Simple Living in Modern Coastal Cottage made of 4 Shipping Containers

We will have been married 40 years in October and it's time that we started just enjoying life a little bit. We wanted something a little smaller. We wanted something big enough where we could have some family here yet it's small enough where it's easy to keep clean. Hi I'm Mike and I'm Teresa and this is our container home in Long Beach, Washington. We are located three blocks from the ocean and we've been here for about two years now. Our container home was built by Relevant Building Company in Oregon City, Oregon. This container home is configured of four shipping containers. Thanks for coming. Why don't you come on inside with us. Welcome to our container home. This is the Sweet Tea model. It is just over a thousand square feet. What I loved about the model was it was one level. My nickname is Tea. Sweet Tea. This portion of the home is comprised of two 8 by 24 containers. And if you look at the beam right here, this beam is where the two containers come together. They are fastened together. Half of it being the living space and the other half kitchen and dining. Relevant Building does this a lot in their architecture and they have little bump outs and it just adds that extra space to an area. They wanted to put, you know, typical three windows and I go, oh we need to do something a little bit different. And they allowed me to have my creativity. I didn't want to have to come into a home and fit curtains and all those kinds of things. I wanted it to be, again, low maintenance. And here they're high enough where I feel like we're still being given our privacy and it allows us to have the light that we need in a small space. So with the bump out, it's approximately three feet deep. It allows a lot easier configuration of furniture. It's a perfect spot for a couch and a couple of end tables. Otherwise the couch would feel more in the middle of the living room. I feel like we wouldn't have the space. I took it upon myself one afternoon to add a little depth. And so I added some color making sure that I did the ceiling as well and it was not well received by my painter husband. But it turned out well, I think. So as a painting contractor for a number of years, I feel like I'm the one that needs to paint. And Teresa doesn't have a lot of experience with this. So I'm traditional white on the ceilings and then color on the walls. And the gray or deep charcoal gray that is turned out really, really nice. Looks awesome. Great addition to the living space. Because of the bump out, we still were able to use the furniture that we were moving with. And you can see they're larger pieces. So when you come into our living and dining area, we do have our television that we are able to pull out a little bit. We typically don't use this for TV watching. This is typically for when we have guests and we gather together. But for the most part, our nice large television can be viewed in other areas of our living area. Our dining room area. This is a table that goes back. I mean, a long time. One day we went in and we got unfinished table with pedestal and we did it. We sanded it down. We stained it. And it's been with us for over 30 years. Over 30 years. Yeah. And it fits well. And now it does have a leaf in it. So we can make it a little bit bigger and we just pull it out to enjoy our space. But when we're not using it, we pull it back into the corner. It gives us more room. It's very flexible. We've been working hard to build a greenhouse and raise beds on a budget, but a little extra moolah could definitely help achieve our grand garden plans. And that's why I'm excited to introduce today's video sponsor, Free Cash. Free Cash is an online platform where users from all over the world can sign up for free and make money online by playing mobile games from different categories. It's 100% legit and even has an impressive 4.7 star rating on Trustpilot. To start earning, simply sign up to receive offers, then download the game to play. Don't forget to enable app tracking so Free Cash can reward you based on your gameplay progress. I chose animals and coins because it looks like a lot of fun and because I can earn up to 240 bucks. I've earned over $30 so far just from playing during my spare time. I've made a couple of modest in-app purchases to speed up my progress. Now I'm earning 33% more. Ready to make a little extra cash while having fun? Try out Free Cash today. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on the screen and get a $5 bonus when you start your first offer. So on our way over here to the kitchen, I just want to point out we have a deck the deck is 8 by 24. So it's an additional living space where it's great for grilling. We have a table and chairs out there with an umbrella. Entertaining, nice large sliding door. In the afternoon with the west facing door, we get nice afternoon sun in our living dining area. And then comes to our kitchen. Our kitchen is what I've wanted for so many years. All my life dreams I was able to get here. One thing that I loved was my stainless steel and I love my over the range fan. I've got my gas stove. We have plenty of cupboard space. I have my dishwasher. Our apartment sized refrigerator that is perfect for our home. And then we also have lots of storage here. Now, Mike, would you like to tell everybody about our island? I would love to. OK. So in the original plan, this called for a kind of a movable island on wheels and didn't have quite as much storage. I insisted that that would be a mistake for us. So the island is probably one third bigger than the movable island. The island being bigger, we gain storage. There's four drawers on this side that we maybe don't have with a movable island. Movable island would have given us some flexibility, but I don't feel that the flexibility overweighed having a permanent island with more storage. Larger countertop for entertaining, putting food out, snacks, things like that. In the long run, I was happy he decided that we had a fixed island and it's turned out beautifully. I couldn't have asked for a better kitchen. With the island being fixed, we were able to add a microwave, which is under the counter. So the microwave is a drawer system. So you push a button, the microwave pulls out very much like a drawer, hit another button and goes back in. Then it's a standard microwave. So I enjoy cooking, entertaining. And one thing about my kitchen is that it's well thought out. Everything's at my disposal, even though it's a one-but kitchen. I mean, there are times when he and I will bump into each other, but we still love each other very much. And I think it's going to do. Our parents, you know, they have so much stuff and they're getting to that age where one day they won't be around and it's going to be a big job for the family to take care of everything. And forethought, you know, because I was traveling quite a bit, I only left the house with what I could fit in my car. That's what I lived with and it worked. And I go, Mike, we can do this. And so that's when we started talking about, you know, smaller, clean line, something simple. I need my tools. So we had to put a shed out back and I've got some tools for projects around here. But yeah, we, I don't know if minimalist is the right word because we're not quite there, maybe working towards that. We grew up next door to each other. So I married the boy next door. We have been a lot of different places in the United States working. We are teachers. We both decided to go above our bachelor's degree. He's got his master's and I went into communication disorders. So I'm working as a speech and language pathologist. I am a teacher in the Minneapolis area entering year 36 in education and I will retire this June 5th. And then I will be with Teresa out here. And then we will summer in Minnesota. Well, I've always been one to find unique opportunities. Let's just say that. And I was ready to go all out with an RV and just, you know, move about. But he was, he's the financial person and the stable person in our relationship. And we were aware that we needed to be in one place. We found this lot in Long Beach. We were able to purchase the lot. And then there was some time, six, eight months. We're mostly Teresa. We figured out what we wanted to do as far as a home. Stick belt home versus container or some other unique home. Well, the container home, it's kind of like use and reuse. So it's economic. It's eco-friendly. We thought about maybe just getting a container and doing some of our things ourselves because he's very good at construction. But when we saw that Relevant Building had such great design and for the price, and it came done, and it was like, this is where we need to go. When we first visited and Carl described what they go through in building, I knew I was going to be way above what I could do as an individual. The engineering that goes on with windows, doors, all of that. First thing they do at Relevant Building Company is they sandblast the entire exterior, take it right down to metal. And then they put a marine grade paint on it. So it should be good for 20 plus years. When we had the roof put on after the containers were set, there is a rubber membrane put on the roof that has a 25 year warranty against punctures, rotting, dry rot, anything. So we should be set for, yeah, knock on wood, we should be set for 20 plus years for the exterior of the home. As we transition to the other part of our home, the back containers are two 8 by 40 foot containers that configure the two bedrooms, the bathroom and the master bath. Come on back. So in our guest bedroom, very much like what we talked about in our kitchen, living, dining area, right up here at the top, this is a beam where the two large containers came together. So decorative beam to cover the seam. So this is a 16 foot wide bedroom, gives us plenty of space. And we, again, enjoy entertaining. So we have a queen size bed. I do a lot of work at home at times. So I have my little office and my kitty cats help me keep on task. The windows are well placed, good lighting. It's great for my plants. It's great for the cats. They enjoy their time. The wardrobe was part of our design. It came with the container home. This is just a well used area and we enjoy the size of it. We get asked occasionally, friends, family, people visiting, if we are amazed that this is a container. From the inside, you can't tell that this is a container home. Drywall, sheetrock walls, ceilings, all the woodwork, the flooring. There's zero evidence that this is a container from this side. Before we transition to the master suite, we will step just down the hallway and we'll show you the main bathroom, which also doubles as our laundry room. We have stackable washer and dryer. Beside that, we have a linen closet, additional storage for laundry soap, things like that. In a little further, we have a nice size vanity sink. The original plan had an additional counter on one side. We asked Joe over at Relevant Building, can we add another counter on the other side of the sink? Counter works great for folding laundry. Right back here behind the entrance door is where our water heater and then there's additional storage. For the shower, we have sliding doors. And then just like in the master bath, we do have the rain shower head from the ceiling. In the shower, the shelves that they have in the corner, I was told by Joe over at Relevant Building, what they do is they save little tiny pieces from granite countertops and then they cut them into triangular pieces to mount them on the wall. Great, great, great idea. And then we come to the master suite. Here we're on the second half of the 40 foot container homes. We have our seams here. You can see how large this room is. This is a king size bed. We have plenty of room. I just want to showcase my headboard. I went to Home Depot and just picked up some boards that are to be used for fencing and I made myself a little headboard. I thought it was pretty cool. And this way is our master bath. What I love about the master bath is again, I have my large sink. I have my wonderful shower. It's plenty of room to get ready in the morning. Lots of room for our needs. And we still have a clean edge and it's easy to keep up. I love our bathrooms. Not only are our rooms large, but even in this one, we were able to have a nice walk-in closet. Where it's enough for both of us to store, you know, our winter and summer things that we need. There's plenty of room for us in this home. Having seen our home, we love it. It was a great value. So the cost of our home was $325,000. That's signed, sealed, delivered. That's all the appliances, all of the upgrades we did. That's delivery to the site and set. That's pretty much the end all, be all number for our container home. And they were great. They were worth every penny. I would totally do it again. I don't know if we'd build again. I would say it's probably a 15% difference, the container versus the stick built, when you look at cost per square foot of building. And we're also looking at the prices that he gave us was a complete build with all of the appliances and things like that, where in your stick built home, you're spending more and you still have to buy your refrigerator. Everything has to be purchased. They use very high quality. Now I did a couple of upgrades just to have some fun, you know, as I could. Right. The granite, the tile backsplash. We did the rain shower heads. I said, we need to do it now because we may not have another chance to do it. So our HOA had a, I believe the minimum is a thousand square feet to build a house in the HOA. When we first submitted plans, they approved the plans. They saw the configuration of the house, thought it was great. I think their biggest problem they had is they asked us when we're going to put siding on it once the container was set. We said, this is the siding. And when we go back to our blueprints that we submitted with you, it had the siding of the container, metal doors, all of that. I think generally the HOA was pretty good to work with. They were, and they were very open and honest and they had great questions. Again, relevance, you know, came forward again, and they helped us out with a little presentation that we could present to them and saying, this is kind of what we're going for. And once we had the house set, people were coming up and they were going, wow, this is great. This is beautiful. I think being the first container in the HOA, and maybe all the way up and down Long Beach, I think it's new for everybody. The county wasn't sure with some of their permits, what's this going to be like. Insurance, to get homeowner's insurance. The insurance company, is this a mobile home, a trailer home? This is a home. It's fastened to the foundation. It's a container, but it's finished on the inside. It's the insurance company we used here. It was new for them, so they were learning as well. I think our plan is going to be, Teresa and I will be in Washington in our container, probably from about Labor Day until Memorial Day. We will likely spend the summer, that might be extended, in Minnesota, we have a lake home in Minnesota. So we'll spend some time, and that's where we get our bill of family. We have three kids, two girls and a boy. Two girls are the oldest. Each of them have two daughters. So we have four granddaughters. Our youngest is a son, and he and his girlfriend live in our lake home in northern Minnesota. The reason why here, I mean, I've grown up in Minnesota. I'm done with winter. Here, what I have found right here on the coast is that we have such a mild climate. I'm comfortable all year round. Even in the winter, when it's so very cold at home, we're very comfortable with 30 and 40 degrees right here. And so that's one nice thing about this container as well, is that I very seldom turn on the heat or the air. I really, I just don't. Our HOA has deeded access to the ocean. It's about two blocks walk, and then we walk over the sand dunes, and we are literally at the ocean. We could walk from our container home. We could be there in probably 12 to 15 minutes tops. We could go clamming. I've got an e-bike that you can ride on the beach. And we like to go out and just sit by the fire and watch everything and listen to the ocean. It's just, it's great. It's just very relaxing here. Thanks for stopping by Tiny House Expedition. I'm Alexis. And I'm Christian. And this is our DIY tiny house on our homestead in Oregon. Looking for more tiny inspiration? Watch these videos. But if you're looking for something specific, visit our channel homepage to browse tiny homes by category. And don't forget to subscribe. Hope to see you soon.