Can House

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House tour time

Well the Can House is pretty much finished and we are living in it.We have been in for a few months of what has been an excellent summer in Wellington. So here is a day-in-the-life style, 2-take-wonder video tour of our new home. We are stoked with it! Featuring Mogul the 3 legged beagle who was visiting for the day.

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Deck Time

With the container now in place it was time to call in the welders. The top container was welded on and support posts were installed to support the cantilever. The house was now safe to enter! It was so amazing to walk in and finally see the view from our new house. 

The following day, angled brackets were welded on to the edge of the other bottom container, which allowed the deck to be constructed and balustrade to be installed. It was a very loud day screen printing t-shirts below while this was all happening! 

The rest of the deck and stair construction went along while we were away celebrating Kim’s birthday and we arrived back to a beautiful spacious deck that will almost double our living space. We are really thrilled with how it turned out!

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Moving Day!

It was a big couple of days getting the container out of the workshop and round to Days Bay. 

With the help of some super helpful neighbours we double forklifted the container outside to await pick up. 

Then it was up and onto the back of a hi-ab with a pilot vehicle for the 10 minute drive. The driveway was as tight as we expected, but after a bit of back and forth-ing with a walkie talkie the house was up the drive and ready for the pre-positioned 30 tonne crane.

A perfect placement and we were done! Sitting temporarily on acro props until the welding work is finished. Whew!

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Sliding Doors

To separate the kitchen, bathroom and wardrobe, the architects designed massive plywood sliding doors. We made these up and hung them on door sliders. These make a big difference to to way the space feels.

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Side trunks 

The bed width left us with ~ 400 mm space on either side. During a late night design session, we came up with a plan to use this space - long pull out side trunks. These not only give us much needed storage, but can also act as night tables and seating for 8 people. We immediately got to planning and constructing that night, putting more of our left over plywood to good use.

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Pull out bed

We had been given an old slat double bed which we cut the legs off and converted into our pull out bed. This involved the construction of a ‘front trunk’ to act as a step, a ply headboard, castor wheels, LVL timber and lots of screws, glue and clamps! 

It all went together very nicely and in no time we were rolling it into place under the platform! 

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Let there be light

A lot of thought went into the lighting plan for the container house - Tom (Rough Electrical) made it all possible. 

We wanted to avoid lights in the ceiling as much as possible, and focus light on some of the most important pieces - the ceiling and the angled door/window. So we went for uplights at the base of the angled window and behind the sofa. Cabinet downlights and a hidden LED strip provide task lighting in the kitchen. Downlight's and another LED strip were installed in the bathroom/wardrobe area. The rest will have to wait until the container is on site. 

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Sofa design

We constructed the frame and base for our sofa from the plywood off cuts created during the build. Jae our architect designed and cut the frame on the CNC machine, which we then assembled, white washed and adorned with slats. This base was designed for Kim’s Nana’s squab and cushions, which give a nice touch of retro colour to container. The back rest was designed to house our uplights (and will hopefully act as some extra storage). 

From the earliest sketches of the sofa, we had always imagined a mitered box as an armrest, creating a type of ‘chaise lounge’. This was a great challenge for us and we learned some new woodworking skills along the way. 

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Bench cut

With the kitchen cabinets all in place it was time to rope in our buddy Jimi to cut down the stainless steel bench we had scored early on. Measure twice, cut once. And what a cut - we now have a cut to size bench and a hole for the induction hobs to be installed in. 

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Platform construction

A key design feature of our place is the pull out bed. This allows an open, not-too-cramped living space that can transform into a bedroom without too much effort. The other bonus is that it does not feel like a bedroom in the daytime.

To achieve this we needed a raised platform that would be strong, and as thin as possible, with no supports in the centre. We also wanted to do it cheaply with as few materials as possible. 

Makers Fabrication came up with a lattice structure using 2 sheets of plywood, cut on the CNC machine and supported with four lengths of LVL framing. It was fun and easy to click together and fit the space perfectly.

We strength tested it immediately by placing friends and cake on top. Pass.

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Kitchen install

With the cabinets all constructed it was time for the install.  It went together like a giant 3D puzzle - and thankfully not a super-duper hard one. Looking back to our original sketches afterwards was a real treat as the architects had totally nailed it. 

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Partition Walls

 The addition of a couple of simple partition walls turned our big rectangle into an actual house with seperate sections and it felt good. We now have a defined end of kitchen and start of laundry, closet and bathroom. This was a good change and somehow made the place feel taller, longer and wider - and that is always welcome.

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Bespoke kitchen & cabinets 

Our custom kitchen started out as a pile of high-pressure laminated plywood sheets, several birch plywood sheets. The cabinets, carcasses and drawers were designed and CNC cut with tags and holes to allow us to quickly put them together. Makers Fabrication nested all the individual pieces efficiently on the ply sheets so there was very little waste. 

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Lining up

After the window reveals were installed it was time to line our little metal box with whitewashed plywood. The process was streamlined - Mitch the builder measuring, Grant the architect inputting the numbers into the computer and us moving the whitewashed ply sheets onto the bed of the CNC machine. Once Mitch and James had installed these panels our container had transformed into a light filled, soft plywood space. 

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Bathroom Floor 

Another great freebie we were given by a friend was a section of old school hall floorboards. James planed and sanded years of polyurethane and sports lines off to uncover a rich, warm wood that creates a sauna feel in our little bathroom. Mitch made quick work of laying the tongue and groove planks and the bathroom floor was done.

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Whitewashing... and more whitewashing

Our chosen finish is to whitewash all our ply lining. James was chief sander and Kim was head of whitewash. 28 sheets later and a few pails of whitewash down we are ready to line!

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Windows installed

These went pretty well. The trickiest were the big exterior sliding windows which needed a bit of tweaking to get right. We are super happy with our ajar window turned out.