Maui Shipping Container Houses: My Big Flip Flop

Eating Architectural Crow

Is there such a thing as a Crow Buffet? A place where militant ideologues can sheepily feast on various crow specialties after they realize the error of their rigid ways? [Bacon wrapped kale and crow mini souffles with pomegranate mustard drizzle.] I need to buy an all-you-can-eat ticket because very recently I went off on a rant about shipping container houses. Most of what I had seen was either really ugly, or super crazily architected into luxurious complicated expensive worlds that were far beyond the reach of most people. I just didn’t like what I had seen until this:

And this:

I officially love this shipping container house.

There I said it. Just like a vote-hungry politician, I have officially flip flopped. But this is not political. Here’s how the transformation unfolded: Daniel Engelman of Engelman Construction reached out to me via this blog and suggested we meet in Paia over some Vegan treats at Maka.

He showed me some computer generated renderings of Honomobo’s shipping container modular houses and I was intrigued. Not sold mind you, but intrigued. I’ve seen many a rendering that has remained confined to its cyber world and never seen the light of day.

Production-Ready & Easy Delivery to Hawaii

When Daniel let me know that their first model was nearing completion at the factory in Alberta, I was determined to dig deeper – so I booked a flight to Edmonton and was able to witness their big launch event that was held at Edmonton’s main central city plaza.

Daniel and the Honomobo team pulled of an incredible event flawlessly; the house was delivered, furnished, tents erected, DJ spinning, Green Carpet, folded towels in the bathroom, and Pellegrino on the counter. Then there was the line up – hundreds of people – thousands actually showed up on the first day – people waited in line for over an hour just to get to peek inside this charming turnkey house.

Maui Dealer is Yours Truly

The Honomobo team thinks Hawaii could benefit from their product and I agree fully, so I’ve agreed to be the Maui Dealer and representative. I have some homework ahead of me – going to check into permit process for these houses and putting plans in place to have a model on my property in Haiku so that I’ll be able to show people the actual space.

If you’d like to see more pictures, visit my article at ModernonMaui. Email me for the US dollar brochure – prices during the introductory period include shipping to Hawaii. The Canadian dollar is in the dumper, so until that changes, the pricing works in our favor here.

Liam Ball, R(B)
808.280.7809
liam@hawaiilife.com