It’s an exciting time when it comes to buying your first home, but also an expensive one. There’s the cost of the deposit for starters, then costs for checks, costs for insurance policies, then don’t get us started on the amount of paper work! However one Irish family have decided to forgo all the stress and hassle of the normal house buying route. Gordon and Maggie Kelley and their two children are preparing to move in to their new home – a house entirely made from shipping containers on a small street in Dublin!
This is Dublin’s first ever certified container house, which at first glance looks nothing more than an overfill storage space. It looks a little out of its place in terms of a typical house, located in situ next to seven other self storage containers on Fitzwilliam Street, Ringsend. Its days of shipping cargo are over, and it now carries a more precious cargo – a family of four, the Kelleys: Maggie, Gordie, Gordon and the latest addition to the family, new arrival Penny Bell.
When it comes to explaining the concept of how the family came to live in a shipping container, Gordon explained, “We had absolutely no clue what we were going to build and we didn’t have any money. Maggie suggested that we should just live in a shipping container on the site and I loved the idea!”
The interior of the container has a very minimalist feel, as you would imagine, but still holds a sense of warmth. It resembles the décor of a modern home, with an open plan kitchen, dining room and family living space. The upper floor is accessed via a spiral staircase made out of plywood square. It truly is a smart and functional space-saving design that has been carefully thought through and constructed exceptionally well.
As you enter the three-bedroom second floor, it’s easy to forget you’re actually in a house made from shipping containers – after all, they are usually used for container self storage solutions! The Kelley’s explained that although the container home has certainly been cheaper in terms of building than a normal house, the banks would not touch it, as Gordon continues, “They said it was unconventional. I went and spoke to every single bank and they all told me the same, and that our only option was to save up and build it ourselves in phases.”
Not all plain sailing, but we agree it’s definitely a little different!
