The Best-Laid Plans of Ba and Ha

I once had a boss who would always ask me, "Got big plans for the weekend?" He asked this every time I saw him, no matter what I was trying to talk to him about. Well, if he had asked me that question last week, I would have said that yes, I had big plans for the weekend. Big, big plans!

So what were those plans? Here's the biggest plan of them all:

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And did it actually happen? No. Here's a reality check: it takes a lot of equipment and manpower to move a structure that weights 10,000 pounds and is 40 feet long. Here's another reality check: equipment and manpower are expensive things. Oh and let's not forget the most important reality check of all: we can't afford to move Box 1 onto its foundation. Yes, I've seen the guy who moved his container in a similar manner using logs and two trucks. Apparently, that is not an option for us. For one thing, we don't have any logs. Getting logs in Hill Country would probably be fairly cost-prohibitive. Then there is the fact that the container is currently around 60 yards from where it needs to be. Then figure in the terrain: hilly, rocky, and covered in scrub brush. 

So what really happened this weekend?

We removed the "temporary" screen door at the end of the box and set the materials aside for re-purposing:

We sold two love-seats that were just too big for our space:

We bought a used Ikea fold-out bed that is the perfect size for our space (this is a picture from the Ikea website and not the actual couch that we bought. Looks the same, though):

The doggie got her rabies shot and spent the rest of the weekend resting in her warm, cozy bed:

And I made some cookies (I would share them with you if I could, because I'm just nice like that :):

So there's your BaHa Ranch update. Not what I had hoped for, but the weekend's events made us rethink our priorities. I'm afraid to even make plans and verbalize them now. Hey, but I'm going to anyway, because otherwise this would just be a blog about dogs and cookies, and you're not interested in something like that, are you? 

Priorities: 

• Level the box (Right where it is. It's fine. Really. We'll just have an expensive mini-Stonehenge to show our visitors 60 yards away) Done!
• Put in a door and some windows 
• Finish the walls inside
• Electricity!
• A heating source and a cooling source
• A rainwater catchment system
• An elementary grey-water system Done!
• A small refrigerator Done!

Sounds do-able, right? I think it does. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

That's all for now! And by the way, Happy Valentine's Day!

Even Starbucks is doing it.

I saw an article on Yahoo today about Starbucks building a store from shipping containers. You can read it  here. The article also says that this building is using rain-water collecting and xeriscaping to conserve water. Good for them!

Isn't it beautiful? So glad to see a big corporation doing this.

Photo: Tom Ackerman, Starbucks

What's next?

So what's next for BaHa Ranch? First, we'll be moving the box onto the foundation. It's gonna look kind of like this (side view):

To do this, we'll have to hire a crane. Unless anyone out there can think of another way to move it? Next, metal straps that were poured into the foundation will be welded to the bottom of the box to keep it in place.

After the box is securely up on its foundation, we'll be installing the windows.

Only the tallest one, leaning on the wall behind the other one on the right, is going to go on this section of our house. The rest are for later. We got these windows, used, for $15 each. We'll also be adding one of two smaller windows that are not pictured here to this section. We got the smaller windows, also used, for $5 each at a Habitat store.

The windows will be framed by a friend of ours so that they are ready to go once the box is on its foundation. A neighbor of ours has graciously offered to do any welding that needs to be done in exchange for loaning him a Bobcat that we had rented. Saves us a lot of money! And to save even more money, we are going to try to make a door from the metal of the box itself; basically, we want to cut out a doorway and then frame the metal that was cut out and use it as a door. We'll see how that goes. We also plan to insulate the inside soon, since the framing is already in place for the walls. Any environmentally-friendly ideas on insulation? Spray-in looks easiest, but that icky pink cotton-candy stuff looks most cost-effective. We're also pondering old-fashioned clay and straw insulation. Does anyone have any experience with that? What are some other options that we could consider?