Sunday, March 11, 2012

Life in a CONEX

Via Survival


9 comments:

  1. I had to stop at about three minutes.
    She's in Cali, isn't she. I could tell by the question mark she threw at the end of every sentence.

    If I ended up back on the Texas coast, I would have at least had a double-wide conex as a hurricane shelter anchored by beu-coupe concrete and welded seams.

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  2. That's what I was thinking, two of them.

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  3. I'm seriously considering a double-wide conex as our next home.

    Not sure where I found it - maybe HERE - but... http://seacontainercabin.blogspot.com/ is a GREAT example of how it can be done INCREDIBLY well. Add a couple of alum-can solar-heaters and... AWESOME home ready for off-grid!

    As to this, I found her captivating though the "uptalking" was annoying I could get past it... ;o)

    It's not often one finds a girly-girl like this willing to live life as such an adventure... I think she's got her priorities in order (decent, servicable home, work enough to support lifestyle but leave as much time as possible for KIDS!, etc) without going full-on smelly-hippie...

    She lives in a BEAUTIFUL place, has everything she needs including some luxury and views many would KILL to have...

    My wife would divorce me if I even THOUGHT about suggesting we lived there... Damn sad some people can be so shallow...

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  4. PS: KurtP -- that's what the "mute" button is for...

    Related aside: Wanna have some fun with the wife? Next time she starts yapping, point the TV remote at her and press the mute-button.

    When it doesn't work, act out what you'd do if it didn't work on the TV -- press it again and again, smack it against your other hand, shake it a bit then try again...

    Repeat until she figures out what you're doing, then -- if yours is like mine -- enjoy the silence for a while! Gotta add the "warning" though -- you WILL be punished for this, later...

    Man... If mine ever figures out her "silent treatment" isn't NEAR the punishment she THINKS it is, I'll be in SERIOUS trouble!!!

    ;oD

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  5. Did you see this before?

    http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2012/03/conex-temporary-housing-in-japan.html#comment-form

    Also did you receive the files I sent you?

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  6. No - I had somehow missed that before...

    I have a growing idea in my head for building our next home.
    I hope it will be a combination of containers and plastered straw-bale construction, with lots of passive-solar and thermal-mass heating, an integral greenhouse and (hopefully) also at least 50% built into a hill (or a hill backfilled onto it) for increased energy-efficiency.

    With a properly-done "sod" roof, a structure like I'm imagining can last literally forever, require little to no energy to heat and cool (ESPECIALLY if I have access to a running stream so water can be pumped through the same thermal-mass used for heating to provide cooling!)

    I'd also like to have a "natural pool" - an engineered "pond" using plants and sand for natural sanitation - which can also support fish-farming on a subsistence scale...

    There's really no reason that "off grid" and "cheap building" has to mean "shabby and uncomfortable"... I'm becoming more and more convinced that the exact opposite is actually true!

    My informal research online seems to indicate that I should be able to build us a ~15-1800 square-foot home **THAT WOULD SATISFY WIFEY'S SNOBBISH SENSIBILITIES**(!!!) for around $10 a square-foot, and give us all the "HVAC" and hot-water we'd need literally for *FREE*. Add in a couple grand for solar panels, batteries and low-volt LED lighting and we should be able to get by with only using propane for refrigeration and cooking - less than a gallon or so per day! I'm also reasonably sure that I could build a wood-gasifier that would provide THOSE functions for free as well, using twigs and waste for the biomass...

    It'll probably never happen, but a boy can dream, right?!

    I'm also really fascinated with THIS setup: http://www.archdaily.com/10620/puma-city-shipping-container-store-lot/

    It's a retail store, and FAR more space than we need, but... Imagine the left-most two levels embedded in the side of a hill... The upper-story wouldn't jut out quite as far, maybe 1/2 the length of the con vs the 2/3 in the pic...

    Face it south for passive heating, and enable closing in the under-side (using glass or clear plexi/poly/etc) in the winter. Maybe even add a quarter-hoop greenhouse to expand living area and add moisture, etc...

    In the center of the living area, a large stone and rammed-earth structure would contain a "rocket-stove" type setup with LOOOoong flue-pipe snaking back and forth to capture as much of the heat as possible in the "thermal mass"... Likewise, solar hot-water piping - using thermal convection for "pumping" - would also circulate hot water through the "mass" as well... Burn the stove to heat up the "mass" in the evening and it would keep the whole place warm all night!

    A couple of small solar-panels and LED lighting throughout - I wouldn't need much of a battery-bank, even!

    The biggest problem I'm going to have is Wifey. Her idea of "roughing it" is staying in a hotel that doesn't offer turn-down or room-service... (rolleyes)

    And no - I'm not exaggerating... (rolleyes)

    She also seems incapable of seeing past what *IS* to she what COULD be. She can't see what an item might look like cleaned and painted, the potential in an old house in need of TLC, etc... She prefers new "ikea"-style disposable pressboard CRAP to antiques, simply because the former is "new" and the latter is "someone's old CRAP... 'Why would I want someone else's old JUNK??!!" Trying to make her "see" what I envision is sure to be the biggest challenge of my life...

    Luckily my daughter's an Industrial Design major - so she SHOULD be able to help me with designing the mess, and likely she can do a 3-D mockup in a CAD program as well to help wifey "see" the end-result...

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