Tondelver House - Southern Highlands

waxinggibbous · Jun 14, 2014 2:16 pm

Now that I have reached the stage of having all my plans and permits approved I thought it about time to start my own thread.

I am building a house from shipping containers. I also plan to do as much as possible by myself. This includes all house designs, plans, permits and construction.

There were several reasons why I chose this containers - one being ease of construction and the second cost savings. As I will be doing this on my own most of the time I had to seriously think about the actual construction. And doubting my own abilities to build structurally sound and load bearing walls, after lots of considerations (such as looking at flat pack/kit homes, pre-fab granny flats etc) I hit upon the idea of a container home.

This was several years ago and before I had heard of such creatures. It was only once I began researching the idea that I discovered a lot of other people had come up with the idea before me. Kit homes still required numbers of people as all of the ones I had seen being constructed online involved building walls etc on the ground and then raising them - a group effort.

I also looked at costs of having a steel kit home made - but both the costs and the ordinariness of the designs put me off. The idea of having containers placed onto piers would then basically entail me cladding the structure internally and externally - something I could envisage doing by myself.

I chose the name Tondelver House after my partner of many years passed away about 6 years ago. We were in the early stages of looking at buying our first house together - so the name is an amalgam of parts of both our surnames and acts as a sort of memorial.

I have been a sculptor for most of my life so I am hoping the skills developed in this career will help me in my building work. My biggest sculpture yet!

I haven't gotten very far as yet but I will make a few posts with pictures to bring this thread up to the point at which I am now currently at.

waxinggibbous · Jun 14, 2014 2:23 pm

LAND

Almost 3 years ago I purchased 25 acres near a little village called Bungonia, on the edge of the Bungonia National Park.

It is about 20 minutes from Goulburn and a little over 2 hours from Sydney.

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A former sheep farm, it was recently sub divided into about 12 x 100 acres lots - with two smaller remaining, a 39 acres and mine.

The first two photos are looking North-West, and the last is looking North. This is the view from the large front windows.

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waxinggibbous · Jun 14, 2014 2:31 pm

DAM

One of the first things I did was to have a dam built.

It is approximately the size of an Olympic swimming pool and my neighbours have told me to expect to wait about three years before it fills completely up. As it was - it stayed completely dry for the first 4 months as we had a very dry summer.

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The dam builder (as opposed to the damn builder!) did a bang up job and finished a couple of hours early. So he asked me if there was anything else he could do while he had all the equipment on site. So I had him do the site scrape for me as well as a level platform for my second water tank a little down the hill.

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waxinggibbous · Jun 14, 2014 2:52 pm

HOUSE DESIGN

I spent a long time working on my house design.

I discovered the joys of SketchUp and soon embarked on a series of different designs, learning about the CAD style programme and about my own interests and desires for the house as I went.

The earliest designs were very simple and lacked a real understanding of what could and what could not be done with containers.

Below is one of my first designs which combined 40' and 20' containers, stacked on 2 levels.

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This quickly changed when I discovered the engineering problems involved in second floor containers at right angles, AND that 20' containers were almost the same price as 40' ones. Also a friend asked why, when I have 25 acres, would I possibly want stairs? I hate stairs so a very good point. So two stories went bye byes as did 20' units.

After about a dozen designs, I started to seriously think about architectural styles and what would lend itself to containers.

Then I remembered one of my favourite Modernist houses - Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe:

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This seemed to lend itself perfectly to the dimensions and proportions of containers.

Embarrassingly - my first effort was an almost complete copy of Farnsworth House. (At least from the facade.) But importantly, it got me thinking about shade and orientations as it was evidently not appropriate for our climate.

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It also, by way of another 14 or 15 designs, led me to my final house design:

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Plan:
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Container configuration:
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Main Bed and Lounge looking East
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Main bed and Lounge Looking West
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Lounge:
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Bathroom:
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Guest Bedroom:
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Main Bedroom:
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Main Bedroom study nook with window. (Can be hidden behind folding doors)
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waxinggibbous · Jun 14, 2014 2:55 pm

CONTAINERS

Then of course came the containers.

I found a very good deal through Hamburg Sud and the last of the containers were delivered around mid May this year.

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waxinggibbous · Jun 14, 2014 2:59 pm

And that brings me up to the present.

I am currently ready to dig my pier holes and have the containers craned onto them.

Engineers have specified I only need 300mm deep and 400mm above ground with 2400 spacings. The soil is very compact, the site is on a hill, and the house structure (by standard houses) will be comparatively light.

Pier peg markings:
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EmyN · Jun 14, 2014 11:02 pm

How interesting, I will definitely be keen to follow along. I am very sorry to hear of your loss and think the name of your house is beautiful.

I have a rather stupid question about the whole reason for building with shipping containers..... Why? Is it much cheaper than a standard timber frame house?

waxinggibbous · Jun 15, 2014 12:04 am

Hi EmyN - it's not a stupid question! I really don't know if it works out cheaper than a timber framed house - probably not, as I will still be doing some framing on the outside (for attaching insulated panels) and some interior framing for gyprock.

But most timber frame houses I've seen being built are usually on concrete slabs. My containers do not need a slab but piers instead. I had a quote for a slab the size of my house and it came in around $18,000. My 4 x 40' High Top containers plus delivery plus the cost of piers and craning them onto the piers should come in under $14,000.

So for considerably less than the cost of a slab I already have the basic structure of my house. I also like the idea of reusing a 'retired' container. I bought the low grade containers that had reached the end of their life.

SaveH2O · Jun 15, 2014 2:01 am

Better Homes and Gardens had a segment about a shipping container home on Friday 13th June.

If you didn't catch it, I have linked it below. The link stays active for 28 days from the date of episode.

https://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/better-ho ... pisode-20/

EmyN · Jun 15, 2014 6:42 am

How interesting!! Very clever, good on you.

Bigblock7 · Jun 15, 2014 8:22 am

Love the idea of reuse and your design.

We originally looked at buying 25-100 acres at Bungonia, loved the area, in the end we decided the commune to work was to far and we bought closer to mittagong/bowral.

Look forward to seeing your build come together.

waxinggibbous · Jun 15, 2014 11:30 am

Thanks for the link SaveH2O - someone mentioned that to me - I will check it out.

Bigblock7 - I've been following your thread and look forward to seeing developments.

I would gladly have bought closer to Sydney - the area you are in is beautiful - but it was way out of my budget. For what my 25 acres cost me I could only have bought 500sq.m in Bundanoon for example; and 930 sq.m in Bowral costs 3 and a half times what I paid for my land.

While searching for affordable land - there seemed to be a dramatic drop off in prices once you pass Bundanoon and Canyonleigh. For $173,500 I was very happy to settle for Bungonia!!

I received a modest amount from my partners estate which has paid for the land and should just last me until I finish the house build (which was another point in favour of doing the work myself.) I hopefully will end up with no mortgage at the end of it.

Stewie D · Jun 15, 2014 2:37 pm

The Southern Highlands area is beautiful and your block looks to be idyllic. I've been through Bungonia a few times when we were doing some kayaking trips down the Shoalhaven river. Like the others I look forward to your build.
I saw the episode that SaveH2O is talking about and it was interesting. While the outside of that house looked good I thought that some of the rooms felt very restricted as you would with the width of a container.

Stewie

waxinggibbous · Jun 16, 2014 12:13 pm

Stewie - I've been told by a few people that they've been to Bungonia Gorge and that it is a popular place for caving. It is only a few kms from my land but I haven't been to explore the area yet.

I'm of the same opinion about the claustrophobic nature of single containers. That's why I decided three side by side and opened up would create a large open space.

The only container sized spaces are the guest bedroom (they're guests so they get what they're given!!) and the bathroom.

Disliking taking baths, the bathroom could afford to be modest in size without a bath in it. As it is - it will still be 8 sqm, whereas the perfectly adequate bathroom in my current rental 2 b/r flat is only 3.45 sqm. By comparison I can do a lot of cat swinging!

Bigblock7 · Jun 16, 2014 2:18 pm

waxinggibbous

Thanks for the link SaveH2O - someone mentioned that to me - I will check it out.

Bigblock7 - I've been following your thread and look forward to seeing developments.

I would gladly have bought closer to Sydney - the area you are in is beautiful - but it was way out of my budget. For what my 25 acres cost me I could only have bought 500sq.m in Bundanoon for example; and 930 sq.m in Bowral costs 3 and a half times what I paid for my land.

While searching for affordable land - there seemed to be a dramatic drop off in prices once you pass Bundanoon and Canyonleigh. For $173,500 I was very happy to settle for Bungonia!!

I received a modest amount from my partners estate which has paid for the land and should just last me until I finish the house build (which was another point in favour of doing the work myself.) I hopefully will end up with no mortgage at the end of it.

It is remarkable the difference in prices in those areas. We just loved Bungonia, and everyone we met was so lovely - we spend every weekend down there for months. If my husband wasn't driving to Sydney everyday for work, it would have been perfect. We've had to make a massive sacrifice on land size and what we can build and put on the land, but I guess there has to be compromises. We really wanted to build either a straw bale home or a tyre house down there, and try and be as self sufficient as possible! One day perhaps

Very exciting, especially doing the design yourself.

Keffufal · Jun 23, 2014 2:10 pm

Looks fantastic! You are very lucky to get such a big beautiful block so close to Sydney, too cold for me though! It's great that you are planting natives and restoring the environment, I could have gone down that path but all that work and waiting till the place looked great sounded too hard, and I just wanted to buy a block that was already covered in trees!
It's great that you've gotten council approval for what is an unusual build. I was wondering if there would be an advantage in having a gap of a few metres or more between the containers - which could be roofed or completely enclosed - so that you aren't having the walls of the containers doubled up next to each other? Or is there an advantage to having them together eg. insulation, strength? I know someone who was planning to build 3 in a U shape and having the internal area like a courtyard, which sounded nice...

waxinggibbous · Jun 23, 2014 8:08 pm

Hi Keffufal - I have seen some container builds which have done just as you said - putting space between containers.

Here's a great one in Costa Rica: http://www.homedsgn.com/2011/06/16/containers-of-hope-a-40000-home-by-benjamin-garcia-saxe/

I can't say whether one is better than the other - but my reasoning for three side by side was simply that I thought it would be easier for me so I didn't have to build the floor, roof and one end wall in the space! As for walls being doubled up - they are coming out anyway so it means just removing 2 extra walls.

Here's what it will look something like (from http://www.8747house.blogspot.com )

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waxinggibbous · Jun 25, 2014 2:16 pm

Typical - had to pick the day of wildest weather all year for the delivery of my foundation tube forms.

Winds with gusts up to 84kmh and rain verging on horizontal and the DINGBAT who delivered the tubes failed to call me when leaving Sydney per arrangements (so I had time to get out to site) and just left them outside next to my containers.

First thing I see driving up to my front gate is a 4 metre metal tube more than 200 metres down the hill!

They must weigh around 40kgs and it was a struggle on my own to drag it back up the hill and get it inside one of the containers in the wind. The other 11 weren't a lot easier either!

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Damaged tube - hopefully I can still use most of it.
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Bigblock7 · Jun 26, 2014 12:01 am

Oh how frustrating! Can't imagine trying to move that in the wind we've been having. Drove a bit down the hume today and was being pushed all over the road

AKB · Jun 26, 2014 4:57 pm

What a fantastic idea for a build - can't wait to see more