Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Lonnie Dallege and his friend Dan knock out a part of the container that will be the entry to the deck. All of the work was done by Dallege and his friends.
Setting the containers: The container units were set among trees grouped to imply it might have been a former.
The exterior of the Dallege home looks to be a simple, unassuming house. The secret is in its construction.
Nestled among the trees near Chappell is a home that appears quite ordinary at first sight.
It is closer to the constant drone of Interstate 80 traffic than the small town commerce to the north at Highway 30. Getting there, a visitor is greeted by the working farm life of barbed-wire fence, corrals and all the workings of an active cattle ranch. Included in the scene is a home nestled among the trees as if the trees grew up along the home.
The reality is the home was placed there - one piece at a time - and then completed to what it is today.
Lonnie Dallege decided he wanted to live closer to town. In the process, he also heard of people building home from storage containers, those steel units that look like a dismantled semi-trailer. His reaction after seeing someone else's story was something to the idea of "Heck! I can do that!" and off he went.
He bought four 40-foot containers, arranging them two by two, effectively framing a square house. And that is where the fun began. The inside was finished with barn wood, beetle wood, and various surplus that could be repurposed. Light fixtures are the result of salvaged five and 10-gallon cream cans The project relied more on his vision than an approved blueprint. Windows were designed by what was available on a budget, not what the house needed.
"Me and my friend sat down and drew all the plans," Dallege said.
The hope was for a basement. However, the property's high water table ended that concept.
Spray foam was used for the inside, then the rustic design was applied. All of the wood design was built by Dallege or his friends. The deck was cut from the side of one of the containers, as were the windows and the doorways. The deck itself is built out of cattle panels.
"I don't have any wood to paint. I don't have any wood to rot," he said.
The containers are not the one-trip (single use) quality. Dallege said he is ok with character flaws adding personality to the house.
"One thing we learned is buy all the same make of unit," he said.
He said manufacturers proportion their units differently. Trying to match one to another can require some adaptive measures.
"It's pretty much indestructible," he said.
The steel structure makes rain storms a noisy adventure, but is safe and secure, he added.
The house is designed with an open-air feeling. Bedrooms have partitions - curtains - with the master bedroom looking like a bachelor pad: a king bed in the middle, a desk and office area to one side, and open closet on the other, with a tub and toilet just beyond the foot of the bed. Even the water fixtures are basic, possibly salvage, for a country flare - copper tubing with a shutoff.
Dallege said he is a farmer by trade, and once owned his own shop. Welding and creative use of salvage materials is almost second nature. He said his container home was built for about half the price of a traditionally-constructed home.
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