 7, 2016, 6:58 pm

    Great video to learn from.
    I would place them opposite instead of lining them behind each other.
    There is an Aussie company which provides roofs using the container corners to fix and remove it. This creates a covered area in between, some shade and increases the area for rain water harvesting. This company is in the US, too. But probably they couldn’t do it on their location.
    Well done.

    • Cheryl
      August 12, 2016, 7:31 am

      Hi Micheal, We were wanting to span from containerhouse to container garage to create an undercover parking area using the Pod Roof system as it seems so easy and cost effective too but after many tries with phone and website messages left we never got any replies… do you have a contact for them? Thanks Cheryl

      • Michael
        August 13, 2016, 8:51 am

        Here it is,
        https://www.podroof.com/au/
        I got a quote immediately.
        Here is the the contact information I got last year,
        Dave Jackson
        Ph/Fax 1800-790-218
        Direct 0434 099 037
        946 Wattagan Crk Rd, Watagan 2325 AU
        Hope it helps.

  • Peter Piper
    June 7, 2016, 7:41 pm

    With all the hard work this guy did, it’s a shame that an interior decorator didn’t help him out with the décor. It would look a lot better.

  • Jm Hunt
    June 7, 2016, 7:42 pm

    Wow, the best and most comprehensive information, many thanks for sharing this and to see people who appreciate the real things in a life uncomplicated with a 50 year bank mortgage. If only they had an ecar it would be perfection.

  • Richard Baker
    June 8, 2016, 8:49 am

    These guys are British ex-pats, not Aussies 🙂
    They have done an incredible job but the video made me realise how much harder it is in reality than I had figured it would be, in my head.
    The persistence of this couple is astounding. Massive congratulations and thanks to them.

    • Alex
      June 8, 2016, 10:27 am

      You’re right, thanks Richard!

  • Cheryl
    August 12, 2016, 7:23 am

    Awesome … green with envy right now … where the heck did you build it … bought land in a small town in QLD to do this and ran into sooo much opposition before we could even get it off the ground weve had to can it… heart breaking when all you want to do is go off grid and ditch the mortgage… live a simple stress free life for the sake of your health.

    • Linda
      November 7, 2016, 4:11 pm

      This is absolutely the MOST ingenious use of shipping containers that I have ever seen. The design and all the efficient use and collection of water, their perseverance, tenacity and true VISION is astounding to me. I can understand how they could have done it or had it done, living somewhere else, but to have to LIVE IN IT while constructing it…..just amazing. Also the idea of having pull strings to turn off lights in small sections, that is great! SO…nevermind DECOR. That is not what this is about. It appears perfectly homey to me and well thought out. CONGRATULATIONS. (I also would probably have had the containers parallel across from each other with a large enclosed, covered deck between. AND a half bath in the living area container, full bath in bedroom container. All in all, brilliant! Thank you for sharing in such detail.

    • Kacmor
      November 8, 2016, 5:49 am

      Hi Cheryl,
      The fellow on the video said clearly, that somebody owning huge amount of land in the area let them use a bit of it to build this “off grid” dream. They paid him for it with some work, cleaning dead wood of the road and otherwise taking care of the land. They don’t own it.
      The rules and regulations imposed on people make it harder and harder to do anything. Human stupidity and human wish to make others live the way they do, or think others should is too strong to win against. Even here, reading comments to some of the ideas presented, you will find both. Some people will praise the builders and describe horrendous and idiotic examples of restrictions, that won’t make possible doing the same in their areas, while others are saying that the examples we watch here are eyesores and should be monitored. If I remember correctly even here on this thread someone was lamenting that the poor couple in Australia didn’t hire an interior decorator. So it is very touchy topic. Most people will eat you alive if you don’t cut your grass just so, because they see it as their own properly values going down, others are just furious with you for wanting to work harder and have something unique. They can’t have that reminder of someone’s ingenuity and hard work staring them in the eyes. Very few people can just say “good for you!” (Or is it “good on you?” 🙂
      The only thing I can advise you, in your situation, learn as much as you can, dig all the information about the rules in your target area, and in other areas, that you can accept to move to, say nothing to anyone, plan your movement, and strike when ready, still saying nothing.
      I will give you an example. I live in a part of Boston Massachusetts in USA. My part of town has a rule, that an owner of a corner property, at the crossing of two streets has no right to have a fence higher than four feet, (that is one meter, twenty centimeters). As fences go, it’s nothing. Yet on a corner property it is ten times more important to fence your place well, especially if you have children you want keep safe. But it doesn’t look pretty, so the city said no. Therefore if someone doesn’t know and constructs a higher fence, proof, letter arrives if the mail, “remove it or else!” You don’t remove, they will come, take it down, haul your new fence to the dumpster and serve you with the bill for doing all of it. But I have a neighbour who made himself a nice eight feet high privacy fence and it’s standing. Just because he outsmarted the law and good, vigilant neighbours. He planted the bushes, traditionally used for fencing. He groomed them for a while, so very fast they grew up and up. Then he build the fence around them, to separate the street from those bushes, as high, as the bushes were. All eight feet of them. The little known, obscure law allowed for that situation, to protect street walkers from thorns in the eyes and attacking squirrels, or other such. A year later he chopped the bushes, but the fence stays, because the law was only concerned with the legality of building it, not maintaining it afterwards. Legal fence can stay.
      So look for stupid loopholes and use them. Just make sure nobody knows what you’re planning ahead of time, or “good friends” will stop you. Some out of malice, some out of stupidity. And it takes only one bad apple.
      Good luck.
      It will get worst, before it gets better.

  • ROSEE
    November 7, 2016, 7:41 pm

    Nice off the grid container home. I like it when I hear more and more people going off grid. I plan on doing just that once I find my perfect piece of land to put my TH on.

  • kerri saint
    November 7, 2016, 8:07 pm

    I grew up living in the bush in the 1970’s. No electricity or town water etc, we had a dam that we swam in a lot. We had an old wood stove that was used constantly to cook and heat the house. We did not have fancy furniture and just a concrete floor, and the walls were not even painted. As the years moved on so did the idea of electricity and more modern ways of heating and cooking. As a child I much preferred the old ways of earlier life there. My fondest memories is when we lived with out electricity and modern luxuries. Though we did not live in a shipping container the same principles applied. I loved the bush life and still do, in fact I yearn to go back to basics. Thank you for going to all that trouble to share your story, what a wonderful adventure. It made me home sick for the life I once knew. As an adult I have stayed living on the fringes of my childhood. However I want to once again return to living a simpler life, not in a big house with all mod-cons but in a smaller dwelling with the bush all around me, a dam to swim in and the smells of an open fire etc. I live in a small country town in an old Queenslander and hope to sell it one day to create a similar life style as shown here. Thank you for helping me see it is possible to attain, showing your skill level and age is no barrier to achieving your dreams. Loved the story and how the journey was explained in simple terms, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

    • Natalie
      November 8, 2016, 1:19 pm

      I’m so so glad this inspired you 🙂 — Tiny House Talk Team

  • ZACHARY E. MOHRMANN
    November 9, 2016, 9:43 am

    I have commented on this tiny house so many times, that I should be seeing royalties from it…! So you do the math, how many times do we have to see something till you guys get a response from your readers like this….! Enough is enough already….!

  • December 27, 2016, 8:51 am

    Hats off to both of you! I’m just amazed by everything you accomplished! I especially loved seeing your beautiful garden! It’s hard to believe you used your own waste and was able to put it back into the ground and let nature take it’s course and you end up with this rich soil! Your vegetables and fruit were huge!! I loved seeing all of the animals that came to visit you! This was an awesome learning video to learn from, it was incredible to watch you weld and making doors and windows! I love your catch basin water system and your hot and cold water system that you have hooked up for your tub and your washing machine. You and your wife are both ingenious to the capabilities of creating your off grid container home! I really enjoyed your video and just loved your home! Thank you for sharing! Look forward to seeing more of your incrediable learning documentary videos!! It was awesome!?

    • Natalie
      December 27, 2016, 11:26 am

      Yay! So happy you enjoyed it! — Tiny House Talk Team

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