TXWB Getting to Know You 1

Today's post is part of the Texas Women Bloggers Getting to Know You Link Up. Enjoy!

This month’s questions:

1. What part of Texas do you call home?

I live in East Texas where the beautiful Piney Woods begin.

2. How long have you been blogging?

Only a couple of months!

Call me a newbie. A greenhorn. A baby blogger. Because that’s where I am. But you know, even though I am only just getting my feet wet, I love learning and cannot wait to wade deeper and deeper into those waters.

3. Why did you start blogging?

I have been living in an unusual way (in a shipping container home) for awhile now and have always meant to share our story! I contemplated an ebook or something, but realized I didn’t want to just write a how-to on shipping container living and stop there, because my talents and passions go so much deeper than just the house we live in!

Also, I am a stay at home mother with an unending interest in learning and sharing with others. Unfortunately, I also just moved to an area where I know very few people, so the internet/ blogging has helped me reach out to people in a way that allows me to also be there for my children.

4. When we visit your blog, what can we expect to discover?

A little bit of EVERYTHING. J

I DO try to focus on the home/ life hacks we’ve come up with through our lifestyle. Also I think I couldn’t go very long without mentioning children, homeschooling, and FOOD!

5. How did you come up with your Blog Title and what is its meaning?

I think I just wanted to point out how we stand out from the crowd with our title (Shipping Container…), but also to speak volumes about what I consider most important on this earth (…Family)!

6. What do you love about being part of Texas Women Bloggers?

I am very new to Texas Women Bloggers, but already I have seen a sense of community that is both supportive and encouraging. They are lifting each other up instead of being in competition.

7. Who inspires you to blog?

God and my family. I feel like I wouldn’t be at a keyboard if He hadn’t put me here, and my family is so supportive of my new creative outlet!

8. If you could pick a favorite blog post from this past year, what would it be?

You mean the past couple of months, lol? J Surely it was my pegboard idea that started it all. It may not be the most well-written post, or have the best photography, but years from now I hope to look back at THAT post and remember thinking, “I can’t believe I’ve never seen this idea on Pinterest before! And it’s been hiding in MY home the whole time… I HAVE TO share this idea with people!”

http://shippingcontainerfamily.blogspot.com/2013/07/pegboard-in-kitchen.html

Thank you for stopping by. You can find this post linked up here:

Our Story

     Six months after we were married my husband and I moved into the 8 x 48 foot shipping container we began affectionately calling, “The Box.” It had previously transported tires, smelled like hay bales, and was a generous gift from a parent.

     We had it delivered to our new place in the middle of a field, rented a moving van to haul all of our stuff from our modest 700 sq. ft. apartment to our new 384 sq. ft. home, and with the help of some neighbors, we spent our first night there on a mattress on the floor, surrounded by all of our stuff.

     Our new home looked like the inside of the moving van we had just packed and unpacked. It had tall metal walls, a wooden floor, and visible rivets and steel frame. We’d brought our garage sale couch, inherited kitchen table, donated queen bed, and a bunch of packrat-style boxes from our previous dwelling, and that made things seem a bit more like a home, but I have to say it looked a whole lot like we were now living inside somebody’s storage unit!

     We could enter and exit our new place through the large double doors on one side. But once we got indoors, we could not fully close the big doors from the inside. I started the first cold January night in our box with a new bedtime prayer. “Please Lord, don’t let a snake, skunk, raccoon, ’possum, bat, or other stray animal waltz into our new home while we are asleep!”

     Within the next few months my husband installed a few storm windows, and put up an interior wall with a big hinged dutch door. He built this five feet past the container’s opening so that we could have a normal sized door to open and close (to keep critters out), and have a small porch area we could store our tools and mud boots in. We call this room the mudroom.

     Next was another interior wall that portioned off the back half of the container for a bedroom. Once the bedroom was completed it really did feel just like a home! (And it still does. ;))

     Over time we also installed basic solar electricity and lights, an off-grid sink, propane stove, wood stove, basic cabinetry, and many, many, many shelves!

     Fast forward over five years and we decided to move. What do container homeowners do when it’s time to leave? Take our home with us! After some careful planning and packing, we moved the container to our new location and moved all of our things back inside (no, we didn’t have the option of using our house as the moving van!).

     And now that we’ve settled in a bit, it is time to show people the story we should have been sharing all along! We have made container home living WORK as a no-mortgage way to live comfortably.  We haven’t stacked four containers or put on an addition (yet!). We didn’t hire an architect or do an expensive designer remodeling job just to make it livable. We only added simple elements to the original design of the container to make it a home. It is possible to transform a shipping container into a functional home with very few modifications.

     We have lived in this shipping container as newlyweds, and as parents of 1, 2, 3, and 4 children. We've lived in the dry plains region, and in the lush piney woods. We've been off-grid community members, and family farm tenants. We don’t plan to live in it our entire lives, but “The Box” is our home, and so far it has served us well. Thanks for taking a look at our journey. I hope you’ll follow us.

     -Carol

The Shipping Container Family