MicroHome - Dave Evans

Table of Contents

Introduction

Micro Home: Da Nang, Vietnam

In the beginning of 2019, two of my friends here in Da Nang brought up the idea of building our own micro homes. I’d seen several videos of interesting micro homes online and I was intrigued by the thought of having my own.

We discussed and dreamed for about 6 months.

In September of 2019 we decided to do it together:

One plot with two homes
A longterm land lease
Micro homes built in China and shipped to Vietnam
And a lot of figuring it out as we go…

Here are the main steps along the way:

Securing The Land

We’ve signed a 5 year land lease for this property. It’s about 2 blocks from the Hanh river, which runs through the middle of Da Nang. And it’s about .5 miles from the beach.

Lot size: 14.5m x 21m

Monthly rent: 10 Million Dong (~$430 USD)

Neighborhood: Mostly new villas and empty lots

Design & Planning

Using a few free computer programs we made several designs to optimize the layout of the land. (My house is Container 1)

This is the design we settled on.

Foundation & Basics

Opening Ceremony

Before starting construction on the land it is recommended that we bless the land and honor spirits with a Vietnamese spiritual ceremony.

This involves providing offerings of food and beverages along with a ceremony involving incense, prayer, and burning of lucky money.

Home Footings

The micro homes will sit atop cement footings and be raised above the ground by about 1ft.

Having the micro home raised above the ground in intended to help in a few key areas:

Longevity – keeping the home off the ground will help keep it dry so it doesn’t rust or wear as quickly
Heat – having air flow below the home will help keep it cool
Plumbing – allows us to get under the house for installations and repairs

Septic Tank

They do things a bit different here…

The septic tank includes two tanks:

A main capture tank where all waste flows. Solids settle to the bottom and liquids spill over to the next tank…
An overflow tank where liquids flow in to. This tank includes an outflow to the city line that takes wastewater away… somewhere…