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Shipping Container Woes

I’ve been looking for a shipping container to buy in which to store items that don’t as yet fit into this house.  This search has been harder than you might imagine.

Every day last week I called one particular company trying to get one ordered.  On a few days nobody answered my call, and the other days it was answered by a different person each time.   Those people didn’t know if they had any containers available nor did they know exactly how much they’d cost if they found one.

Aggravating to say the least.

So this week I expanded and started calling other companies in the area.  One of the men I talked to highly suggested that I check with the city to make sure that a shipping container was “allowed.”

GOV’T INVOLVEMENT

Of course, no personal decision is complete around Utah without a little government involvement.

I don’t want to get into the politics of it (I’ve steadfastly not posted anything political on here before), but the absurdity of needing to ask for government’s permission to purchase, with private money, an object meant for private use,  and kept on private property, is Orwellian.

So today I called Bluffdale and they said that it is a “firm NO” on a shipping container.   He said that people typically get around that however by putting a roof on it.   It is disallowed apparently because it is “open storage”, but if I put a roof on the container it isn’t “open” anymore.    I’m buying a container to avoid building a roofed structure, why build a roof over a water tight, already roofed, container?

LOCATION

I think I may have located a container in the mean time.  It might be pointless now that I know I might not be “allowed” to have it however.   I say I think I might have found one, because apparently they are in short supply.  I called 4 other companies today, and only 1 said they might have one available soon.   Guy said he’d send me an invoice and set it aside for me.

This lack of containers baffles me, why is there a dearth?  I thought SLC was a fairly major train depot in the region.   Shouldn’t there be a lot of these available?  I know that a few years ago I heard there was a troublesome surplus because more were used to bring goods in than were needed to take goods out.  Where did that surplus go? I guess they fixed the problem.

I’m going to go in and talk to the city guy and hopefully find a work around for the legality of having one.  But once I do that, can I even find a shipping container available?

ALTERNATIVES

As an alternative I looked into prefabricated sheds/barns.  Those are obviously more aesthetically pleasing for the neighbors.  However, they don’t hold nearly as much storage and cost significantly more.   I’d rather not pay more money for something less useful.  I suppose all of us know that is what happens when gov’t gets involved though.

I’ll go that route if it is all that is allowed by the city, but I’ll be doing it grudgingly.  But even as a shed is delivered I’ll be silently cursing the government intrusion.  And I will forever laugh mockingly at those who still sing/talk about this being the “land of the free.”

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Update After My Hiatus

I’ve been on a hiatus and think I should give an update on life.  With nothing really going on I just haven’t found anything to write about.   Of course things have happened, but they all seem so small and insignificant at the time that they don’t seem worth mentioning.  It is only in the accumulation of seemingly insignificant changes that the scope of the change becomes apparent.

HOUSE PROJECT UPDATE

Things aren’t moving as quickly as I’d like, but they are moving about as quickly as they could possibly move.  We finished the wiring/plumbing/etc last week; HVAC was installed last week, and the sheetrock was hung this week.  The sheetrock mudders will be in on Monday.   By the end of the week we should be able to paint.

While the sheetrock was going up this week we were working on the deck that is going out the south side of the great room (going to have to stop calling it that because now it is a collection of small rooms that are no greater than any other rooms).   We have the supports up and joists up.  We don’t have any decking or railing on yet.  That might happen this week while the mudders have us out of the place again this week.

As soon as we can get back in we will paint just as quickly as possible and then get to finishing the bathroom and working on flooring.

I will try to get some video edited of what the space looks like out to you soon!

MISSOURI/FINANCES UPDATE

We have accepted (grudgingly) that we won’t be moving back to MO anytime soon.  This is sad.  We don’t want to lose the property though just in case we ever do find a way to get back there.

Even though we are way under water on the mortgage for a house that no longer exists, we have still been making the payments.   I’ve tried reaching the bank to see if we can work something out but they refuse to speak to me.  If nothing else I’d like to get approval to lower my payments since there is no insurance on the property (why would there be?) and the taxes are going to be MUCH lower now with no home.

We have sold our cattle.  They have been at a neighbors house since the fire and he took care of them over the winter.  I had him haul them to auction this week and should get a check for them soon.  That will help out a lot of things!

We haven’t decided how/when we are going to collect the rest of our things.  I think it is feasible to have everything loaded into my storage unit and then ship the entire thing here to Utah, but I don’t have a good way of getting it all loaded.  I could ask friends/neighbors to do it for me, but that seems like a big ask.   Maybe my Dad goes back and does it with help.  May I have to do it?  Still undecided.

FAMILY UPDATE

Everyone is fine.  Caitlin (15) and Joshua (13) had birthdays.  Everyone is healthy and enjoying the summer.  They’d like to not be working at my parents so much, but it hasn’t been bad.  With frequent (near daily) trips to the pool or the new splash pad in Bluffdale they are all getting out a lot.  They’ve done some hiking and sports too.

I think everyone is apprehensive about the move.  We know my parents place won’t be done.  We only have 2 weeks from today, so I don’t even know what state of cleanliness it will be in.   But school is starting, so we will move in regardless and make the best of it.   Maybe with school starting it will help make things easier for Julie and I to get things into a more livable condition.

VA/MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE

I’m surviving.  I’m still going to all my regular appointments (several a week) and getting by.

I have started and completed the beginners portion of Canines with a Cause.  I still don’t have my own dog but have been working with their dogs.  The first part of the intermediate class that begins in a few weeks will be looking for my own dog.  The timing is working out fine since I couldn’t have my own here at the Penrod’s, but can have one as soon as we move.   This will go a LONG way to helping my anxiety and will hopefully be beneficial in dealing with nightmares too.

Julie is still crazy!

EXERCISE/HEALTH UPDATE

You haven’t seen any running logs since the pool opened because we stopped running.  We have instead been swimming.  I have the kids do laps each time we show up to keep them doing some cardio, then they are free to go play (which rarely includes actual swimming).

My exercise has been fine, but hasn’t resulted in any weight loss.  I think it has trimmed up my waist a little bit (several people have mentioned it), but my actual weight hasn’t gone down.  Perhaps with time.

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What Is That? – Cleaning Out My Parents House

We have concluded the first full week of cleaning out my parents home in preparation for remodeling it.  Sometime later I’ll share some pictures to show what we’re doing.  In the meantime…

“What is that?” is the most common question the kids have asked while cleaning?  So far, the answers have included the following:

What is that?

a record player

hard foam insulation

every tax return my parents have ever filed (back to 1967!)

an entire case of unopened  Christmas lights

my Garbage Pail Kid collection

DB Cooper’s parachute

a slide projector

a dead mouse

a live hawk

a hand made Raggedy Ann doll

5 boxes up empty picture frames

my Yell Leader uniforms from high school

1990 World Book Encyclopedias (follow up question from the kids, “what’s an encyclopedia?”)

the watch my grandfather wore throughout WWII

the Amber Room panels

a gallon jar of  strike anywhere matches

another bag of unopened Christmas lights

a handmade foozle ball game

my handwriting papers from 1st grade/Kindergarten

20 years of my mom’s day planners

a 1960’s baby stroller

6 blocks of 22LR rounds

Amelia Earhart’s plane

30+ thimbles

my mothers Prom dress and my father’s Prom suit

grandma’s yearbook shirt (she embroidered over each signed name)

30 years worth of Ensign magazines

Another 2000 unopened boxes of Christmas lights

a dozen 72-hour kits

enough flashlights to signal Alpha Centauri

more antiques than the Smithsonian

Jimmy Hoffa

a Nintendo NES system

my youth sports trophies

the Treasures of Priam

the doll my mother was given as a newborn by a traveling salesman

the deer antlers that hung above my bed as a child

bugs… lots of bugs (Nikki supplied this answer)

two butter churn

a manual nut chopper (?)

and finally…

a wooden box that Kraft cheese used to be sold in

 

 

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming…

That kids have been fascinated by what we find.  Every item has its own history lesson attached, many of them about the family member who owned it.   We’ve enjoyed the stories we’d have never heard otherwise.  It’s even better when both Mom and Dad have drastically different stories about an items origin (“this came all the way from Egypt!” “No, we bought it at a store in Provo”)  Good time!

I wouldn’t say that we’re quite yet half way done with the house, and that doesn’t include the three car garage.  So I am sure that we will find some more absolute gems… maybe some religious relics and possibly a lost city or two.

I love you Mom…