Containing the Good Life

You love the High Country. You get a spring in your step just thinking about it. Weekends, holidays, you’re together. Your friends are talking. They say, “You love it so much, but you’re just messing around. When are you going to commit?”

That’s right. When are you going to build?

You’ll know. And when that day comes, make it special. Make it sublime. And in your quest for the sublime, have a look at what people are doing with shipping containers. Seriously, get online and search for “shipping container homes” and prepare to be wowed.

See?

They’re joined, stacked, staggered, buried in the ground, hoisted up in the air, filled with water. Arrayed around a courtyard. Topped with solar panels, a deck, and even grass? The outside can be clad, painted, or left as-is. The creativity that has been unleashed… not for nothing has building with containers been called “adult Lego.”

Let’s take a look. First off, there are some good, non-sublime reasons to consider building with containers. They have qualities that make them attractive for use in the High Country. A container is designed to be supported at the corners, and this support may be supplied by a low concrete pier or a slender steel pole, to give only two examples. Thus, the entire foundation for a container is four small supports. In other words, a container is adaptable to a steep or otherwise difficult piece of land, and you don’t have to excavate a hillside or build some outlandish foundation, as you would for an ordinary house. The container itself is a big steel box. Rain, snow, ice, hail—not a problem. Termites, squirrels, dry rot—not a problem. Containers are made to withstand storms at sea. They can take it here, too.

The timing is good for containers. There are builders in our area who have designed and built hundreds of container homes already. Building codes have been adopted for container homes, making them more acceptable to building inspectors. They’re more and more common, making them more acceptable to neighbors, too. They’re also timely. Containers are often built-out in a factory setting, under roof. The container is then trucked to the site where it is placed on the four-point foundation by a crane, an operation that may take only a few hours. That is, you won’t have days or weeks lost to winter cold or summer storms.

And the price is right. Once you’ve acquired the container, for just a few thousand dollars, you’ve got the full enclosure. The money you’ve saved on the structure can be invested in a luxurious interior. As noted above, the site-prep for a container can be as simple as setting up four sturdy posts, saving tens of thousands here as well. Knowing this, maybe invest more in having a top-notch architect. And you can start small and plan for an easy and efficient expansion of your house by adding more containers, a much simpler option than adding on to a conventional, stickbuilt home.

But is it a nice place to be, the inside of a big steel box? Stay in a container home and find out. There are hundreds available as vacation rentals at destinations around the world. And that includes Old Fort, NC. “We wanted something different, and when we saw this home, we knew it was just right,” says Lauren. Her container home in Old Fort is a second home, and is available for rent through Airbnb (Lauren is a “superhost,” by the way). “It’s different, and fun, the kids love it.” Two things you’ll notice right away. The home sports a mural of brightly colored fish, and it looks like there’s grass on the roof? It’s a “green roof,” and in addition to being a conversation-starter, it’s good technology. “Even when the house is in constant use, with us and guests, the power bill is still less than a hundred dollars.”

Lauren’s home was designed and built by architect William H. Triplett, and it was featured in the Asheville Home Builders Association Parade of Homes where it won awards for craftsmanship and innovation. “Accept that containers have certain benefits and certain limitations, and let those things guide your design,” offers Triplett. If you do, one reward will be tremendous savings. And this is where innovation comes from, when the designer’s creativity rubs up against limitations. Containers are narrow, but this home provides a fine example of how joining two containers side-by-side creates a comfortably wide lounge. Cutting the walls to add doors and windows adds expense and, if you cut too much, may require adding reinforcements. For the Old Fort house, Triplett used special containers that are open at both ends, and installed glass doors in all the openings. The result is a bright, airy home even though it has no added windows. A quick check with Airbnb shows that there are a dozen or more container homes for rent nearby, large and small, in Todd, Marion, Woodfin, Marshall, Bryson City, Otto, Asheville and beyond.

But let’s get back to first principles. The High Country is sublime, and so why not make your house equal to its surroundings? Designing with containers is unconventional, and allows you to achieve unconventional, wonderful results. My online search for wonderfully unique designs led me to an extraordinary place in Ladonia, Texas. Containers standing on end create a tower, with a crow’s nest on top, well above the trees. Climb the spiral stair and you’re up in that good air, flying with the birds, looking out to a sunset that is hidden from the poor groundlings, feeling, perhaps, sublime.

By Edwin Ansel

Edwin Ansel is a truck driver, as well as a writer and Art Director for Kudzu Press, an independent publisher of popular fiction and literature here in the High Country. Find Kudzu Press on Instagram and at kudzupress.com.