Update: This post is for our original two-story house plan. However, the price increase on containers and the high cost of getting a crane large enough to lift to the second floor has pushed us to redesign our house to a one-story endeavor. You can see our new plan at a later entry, Here’s The Plan.

Two-story plan: You asked for it, so here are some sketchs of the floor plan. We will use High Cube shipping containers for much of the structure. A High Cube unit is 8-feet wide, 40-feet long, and 9-feet 6-inches high (one foot higher than the standard container). This will make a good ceiling height for here in the tropics. Here are my sketches:

1. Placing  four containers for the start of the first floor (click the photo to view larger, click the BACK button to return to this post):

2. Completing the first floor (click the photo to view larger, click the BACK button to return to this post):

3. Placing two more containers for the second floor (click the photo to view larger, click the BACK button to return to this post):

Including my shop (480 square feet), we have just under 3,000 square feet of covered living space. In a colder (or hotter) climate I would hesitate to build a house this size without taking significant energy conservation steps, but here in our area we need neither heat nor air conditioning, so our post construction carbon footprint/energy usage, other than a few extra fluorescent light bulbs, will not be affected by size.

The entire angled wall in the living room has no glass, only security bars and insect screening. In fact, that entire wall will be made of sliding, stacking security doors that will completely open the space to the outside. Windows in my shop, the bathrooms, and some other areas will also be without glass to provide continuous ventilation in this somewhat humid climate.

I hope that this gives you a good idea of our use of shipping containers to build our home.