Awesome construction day today! D&R of Odessa came to Kermit & lifted my container onto my foundation piers for $610. My measurements were off so it don’t look pretty where I started building the piers, but it fit fine & left room for Phase 3!
I also bought 3 windows @ Lowe’s last night for $434. With specific measurements in hand, I marked & cut the master bedroom window (4′x4′), the bathroom window (2′x3′), got about 1/3 of the office window cut (3′x4′).
Much progress has been made this week. A backhoe person has been found for next week. Precinct commissioner told me about a cheaper plumber for phase 1 who I’m meeting w in AM.
I bought a small cutting torch from Lowes for $300. The tanks are tiny, but I managed to cut up all the pipes under the demolished house & the excess rebar on the foundation piers w one tank full.
This morning I refilled them @ AirGas in Odessa and almost cut one complete door out (~12″ short). I went back to Odessa to refill the tanks then got a lot more done. I welded the metal plates to the piers, finished cutting the door I started then cut the next door almost completely except for ~6″. I re-read the instructions for both cutting & welding before I welded. It was much clearer the 2nd time w a little experience. It’s not the heat melting the steel but the heat inducing a chemical in the steel: turn iron into iron peroxide which is a liquid at a lower temp. Hence the bubbles in the slag as the excess O2 leaves.
Sorry for not updating this lately. As I mentioned in the last post, I’ve bought 4 adjacent lots in Kermit, TX: 100′x112′ total. I had a survey done which required the property plan to change slightly. The garage got moved to the North (right) side of the house, and the entire house got moved back and right. The final plan and the phases of the containers are images above.
One of the junk houses we bought has been demolished. An electric pole has been erected w D&M Electric of Kermit doing the majority of the electrical work. It’s visible in the pic of the demolished house. The other house is still up (for now).
The house is staked out on the property. The first 4 foundation piers for the second phase of the construction are built and finished with concrete. (I’ll go into detail of how I built them later.) The first container has arrived! This next Mon, Tue, Wed will be momentous as I will be cutting the doors, windows, & vent ports from the container as well as prepping the piers for the container to get craned in place. (Step-by-step photos to follow.)
Container House Plan
As requested, here’s the plan for the container house in Kermit, TX. (North is to the right). As you can see in the pic, the house is a large U-shaped row of containers with the garage at the bottom. Outside the house is a xeriscape garden. On the south side is a large area of colored rocks in the design of the Texas flag. I’m not from Texas, but I’m making it my home.
If you want any more details, let me know. I’m doing all kinds of extensive paperwork and design work. Costs so far:
Lot #1 (South half of house): $800 (50×112)
Lot #2 (driveway area): $350 (50×30)
Demolition Permit: $100 for 90 days. (OLD house on Lot #2)
Demolition Tools: $300
For the past 4 months, we’ve been living in a hotel in Odessa, TX. (New job. New city. More money.) After Longview, TX, we moved to Chattanooga, TN. (Good people, but no money.) We wore that FEMA trailer out. It lasted us a full year, but it was done.
Shortly after we arrived in Odessa, we found land for sale in Kermit, TX. I bought it. I’m in the process of buying the neighboring lots as well. When I’m done, the final lot size will be 150′ x 112′. We’re currently working on a house construction plan that we can build in a phased plan to keep the costs manageable on a monthly basis.
I’ve got a diagram of the final design that I’ve written up in MS-Paint that I’ll post shortly. Look for it. It’s styled after an old Chinese house with shipping containers around a central courtyard and all access to the rooms from the outside. Winters are short here in West Texas and rain is rare.
At the back of the house is a place for my container RV. I still haven’t bought the tractor, drop-desk 53′ flatbed trailer, or the container to put on it, but now that we got the land, it’ll be a lot easier to build it.
In case you’ve been wondering where we’ve been for the past 3 months, I can only respond with the importance of having a good plethora of communication connections. Some parks have GREAT internet access, but many have poor or no Internet at all. We’ve been in 3 parks since before Thanksgiving.
Our first park was a nice, small park south of Magnolia, TX called “Rambling Vines”. It was very quiet, lots of trees all around, and was real close to the Texas Renaissance Festival grounds. This was convenient, but they didn’t have any WiFi at all. They primarily have long-term guests. Most of them had been there for a year or more. A couple people have been there for over 10 years! Relatively kid friendly, but they didn’t want us to stay for too long since we had so many kids in our trailer. The park laundromat had only 2 washers and 2 dryers, so we took all our clothes a mile or two up the street to a regular laundromat.
Our second park was “Riverside RV Park” on Hwy 42 at Harrison Rd. on the west side of Longview, TX. It’s a nice, spacious park, but the WiFi required an extra, separate charge which we didn’t pay for since we had 1 bar or less of coverage. We had some issues with the manager. When she said that children were to be supervised, she meant literally “like a hawk” over their shoulder constantly for every child under age 16. They finally changed the rules for an equal number of children under 16 for adults 16 and over. IOW, if I took 2 kids to the park, I was violating the rules since I couldn’t “watch” both of them. The speed limit in the park was 10mph, but I was reprimanded for going 8mph since it “looked fast” and my engine was “revved up too high”. Their laundromat had 5 washers and 5 dryers, but every time I used it the manager complained that I did something wrong with using it: dirt on the floor, dirt on the sidewalk, dirt in the washer, etc. I offered to sweep it, but that seemed to make her angrier. I guess the laundromat is for looks only. They have two nice, large shower rooms. They complained that I spent “too much time in the shower room”: 30-45 minutes once or twice a week. Most people complained that I didn’t spend enough time in the shower often enough. At 7pm on a Thursday, the manager gave me 24-hrs to leave the park. I was gone by 5pm the next day but was fined $30 for leaving after 1pm.
The third park was also in Longview called “Gum Springs RV & Trailer Park”. It is over on the east side of town just off I-20 Exit 599. There are several parks off that exit which I didn’t find through Google Maps. There is WiFi scattered throughout the park, but it wasn’t strong enough to penetrate into the trailer very well. Unlike Riverside, Gum Springs is much more of a family park with several families with children including the manager’s own daughter and grandkids. Again, lots of long-term guests who’d been around for 2 years or more. Big speed bumps keep the speeds low, and the narrow street made for more cautious driving. Again, the laundromat is small, but there’s a big laundromat next to the convenience store by I-20. The toilet/shower room is small, but the heater in there was nice. No complaints about my time in the shower. The manager seemed happy that I used it: “Glad we could be of service to you.” The only issue we had @ Gum Springs were technical issues with water and power. The power seemed under capacity for even our little trailer. The water went out for almost a day. When it came back on, it had a strong sewer taste and smell. Apparently, there were 3 wells that were supposed to supply the park, but there was only one working and it had a problem. They got the other wells online again, but the water was nasty. After a while, the sewer went away and it was really salty. By the time we left, the saltiness was much less, but it was still “undrinkable”. I’m sure that by the time you get there it’ll be much better, but I’d still recommend a water filter, just in case.
We’re now at the “Hales Bar Marina & RV Park” west of Chattanooga, TN. Cost for the park is as low as $250/month w a 1-year lease or $500/month for a site right on the river. WiFi is really strong and fast here, but AT&T cell phone coverage in this park is spotty to non-existent. AT&T offers a “MicroCell” device which allows you to use your broadband internet connection for cell phone calls. The MicroCell gives you 4+ bars of 3G service in a 35ft radius.
Because of our mobile lifestyle, the most common Internet solutions of cable or DSL won’t work for us. I got Internet Tethering on my iPhone so that helped a little. After 2GB/mo, AT&T charges $10/GB of overage. This is the most reasonable I’ve found, but it can add up fast. My normal bill of $150/mo shot up to over $230 for January.
Virgin Mobile released a new USB and MiFi service for $40/mo unlimited. This would be usable since we don’t have to spend the money next month if we’re in a place where there is no Virgin/Sprint PCS service. It would also allow my iPhone to use it at home for data transfer to keep from going over. That same 8GB of overage would’ve been only $40 through the Virgin MiFi instead of $80 through AT&T. Other options, like Virgin Mobile, use the cell phone network to connect, but the allowed throughput is low and fairly expensive. Greyhound’s new cross-country bus has a MiFi unit in their buses that use the cell towers on the interstate highways to give you free WiFi inside the bus while travelling. Great idea and good value for such commercial use but not practical or economical for private use yet.
I’ve also chatted with DirectTV and DishNetwork about their broadband over satellite offerings, but unlike the normal satellite receiver, FCC requires you to be a trained and licensed installer to establish a 2-way connection as is needed for Internet usage. If you’re going to be stationary a while like will be for the foreseeable future, this could be a good option. Otherwise, unless you go to the class to get the right training and certification to do it yourself, there’s a charge to have a technician come and set it up each time you move. Additionally, both companies require a minimum TV package before adding on the Internet access for $40/month. HughesNet and WildBlue offer Internet-only over satellite, but you typically have to buy the equipment which is much more expensive.
For a bit more cost, you can get a Satellite-in-Motion system that will keep you online as you go down the road. Check out the RV superstores or their online catalogs for information. These systems tend to run over $1,000 plus installation and monthly access fees. These can be found already installed on the top of the line Class A RVs if you want to spend $500,000 or more for your rig.
In summary, the ability to get connected to the Internet and cell phones is important and should be planned and addressed before you get on the road. While some parks are good about providing WiFi and have a strong cell signal, not all parks or spots in a park will provide it. In the end, it’s up to you to supply your own communications devices and services. You have the ability to change provider or move, if needed. Still, don’t forget to cut all ties and let the earth go silent for a time.
Over the next while, I’m going to be giving details and discussion on our future family RV that isn’t as much a pipe dream as I thought it was. Since we’re debt-free and have such low daily expenses, our financial needs are easy to exceed. Thus we should be able to save for this new home very quickly. Built and paid for by the end of 2011!
Starting from the trailer that we’re already in, we have some practical experience with RV living to consider design options and usability for our family. We’ve also been scouring RV websites for layout plans and design options. With the majority of RV owners being senior citizen retirees, most RVs (like the Tiny Houses) are only designed for couples or single people. But, as you are by now familiar, we’re traveling with our “larger than average” family. While some RVs will convert like a Transformer to accommodate 8 in the short-term, few will sleep 8 or more in the long term.
What would you prefer to live in and why?
Instead, we’ve come up with the three evolving designs in the image to the left. All three are based on converting a 40 x 8 x 10 steel shipping container (“High Cube”) into a livable rolling home. These designs will sleep 8 without transformation with extra room for more people with just a little bit of rearranging. I’ll go over the main features that all of them share now then deal with different areas and design features in later posts.
The left-most end is the nose of the container, the very back without the doors. The width is split in half. One side is a “wet bath”. A wet bath is mostly a toilet and sink, but the entire bathroom is waterproofed with a drain in the floor and a handheld shower wand to allow for showers in the bathroom without a separate shower stall. This is mostly going to be used as a 1/2 bath but an extra shower could be useful at times.
The other half of the width is a bunk bed with a full-size bed on bottom and a twin-size bed on top. The top bunk has a storage bin / book shelf that fills in the extra width and allows the top bunk sleeper to have their own “special place” to put stuff. Bottom bunk sleepers’ storage would be below the bottom bunk. This area would also house certain utilities in the very back that would be difficult to access from inside.
Next to the bathroom is the laundry center (W / D). We’ve been looking into washers and dryers for the RV and have found some that are recommended. Our laundry bill runs ~$50/WEEK going to the laundromat. (That’s 2-3 wash loads every 1-2 days.) We have a minimum amount of clothes so we have to keep up w washing them. The laundry center would either be a stacked washer/dryer on one side with clothing storage on the other OR separated washer and dryer on the floor with clothing storage on top. We want to be convenient, but we do need to deal with little kids who like to get into things.
Next to the laundry center is the Entertainment Center with the public computer, DVD player, etc. We have a similar setup to this now, but it’s smaller and only has a laptop computer. The bottom section would be lockable storage for movies and computer accessories. The public computer will likely still be a laptop w cordless keyboard and mouse like we have now. Also like we have now, a large monitor would be wall-mounted to allow for dual displays for a wider angle of viewing.
Across from the Entertainment Center and next to the bunk bed is the couch. This would be a couch that converts into a bed in some form or fashion. Some fold out from under the cushions while others lay down like a futon. Either way works so long as the mattress that the sleepers lay on is thick enough and durable enough to be comfortable in the long term. If the couch itself folds out into the bed, we could use the space under the couch as a storage for both the couch sleepers and the top bunk bed above the couch. The top bunk could be either stationary or it could be on a fold out platform to increase headroom during the day for the couch sitters. The window above the couch doubles as the primary emergency exit in the event of a fire or other problem.
What comes next in the RV is largely determined by the other end of the trailer. In all 3 designs we have at least 3 desks for the kids to do their school at. We also have a large pantry, upright freezer and fridge, and the dining booth and table. The kitchen is mostly left intact in all 3 designs also.
The main differences between the 3 designs is the master bedroom and bathroom. In #1, the master bedroom is turned width-ways with access to the bed from the long-side of the trailer. The idea with the bed in all 3 designs is to elevate it, thus the ladder/stairs needed to access the bed while below the bed would be a desk or two and a dresser or two. In #1, the bed could either stay at the same height requiring us to duck to use the space under it OR could be on a system to lift it completely out of the way to the ceiling, then lowered at night for sleeping.
In both #2 and #3, the bedroom is turned length-ways with access to the bed from the bathroom side. The advantage to this is that we get more storage space on the walls at bed level and are able to walk from the inside of the RV to the opened doors at this end where a fold-down deck can rest. In addition to having the bed raise and lower, the bed can also roll out of the trailer the length of the doors onto rails that align with the rails on the walls. Further, we would have more room to access and use the desks and dressers under the bed.
The main difference between #2 and #3 is access to the master bathroom. In #2, access to the bedroom is in the middle of the trailer splitting the bathroom in half. While this gives more space to the bathroom that would otherwise be a hallway, it also cuts the kitchen counter and separates it from the sink. #3 keeps the kitchen counter intact but makes for a tighter bathroom. In all 3, the master bathroom has an actual bathtub instead of just a shower (wife’s request). It’ll be small but deep.
Because of the extra room taken up by the master bedroom, the family area loses emergency doors and desks. Three desks should be sufficient and a lot better than the NONE we have now. The table/booth area would have storage under it and can be used as a bed if needed.
All in all, we have sleeping for 8 with additional room for 2 more.
Wanna count ‘em?
Of course, while the kids are little, we’re piling 3 to a bed, and it’s been a long time since it was just the wife and I alone all night.
Back in 1999, my wife and I began to be more serious about wanting to settle down. We hadn’t done much traveling or moving at that point, but we’d only been in Seattle a year when we moved out of there. I didn’t like Denver, so we left pretty quickly again for Tampa.
My wife has always been a “conventionally-minded” person. Her family is very conservative and very few fall too far from the norm accepted by their family patriarch without a lot of fuss. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but the rest of the family will guilt trip you into staying “normal”, even if what you’re doing is normal, just not normal for them.
Along comes me. I’m as abnormal as you could get for that family. My wife isn’t the wild, reckless girl, but I’m just abnormal enough to cause everyone to keep glancing my way to make sure I’m not doing anything “funny”. When we lived outside of their immediate surroundings our “normal” was less intrusive to them. In Colorado, we’re right in their backyard, so to speak. We’re invited to the birthdays, Christmases, and other parties that are happening. Our “normal” wasn’t fitting in w their “normal”. Away in Florida, we were acceptably “normal” again.
I had a great career going in 1999. The DotComs were booming, and my income was growing faster than my expenses. My hourly rate as a contract Internet programmer was phenomenal to my 24-yr-old eyes. Still, being married w 3 kids, I was also looking to the future and how I was going to rear my brood properly.
Wife wanted to buy a house on land and have a farm with all kinds of fun farm animals. I grew up in such a situation and loved it. I’m not talking about a commercial enterprise where we try to make every dime off of pigs, chickens, cows, and corn. I’m talking about a “hobby farm” where we could have 20 hens for our own daily egg supply, one dairy cow for our own daily milk supply w extra milk for yogurt and cheeses, an annual slaughter pig, a few sheep for wool and mutton, a garden, a field for crops, etc. We’re talking about a rural, agricultural education for the kids and some related “fun” for the adults. (This inclination wasn’t “normal” to my wife’s family who were decidedly urban.)
Right away, we ran into three (3) problems:
#1 Problem: Money) It’s not designed to fund itself so you have to have the outside job to pay for your regular mortgage, food, etc. PLUS the extra funds for animal purchases and maintenance. While the daily supply of eggs and milk would offset a little, it’s still an extra $500 / month that needs to be covered. My job was paying enough, but it wasn’t consistent like I’d prefer it to be. My parents’ hobby farm was funded by my dad’s 30+ year career with Allison Transmission. I have no idea how much he made or how it was spread out to cover everything, but it was a “guaranteed income”. He wanted me to get the same thing, but I haven’t been able to find such a position in this post-Enron world any more.
#2 Problem: Time) The time necessary to commit to farm animals such as a dairy cow or chickens must be made on a daily basis. You can’t just jump into it on a whim, lose interest, and neglect the cow like most people do their live Easter bunnies. My dad had a regular 9-5 job and was home nightly at nearly the same time. My hours were much more sporadic, even to the point of necessitating sleeping at the office for a few hours instead of coming home at night. Programming can be fun and profitable, but it wasn’t conducive to family life or farm life.
#3 Problem: Stability) Animals don’t take to moving well. You need to be stable and secure in the land you’re on. A minimum amount of space is necessary for each animal added to the “farm”. For a single dairy cow, you’d need 1 solid acre of good grassland plus supplemental feeding. Chickens and rabbits can be suburban with just a little space, but some animals like pigs and sheep just aren’t “close neighbor” friendly. We could find the rural land and just commute to the office downtown like my dad did, but I’ve moved over 3,000 miles between 3 jobs in less than 9 months. Dad moved 5 times while he was married within a 50 mile radius. He kept the same job in the same building. His job was his anchor point to the west side of Indianapolis. I didn’t have an anchor point anywhere.
We did buy a double-wide mobile home on 2.3 acres southeast of Tampa and had a small flock of chickens, but we weren’t in it a full year when the DotCom bubble burst, and I found myself unemployed for an extended period. I was without a job completely for nearly a year and was unable to afford our own roof until 2006.
Still, the idea of having our own land and such kept coming back into my mind. How do we afford such a proposition? All it took was money. I did a lot of research back in those days and even made a website about our imagined “hobby farm” called 3Pastures.com. It didn’t do very well. MOF, the entire 2 years it was up, I was the only visitor. No one, not even my wife, read it. (The URL now re-directs to 3Pastures.ca, a real estate sale in Canada, but there’s no reference as to where in Canada.)
One idea that kept coming up was to buy inexpensive land somewhere and build our own house on it like a modern day Davy Crockett. Way back when, the Homestead Act enabled the broke but able-bodied to do just that. I was broke and able-bodied, but the Homestead Act isn’t the law anymore. The leftover land that hadn’t gotten ‘homesteaded’ was given to the federal government to hold in trust for later homesteaders who wanted it, but it was then converted into the National Park Service and is taken out of private use altogether.
Still, the idea has merit. I found “Tumbleweed Tiny Houses” back then, but the current economic situation and green movement seems tailor-made for such a business. CNet.com ran an article just this week on the company which brought all of this back to mind. They also mention Tortise Shell Homes and Little House on the Trailer . These are all generally made for single people or childless couples, but with a family my size, the idea was planted that is about to see the light of day. … WATCH THIS SPACE!
Unlike a lot of RV owners, when we talk about preparing the RV for winter, we’re talking about it more like the house you live in rather than putting it into storage where it’ll be abandoned until next spring.
Folks who don’t overwinter in their RV usually want to:
However, we don’t have that luxury. We’re not “vacationers”; we’re “full-timers”. We’re not merely having fun in our little trailer, but we’re living in it. This is our FIRST winter in it, and we’re not sure if it’s going to work out well or not. Summer was HOT. Winter can get cold. We’re currently in Texas so it hasn’t gotten cold yet, and we don’t anticipate Texas getting as cold as we’ve lived in elsewhere. But if we move north, that can change quickly.
Obviously, we’re going to need a source of heat.
Windows: Our windows aren’t very good. They leak air out pretty badly, and the heat seems to go through the glass like water through a sponge. We don’t have the option of upgrading the windows at this time, but we can do other things.
I’m also going to buy a can or two of that GreatStuff “Door and Window” spray-in foam. It works pretty good at filling the cracks. There’re two types of GreatStuff foam. The regular foam can build up quite a bit of pressure in small gaps. This is great for stone, hardwood floors and other solid pieces that aren’t going to bend or break easily. However, the “Door & Window” version doesn’t do that. Instead, it foams in without building pressure. This doesn’t fill the crack as well, but there’s less risk of bending door/window frames if there’s delicate tolerances or cracking the windows. Yes, I’ve actually cracked a window with the other stuff. I got a bit overzealous with the foam. In this trailer, I’m not taking any risks. The “Door and Window” foam works well enough so I’ll use it as we discover cracks from the shoddy workmanship of this FEMA trailer.
The other purchase that we want to make for winter is a whole RV cover. We’ve been seeing them in the magazines and circulars. They seem to be just the ticket for a whole RV blanket to shed snow and rain and provide an extra-measure of protection against a frigid north wind. Most have roll-up doors so we could still get in & out with the trailer completely wrapped. That’s going to take some saving since those covers aren’t cheap, but it should be worth it.
Once the trailer is at this point, we won’t know how good we’ve done and if we need to do anything more until the temps keep dropping. We’ve got options on places to stay and work here in Texas, so we may not have to deal with the bitter cold, but who knows … North Dakota in November, anyone?
In mid-October, we moved AGAIN. I left my last employer and moved to Houston, TX. We had a reservation for a park in Richmond, TX on the south end of the Houston metro, but when I called to confirm on the way up here, they informed me that the park did NOT allow children in the park.
Obviously, with 7 children that wasn’t going to work. I stopped in a parking lot and called a couple other parks who either told me the same No-Children-Allowed policy or would GLADLY accept my children for a small fee of $10 per day per child. That’s $300/month * 7 = $2,100 + their standard fees for the two of us adults & RV!
That wasn’t going to work. There are A LOT of parks in Houston, but it was going too slow and already after hours to call every one of them. I called Good Sam’s Club. The rep looked at his list and said the only park he could tell that was “kid friendly” was Lakeview RV Resort since it had a playground. I called them up, and they gave me no issues for bringing children with me: no extra charges, no restrictions, no limitations. Only a warning: if they got out of line, they’d have to leave the park along with me. Very Fair.
We’ve been here over 2 weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed the time. The outdoor pool was cool when we got here for summer but is now heated for winter. The only “issue” was with the little kids in the exercise room. We were reminded of their “strict policies” and took care of it ourselves.
Lakeview RV Resort is a fenced / gated community which increases the security of the park and prevents passers-by. It has a large catch & release private lake in the middle of the park if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s largely composed of cancer patients because of its proximity to MD Anderson Cancer Center. It’s also just a few miles from Reliant Stadium where the Houston Texans play NFL football, less than 1 hour away from Galveston Island and NASA Space Center. This is a great park for vacationing families like us and people just looking to get away from it all. Being quiet and secure, it was quite pleasant of an evening to get out and meet the neighbors, discuss RVing, and other aspects of life in the park.Our kids loves all the dogs out for their evening walks. Happy children seemed to really bring life to the eyes and hearts of the sick people here. Their own families are often far away. Joy in their dying days might even do them more good than all the radiation treatments and drugs given them by their doctor.
Our planned stay was for one month. In less than 2 weeks we’ll be moving on to either a park in Magnolia, TX or Dickinson, North Dakota. Even if we didn’t have the RV we’d be moving, but with the trailer it makes a lot simpler, cheaper, and more comfortable.
Next up, our future plans and how we keep it all organized.
