Midway Hollow Modern New Build Features Two Shipping Containers

My six-year-old son has been obsessed with a new build in our neighborhood of Midway Hollow ever since we saw the two shipping containers on the lot.  

Every week, we drive past the home he dubbed “The Container House” at least once, and every time he says, “Mom, this is going to be the coolest house ever.”

So you can imagine the irritated kindergartener I have on my hands now that he knows I got to tour this new house at 3922 Rochelle Dr. I should also tell you that he’s completely correct — it is a very cool house.

Builder Marc Jennings and Realtor John Weber of Ebby Halliday’s Hickman Weber Group led me through the unique feature of this 2,400-square-foot modern house that features two parallel shipping containers. The $750,000 abode rests on an oversized pie-shaped lot that actually leaves a backyard with plenty of room for entertaining, kids to play, and even a pool if you wanted. 

“The shipping containers are bookends,” Jennings said as he walked me through the home, explaining they flank two intersecting rectangles. The interior rectangle is flexible living space — it could be entirely a living room, or could be configured to include a dining area as well.

The second rectangle includes a deck space that can be opened up to the house by a mechanical, glass hangar door that, when opened, also serves as an awning for the deck area. When it’s open, the living space more than doubles.

One shipping container has been transformed into an entry and foyer area with a powder room that you pass on your way to the living room, complete with a nook that’s been built to avoid pesky sun glare on your flat screen. The other container houses part of the kitchen and laundry room and an exterior storage shed. The second floor of the house also serves as the carport roof.

Upstairs, which is carpeted, there is an open study with plenty of storage. In fact, if a family needed a fourth bedroom, the study could easily be converted to an enclosed bedroom space.

“If someone needed that to happen, it can happen easily,” Weber said.

Just past the study, two bedrooms flank a Jack-and-Jill bath, and another full bath across the hall, and then the master suite, which features a gorgeous bathroom with a separate loo and a separate wet room with a soaker tub and two shower heads.

A unique corner walk-in closet makes use of what could’ve been wasted space. The entire room will make some lucky buyer a wonderful sanctuary. All the rooms have large windows that bring in a lot of natural light.

The whole home is full of light, and not one detail was overlooked in creating a wonderful modern family home. Downstairs hardwood floors make the entertaining space an easy cleanup, and a custom kitchen with Silestone counters, custom cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and a breakfast bar overlooks the living dining area.

You could easily picture yourself making a pitcher of margaritas for guests, hangar door open, a breeze carrying in the smell of burgers cooking on the grill on your deck while more guests mingle in and out of your home.

“The whole project took about a year from conception to reality,” Jennings explained, adding that the home was also built with the environment in mind.

“One of the key points in using the shipping containers was the environmentally friendly aspect,” he said. “What many don’t know is that these shipping containers are ‘one trippers.’ It’s actually cheaper to build new shipping containers in China to bring goods over than it is to send them back for re-use.”

“There is actually a glut of shipping containers,” he explained. 

Jennings also used reclaimed lumber in many areas, recycled materials, and environmentally friendly lighting when possible. “All the paints are water-based, too,” he said.

The home is not currently LEED certified, but “if someone wanted to get it certified, we could,” Jennings said.

The home has two HVAC systems so that the second floor stays comfortable even when the hangar door is open downstairs, too.

Jennings and Weber said an open house is coming soon, but knowing the hot Midway Hollow market, a home like this won’t be around for long.