New Container Cabin build in Okanogan Highlands

[icentropy]

Hi all, we're about to start building a new project on our place. It's going to be a cabin (completely off grid) inside a 40' storage container. It's basically going to be a temporary house for our family, an exercise in living simply and off-grid and also an investment as we might end up selling it after it finished to finance the next larger project.

The basics are as follows.

External Size: 40'X8'
Internal SQFT: 275sqft

Lighting: 12V LED and kerosene lamps also front will be sliding glass patio door.
Heat: Gray Wood Stove / kerosene heater
Range: Double Kerosene Range
Oven: Kerosene Oven
Insulation: 2x4 stud walls, floor and ceiling with R-13 all around.
Water: 55g barrel w/12v pressure pump but haven't figured out a good way to heat it yet.
Black water: home made compost system
Grey water: Sink and shower drains straight under container into gravel pit
Beds: bunk beds (full bottom with pull out drawers and queen top)
entertainment: desk / studio computer w/23" monitor and ipad
electricity: 200W 12V solar with sealed batteries under kitchen counter
Storage: Besides the counters, drawers and a dresser, we're gonna cheat and place another 20' container next to the 40' living container. it'll hold a good portion of the things we use often but not daily as well as extra clothes, food, supplies, etc.

We already have the 40' container and will be getting lumber to start the framing as early as next week. Here's the basic layout.



And in a nut shell that's the plan, I'd love any feedback or advice, perhaps things i'm missing. also any ideas for water storage or heating would be helpful. right now the plan is to put the water barrel right behind the sink and let it gravity feed into the sink. it would be fed from an external connection as well as possible roof collection with a filter in between in the future.

[suburbancowboy]

One thing I would consider is to going propane instead of kerosene for cooking.  You can also use it for a tank-less water heater and a vented wall heater for supplement heat.  Also go bigger with you solar.  Consider a 24v system.  Check to see if you have any county codes for container living.  Especially septic/waste water.  If you are found in violation you could be homeless.
I started a small cabin build similar size to your container plans and because of government regulation had to go to the full blown cabin route at 10 x the cost.

Good luck.

[icentropy]

One thing I would consider is to going propane instead of kerosene for cooking.  You can also use it for a tank-less water heater and a vented wall heater for supplement heat.  Also go bigger with you solar.  Consider a 24v system.  Check to see if you have any county codes for container living.  Especially septic/waste water.  If you are found in violation you could be homeless.
I started a small cabin build similar size to your container plans and because of government regulation had to go to the full blown cabin route at 10 x the cost.

Good luck.

not too worried about being homeless. We actually live in the 1100sqft singlewide on the other side of the property by the road. It was there when we bought it. This one will end up about 1/2 mile away tucked in the back corner (closer to where we want to build a house some day) this is more for fun and will eventually end up as a guest cabin probably but we're going to try to live in it anyway, we think it would be fun, kind of a mini adventure/challenge to learn to live simpler and with less reliance on electricity, etc. I am leaning towards kerosene simply because it's easier to store and in my opinion safer to use. I like the idea of simply having a 55g drum outside and a 1-2 gallon jug under the sink to fill up lamps or range as required. as far as heat i would much rather have a wood stove (we could also use that to cook during winter months when it'll be on most of the day), but they're about $1000 and for now a kerosene heater would work fine.

[Rosie22]

Have you moved forward on your container plans?  How's it going? Just curious because we have 20 acres outside of Tonasket and were considering going this route as well.  Have you run in to any problems?