Can House

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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. 

 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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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!

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.