Tondelver House - Shipping Container Build

hi wax thanks for all of your posts very inspirational.

all these years ago what software did you use to produce the plans? was it sketchup?

cheers and keep up the great work

Not a lot of news on the build front. Been doing lots of sorting and cleaning - getting stuff out of the lounge/dining area in preparation for laying the hardwood flooring.

One thing that has taken up a fair bit of my time is online research and shopping for a multitude of different things.

As mentioned before in my posts, this is a super budget build. And this is a big part of why it is taking so long.

I had a medium sized inheritance years ago which gave me enough money to buy the land outright. (I was living in inner city Sydney at the time and the money would have bought me nothing there because of the insane real estate prices!)

But after paying for the land and the legals, engineering fees, having the dam built, buying the water tank and the 4 containers - the inheritence lasted long enough for me to construct the foundations and have the containers craned onto them. It also paid me a minimum wage to cover rent, food and petrol etc while I got started with the build (plus almost every tool I've needed.)

But shortly after I began cutting out the container walls the money ran out so I returned to casual teaching.

So for the past 7 years I have been juggling teaching and house building. Not too much teaching so I still have time and energy to build, but enough to cover my rental flat and buy building materials.

And over those 7 years my annual, before-tax income has worked out to be $36,500 a year (just above the 'poverty line'!!)

I've also had a long-distance relationship which has taken me away from where I live for 2 months in total each year. On top of that there has been numerous holdups due to illness (eg heart surgery), bad weather, delivery delays, and some days where I just couldn't give a f***!! (Oh - AND I managed 3 overseas trips totaling 10 weeks during that time...)

So hopefully that goes some way in explaining why the build is taking so long.

So - I am very assiduous in searching out bargains. I also cannot always get what I would like, but rather what I can afford but which also looks ok and suits the build.

Here's a couple of examples of savings I made by doing some online research before buying.

Identical outdoors light but with a different name:
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Buying a floor stapler and compressor was less than 3 days hire - it also means I can take my time and then resell them after I finish.
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This is the sort of savings I've made over the years totaling (probably) tens of thousands.

Another favourite option is to take up Bunnings Hardware on their "find it cheaper and we'll beat it by 10% off". There is a local online hardware company that I use that often has the same product at a cheaper price. So a snapshot of their ad taken to Bunnings and they beat it by 10%. On one original order at B's my $6,000 total came down to $4,500 by doing this.

Need to organise the sparky ASAP to do the first fit in the house so I've been stocking up on electrical items. Here's some of them:
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The 2nd bed fan is only 760mm across - perfect for the narrow room.


I've also ordered double powerpoints, light switches, a couple of dimmer switches, a 3 bar-light for above the kitchen island, and the through-wall bathroom exhaust fan.

The planter box steel has rusted enough nicely so (after online research) I discovered that a great sealer is WD40.

I did a trial a few months ago on a piece of rusted steel in the yard and it seems to do the trick.
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And the female roo with her joey that has been hanging around over the summer is still here and gets a lot closer and is less bothered by my presence. Here I am only about 10 metres away. I love these interactions with the wildlife.
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I've also been considering what to fill the 250mm gap below the external cladding that goes around 3 sides of the house. Thinking of a dark charcoal grey in flat colourbond type steel - did a photoshop mock-up to see. Surface in fill soil will go to the bottom of the grey.
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Floors done! I'm pleased with the result as it's my first floor laying experience (and my last.)

After all the nailing of the floorboards I hired an orbital sander (rather than the drum type) as I'd read it was easier to use with less chance of mistakes albeit a lot slower. Also, the big plus was that you can use it across the grain which made it possible to sand the floor in the hallway (boards go across the narrow width - impossible to get the drum sander in.)

The floor was then given 3 coats of satin water based polyurethane, one coat per day as I had to wait until after lunch for it to warm up over 10deg (as we had freezing mornings here - down to minus 8 on one day) I bought the no sanding variety - lot more expensive but worth it not to have to sand between coats.

Using a sheep wool pad on a pole (like a mop) it was really easy to apply.

(Trying a short video for a change, never loaded one before - sorry it's shaky - too much coffee!!)




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Next I needed to build a base for the water tank before it was delivered. The whole thing will be encased like the exterior of the house and the ground level raised to the top of the besser blocks.The timber slatted base will also be waterproofed)
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The tank is situated right outside the bathroom to minimise water waste when waiting for hot water to start!

I made 4 door threshold plates - iron-bark comes up a beautiful colour when sanded and polished.

Front door (from inside and out):
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And the plumber has done the bathroom and kitchen rough-in.
Kitchen sink:
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Bathroom sink, washing machine and laundry tub:
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Shower, water tank inlet/outlet
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Looking forward to all the external plumbing work being done. (Hopefully sometime in the next 4 weeks.) I still need to buy a water pump before then. Trying to decide what sized pressure tank to have with it. (This keeps a certain amount of water under pressure so the pump doesn't have to start up every time you turn on a tap.)

Currently I am painting the white surround of the 'barn-door' black as the white looked odd. Not a fan of black inside houses (very '80's!!) but the door furniture is black so it might suit it better. Will load a photo when it's finished.

Also I'm having a go at making my bathroom vanity cabinet. The doors will be faced with the same boards used on the floor (they're the half inch thick variety) Again, will load a pic if it looks any good!

I am also trying to get the veggie garden back into shape after I let it run down after summer. And weed spraying has begun once again (serrated tussock has reappeared in places.)

The mum and baby wallaby have been hanging around a lot. This morning I drove up to park and they were only 5 metres away from the car and they didn't bolt.
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Great work on the doors. Agree wholeheartedly with your choices.

The past few days I've taken time away from the house to try and get the veggie garden back into shape ready for spring planting.

Last spring and summer were terrible for growing. So much rain and so little sun. The ground is super saturated which lessens its oxygen content (makes the worms rise!) Most of my crops were abysmal. We are getting our third La Niña in a row - only the third triple on record, but lets hope this spring and summer will be a bit better,

I let the veggie garden go to ruin last autumn:
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So have spent some time turning the soil and adding agricultural lime (I have quite a bit of clay):
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Recent rain washed it in and I got half the garden done today:

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I still need to dig in compost from my compost bay and then top with horse manure for mulch. I've begun planting seeds in pots ready for spring planting.

I have also made a bin full of cow manure tea for extra fertiliser.
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Also had my water pump and pressure tank delivered. I bought a 50L pressure tank but the company rang to say they had sold out and a new shipment would be a few weeks. Did I want a 60L for another $30? I thought why not! (And I'm very impatient!)

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And the bathroom cabinet has hinges - and when I bought them I realised they came with 'push' openers - so no need for door handles! Happy about that.
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Plenty far enough. Gut busting work digging the garden.

The big wet continues much to the annoyance of this bedraggled wet wombat I came across last week. It's unusual for them to be out in daylight hours so perhaps its burrow has been flooded.
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Sometimes things seem to go well but then don't quite work out! One such example is the doors on the water heater enclosure.

Having welded and triple painted them, once I started trying to attach the hinges (I should have welded them on!) I began to see the inherent difficulty I would face using metal - I could see attaching all the wooden slats to them becoming a real headache. So...it took me less than an hour to knock up wooden replacements!
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I'm sure down the track I will find a use for these metal ones.

Fortunately, as the rain and windy weather continued I found some work I could do indoors. (Any periods of sunshine/no rain found me dashing outside to weed spray or plant seedlings in the veggie garden)

I bought a couple of sheets of 17mm structural ply and set about cutting them into the slats - 44 in all (each 50mm wide.)
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Then sanding and 2 coats of stain with varnish ('Black Japan')
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Then 3 coats of satin varnish on the front and sides, and 2 on the backs.
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I should be able to start putting these up shortly.


Then I painted the front timber black so i wouldn't see the blue of the timber in the gaps between the slats. This is being varnished today.
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Continuing with my bargain hunting skills - I felt really fortunate to find these mixer taps at my local hardware. They usually sell for around $100 - $160 each. There was a box of about 5 'end of model' discounts priced at $10 each !!!

They are very plain and simple, and whilst not my first choice, they fit my budget and I can always replace them years down the track with something I prefer. So I nabbed 2, one for the on-counter bathroom sink and another for the kitchen. If I was smarter I could have bought all 5 and sold 3 with a mark-up on eBay!
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And while having a longer than my usual 10 minute lunch-break - I whipped up a bird nesting box from scrap timber. I want to make quite a few more. I have blueprints for different types for different birds. The roof should've been sloping, but it has3 coats of varnish all over (except a 10mm gap around the edge of the hole in case birds chew there) and should be water tight.

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But school is back from vacation, so I still need to work to pay for all of this!

The plumber was booked in for Monday 14th and was all set to go as there had finally been some rainless days beforehand to dry out the ground a bit.

Sunday evening we got hit with 45mm of rain, more predicted the next day with wind gusts of over 70kph 😒

Plumber cancelled.

Finally, last Wednesday he made it out to the house and started work.

Hot water tank connected:

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Outside tap, vent and sewerage inspection pipe:
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a couple more:
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Septic in:
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Absorption trench dispersal pipes:
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Geotextile laid:
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and back-filled:
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Pressure pump and water pump installed:
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While waiting for this to be done I have been spending a lot of time on Big and Little weed maintenance.

Big refers to wandering around my 25 acres and pulling up acacia seedlings, tea-tree seedlings,horseweed, mullain and 'heeling' up thistles.

Weed numbers are fairly manageable now so there is not much need to use spray poisons.

Small weeding refers to the veggie garden. Being so wet the weeds in the freshly turned soil can go nuts!

As there hasn't been much warm weather this Spring (3 days ago we had a 'feels like' temperature of minus 4.7 😮) the veggie seedlings have been slow to take off. Here's a few of what is growing (brought home the first zucchini today):
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Rhubarb (a favourite!)
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I realise the soil doesn't look well mulched - unfortunately with the winds I get, the mulch gets blown away.

Here is the bathroom vanity temporarily attached to the wall to keep it out of the way. The surface stain is lighter than it looks (more like the front edge) and I'm fairly happy with it.
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Not much of an update I'm afraid. Xmas and New Year slowed things down a bit as I am waiting for quotes from electricians and waterproofer/tilers, and tradies all seem to take long breaks over summer (how dare they LOL!)

I need these services to be completed before I can continue with work inside.

I am not allowed to do the bathroom waterproofing myself and as it is such a relatively small job I decided to incorporate the floor screeding and levelling plus the floor tiling into one job quote to make it worth the tradies time. I will tile the walls myself.

One thing I have done is to install the box gutter rain head (for some reason the plumber left it for me to do?) and make the enclosure. I would have had it finished except I was one sheet of fibre cement short and I cannot yet get one (reason later)
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It all has 2 undercoats and 2 top coats.

Quite a bit of my time was spent with weed control. A very wet Spring and Summer has led to an outbreak of large thistles. Previous experience has shown that both poisoning and uprooting the thistles does not prevent the plant from continuing to force seed heads to form. So now I wander around the 25 acres with a bucket and secateurs and collect all the flower heads, and then I uproot the plant.

In the last few days I collected 5 buckets of compressed thistle heads!
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The veggie garden has been prolific. So many zucchinis (courgettes) from just three plants that I have run out of ideas for them!

I've made pickles and chutney (about a dozen jars of each). Marrow are just zucchinis that have grown too large, so you scoop the seeds from the middle and use the rest..
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plus zucchini slice (like a pastry-less quiche), stuffed baked zooks, zucchini cake, containers of blanched zook in the freezer to add to stews etc in Autumn and Winter, and many given away.

Spinach means Spinach and Ricotta Rolls (forgot the sesame seeds on top)
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The red onion harvest is in - not as big onions as usual but many in number:
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Too many cos lettuce to use so friends and neighbours got their share. I'm currently collecting a handfull or two of green beans everyday which are mostly blanched and frozen.

I'm ready to harvest the beetroots, I'm on my second crop of radish, plus a bed of rocket is coming up to replace the cos lettuce for salads.

Pumpkins should be ready in a month or two.

And the little wallaby that has been hanging around for the past year or so reappeared after an absence of a couple of months and she has a new baby (couldn't get a pic of the baby as it is still pouch-bound but I saw its little feet sticking out last week!) No doubt she will be showing off bub to me when it's old enough to leave the pouch!
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I am now back teaching and have accepted the next 4 weeks full time as I need to increase my savings with tradies to pay.

Also my 28 year old Toyota Ute finally died on me 2 weeks ago (almost half a million kms on the clock) and I needed wheels in a hurry and there were no available utes in my price range. I had to settle for a regular car (2005 Mazda 3 in excellent condition) For the first time ever I have aircon and central locking!! And with the same sized fuel tank as the ute I now get around 720-740kms per tank whereas the ute gave me around 430. Fortunately I have done most of my big carrying tasks for the house and anything that won't fit in the car I will have delivered. Savings in petrol will pay for it!

A brief update - the weekend allowed me to put up some guttering.

The house has 2 small sheds (East and West) which have corrugated steel roofs and are the only parts of the house that require traditional gutters.

As the roof areas are quite small I went for rain drip chains instead of downpipes.

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I also planted a coupe of varieties of Banksia 5 years ago and the one below finally flowered for the first time (a single bloom!) and the other one is on its second time. I was getting very impatient!

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I am finishing my 5 days a week teaching on Thursday when we have 2 weeks break for Easter. When I go back it will be for just 2 days a week. Can't wait.

I am waiting for some rain as my water tank is not full enough yet to reach the house outflow (the first 20,000 litres are reserved for firefighting) and I am unable to do the pressure test for the internal plumbing.

I am reluctant to start plasterboarding and villaboarding the bathroom until this is done. I need about another 15-20mm of rain.