this was the most stressful project of my life. i considered documenting it weekly on YouTube, but frankly it was such a sh*t show that it would have dramatically slowed down an already sloth-like process.

here's a recap instead.

bought a "done for you" home kit from Modular Home Direct, this one in fact, for $45,000.

July 2023
expected arrival. delayed by 30 days.

August - December 2023
more delays. began wondering if this was a scam but remained optimistic.

September 2023
poured the concrete slab and ran water + installed a septic tank.

January 2024
everything arrived in a 50 foot container. but unlike the plans promised it was not "done for you" or "on hinges" or "un-foldable." we opened the back to discover thousands of loose pieces. windows, doors, bolts, glass...

i rented a crane, telehandler, and of course had my tractor. none were equipped for 15,000+ pound pallets, 5 feet off the ground. we wasted ~6 hours @ $250 /hour (+ detention time for the trucker) trying to figure this out.

eventually i made a suggestion: could we just lift the container off the truck, then pull everything out at ground level? this worked, but by now it was getting dark. unloading began around 5pm.

after a lot of close calls and careful rigging to avoid smashing glass walls, we managed to get it all out. everyone went home.

here i'm smiling but to be honest, this was the single worst day of my life.

the next day my backyard looked like this.

February 2024
i began inviting friends as cheap labor. we dug through the piles and began putting floors, windows, and walls closer to their final destination around the slab.

i rented a crane again and we managed to place all the walls in 2 days.

it's worth mentioning that i initially didn't understand the purpose of the 2nd layer of panels you see above the first floor here. so we put about half of the house together twice.

next we put in walls, glass, and the spiral staircase. big thanks to Carlos, Alan, and Brian (L-R).

the center window here was so heavy, and we had no way to hoist it into place, so we literally put a plan of wood across the left window gutter and black spine on the right side. this was one of the sketchiest physical maneuvers of my life, and i've gone 165mph down the highway in a convertible.

with the big and heavy stuff mostly out of the way we shifted attention to the exterior, cutting and hanging siding 1 piece at a time. this did not adhere well to the aluminum walls so we had to try a lot of combinations of construction glue and self-tapping screws.

March 2024
we got electricity to the building, finished siding, and began planning the kitchen.

it was getting hot so i ordered a quad zone mini split system and we had that installed as well.

this jungle of conduits and line sets was untenable to my eyeballs so we figured out a couple solutions in the coming months.

April 2024
plumbing and utility time. a propane tank was buried beside the house, which powers the Navian tankless water heater.

we also installed the exterior staircase with my tractor and a couple small concrete pads to compensate for the 3" step-up from my modified slab design.

May 2024
i bought a few yards of gravel and roughly laid out a back wall utility area and fire pit.

somehow we busted the water spigot used to feed the animals, which was extended with a T to run water all the way to the Hacker House. quick muddy day and 2 trips to the hardware store to replace this.

began 3D printing small touches (easter eggs) for the Hacker House, despite basic things still not being ready.

June 2024
set fence posts for the utility area. also hung custom-built covers around the mini split line sets.

went on a ~1 year delayed honeymoon for a few weeks, and when we got back my dad helped me build the fence itself. later a friend helped me paint it black.

July 2024
buddy Alex came over to help build the kitchen cabinets.

this quickly became the best room in the house, as it had the least Chinese stuff in it. all those black wires you see by the ceiling will be hidden later.

we also cut butcher block counter tops, installed a sink, and bought a vertical stackable washer/dryer.

August 2024
i added rubber landscaping trim around the fire pit area to make room for new grass/sod requirements on the outer perimeter of the job site.

to hide cabling in the bathrooms we framed out a drop ceiling and then painted + nailed in a thin sheet of plywood to size.

this was pretty satisfying as it was a lot less work to hide things with wood than use a metal break to build chases all over the house.

not depicted: building these showers. long story short it was by hand. the showers that came with the building physically did not fit into the bathrooms. later we salvaged glass walls from the original kit and hung those to prevent making the whole room wet.

in other news, the house was still pretty unsafe to walk around in. no railings anywhere, wobbly stairs. we began addressing a long punch list of "live-in ready" items.

by this time the kitchen was also looking better. we had an island, hardware installed, and all the appliances worked.

in another premature move, friends came over for the weekend and we began building furniture for the bedrooms, starting with this loft standing desk.

September 2024

next we switched gears to internet connectivity. i didn't want to pay for another subscription so we ran a pair of bridge antennas ~700 feet between my main house and the Hacker House.

i also ordered ~7 pallets of sod and my friend Brent helped me put it all down in just a few hours.

this was extremely satisfying to see the space look less like a job site and more like a vacation.

with the kitchen and downstairs also coming together, i felt good about finishing within another 30 days or so.

here's the first "beauty shot" i ever took of the space, prior to the fire pit furniture, deck furniture, and string lights being installed.

October 2024
we added custom roller shades for the loft work area and some ridiculous (customizable) RGB lights for the downstairs bedroom.

this made the space habitable for the first time, a whopping 17 months after purchase.

November 2024
i added finishing touches like solar powered string lights, fire pit furniture, and lounge chairs on the upstairs deck.

we opened for business on Airbnb and quickly became a Superhost. the Hacker House earned 5 star reviews, 20+ booked days per month, with visitors from all over the country.

December 2024
we upgraded our espresso machine at the main house, donating the older one to the Hacker House.

Miscellaneous
throughout this build we experienced:

- mice infestation
- multiple leaks from rain or poor plumbing
- foul smells from septic tank (fixed with more P-traps, flue pipes, etc)
- destroyed or missing components from the kit
- dozens of cuts, bruises, small injuries

i'm grateful to everyone who helped make the Hacker House a reality. it's been a goal of mine to build a container house since 2014 when i bought my first piece of land, 1 acre in the north Georgia mountains. the contractor i hired back then stole ~$35,000 cash from me with fake invoices for work not done (i lived in NYC), and i wasn't able to give it another shot for 10 years.

Visit
the Hacker House is no longer open to the public but you can book directly for $0 by emailing me, or submitting dates here: https://hh.ryanckulp.com.