Thinking inside the box

Mini Update!

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A lot has happened on the Bright Container House, but they are mostly “in progress”, so for now I am going to post a mini update about our front door and our upstairs storage room door.

I believe the most stressful thing so far has been, picking the front door paint color. I know it sounds a little menial, but it has seriously given me ulcers (ok, I may be exaggerating a bit, but not that much really.)

As you can see from this picture, there have been a few options, mostly unsatifactory ones though. There were maybe 3-4 more not shown in this image. After a lot of imagination we came to a decision. This decision, ended up being the wrong one, but more on that later.

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The first step was to fill in the nail holes with painter’s putty.

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Here is Tyler doing just that…

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The next step was to sand the door

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and then sand some more…

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Whoops, forgot a photo.. but the next step was to tape off the edges that did not need to be painted. Because the interior part of the door along with one of the edges will be stained later.

We then started painting, I rolled and Tyler painted the trim pieces with a brush.

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So fast forward a few days, and repeat these same steps with different paint (since the first paint was a bust) and you get to this..

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We then added some hardware, and I think its gunna work.

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A few additional steps to complete our front entry is to finish the stone work on the sides, add the final cement board trim piece beside the door, paint the trim around the door, tile the “porch”, purchase a door bell and then add the decorative lighting and plants.

Here is the doorbell we have picked out..

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And for the lighting we are going to alter a pre-existing globe light we have to become more suitable for outdoor use.

And it will look something like this..

And then to add a little flair to the porch, I will add our bullet planter, one just like this actually…
image from Flickr.com
Less intestesting, but progress none the less…
Our upstairs storage room door was painted. Steps will be added, and we may decide to add a window later to make it more visually appealing.

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And since I didn’t realize I never posted a picture with the finished cement board siding… Here it is:

 now just a little more stone work, trim around the deck, and deck railing, our exterior will be complete.

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and Now to Polish it Off…

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For our main living area’s floor, we decided to go with a polished concrete. This decision saved us in material, and helped us continue with our earth friendly building approach. No sealant or chemicals are used to finish the floor, and it is low to no maintenance, with no future re-sealing or re-polishing.

Architectural Concrete Technologies did the work for us, while Tyler and Matt continued on the siding and other things.

The first step was to fill in the relief cuts with an epoxy. We chose a lighter grey color to contrast with the darker grey concrete.

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When the epoxy is first applied it looks a little messy, but once they start grinding the concrete, it becomes flush with the floor.

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They used a remote controlled grinder with diamond abrasives to do most of the work. To get the final product they had to grind, hone and polish the floors to a 3000 grit polish. We thought we were going to have to stain the concrete to a darker grey, but the color turned out just as we would have hoped.

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Here is a close up of the floor. We had them finish it to whats called, in concrete polishing terms, salt and pepper. Where it is ground down just enough to see a little aggregate.

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One of the greatest parts of the concrete floor can sometimes be its flaws. Small cracks, dings and other imperfections gives the floor more character. In this picture below is an area where more aggregate is showing through. This is caused by the uneveness of the slab.

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This picture shows the slight shine of the floor under the lights.

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Sadly enough, right after the floor was finished and dry, Tyler and Matt had to cover it up with paper to prevent it from receiving any damage during the duration of construction.

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The floor was definitely better than imagined, and we can’t wait to pull the paper back up and enjoy it.

Rain Collection

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Recently Tyler and I purchased a used, 12,000 gallon water collection tank from a guy in Claremore. Our original plans were to buy a new 2,000 gallon tank to help supplement some of our outdoor water needs, but when the larger tank showed up on craigslist for the same price, we could not pass it up. The 35ft tank will be buried behind the house, and will collect the rain to be used inside and outside the house.

Here is a picture of our new tank, it will require just a little rehab work before we can use it. There is a hole we need to patch, and the inside had to be cleaned and scrubbed.

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Here is a picture of the inside of the tank before Tyler cleaned it:

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And here it is after:

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Our roof, given 1 inch of rain will yield 1,108 gallons of water. So with our area’s precipitation average at about 46 inches per year, we should be able to collect enough water to make our purchase worth it. Some benefits of rain water harvesting would include:

-Rainwater is a relatively clean and free source of water

-It is environmentally responsible

-It promotes self-sufficiency and helps conserve water

-It is better for landscape plants due to its lack of Chlorine

-It reduces stormwater runoff

-It can provide an excellent back-up source of water for emergencies (like a Zombie Apocalypse perhaps)

Here is a diagram to show how rain water harvesting works:

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When it rains the water from the roof will flow through the downspouts into a filter screen and into the tank underground. An electric pump will then send the rain water from the tank to a valve box. This valve will automatically switch from rainwater to city water when the tank gets to a preset level. The water will go through a final system of filters before use.

La Roof

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Well….. It’s been a while since I posted last… a.k.a. Way Too Long. So here is part 1 of 3 of our recent progress.

Our roof arrived, in many pieces of course, and as you can tell from the trees in the picture, it wasn’t yesterday.  Our roof consists of a few different pieces, including: perlins, sheet metal roof, trim, guttering, sofits, huge beams, and one downspout which will take our water to our rain barrels. We chose to go with metal, not just to go along with our theme of a seemingly all metal house, but because of its benefits. Some of these benefits would include:  heat reflection off our white sheet metal roof, low to no maintenance, will last a lifetime, and it will allow us to maximize our water collection, with little debris, for storing and using in our gardens.

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The installation took a few days due to the windy and rainy weather. The steps for installation were to weld the three beams to the top containers. These beams cantilever over the deck, giving us protection from rain and the elements while we enjoy our outdoor living space.

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Here is a picture showing the perlins installed. After this step the insulation was put in place,  sheet metal roof was screwed on, and the trim was installed along with the guttering on the back side, and the downspout for rain collection.

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The next step was to paint the beams to match the trim. After painting the beams the sofit was then installed, which is a charcoal grey color, which we thought would be a nice contrast from the lighter grey trim and beams.

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Six LED can lights were then added to the sofit to give us light on the deck. Here is a picture of the final product. Our next steps are to stud out the top story, spray foam insulation, and install wafer board and house wrap to prepare for the upstairs windows. (These steps have already happened, I will make another post soon with those pictures)

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With the left over grey paint we had we went ahead and painted our carport “storage” container.


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The next posts will include: Stud installation, spray foam, wafer board, and maybe a sneak peek at some of our siding!

Vintage Finds

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As most of you know, Tyler and I are a little obsessed with all things vintage. So naturally our house will be filled with our vintage finds. Our lastest find was a Broyhill Brasilia dining set, a popular mid-century modern design. We  purchased 10 chairs total, 4 armchairs and 6 side chairs, as well as a large table with 3 leaves, that extends to seat 10, and a china hutch to match. Needless to say, we were in L.O.V.E.

Here is a picture of what the table and chairs look like, (These are not ours, because sadly ours went into hiding.. aka storage)

Credit: http://theculturalpsychologist.blogspot.com/2011/05/broyhill-brasilia-dining-room-suite.html

Here is a picture of our china hutch (sorry not the best picture)

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The Table and the china hutch need some refinishing: for example the white you see on the china cabinet will have to be stripped off and restained, same goes for our dining table.

But… can you imagine my new/old Franciscan Silver Pine China set I found, displayed in this case during winter, I can, and I Cant Wait.

Here is a small place setting of my 40 piece set that I found at an estate sale for an amazing price.

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Now I have been contemplating what light fixture would look best above this spectacular piece of furniture, and I have decided on..

Maybe a George Nelson, or George Nelson inspired Saucer Light:

Credit: http://www.grassrootsmodern.com/2009/01/28/new-ikea-365-items/

So there is a run down of our current dining room design ideas. Check back soon (well I say that) for an house update. The Stone is currently being layed, and our fireplace is taking shape!

No Longer Topless.. Thank Goodness

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Lots of things are happening at the Bright Container House! Take a look at some of the work:

After the last three containers arrived, Tyler and Matt began cutting the openings in between the containers and grinding them smooth. The exterior openings wont be cut until right before the spray foam and wafer board is up, so it stays dry… (Lesson Well Learned)

The opening for the stairway was cut out of the floor of the container and braced with 6 inch angle iron. (Here is Matt conquering that task)

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The insulation was sprayed on the bottom half of the containers, using an open cell foam. The open cell foam has better sound deadening properties then other types of insulation, and has an equivelant R-Value of 40. (pretty dang good in layman’s terms.)

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Wafer board is up:

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Holes were made through the concrete, using this core driller, to allow plumbing vents and air conditioning lines to pass through.

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Plumbing was roughed in for the upstairs bathroom and vents for downstairs were tied into one. (Here is a picture of some of the plumbing, I’ll add more once I figure out where those pictures went)

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Square tubing was bolted to the bottom floor by drilling through the concrete and steel beams. The containers then set on top of the tubing and will be welded into place.

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The Crane truck arrived early last Thursday morning to set our last containers

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The Crane truck getting in position…

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The first container on its way up with direction from Tyler and other helpers on the ground.

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Manuevering it into postion.

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Matt using his manly sledgehammer force to bump it into place..

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Now multiply these steps by 3…

And you get … A SUCCESSFULL TOP STORY INSTALL.
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Thanks to lots of family and friends for making all this possible. (My mom and Sheilah were also there just not pictured)

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P.S.

If you are interested in knowing any more of the nitty gritty details, feel free to email Tyler at Tylerbright@me.com.

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Our bottom story windows are currently being installed, so check back to see those exciting photos! Also, I will try to start updating weekly now since a lot is happening quickly. (but who really knows with me)

Look at Those Studs

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Look at those studs, and no, I am not talking about Tyler and Matt, (sorry Tyler).

Check ’em out (but excuse the mess… it’s a construction site)

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The master bedroom extension:

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The back wall with the fireplace and windows (can you picture the rendering yet?)

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Our electrical panel was installed, and electric was ran to the exterior walls to prepare the house for insulation and wafer board.

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Here is Kent and Tyler’s homemade electrical wire reel… A “Bright” idea.

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(I just had to have outlets on both sides of the front door for Christmas decorations … I know, I’m difficult)

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To protect the house from moisture under the containers before it is completley dried in, Tyler sealed the bottoms with spray foam. (Like 22 cans of it)

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And some other exciting news: We got our final three containers, some of our windows arrived, and the insulation was sprayed yesterday!

Design Decisions..

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Since our house is starting to come together, Tyler and I started thinking about some of the interior design elements that we wanted to add to the house. Well, first we needed to design our fireplace/back wall, since we will be framing it up next week. We wanted our fireplace to be fun and not ordinary, but also something that had the mid-century modern feel that we love so much. When thinking of  a design, we remembered a fireplace that we loved at some family friend’s ranch home. It was a corner fireplace with no glass surround, and made with the ledge stone that is on many of the homes built in the 50s. So we took that idea, and modified the design to work within our space. Our fireplace has become sort of a corner fireplace, but with the actual fire pit more towards the middle of the wall and a four foot bench for outdoor viewing, or for our lazy cats to watch the birds… Okay that may sound confusing, so how bout I just show you a picture of the design we came up with:

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And since a living room isn’t quite a living room anymore without a TV, we had to figure out how to have a TV without placing it over our fireplace, and without it being the focal point of the room. So we decided to have a projector screen, one we can raise up when not in use. It will come down over the window above the fireplace bench. The window is a north facing window, so we are counting on sunlight not being a problem with the screen, but if it is we can just put some window tint on the windows to limit its exposure.

Some other interior elements we are currently working on, is our kitchen and master bathroom. I think we have decided on the cabinets for our kitchen, but we are playing with a few setups for our kitchen layout. One of the options is just to have sort of a galley like kitchen, and the other is to make it a L shape kitchen with a smaller bar. We can’t quite decide. Some other things we need to pick out is our bathroom tile/vanity/sinks and so on. Lots of decisions need to be made, and these decisions make me nervous… because they are so permanent.

Some other house updates:

We hired family friend Matt Buller to assist in the house building, who is a long time carpenter. He is amazing and is going to be a tremendous help in getting us into our home quicker.

More Concrete.. and a Surprise Visitor

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I KNOW, I KNOW… I’m slow at updating this blog, but Its only  been about 3 weeks since this progress occurred:

There was more concrete poured at the Bright container house building site, this time on top, and across our first containers. This new slab will become our deck, and will be the foundation for our next three containers to sit and be bolted onto. In order for the beams and the first two containers to hold the weight of the wet concrete, shores were put in place, lots of them. These shores will stay in place for a total of 28 days while the concrete cures. Here are some pictures of the process:

They first had to lay wire mesh and form up for the stairs and the edge of the deck.

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Then they put the shores in place:

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The concrete pump truck, and the concrete truck arrived and started working..

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And after all that work..

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During all this work Fox23 stopped by to interview Tyler and film some progress of our house. They said the story should air sometime in July, Ill be sure and post it when it airs.

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We are now currently working on putting up the stud walls on the house exterior, and I promise Ill try and post it as soon as we finish… but we will see…