Building a regular house on an empty lot is straightforward enough, relatively speaking. What I'm working toward is something smaller, built from prefabricated parts. I figured I could either pursue it as a manufactured (mobile) home, or as an Accessory Dwelling Unit, which is what the city calls mother-in-law additions.

Both options have their restrictions, and are very different. The ADU would save me from having to split the lot first, but I want to leave myself that option. It turns out that someone has done an ADU with shipping containers in Portland already! After contacting the city's Green Building intiative, I was given all kinds of leads on how things can be done, including someone who was featured in the current issue of Portland Spaces magazine for having built an ADU from shipping containers. There's some other useful details in that article. With my latest redesign, the plan should fit the rules nicely.