Magical mansion made from containers
David Wade knew what he wanted, he just needed to find someone game enough to build it.
His dream was a 340-square metre home on his Ohaupo section (wait for it) made out of 12 shipping containers.
He drew inspiration from a similar design built in the United States.
Budget: $500,000 - not including the land and containers.
‘‘I wanted a big space, and when I looked at the cost benefit of doing it with standard steelframe building or wood construction, it still stacked up favourably to use containers.
‘‘Give or take, it’s pretty much on the money so far.’’
The house will have a home theatre, gym, office, large living space, three bathrooms, two double bedrooms, a single bedroom, kitchen and dining room.
Construction began in October last year, once resource consent was signed off and a team of builders came on board.
Wade’s background as an engineer has come in handy, and the project has had minor challenges.
Due to space constraints in the containers, some sides have been taken off to extend to double bedrooms. Insulation batts would have taken up too much space, so expanding foam was used.
The two staircases were bought second-hand on Trade Me.
And Wade has been using a lot of waste materials from the containers, including DIY industrial
‘‘The house will have a home theatre, gym, office, large living space, three bathrooms.’’
long handles for the bedrooms.
Wade and his three-year-old son, Tom, will be the only ones living in the house.
‘‘He didn’t take to it earlier on, but when I started to show him where his bedroom will be, he’s all excited now and wants to head up there every night to see what’s been done.’’
A Facebook page, was created to document progress.
‘‘It’s very topical at the moment, and I get a lot of people who are generally interested in container homes.’’
His advice is to do your homework.
‘‘When you start to use multiple container homes, that’s when you start to question, is this the right thing to do? Am I saving money?’’
- Te Ahua Maitland