diff --git a/docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step2.sh b/docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step2.sh
index 1405ed1..7d0b778 100755
--- a/docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step2.sh
+++ b/docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step2.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,11 @@ if [[ "$VERSION" != "0.9.1" ]]; then
 	exit 2
 fi
 
-cd gitian-builder
+git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
+cd bitcoin
+git checkout v${VERSION}
+
+cd ../gitian-builder
 mkdir -p inputs; cd inputs/
 
 ##
diff --git a/docker/gitian-host/Dockerfile b/docker/gitian-host/Dockerfile
index d0add52..9660d79 100644
--- a/docker/gitian-host/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/gitian-host/Dockerfile
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ RUN echo 'export USE_LXC=1' >> .bash_profile
 RUN echo 'export GITIAN_HOST_IP=10.0.3.2' >> .bash_profile
 RUN echo 'export LXC_GUEST_IP=10.0.3.5' >> .bash_profile
 
+## script used to build base VMs
+ADD build-base-vms.sh /home/debian/
+
 RUN git clone https://github.com/devrandom/gitian-builder.git --depth=1
 RUN chown -R debian.debian . && chown -R apt-cacher-ng.apt-cacher-ng /var/cache/apt-cacher-ng/
 
diff --git a/docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step1.sh b/docker/gitian-host/build-vms.sh
similarity index 79%
rename from docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step1.sh
rename to docker/gitian-host/build-vms.sh
index a613899..fb51044 100755
--- a/docker/gitian-bitcoin-host/step1.sh
+++ b/docker/gitian-host/build-vms.sh
@@ -1,17 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -e
 
-if [[ -z "$VERSION" ]]; then
-	echo "Please define VERSION environment variable for bitcoin checkout" 1>&2
-	exit 1
-fi
 
 source ~/.bash_profile
 
-git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
-cd bitcoin
-git checkout v${VERSION}
-cd ../gitian-builder
+cd gitian-builder
 mkdir -p var
 if [ ! -e var/id_dsa ]; then
   ssh-keygen -t dsa -f var/id_dsa -N ""