McDermott: Trends in Offshore Oil & Gas - GineersNow GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 021, McD | Page 56

Oil and Gas Engineer Quits Job to
Build Tiny Homes Out of Containers
It was a good riddance.
It’s not new that engineers leave the profession
for a different calling, no matter how lucrative
the pay is in their high-paying jobs. Some just
manage to get a grasp of reality that they are
meant to do other things.
This is the case of Jon Meier, an engineer
from Pearland who gave up his engineering
career and built shipping houses instead out of
containers. And he says it is the best decision
he has ever made.
After acquiring his aeronautical engineering
degree from Purdue University in 2009, he
worked in Boeing in St. Louis and in the oil and
gas industry a little later in Houston. But he
gave this all up for what he loves to do them
most.
“My job was relatively secure, but I was
watching the doors close around me. My boss
was let go, and I didn’t want to be the next,” he
says.
It was a good riddance. That decision allowed
him to bring his vision to life, and that is to
convert rejected containers into good use while
still using his expertise in engineering.
“I always see these broken down containers on
people’s yards and shipyards. There’s millions
of them in Houston, and they go to waste.
“Then I was thinking, I can get everything done
to build these tiny little homes,” Meier tells.
He is a one-man team, building the container
homes all by himself on a 37-acre property
in the rural area of Needville. Each model
can be 20- or 40-foot long, 10-foot wide,
and with varying clearance height for space
maximization.
Meier sees no problem with this and even said it
works on his favor.
“I wanted to build the first one by myself without
anyone knowing, because I wanted to gain
the confidence to know I could do it,” Meier
confesses. “It was scary. I was an engineer. It
was a very sturdy job. I paid a lot of money to
get my degree from a good school, but when
you’re comfortable with something, it’s not
scary anymore.”
From there, he put up a business he calls
Backcountry Containers and advertised over
social media. He got the interest he deserves
even as far as South America.
Moreover, this wasn’t just what happened: he
earned himself a spot on the TV show “Tiny
House, Big Living”.
Interested buyers can have a piece of Meier’s
masterpieces for a price ranging from $25,000
to $50,000.