Tiny home sale makes large donation for cancer charity
A container transformed into a high-spec tiny home by a Hawke’s Bay architectural design company has been sold with proceeds going to cancer charity Look Good Feel Better.
More than 100 people attended the yesterday’s auction for the container home, with intense bidding reaching $117,500.
It was sold to a Central Hawke’s Bay couple, and the wife has recently come through cancer treatment herself.
The 12-metre (40-foot) transportation unit, dubbed "Life Box", was completely renovated by architectural design company Architecture & Interiors, as a professional development exercise.
However, Melissa Burne, founder of Architecture & Interiors, wanted the home to have a heart, and chose Look Good Feel Better as the recipient of the profits from its sale.
The home would normally have cost $127,000 to replicate. Melissa sought the help of industries in the community, reducing expenses to almost half that - and Look Good Feel Better will receive several thousand dollars, once build costs and sales fees are deducted.
"It’s been an intense 14 months, we’ve learnt so much about what is involved in turning a container into a liveable space. But most importantly we will be able to help people undergoing cancer treatment have a makeover themselves, making the massive project totally worth it," she says.
Hundreds of people visited open homes for the Life Box, a fully-furnished one-bedroom home, with open-plan lounge and full kitchen, bathroom, laundry/storage room, central vacuum system and built in wardrobe. It features large sliding doors and louvres down one side on the house, has a new membrane roof and meets The New Zealand Building Code.
A highlight for Burne was seeing four women enjoy a Look Good Feel Better class at the Life Box in the lead-up to the auction, making the hours of work all worthwhile.
"I was blown away by the people who volunteer for Look Good Feel Better, and to see the difference a class can make to people undergoing treatment. I am stoked that we have been able to do this for such an incredible charity."
Look Good Feel Better general manager Clare O’Higgins attended the auction and says she was grateful to Melissa and all those who donated products and time to create the Life Box.
"We feel very fortunate to have the community support our community classes with generosity on such a grand scale. This money will help us provide free classes to anyone with any cancer at any stage.
"The Life Box has brought Hawke’s Bay together, and our classes do that too - they provide a way to come together, relax and be nurtured."
