- One assumption people have about us
and our current living arrangement is that we're hippies.
- And they're not wrong.
- I don't think they're wrong about that.
(placid music)
- [Matt And Paiton] Hi, we're Matt and Paiton.
- [Matt] I am 24 years old, and I'm an electrician.
- [Paiton] I am also 24 years old,
and I'm a teacher,
and I do it remotely,
so I do it inside of our shipping container home.
- Our 45-foot shipping container
is located in Washington state, overlooking a river.
What prompted us to live in a shipping container home
in the middle of nowhere was strictly to save money.
Instead of throwing our money into a black hole,
we decided to buy some property
and tried to invest in ourselves.
- [Paiton] Living tiny was never really
something that I had dreamed of
or picture of myself doing,
but I wouldn't change it for anything.
- One thing that's really unusual
about our living arrangement
is the fact that me and Paiton never lived together
before we moved into 360 square feet together.
- To say we've gotten close
is pretty accurate.
If you're in the bedroom, you're also in the kitchen,
you're also in the bathroom.
There's only one door inside of our home,
and that's to the bathroom.
So that's the only place you have privacy.
- [Matt] Before living in the shipping container,
I actually lived in a short school bus,
and it didn't have running water or power.
So for me this has been an extremely good upgrade
square footage wise
and comfort wise.
One revelation that I've had,
just living tiny in general is how much
you really don't need to be happy.
- Kind of going off of that is
how much easier it is to clean such a small space.
It takes us definitely less than an hour
to get all of our deep cleaning done.
- More things equals more stress.
Just get rid of all of it.
- [Paiton] In 2019, we purchased the land,
and also had the container delivered.
And then by 2020 we were fully moved in.
- Something I think people should know
before buying a shipping container
and converting it into a house
is all the rust and prep work that it takes
to just begin the project.
That was something I wish we would have spent
a little more time researching,
and maybe just spend a little more time
looking at containers.
- I think it's important to know the difference
between a brand new shipping container,
a one-trip shipping container,
and then a cargo worthy container.
They're all different prices for a reason,
because of their condition,
so I would definitely look into that.
- Our container is a one-trip container,
but because it's not brand new
that means it has dents in it.
So you could tell in spots that a forklift had hit the side,
and that's fine but when you go to frame your walls
it makes it pretty difficult.
So there's a lot of time that we didn't anticipate
banging dents out.
As far as specific skills that helped us succeed,
it was definitely a plus that I am an electrician
because I was able to do all of the wiring myself,
which can get pretty spendy
if you're gonna hire somebody to do it.
And one of my best friends is also a plumber,
so I was able to learn a lot
through the plumbing process as well.
- For me, I learned so much.
Honestly, I came into this build
not knowing the difference between a hammer and a wrench.
- Paiton's been a rockstar,
don't let her fool you.
The cost associated with these living conditions
would be our fixed monthly cost for the land,
which is about $500,
and then an annual cost of about $390 for property tax.
- We also have things that you typically would have,
you know your electrical bill.
For the garbage situation,
about once a month we drive to the dump
and then pay to dispose of our things there.
- One of the biggest expenses so far
was to build the road to get back in here.
- When it comes to the actual container itself,
the most expensive thing in here would be our appliances.
- Our deep sink is another
really cool feature in the container.
- We were able to fit a full-size fridge
in our container as well.
We definitely don't regret the choice.
Because we live so far away from town,
we have to really stock up on goods.
When living tiny, we're always looking for items
that serve multiple purposes.
For us this ended up being our couch.
Not only does it pull out to a bed,
it also folds up to provide us with storage.
If you're living off the grid,
or somewhere with power that's not necessarily reliable,
we would recommend that you get a wood stove.
We personally got a mini one,
and it mounts to our wall.
And it has been ideal for us in situations
where the power has gone out.
- Although it is small, it is very awesome.
- It's mighty.
- It's very mighty and small.
And anything we did to help that
was spray foam the whole inside of the container.
That process, although it's pretty labor intensive,
was definitely worth the money
and value that we got for insulation
because we stayed toasty warm all winter long.
The least glamorous part about our current setup
is we've had times in the winter
where trees have fallen down,
the wind's blowing trees over,
and it's up to us to get them cut up
and get them off the road,
otherwise we're gonna be stuck here.
There's times where we're getting a ton of snow,
and to get in and out we need the snowplowed.
So there's a lot of stressful times.
- It's never been enough though
to make us feel like it wasn't worth it.
- If there is anything that I would change
about the shipping container
it would be the foundation.
We got some repurposed ecology blocks,
but what that did was it caused us
to change the layout for our bathroom,
and in turn it ripple effected
and made us move the washer and dryer somewhere else.
And now we regret where the washer and dryer are at.
When you change one thing it changes 10 other things,
and it just kind of ripple effects
throughout the entire project.
(upbeat music)
My favorite part of the process is honestly
probably just the whole thing,
how rewarding it's been
just getting it to where it's at now,
and then sitting back,
laying on the couch,
and just seeing all your hard work all around you
all the time.
I anticipate we'll stay at this property
for as long as we can.
Right now we're getting ready
to build a shipping container workshop.
And the goal of that is to build more tiny houses.
- [Paiton] We hope to take these tiny houses
and place them around the property and Airbnb them out
so people like you can come enjoy the view with us.