So, since I have an address I went back to the Buildings Dept to get a set of Address Numbers to post at the property to allow fire dept, etc to find the location.
7401 Geary Dome Rd
Since there are a bunch of mail boxes at the intersection, I went into the post office to apply for one of the boxes. Unfortunately I got a call the next day that all of the dozens of boxes were currently occupied and I would need to go to the Evansville Post office. Once I had established that I indeed owned the property I was offered a free Post Office Box until the situation was resolved. So my mailing address will be
Dean Kling
PO Box xyyz
Evansville, WY 82626
Note that I didn’t include the actual box numbers, because I won’t be using the address until later this fall. I will keep you posted.
I spent 3 hours at the local U-Haul dealer and got my trailer hitch installed. So now I’m ready to get a trailer to haul the remainder of my stuff at the end of July.
Good to Go
I spent a couple of hours going through a ton on RV documentation. I think that the RV will be much more livable than I had been planning for. I need to look at getting slab put down and maybe a roof to ameliorate the summer sun. Something like this:
Width-22′; Length-35′; Height 12′
I did manage to find a way to move the trailer away from the fence line. I called up the local RV dealership and they agreed to come out next Tues and move it for $75. – a good deal.
Went through closing on Lot 3B of Geary Dome Estates. Went immediately to County Offices to get new title for the Fifth-Wheel Trailer and to submit application for permits to get the Conex Boxes registered as storage. They now do a lot of the back and forth via the web these days. I got the following in email this evening:
Among the interesting items of note are the address, 7401 Geary Dome Rd.
Next step in get a ground water permit from the State Engineer. And so it begins.
Just got a call from the realtor’s office. The closing is scheduled for 11:00am on Tuesday June 29th. I’ve got the down payment in my checking account so I should be all set.
In other news I’ve touched base with the realtors that we bought the condo from in 2003. They have a lot of experience with the Promenade at Bethany Village and recently sold a third floor unit for over $500K. We’ve got a lot of work to do at the end of July but things are moving ahead.
Also, since I had the cash available, I have paid off the cruise I’m going on with Jill & Jan in Feb 2022. It’s a 5 day cruise out of Galveston with stops in Yucatan and Cozumel. I will be flying down to Houston on Feb 4th and spending the night at the Harbor House Hotel. That should be fun.
I met with the Planning Dept and the Building Dept of Natrona County yesterday and things are starting to take shape. Thus far, I have had the property surveyed and the percolation test of the lot done. So far I see the following tasks as needing to be done:
1. Close on the property. Until it is properly mine I don’t want to sink a lot of time/money into it. Immediately after closure submit permit to county to use the two Conex boxes as storage units. (Previous owner did not do so and that is required)
3. Get the well drilled. A neighbor warned me that I’ll probably need to drill down 400′ go get good water (at $34. per foot). Once the well head is in, I will build a 8×12 foot shed to insulate the well and provide space for eventual solar power installation, and run power to it.
4. Once the well head location is determined, install a septic tank and leach field (greater than 100 ft from the well head). While that is progressing, I can layout and pour/get poured, the concrete pad for the trailer. I want to build a shed roof over the trailer to reduce heat gain in the summer and provide rainwater catchment. Finally move the trailer on the pad and hook up power, water, and septic system. Once that is done I can get an Occupancy Permit and get address assigned and move in as desired.
5. I would like to get this done, but time really isn’t critical. I have an apartment lease through the end of the year so I can take my time.
In other news I have decided to sell my condo in Portland. I am planning to go back in late July to babysit cats while the girls go camping and I may bring Charlotte back for a working vacation. I will bring back any thing that I am wanting to keep (actually not that much) and have been talking to Jen & Kate about managing the disposal of most of the interior for a reasonable cut of my profits.
I figure I will still visit the girls once a quarter or so, but for a fraction of what the condo is costing me I can stay in a really nice Residence Inn by Marriott. This will also free up considerable funds for further development of the Wyoming property.
Below is the first draft of what I plan to do with the 2 40 ft containers, (pending of course, my discussions with the county planning department).
Draft 01
The scale is 1 ft / 1 dot. The wall insulation/framing will probably be less than 1 foot as shown. The dark lines reflect the wall sections left from the original container. Note this is only a one bedroom design since I am assuming I have the 5-th wheel trailer for a guest house. Your inputs are welcome.
Since the surveyor was out and marked all of the property lines, I went over after church to see what exactly I was planning to buy.
First of all 13 acres is bigger than you think. The lack of trees and terrain features (especially on the southern end) is somewhat deceptive. The terrain has enough contour though that from the southern square (hereby designated as the Hermitage) you really can’t see the pond or the trailer.
View from the Hermitage
The light blue square in the upper left is the top if the 40′ trailer. The crumpled black remains below it is a crumpled trampoline about half way down the property.
While walking the property line I met neighbor to the East, one Mike Conners, about my age, and we had a long chat. We exchanged background info and it turns out he, and his wife are former Navy. He was an airedale, served on several carriers in the 1970’s and his wife was a supply clerk. His son is a LCDR (former P-3 and P-8 pilot) who will retire in a couple of years. Things of interest: he said a well would find good water at about 400′ or so; his well driller stopped at about 100′ or so and the water was somewhat brackish with minerals. (Well drilling price is $32. /ft so that means about $12-13K). He warned that the pond develops a foul smell in the late fall, but that might be due to low 02; he said there might be some bluegill still in it. He was leaving Tuesday for Florida to visit his son and some other friends but would be back around the 4th of July.
Below is a view from the top of the rise under the power poles.
View from the top of the rise
Off the left edge, amongst the pallets and hay bales, is a decent flat spot that might be a good spot for the RV pad. I’m thinking the trailer will go along the road that goes to the left in front of my car. should have a good view of the pond. I also learned that I need to keep water in the car. After about 90 minutes walking around the property a combination of the altitude and low humidity meant I was parched.
Today was a busy day. The furniture I ordered from Montana Woodworks arrived today. Since I tried to cheap out and ordered directly from the factory rather than through a furniture store it; came palletized and FedEx just dropped them off.
Partially Broken Down
One of the things I liked about the furniture is that it is made from real wood and has sturdy American craftmanship. One side effect I hadn’t really thought about is that it is incredibly heavy. Especially the 9 drawer dresser.
Dresser
I figured that this was well beyond my 150# folding dolly. After noodling it for a few minutes I decided I needed an appliance dolly, designed for refrigerators, etc.
I made a quick run down to Home Depot only to discover that they didn’t rent anything. I could buy it for $110. + tax but that was it. So I decided to visit Menard’s which I had not visited before.
They had appliance dollies available for $8. for 4 hours. I got it and ran home and it did the trick. Menard’s looks to be a fully stocked and larger than Home Depot. So that’s where I will be getting my hardware needs in the future.
I got all the furniture moved in, gathered up all the packing materials and pallets and dumped them in the dumpster. I managed to get the bed assembled, and I’ll save the dining table until tomorrow.
Bedroom Set
Tomorrow I’ll also buy some lampshades and assemble the dining table.
In other news, the land survey will happen next Monday. The realtor said there was no problem to accompany the surveyor, I’ll call him tomorrow to confirm. Once we close (still scheduled for mid-June) I need to get permission from the State Engineer to put a well in and then drill the well. The driller is confident we’ll get water (he’s done several wells in the area). Once we have the well location, the next step is to site the septic tank (must be at least 100′ from the well head) and the drain field. And lastly, I need to have several long discussions with the county permit office to get a feel for the different permits I will require to get started.
After sleeping on it and googling more on Mr Gore’s Interwebs and really thinking about what I really want to do I find I’m leaning towards the really cheap option – converting the shipping containers.
One realization is that, assuming I can live in the trailer that is on site, time is really not a driving factor. I can take my time and using what help is available and do the work slowly over time.
Once upon a time, long time ago (circa 1980 or so) I took a welding course in Groton through a Navy/Community College program. I did mostly acetylene gas work, and just started up stick welding when I had to go back to sea. Ed & I re-wired our basement in Seattle in ’75-’76 (get me a couple of drinks and ask me about 08 Gauge wiring) and I had done electrical work in the Navy previously. Finally over the years as a homeowner I have done minor piping / plumbing / irrigation projects. I really don’t see anything in a Conex box conversion that is really beyond my capabilities or ability to learn.
Looking at the long term this is kind of what I envision happening.
1. Get through closing this summer and get a really good look at the land and decide what is going to go where. Touch base with the county and get familiar with County Codes & get an address. Determine the well siting and septic & drain fields. After septic tank is in, re-position the trailer and get the first section of solar panels sited. Determine (in consultation with Jon & Cathy) where to put the RV parking slab and connect to water & septic system. Finally, start planting trees.
2. Over the winter if not already decided, decide where I want the Conex boxes, and prepare mounting, slab or whatever. If possible get all concrete work done at the same time. As soon as the Conex boxes are sited, start construction of shed roof over them to reduce heat gain in summer months, provide shade for deck area, and allow rainwater collection as auxiliary water source. This will provide backup for well, or replace well, if water not found. Prepare cisterns & water storage.
3. In Spring, if not before, move out of apartments and onto site, in the 5th wheel trailer, full time. Maybe look at building roof over the 5th wheel to make more comfortable year round. Determine where and how to store existing furniture. Maybe in a Conex box or more likely in a rental storage unit. Continue site preps, water collection, & storage, improve solar installation, plant more trees.
4. Assuming I am comfortable in trailer with access to water, power, propane, etc, I can finish up site work before opening up the Conex Boxes. Once started, I can afford to spend the time to do them right rather than depending on them for living space from the start.
The more I type this out, the more reasonable it seems. The goal is twofold; first to get an off grid, comfortable living space; second to give me a long term project that I can work on for at least the next ten years. I think it seems do-able.
After talking to people, and especially Jon, I have decided to pull the trigger on a property. It’s on the North East side of Casper on E. Geary Dome Road in Evansville, WY.
It is a series of trade-offs that I had to sort through. I had originally driven by it, and crossed it off due to the fact that it was semi-populated on lots of about 10-50 acres. I was looking for something more isolated. After looking around all of the other properties, there were other issues from covenants to access issues. Most were well off the paved highways which might be problematical in winter, not to mention Amazon deliveries.
I came back to view the property with the realtor. I examined the 5th wheel travel trailer on the property and the two 40′ containers. But I also saw the decider – a year round (so claimed) pond in the middle of the property.
Pond Closeup
Beyond the pond you can see one of the drawbacks, the neighbor’s horse barn. Along the right is the fence line of the other neighbor. The property is an odd shape, long and narrow as shown below.
Geary Dome Property Layout
The blue line outlines the property. With a year-round pond, I can plant enough trees to screen the neighboring properties and in 15-20 years either I, or my descendant’s will have something worth having.
Assuming that the purchase goes through, now I have to decide how to live on it.
In the short term, I intend to stay in the leased apartment through next April or so. That will give me time to evaluate at least one Winter and the lead time for most housing options is at least 6 months.
I also need to decide what to do. After a brief search on Mr. Gore’s interwebs I have come up with the following options: (note smaller is obviously cheaper, but I tried to standardize on 3 bedroom / 2 bath sizes.
Modular home (as opposed to manufactured / trailer / single wide). I’ve looked at one of the local dealer’s in town and got an estimate of ~$80K for site prep and $160K for the home. I think the $80K will be valid for any other option I pick.
Zip Kit Homes. These are more modern panelized construction. A home comes as pre-built wall sections. A 3bdrm/2bath model is $98K, with an estimate of $155K for completion on site.
Budget Home Kits. They sell a steel framed kit built home. The base price for a MacArthur 1080 sq ft 3bdrm/2bath house is $54K . It comes as a kit, packaged and they claim it can be assembled without cranes, etc by 2-3 people. Pictures here. They claimed (at least prior to COVID) to ship 30 days after receipt of payment.
Low ball option. The property comes with 2 40′ shipping containers. I have been poking around on Mr. Gore’s interwebs about people who have converted them to living spaces. For instance HERE or the contrarian view HERE. I think that part of the appeal for me is a. it’s cheap and b. I’ve already demonstrated that I can live in a long metal structure with little access to the outside world.
One thing that intrigues me about the Budget Home Kits is that if we could re-constitute the Kling Bros Construction Company we could get the house exterior sealed in a week’s vacation if I got the site prep work done before hand. After we build mine we could do a reprise for David if it works out.
So last Friday I had to drive down to Cheyenne to get the 15,000 mile service on my Hyundai. I scheduled the appointment for 12:20pm to allow the 3 hour drive and time for lunch at Chili’s in Cheyenne. After lunch, I took the car in and two and a half hours later was ready to return home.
On the way down I noticed a sign (about 45 minutes North of Cheyenne) for a site called Quebec-01, a former missile silo. On the way back up to Casper they highway department was working on the bridge over the exit to Quebec-01 so I exited to check it out.
The site is just a couple of blocks off the freeway, and I drove in.
Quebec-01 Site
It’s pretty unassuming, just a garage and moderate building. It turns out it is a former Peacekeeper missile control site. When the Peacekeeper missiles were decommissioned in 2005 the site was scrapped and shutdown. Eventually the state took over and it was rebuilt as a museum site. The chare is $8.00 for the tour ($7.00 for military). The base building was for the guard force and support personnel (e.g. the cook). Below ground was the bunker for the two man launch crew.
Elevator going down
Blast door at bottom of elevator.
At the bottom of the elevator is the blast door. An amusing fact, as initially installed it could only be opened from the outside. Once locked in the 2 man control team could not leave until relieved.
IMU – Inertial Measurement Unit
This was not here normally, but is the missile IMU which was the breakthrough that allowed the accuracy of the Peacekeeper. In essence a miniature version of the inertial measurement that allowed missile submarines to update positions and feed to the missiles.
Diesel Generator
Inside the blast door, to the left is the equipment room with the AC units and diesel generators and electrical equipment to support the personnel.
Decorative Mural
Inner Blast Door
The inner blast door (note: can only be opened by the 2-man crew inside) Note the Two Man Control Mandatory sign.
Note the low ceiling/raised floor inside the door
Just inside is the junior member, further back is the senior station.
All the way back is the senior station.
Note the mirror for keeping an eye on the junior crewmember. Note that all of the LGM-118 consoles were removed. What is there are Minuteman and other salvaged equipment similar to what was installed.
All in all it was interesting, but a whole different environment than what I was used to. The two-man crew was locked in for 24-hours at a time. They went through the launch sequence where they would get the launch codes, verify them and they would each have a key to turn at the designated time. In addition, another crew would have to do the same process and turn their keys at the same time to actually launch the missiles.
When the START arms limitation treaties were signed in early 2000’s the Air Force decided to decommission the Peacekeepers rather than the Minuteman III’s because the limitations were on warheads, not missiles and they could keep more missiles spread out, rather than fewer Peacekeepers. This is the same reason that the Navy converted the first four Ohio-class submarines to SSGN; guided missile (Tomahawk missiles and Seal delivery) rather than SSBN Tridents.
