In their search for a sustainable and affordable build, they considered straw bale and rammed earth constructions but found it would have blown their budget.  

“Just the floor and roof framing for those builds was going to be $140,000,” Mrs Fisher said. 

“We couldn’t afford that and that’s when Brett said ‘What if we build a house out of shipping containers?’.

“I said ‘I am not going to live in a shipping container,  you are crazy’. But then he pulled up some pictures on the computer and I thought they were great. So all up it’s going to cost us about $250,000 – and it’s going to be quite luxurious.”

The three-bedroom home is made up of eight 40-foot-high cube shipping containers sourced from Ebay.  

A qualified plumber, Mr Fisher did much of the work on his own, employing trades for only a few weeks of the 12-month build. 

“It’s been hugely different to building a normal house,” Mrs Fisher said. 

“In every single thing you have to think outside the square like putting a window in. 

“Brett and I are very good about thinking outside the square and it was just about trying to work out the right thing to do.”

The containers were delivered to the site by truck and lifted off by cranes before being positioned on piers. 

The Cooks Gap couple shopped locally where possible. 

“Ebay is great for getting comparison prices, so we could shop local as much as we could, to keep costs down, as part of this project was to build it as high-end as we could but within a reasonable budget,” Mrs Fisher said. 

They expect to be in their new home early next year. 

“I think our family and friends thought we were crazy when we first told them,” Mrs Fisher said. 

“We are stoked with it but it was very hard work.”