#15: Sustainable Living Discussion with Paul and Sarah R and R Property Podcast With The Real Estate Girl Denise Haynes

Denise Haynes:                     Welcome everyone. I'm Denise Haynes from R & R Property. Today I'm interviewing Paul and Sarah Chambers on R & R Property's podcast number 15. Paul and Sarah are living in a shipping container home which Paul built himself. Hi Sarah and Paul.
Sarah Chambers:                 Hi Denise.
Paul Chambers:                   Hello.
Denise Haynes:                     Congratulations. Now, you guys are a YouTube sensation and have also written two highly successful eBooks called, 'How to build a shipping container house'. It all started when Paul was offered a career move in 2005 from Scotland to Australia.
Paul Chambers:                   Yes definitely. It started a big adventure.
Denise Haynes:                     You went off on a new adventure in your life and initially you were living in suburban Australia. Sarah, I understand that you then initiated the move to a rural area of Booral. Can you tell me what fuelled that decision?
Sarah Chambers:                 When we were living in Scotland we lived in the Highlands and we lived in the middle of nowhere basically. We'd been living in that location for 20 years. When we originally got to Australia in 2005, it was a bit of a culture shock.
Paul Chambers:                   I've never seen houses where the roof lines are nearly touching. That puts your neighbours in very close proximity.
Denise Haynes:                     It sure does. Now Paul, you had a little sideline project of building shipping container accommodation located on friend's farm. Where did that idea come from?
Paul Chambers:                   Either myself or myself and a friend thought we'd conceived the idea of using a shipping container house, but I think the idea is actually as old as the hills. It's just that some people stumbled across it for the first time.
Sarah Chambers:                 We were very interested in sustainable living and basically getting out of the system. There were several options that we looked at that we could do this with, but shipping containers seemed to be a structurally sound option.
Paul Chambers:                   It's a nice standing start and my idea was to build something, and I didn't know what it would be, that was sustainable. Sustainability was what I like. I like the concept of solar power, collecting drinking water and we'd been introduced to the composting toilets. I thought that sounded fabulous but what I didn't know was, was that realistic for someone like me to actually pull off, so I was experimenting.
Denise Haynes:                     Once you had sold your home in the city area, you decided to relocate using your half started shipping container home to live in.
Paul Chambers:                   Yes. I came home one day and Sarah said, "I've put the house on the market. I've called in your promise that we can move out of suburbagatory." Which is what Sarah called it.
Denise Haynes:                     That's a great name for it. Tell me, is the project finished now and how long has it taken you to get to this point and under what circumstances have you had to do it in? For example, do you work?
Paul Chambers:                   I work full time. I'm an engineer and I've got a full time job. Sarah works full time but she's got a variety of careers.
Sarah Chambers:                 This is going into our 6th year of being in Booral and it's taken that long because we have both been working. Paul initially obviously had to start off just working on weekends. He didn't stop for five years.
Paul Chambers:                   No, for three years it was just continuous. That's because I was working