AND SO WE BEGAN....Beginning the build! - THE CORFU CONTAINER HOME

First of all a MASSIVE apology to our followers …this blog is WAY behind the actual build….I honestly [apart from the fact that most of them are youngsters compared to us] don’t know how all these other self-builders manage to build, eat, sleep and blog/YouTube while managing to keep sane ….

So, on our last post the base had been done and was finally passed by the authorities so we could carry on. We then got our amazing crane driver to come back and put all the containers in place – he was absolutely incredible as always getting them exactly next to each other as we only had a 5cm gap of mistake [the authorities had the told us] and they all had to fit onto the base we had made…..

During placing the containers there were 3 of them where we needed to cut off the doors as the end of the container would be next to another one – our crane driver again helpful as he roped the doors so that as the last cut was made to free them he then hoisted them out of the way – they are HEAVY! – then when all the doors were off he moved the containers exactly into place…..

The first thing we then did was to weld the containers together on the roofs – firstly to stop any water and secondly to make sure no gaps when we added the garden…

Then the fun began for the guys – cutting the windows etc – this is where the plasma cutter was a must! If Jamie had tried to do with a grinder what he had done with a plasma cutter we would still be cutting…

@corfucontainerhome
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♬ Babel (Remix) – 染哥

We cut the entrance door for the studio, the large kitchen window which was actually the whole side of one container, the 6 skylight windows in the roof [one in the studio and 5 in our house], through the complete ends of 2 containers to make the living area, a doorway from the main house kitchen to the bedroom area [through 2 containers side by side] and 3 doorways in the bedroom area [through 2 containers side by side] …. And finally we can see the house take shape as we had imagined …. This was pretty exciting!!!!

NOTES/mistakes –

Try, if you can, to think about ALL the holes you are going to need – we unfortunately forgot to cut the extractor fan holes [3 of them!] and the hole for the gas pipe for the hob so these had to be done VERY carefully when some of the building work had already been done….it was VERY stressful trying to do them after….

Really think about your design – sounds a weird thing to say but there were parts of our design that we were both absolutely adamant to have included and yet once you make the space and start to use it a little and move around in it you may realise you need to change things…..we have changed LOADS! …not the actual shape of the house but things like our kitchen/shower design ….

So the containers are in place – the roof seams are sealed and the holes for doors/windows cut out ….

There were some heated “discussions” right up to the last minute as to where certain doors and windows would be 😂