One of my dreams is to build a commune where all of my friends can come and live. We will have an organic garden, a community swimming hole, a couple of grass fed cows, some free range chickens, community homeschool thingy, and weekly family fun nights with different themes. Hippies Rejoice!  Maybe what I am asking for is a bit too ambitious, or maybe that is what heaven is for, but my version of the American dream is looking a little more communist every day. It takes a village, right? But not a village made of dumb old sticks-in-the-mud. It takes a village of free and radical thinkers, who are willing to do things differently in order to achieve different and more successful results. I am guessing the kind of folks Thoreau would have wanted to chill with while he was in prison (well, maybe not- that guy was kind of a loner).

One such different idea would be to build all of the houses in my Utopian commune out of Shipping Crates. Yes, that’s right- the old metal things that you see on barges that carry freight and illegal substances from one place to another. They are MUCH MUCH less expensive than traditional home construction, are modern in design, and require very little maintenance. Also, they are eco-friendly, since you aren’t chopping down any trees and recycling what would be garbage into the framing, roof, and subfloor of your house.

I have researched several sites on this topic, and my favorite is zerocabin.com. For visuals, here are some of the amazing homes made from shipping crates that this site features.

So  that is my dream. Maybe one day me and all of my hippy friends will be able to build a commune of organic veggies, free range cows, and sustainable living. Or maybe I will have to wait for heaven. But don’t worry, while everyone else is excited about their mansions of gold, you’ll find me in my beautiful shiny shipping crate. With Thoreau. Only if he feels like it…