| Our Story |

When we first met, my husband Seth and I immediately connected on many levels of faith, family, interests, dreams and aspirations. We both have a spirit that drives and inspires us to be creative and dream big. Together, through prayer, encouragement, sweat, tears, successes and failures, we continue to push one another in accomplishing our goals. It has sparred on our fun, spontaneous, and adventurous life together.

Our names are Emily and Seth, and we live in Granville, Ohio with our four children. However, when we began this journey, we lived in the heart of Columbus, Ohio. And while we LOVED our life in the city with our wonderful community of friends and place that has a love and respect for the arts, we yearned for a space to escape some of the city bustle and return to our roots in a rural, wooded, relaxed setting.

Since college, while working third shift for FedEx and constantly packing shipping containers full of inventory, Seth had dreamed about building a shipping container home. Now, he has a lot of lofty dreams, but this one stuck with him for many years. It took us a little over a year of prayer and planning to finally set this dream to sail.

Being from big busy families, we have always had trouble sitting still. Hocking Hills has been a favorite place of ours to hike, camp, and explore. We have also had many experiences over the years with friends and family going on trips to HH to celebrate holidays, bachelor/bachelorettes, weddings, showers, or just for a close get-away escape. Far enough from the city to appreciate some amazing sights and wonders that nature beholds, yet close enough that it can be done in a comfortable drive. It made perfect sense that our crazy new adventure and dream get-away would be centered in the Hocking Hills region.

So, one year of prayer/planning, seven months of blood, sweat, tears, early mornings, late nights, help from family and friends, and three shipping containers later, we built our first Box Hop - the OG Box Hop. We are proud to say we have since grown our dream and added on to the property with two additional box hops: a smaller “mother-in-law suite” style - the Boho Box Hop - that uses 2 shipping containers and houses one lofted bedroom and the Hygge (Hoo-Guh) Box Hop - the largest box hop made out of 7 shipping containers and with 5 bedrooms!

The story doesn’t end there! In 2021, just before we were to have our fourth child, we found 75 additional acres in Hocking Hills that had LOTS of beautiful scenery and space, including 2 waterfalls. SO, over the course of time from 2021-2023 we have build THREE more box hops: The Roca (Roh-Kuh), The Overlook and The Ellwood! Be sure to look them up!

Our desire is to share our Box Hops and dreams with others, to invite and encourage them to step away from life’s daily challenges, demands, routines and activities and give their minds and bodies a place of rest and solitude. To give them not just a stay but an experience.

We cannot express enough our gratefulness and awe for the love, support, encouragement and downright sacrifices that our families and friends have given to make our dream a reality. It would not be possible without them.

“The Box Hop” is our overarching brand that we are coining for our shipping container oasis, and we cannot wait to host you for a stay.

With Love,

Emily and Seth