A House in Corfu - with a difference!
CORFU. The Monro family are building their home in Hlomatiana from shipping containers!
Countless foreign nationals have come to make their home on Corfu – either buying a house or buying land and building on it. The Monro family, however, have taken this to another level and are building their home from shipping containers!
Sarah-Jane and Andy Monro, along with their 22-year-old son James wanted to do build their future home on the island but their original plan of moving onto the land purchased by Sarah-Jane’s mother and father in Hlomatiana, South Corfu, and building a house together had to be shelved when her mother died of cancer.
Plans were drawn up but got no further for about 14 years, which is when they decided to do something different. They saw a shipping container being used as a storeroom when they were working for a sailing company and said, “Why can’t we live in one of those?” Research began and they finally settled on an Athens-based supplier for five High Cube containers and a UK-based supplier for a specialised High Cube container fitted with solar technology.
Photo: Corfu Container Home Images
Work began nearly two years ago but progressed very slowly due to Covid and the lockdown. Getting a building permit took a year and finally came through one week after the lockdown was lifted. They then had to wait eight weeks for the base to be inspected due to the backlog that had been created by the lockdown.
It also took them a month to find the last two High Cube containers because of trade restrictions worldwide during the pandemic and added to this, two and a half months were lost last summer as fire restrictions meant they could not do any welding work.
Four of the 6ft by 20ft containers are being used for the house itself – with a roof garden on top - one for a studio plus one specialised container for the solar technology.
Roof Garden (Photo: Corfu Container Home Images)
There is a lot of welding involved when building a container home and this has been done almost completely by James and Andy. The electrical and plumbing work has to be officially signed off, however, and professionals have been called in to do this work.
Photo: Corfu Container Home Images
Andy, Sarah-Jane and James are trying to keep the project as sustainable as possible and 30 solar panels will provide 11kw of off-grid power. Although the property is connected to the mains, a reverse osmosis system will provide drinking water and the aerated waste water treatment sewage system has 6 repurposed IBC units to treat the waste and convert it into water.
They are also repurposing as many items as possible, including pallets for countertops, a fridge for a garden bench, a gas bottle as a remote-control holder etc.
Photo: Corfu Container Home Images
The Monros are hoping that the house will be completed by late summer with Andy and Sarah-Jane living on-site in the studio at the moment whilst work is going on and James living in a small house they own nearby. There has been a lot of interest shown by other islanders and they are planning on holding an open day once work is complete.
Photo: Corfu Container Home Images
Photo: Corfu Container Home Images
When asked whether they would encourage others to follow in their footsteps, Sarah-Jane said that they absolutely would and suggested that perhaps people could start off with a small container and progress from there.
Their excitement is palpable and it won’t be long now before they can put their feet up and just sit and enjoy the wonderful view from their unique home!
Take a quick tour of the work in progress.
You can find more information about the Corfu Container Home here:
Tony Clark
