[sburl]

We did take a pretty deep look into shipping containers. There are a number of sites that will sell you a pretty fully featured container (https://www.curbed.com/2017/6/21/15839730/shipping-container...)

While many of them look pretty reasonable, longevity and sense of value are the main issues people have psychologically. Shipping containers often elicit worry about rust and decay which is not unreasonable by my understanding is that they have coatings and paint that can largely prevent this.

The bigger issue is the homeowner's sense of value. While any ADU should increase the value of the property it's on, a shipping container home may make the home a bit harder to sell.

Shipping container homes often come with a very technical installation. Since the entire unit is built, if access into the backyard is limited the unit needs to be lifted over the home (and all the power lines) by a massive and very expensive crane. An easier version of this installation by crane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTLBbfKL3E

As we've thought about these problems, we've honed in on building beautiful largely prefabricated flat-packed units that are easy to get into the backyard and then bolt together kind of like Ikea furniture.