Chapter 2

Set in Coletown
Keith Boyd
Fred Boyd his brother.
Alice Boyd his sister in law.
Nephew John 15
Niece Gabby 13
Jo Anne Wall old girl friend
Windy Wall her ex husband.
Lewis and Ellie Keith’s in laws.
Sarah Marsh retro hippie

DIY in plastic

The bike had been running fine for two days when I rode it to Gatehouse for the first time. Gatehouse was my two acre plantation on General Briggs Swamp road. Since Fred, his son John, and I had loaded the storage building’s kit onto one of his dog food plant’s trucks, the building’s lego style frame pieces were on site when I arrived.

Fred was waiting for his son John to get his ass in gear, so I went to the site to try to do some prep work. I had brought the orange chalk line over to do the layout on the concrete. First I used a felt marker to mark a spot exactly six inches from each corner of the slab. Then I drove a concrete nail into the spot to anchor the vinyl fifty foot tape. True to my expectations the slab was not exactly the correct measurements.

Rather than curse Lewis, which Fred would have done, I centered my rough diagram on the less that perfect slab. I even went so far as to dry fit the bottom round of four inch PVC pipes. I put the bottom piece for the front side together first. Then attached the other pieces like a tinker toy.

The first round was was complete when Fred and John arrived. From then on John and I held up the joints while Fred fitted the eight upright frame pieces. The next pieces were the top of the wall pieces. It was there that I was glad I had not allowed the glue to be used previously. We had to move a couple of plastic wall studs around before it was good to glue.

We did managed the wall and roof frame completely before lunch. I would have worked through lunch, but John, the fifteen year old, was whining. For that reason my brother and his son broke for lunch. I used the battery drill to run screw into the joints to add stability to the structure.

When they returned with a burger for me, I ate while we glued and screwed the remainder of the pvc pipe roof rafters together. Since I skipped the snow load model, we didn’t have much pitch on the roof. The walls were vertical panels with a vertical design in them. They were standard vinyl house siding panels, so additions and repairs were possible in the future. I left the interior to finish later myself. I wanted to get the family work day over so that I could do whatever necessary to get moved in quickly.

By 4PM we had the site cleaned and the truck packed. Fred and John left, but I stayed on a few minutes to make plans for the next day. I had bought some things on Friday from the Walmart store, and was glad that I had. I actually could spend Saturday night in the New Gatehouse. I chose not to because it would have been even more uncomfortable than living in the field. I didn’t need much to make it a livable home, but I did need at least a folding camp cot. I planned to shop for one of those that evening on line and then con Alice into giving me a lift to pick it up Sunday or Monday.

After I did my research back at Fred’s house I ordered a fifty dollar folding camp bed, and two foam pads, at twenty bucks per pad, to put on top. The final sleep item was a light weight sleeping bag. That brought the total for my first bedding purchase to just over one hundred bucks. I figured that was a pretty good deal.

The pick up of the items was on Sunday afternoon. It was too far for me to ride the bike so Ellen’s help was necessary. Fred stayed with the kids, so that Ellen could pick up pizza for dinner Sunday night. While I waited in line for my order, Ellen shopped for things for me. Things I had no idea I needed.

For instance she bought me utensils, pots, pans, plates and a stainless tableware set. When we left I had dropped another hundred bucks. I knew I still need something to cook food on, but I wasn’t ready to commit to that just yet.

“You are coming home with me aren’t you?” Ellen asked.

“It’s very seldom I ever say to no to an invitation like that from a beautiful woman,” I said.

On the way to Fred’s house Alice stopped at Gatehouse long enough for me to unload everything. I didn’t bother to position or assemble anything. I just set everything in a rear corner unopened.

When Alice and I returned to her home the kids were waiting. They advised us that Fred had gone to the plant to take care of a burst pipe or something. I was a little surprised, but Alice just shrugged and went into the kitchen.

I sat down with the kids in the den to watch TV. The show was some kind of reality competition show. The contestants were making metal art pieces. Welding or forging statuary was the theme of the show.

During one of the commercials John asked, “So, dad said he wasn’t sure that you were going to have water and electricity in your tiny house?”

“I don’t think I will. It really isn’t a house. It’s more of a shack,” I said with a laugh.

“Where are you going to get drinking water?” Gabby asked.

“Probably buy it. Who knows I might steal it from you guys. You know it’s only a mile or so to Gatehouse,” I explained. I waited a second then added. “Actually I’m thinking of a water tower. I understand there is a lot of rainfall around here.”

“Well till you get it up and collecting water, you could steal it from us,” John said.

“Thanks,” I said.

“How about electricity?” John asked after the water problem was solved.

“Probably a wind turbine, or solar.” I suggested. “I haven’t researched it yet.”

After several hours research, I decided that a hundred dollar gasoline generator made the most sense. I could run it for an hour and recharge all the battery devices I owned.

Rather than be a burden to anyone, I ordered one on line. I had it shipped to Fred’s house where I planned to pick it up with my three wheel scooter. Since the batteries I first used were crap, the trips I made weren’t far. The really expensive Lithium batteries were order, but were coming on a slow boat from China to save a few bucks.

That first Monday after the shack was built I rode the scooter over to arrange the small amount of furniture I had purchased. Alice came by to look the place over. She then quickly went home with me in tow. We made a couple of trips from her house to mine with cast off furniture for my new place.

“Since I bought this thing, I have been wanting to replace that chair. It’s a lawn chair but it will work just fine in your place with a couple of throw pillows,” Alice said.

“Are you sure it isn’t part of a set or anything?” I asked.

“It isn’t part of anything. It’s just a cheap white lawn chair that will not stay white no matter what I do to it,” she said.

After we dropped off some unused and no longer wanted furniture, I carried her out to lunch. This time we drove north to Cary Ms. for a Diner experience. Alice was determined I know my way around the culinary choices of the area. The area was small enough for me to reach the restaurants after my new long range battery pack arrived.

The food was good enough that I would return, but the place was packed at the lunch seating. It was likely that I would skip the rush hour next time. I had Alice clock the mileage to the restaurant along the not so busy rural road. It was eight miles to the restaurant one way. That distance might be a stretch for the scooter, I thought. When the Lithium pack arrived, I would run some tests. I planned to at least force the scooter have a twenty mile round trip capacity.

After my research I had ordered a thirty six volt, twenty Amp Hour battery pack. It had cost me $350 more or less. I had already forgotten the exact amount. That was a drawback to using Pay Pal and a debit card for payment. The money just didn’t seem quite real. Anyway I figured I had at least three weeks before the batteries arrived and became real to me.

In the mean time I planned to build a trailer to haul groceries and other purchases. The trailer had already begun with the collection of tools and materials for the construction. The tools I stored in a sealed container outside the shack. The materials I piled in the grass behind the house.

The frame of the trailer I created from angle iron left over from the scooter conversion. The trailer was a simple ‘T’ design thing. Each end of the cross of the tee had a wheel from a junked twelve inch child’s bicycle. The straight leg of the tee was twenty four inches long. It had a 3/8” hole drilled into it for a trailer hitch. It was the most simple design available on the Internet. Even better all the parts were available from the closest home depot.

I designed the trailer to hold one twelve by fifteen plastic file storage box. I figured I could stack them two high, if necessary, when I went shopping. It took all afternoon of that Tuesday to finish the build.

I rode the scooter to Fred’s house that very night while pulling the trailer. I still needed a cooking device, but otherwise I was ready to move out. Well I didn’t have the generator, but it was due to arrive with the next two days. I decided not to wait for that. I could drive to Fred’s place and use his outlet in the garage to charge batteries. I also planned to drink coffee and use his Internet connection while I did that.

When I was dressed on Thursday morning, I thought I had everything figured out for the move. I convinced Alice that I needed to move for the sake of everyone’s mental health. She helped me make the trip to my new house with the last of the furniture. She cried when she drove away.

The entrance door to my shack was on the side. It was a short six foot double sliding door, which was set in the exact middle of the twelve foot wall. The shack had a windows on either side of that doors. The whole front wall was either a door or window with just a little framework in between them. The interior was a rigid Styrofoam insulation panel with used vinyl advertising banners glued onto them. Fortunately I had been able to find it already assembled from a company recommended by Fred ... I was able to just screw it directly onto the PVC frame.

My bed occupied six feet of the eight foot wall on the right side of the door. It ran from the front corner of the eight foot wall ending six feet along the wall. The plastic lawn chair from Fred and Alice’s house occupied the rear corner of that wall. It was the spot I planned to use for dressing in the mornings. Dressing’s most important chore was putting on the bionic leg. Well it wasn’t really that, but it was how I often referred to it.

Along four feet of the rear wall I had arranged a four by six feel plastic shelving unit. It was made up completely of storage cubes. It made for a nice closet type unit for clothing storage. In the rear left corner I had positioned a sealed plastic shower unit. It was the type used in RV trailers. It was just larger enough to fit a body into. The low pressured water stream was driven by a battery powered pump. It wasn’t my favorite device, but it did the job. The rest of the left wall was storage. Their were plastic cabinets creating a counter top surface for the cooking area and food storage. It was barely enough for one person, but it would do for me.

The best thing of all was that the shack came in well under $10,000. There were more expenses to come, but I knew the shack was structurally complete.

Once I moved into the Gatehouse shack, I began to really learn patience. Most things I bought came through UPS or the mail, so a wait of three to thirty days was the norm. It was a good lesson to learn, I thought. That is unless I was in a real hurry, but I seldom was in a hurry.

After three weeks, I began to settle into the start of a routine. I began my day at 8AM. Most mornings I dressed in my leg only then went to the kitchen where I made coffee on my propane counter top stove. It like many of my things was designed for camping.

Just like most of the things in my life coffee making was complicated. First I had to half fill a tea kettle with water. Then I had wait for about five minute while it came to a boil. Then from that tea kettle, the water got poured through a coffee filter into an aluminum ice tea pitcher. The pitcher came from an antique store. Then ‘presto chango’ it became coffee. I turned the fire off under the pitcher after I made the first pour cup into my thermos cup. The thermos kept the coffee warm for half and hour at least. When it got cold, I just reheated the aluminum iced tea pitcher. That is, if I hadn’t gotten tired of coffee, which I seldom did.

Somewhere in there I made a bowl of instant oatmeal most mornings. No it wasn’t delicious, but it was filling. Filling was about all I managed most days. However some days I did have a delicious and filling breakfast of a giant bran muffin made in Alice’s kitchen. Oh I always made a fuss over the muffins, hoping that with enough flattery I could persuade her to keep making them, without actually asking.

I was still finding things around the shack which needed me to work on them. During the first week I lived in the shack, I installed a composting toilet outside. I placed the dry toilet inside a Rubbermaid shed. It was perfect for just me. The shack would never do for a family, with or without a composting toilet, so the composting toilet was a moot point. Along the same line of thought, at night inside the house, I used a medical type bedside urinal. No it wasn’t family friendly, but the shack was just for me, so it didn’t matter. The gatehouse shack was the first place that belonged just to me. So I didn’t think of anyone else as I designed and built it.

The first three weeks there I was perfectly content to just enjoy being alone. Even before I could take the bike on long trips, I went for generator gas or groceries every couple of days. The closest gas station was about three miles away. That was three miles each way, so it was about an hour trip. That was if I kept the socializing with the young woman, who ran the register at the gas mart, to a minimum.