![]() ![]() Follow Living Big in a Tiny House on Facebook.IQ Container Homes (Brenda’s design company).Original story at Living Big in a Tiny House.Images © Living Big in a Tiny House Video: Brenda Kelly’s Off Grid Shipping Container Tiny Home Ft. Off Grid Shipping Container Tiny House This container home sits on concrete blocks for a foundation, it’s powered by two solar panels, and is even set up with a rainwater collection system. Brenda has managed to create a work at home office space, kitchen, living room area, a bedroom with a wardrobe, and a spacious bathroom. When you look inside I think you’ll be impressed with her interior design and layout choices. (10 square meters) so she can abide with her local zoning regulations in Auckland, New Zealand. She kept part of the container as a covered outdoor porch area to keep the structure at 107 sq. I hope one day, I can go visit Morgan in Ohio, and see what it’s really in one of the best places to live off the grid.Brenda Kelly’s off grid shipping container tiny house is truly a dream come true for her since she has been dreaming of a home like this since she was a 13 year old girl. She’s also started to grow her own food, and hopes to become even more self-sustaining as the years go on. To me, it feels like a sense of freedom, to be able to say, ‘oh, there’s this thing I need, and I have a toolbox and can make it.’” “There’s active discouragement for women to get into stuff like this, but even more pervasive is that it’s not even on the radar. “It’s not really on the radar that this is a real possibility for what you can do if you’re in a female body,” she said. She has degrees in engineering, and knows how to build stuff with her own two hands, a rarity for a woman. Morgan lived in a converted school bus that she built to run on bio-diesel for 12 years in Virginia before moving completely off-the-grid. “I have to make shifts and cook when it’s sunny and do chores when its sunny.” “I can’t dictate that nature fit into my schedule,” she said. She also waits until its sunny to bake using a solar-powered, portable oven that can reach temperatures of 550 degrees with just the power of the sun. Or I don’t run power tools if its overcast.” If I’m going to blend a lot of pesto or something, I tailor that to sunny days. I don’t do it at night or when its going to be overcast for a couple of days. If I really want to clean my house, I do it when it’s clear out. It’s less glamorous to talk about using less or timing your needs differently. “There’s having enough solar to meet your needs, then there’s the lifestyle tailoring part. “There’s two parts to this equation,” she told me while sitting on her front porch, looking south at the bright green grass, the solar array, and the Appalachian hills beyond. All of her electricity comes from off-grid solar panels. On her 17 acres, she has a 360-square foot house, rainwater collection, a gray water distribution system and a composting toilet. I really like having a smaller footprint because I want to know where I’m standing.” “I like going to the farmer’s market and buying produce and knowing where the farmers live and understanding what goes into it. “I find a sense of security knowing where what I depend on comes from,” she said. So we got together, and I told her about my sailboat life, and she told me that she’d built her very own off-grid home in Ohio, which she thinks is one of the best places to live off the grid. I hadn’t seen my childhood friend Morgan Hager in years, but just recently, we both found ourselves in our hometown of Portland, Oregon at the same time. You can see the off-grid solar panels in the foreground, Morgan’s tiny home in back. ![]()
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