This couple live mortgage-free in their amazing container home

By Street Asset On Apr 5, 2023 3 0

These first-time homebuilders created a metal masterpiece

While they may be durable and budget-friendly, shipping containers aren’t usually considered the most elegant of building materials. But where others might have seen a utilitarian metal box, one couple saw the bones of a truly unique residence. Undertaking almost all of the work themselves, first-time homebuilders Zack and Brie Smithey triumphed against the odds to create a metal masterpiece of a home where they could live mortgage-free. Click or scroll on to discover their remarkable journey…

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A natural progression

With three home renovations under their belt, building their own house felt like the next logical step for Missouri-based Zack and Brie. The pair are inherently creative – Zack is a professional interdisciplinary artist while Brie owns her own premium protein bar business – and they knew bricks and mortar weren’t for them. “We didn’t want to build with traditional materials… when we came across shipping containers they seemed to fit some of the themes we were trying to follow: recycle, repurpose and reuse,” Zack explains.

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Breaking ground

The couple had purchased an empty lot back in 2011 in St Charles, Missouri, so they already had the ideal place to bring their home to life. Stretching two-thirds of an acre, it only set them back $7,500, crucially because it was sited on a large hill. To level the plot, they had to excavate 2,500 cubic yards of earth – that’s 200 truckloads of dirt – to create an amphitheater in the hill for their 11-foot concrete foundation.

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A different perspective

It’s fair to say that the Smitheys tackled their project in a different way to most self-build beginners. Despite having no previous experience of homebuilding they took on almost all of the work themselves, from the design to construction. “I’m a problem-solver and I love inventing things and figuring things out,” reveals Zack. While he drew up plans, nothing was set in stone: they saw the structure as a giant sculpture that would shift and change organically as the build progressed.

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Experimenting with the unconventional

In total, they used eight shipping container cubes with nine-foot ceilings as the shell of their residence. Built in Shangai, the units had traveled around the world 12 times before ending up in a container yard in St Louis, Missouri. Snapping them up for $1,600 each, plus a delivery fee of $150 per unit, the pair welcomed the challenge of working with an unusual homebuilding material. “When you choose a non-traditional material it opens up the door to creativity because you have to think how am I going to create using this as my constraint,” says Zack.

Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you…

This couple live mortgage-free in their amazing container home

These first-time homebuilders created a metal masterpiece

A natural progression

Breaking ground

A different perspective

Experimenting with the unconventional

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