How having “Beer-breath” can actually save the planet!

Now, if you’ve been following along…

You already know that my family is all about scrounging in the garbage…  um… er… recycling.

You also know that we’re building a home out of recycled Shipping Containers.

Yep those 40′ “Boxes O Blight” (this according to the neighbors, and those “experts” down at Planning and Zoning) are going to be turned into a multilevel palace where this “Grand Puhbah of Prognostication…”

(Okay… I admit it, the title is self-appointed! I even made myself a really cool “proclamation!)

… can continue telling anyone who will listen that saving the earth isn’t just for Zealots and “Eco-whackjobs!” It can actually enrich your life, save you money, and help your family.

And all that hard work gives me a headache. So, every once in a while I retreat to “daddy space,” to just contemplate my navel, and take a deep breath…

But just like recycling, nothing is actually “free…”

You know, there is nothing worse than my wife intruding into the “Man Cave” to holler at me about chores, while I’m drinking a frosty brew and watching a game! Talk about a “buzzkill!”

Finally, there’s a way to save the environment and drink a frosty brew at the same time!

From Earth2Tech: “Dude, DIY Ethanol From Beer Yeast. Totally brewtastic!…“

Now there is a home ethanol kit that runs off of discarded beer yeast.

Let me repeat that for the hearing impaired…

Now there is a home ethanol kit that runs off of discarded beer yeast.

The entrepreneurs behind startup E-Fuel, who have been hawking a washer-and-dryer-sized home ethanol system called the E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler, tell me that they’ve done a deal with Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to use the beer maker’s yeast waste as a feedstock.

So, the next time my wife decides to interrupt “Lager Time…” I’m gonna bow right up and tell her that “I’m not just laying around drinking beer… I’m just doing my part to save the planet!”

heh-heh!

Stay tuned!

Note: In “celebration” of both winter, and “frozen friends…” I give you a new header photo “Container Cabin in the Sky!” Some of you will recognize the cabin, it’s a “Stankey Monument.”

Is living GREEN really possible? Start with Solar!

The stomach churning  news about our rapidly failing economy seems to get more painful every time I turn on CNN or FOX News….

As I watch cable, “people paid to know the answers” make predictions on how and when things will turn around.  Analysts seeking their 15 minutes of fame play the blame game as to how we got into this mess in the first place. It doesn’t matter how we arrived here, folks…

The fact is: “We’re here.” No matter which side you’re on, be it Republican, Democrat, or Independent…

America has experienced a mind-boggling crisis of leadership on almost every front. You don’t have to be a “paid commentator” to see that leadership so poor  can’t be  easily explained away, without using terms like “utter incompetency” or “criminal negligence.”

Still, in spite of the horror of all the negative headlines… for most of us, life goes on pretty much as usual.. if the distinct possibility of losing your credit, your job, and your home is “usual…”

We all know that when it gets bad, we need a good leader to get us through the desert and into the “promised land,” even if we have to drag us  there, kicking and screaming!

And good leadership is is never more important than in times of economic disaster… but it is really put to the test in times such as these. America needs to heal, and we need to do it, one step at a time.

What does Ronin think about all of this? I know that you’re just dying to find out, hmmm? Well? Are ya? Okay, since you twisted my arm… I think that “Green Living ” is a good place to start the healing.

The incoming Obama administration talks a lot about supporting alternative energy and green technologies. With great fanfare, President Obama has released a plan that includes the following goals:

* Help create 5 million new jobs by investing $150 billion over the next 10 years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.

Solar can do this.

* Put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars — cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon — on the road by 2015, cars to be built in America.

Solar can do this.

* Ensure 10% of the electricity in the United States comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25% by 2025

Solar can do this.

* Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions 80% by 2050.

Solar can do this.

Ahem… President Obama, if you’re listening: “SOLAR can do this!”

The planet is hardly “standing still.” With global energy consumption expected to double between 2005 and 2030, new legislation and regulations, and growing consumer demand and awareness are driving growth in energy-efficient end products, particularly in the appliances, lighting, home entertainment systems, computing and communications, and automotive markets.

This is a boon for those of us looking to streamline our existence, by co-existing. And saving energy puts cash back in our pockets.

Demand for hybrid and electric vehicles, for example, is increasing as a result of the pressure to cut carbon emissions and concerns regarding the stability of supply and the cost of oil.

Don’t hate me cuz’ I’m beautiful! LOL!

If you don’t like that one, how about this one? Hmmm? I give you “The Ultimate Aero EV!”

Shelby SuperCars recently announced plans to produce an all-electric version of one of their current cars, the Ultimate Aero, also known as the world’s fastest production car. The new model will be powered by their revolutionary All-Electric Scalable Powertrain (AESP) will provide 100% torque at 0 RPM and better performance compared to traditional internal combustion engines. With a 1,000 horsepower twin motor and 800 ft-lb of torque the car will be able to achieve 60mph in 2.5 seconds and have a top speed of 208mph. According to the company, using a patented new technology (“Charge on the Run”) the battery will charge in 10 minutes and have a 150-200 mile range.

Now, I just hope that these technologies will prove themselves and then quickly “trickle down” to us “little people.” That would mean more affordable electric cars for the rest of us. And, you know I live for an affordable electric car that goes 200+ miles per hour. But where do the groceries and the baby stroller go?

(Fear not, for “Screamin’ Green 200+ mph,” I’ll strap my wife to the hood, like a deer!) LOL!

FYI: The car in this video has a 387 cubic inch, all aluminum, twin turbo intercooled V8 gas engine. Can’t wait to see how they figure out how they also plan to draw enough juice from a 220v plug to power up the batteries, in 10 minutes! It sounds like a cool goal!

Now, if my blog makes me a cool “Eleventy Million Bucks!” I’ll be able to afford one. Okay, maybe just the gearshift knob…

Oops! I know… I know… Never wave a sexy car at Ronin… I’ll forget about everything else! Oy Vey!

Now where was I? Oh yeah…

These same concerns are also fueling demands to make conventional gasoline, diesel-powered, and “alternative fuel” automobiles even more efficient. As we move forward, scientists, engineers and even software geeks (remember that “job-creation” part?) will play a key role in the development of  more efficient vehicles and other products that we depend on in our daily lives.

Can President Obama really have an impact on America?

After all, the Republicans saber-rattle at the “Stimulus Bill,” the Democrats are trying to figure out how much of their “pie” they will lose to Obama’s new “watchdog actions on Congress,” and Independents are still “tearing their hair and gnashing their teeth…”

According to my “Magic 8-Ball,” the Obama presidency can bring about new tax incentives and “green initiatives” for power conservation in a huge range  of  products, from consumer goods such as TVs and white goods to enterprise-storage equipment. BTW: Magic 8-ball says; “Outlook Good.”

The Obama presidency will need to make and show an economic change quickly in order to make good on his “lofty” campaign promises. The President will need to call in his troops to help him achieve his goals. He has expressed strong support of “Clean and Green” technologies and if he acts effectively, he CAN achieve those goals.

It isn’t going to be easy, but an increased emphasis on scientific development, renewable energy, high-tech and infrastructure renewal ( the Internet II project, for example) should actually accelerate America’s growth.

Just how much progress can we make? Well…  we’ll just have to wait and see.

Everyone hopes that  President Obama will make wise decisions that will have both long- and short-term benefits for the economy. I think he has the ability to inspire the country. He’s already proven that. What America needs is a healthy economy that produces a need for its products.

If Obama can help America embrace “Living Green,” we can all start to heal and see almost immediate results.

It’s a given that it isn’t just “us” suffering this horrid economic downturn.  The world’s economic balance will be affected in ways we can’t clearly imagine or predict, despite what all the “contradicting analysts” on Cable TV say.  America must be hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. What we do know is that although we don’t know what the future holds, we must be well-positioned to face and overcome the challenges that America may be faced with.

Everything we use should be designed to go full-circle. You can never throw anything away that could be reused or recycled, and we must teach our children to do the same.

I was recently reminded of a National Geographic article reprint entitled “What On Earth Are We Doing?” National Geographic really needs to reprint this, and get it into classrooms! You don’t have to hug a tree to realize that the environment is that important.

So where do we start?

Obama wants 10% of energy resources in the United States to come from renewable sources, by 2012. That’s actually doable.

Solar can do this.

The “Energy naysayers” say that solar and wind are just idealistic nonsense. They claim that both of these potential areas of energy growth aren’t reliable or efficient. To them, I say this…

“Phhhhfffffft!”

Solar panels and wind turbines create electrical energy, by using semi-conductors to play a vital role. And, I admit that solar panels have a significant problem, But, it’s a problem that existing technology (analog semi-conductors) can remedy!

Just like the battery in your car, a bad cell in an array of solar panels can seriously compromise the amount of power generated by the array. And, if just one panel in an array of solar panels is impaired by shade, be it a tree, a chimney, or another building, the electrical output for the entire array is compromised.

Here’s how to fix it: Adding semi-conductor based modules that monitor and regulate energy to the panels (and how it’s used) can lessen this problem dramatically, and improve the panel’s efficiency.

Now, some of these “miracle modules” are already available. The problem is that demand isn’t large enough yet to make them affordable to you and me. Let’s hope that Obama uses his clout to push these new “Smart Power” technological break-thrus into the mainstream, so that we can help him use them to achieve his goals, and ours.

And so ends another broadcast day… this ends our daily broadcast…

Next time, we’ll talk about more “Ronin’s Rules of Homebuilding,” I promise!

Stay tuned!

Is there a defense of Defense?

No, I’m not writing a blog post about the upcoming Superbowl.

WARNING! I’m gonna warn you in advance that I’m really pissed off. Cover your eyes, if you have to! This isn’t gonna be a “kid-friendly” post…

I know that you’re shocked, and that this is out of the blue, but…

I’m on a mission. I’m so pissed off that I wish I still had a truck with a tank  full of gas, so I could drive to certain “author’s” house and kick his sorry ass all the way to Canada. I haven’t been this pissed off in a while… I’m talking “breaking bones with each blow” pissed off…

Some of you don’t know me, but I’m just a guy trying to help my family get back into a home, after Katrina. There’s no news in that, there are thousands of us facing the same dilemma. I don’t wave any flags in anybody’s face, and I don’t wear anything on my sleeve that resembles my heart. I’m no different than anyone else, I’m just trying to get my family to a better place.

My blog finds it’s roots in my travels around the rock, bouncing from “Banana Republic to Banana Republic.”

And I’m not talking about the ones you find in Strip Malls…

I’ve admittedly seen way more of the “human experience” than I wanted to… For instance, I know that a “sit rep” isn’t a machine you find a Bally’s Fitness gym.

My blog gets a lot of reads by people who have decided to “drop off-grid” and become “self-supportive” to the point of Isolation.  I can really get behind that. My lifelong goal was to find a hundred or so acres somewhere, and build a “Net Zero” abode, complete with “hot and cold running kids” and filled with laughter and happiness. Hell, I might even grade the dirt road, so you could come visit, in the summer. But, life being what it is, I’m just trying to deal with the realities of the day.

On another list I read (because some of my readers frequent and refer to it) they’ve started a discussion on how we deal with youth today, kids looking to the Military to help them on their way to adulthood.

I’ll remind you that a “list owner” isn’t responsible for the commentary of his readers. Let me say for the record that the owner of the list I’m talking about is kinda cranky sometimes, but I don’t hold him accountable for the ravings of some of his “readership.” However, after my last visit to his list, it makes me sick to even be vaguely associated with some of the assholes that post there.

To that end, for reasons I’ve already explained to the list owner, I’ve written a response to something I read there. However I’m going to post it here on RR, to avoid it harming his list, and to prevent the matter from being being “round-filed” or buried for being “inflammatory.”

Here’s the meat of the post today:

**************************************************
I’m the author of a fairly popular blog about “alternative construction.” I usually don’t get involved in conversations about politics, religion, or (gasp!) government. RennaissanceRonin is a blog that documents the attempt of one family to build a home out of recycled materials, because frankly, we can’t afford to just go out and purchase whatever we need, to complete the task at hand.

Many people have been following along (we’ve gotten about 15,000 “reads” in the last several months), while my family attempts to recover from the loss of our home, due to a natural disaster. The reason that this has dragged out so long has more to do with appeasing Insurance Company stockholders and politics, and less to do with effort on our parts, but the result is the same. Each day, my family strives to take one step closer to the goal we have set for ourselves… reclaiming home-ownership.

Because of both where we’re from and where we live, our family’s solution to this dilemma isn’t the same as the one others might make, but we truly feel that our path provides opportunity, and even reward, if we work hard enough to finally find it within our grasp.

Many of you know that my family is having a terrible time. My wife is gravely ill, my son is just a baby, and I’m not going to lie to you… we live “day to day,” trying to find a way out in circumstances that are slowly crushing us…

But, we have a roof over our heads, enough blankets to stay warm, and we have enough to make sure that anyone around us who gets cold or hungry gets fed and clothed. My blog is an attempt at helping people find roads out, so that their families can heal from disaster and find new opportunities, as we try to find them, ourselves. We’re thinking “out of the box,” but in our circumstances, the box burst a long time ago…

Although we live in a minefield (something I have intimate personal experience with) we see any step forward that helps us achieve our goals as a good, well-placed step.

Teamwork helps you achieve goals. Working together to solve problems helps insure success. My life experience,  much of it purchased on foreign soil, taught me that.

Recovery is always complicated. And, recovery is often measured by the tools you bring to the wreckage. We accumulate those tools, during the course of our lives, via our life-experience and training. And then… we use whatever gray matter Mommy and Daddy gave us as we toil away, until we succeed (usually in spite of those who would take pleasure in watching us fail).

Recently, I started getting email from readers about  a thread on a list that I lurk, one where the question came up about whether a youth should trust the “speech” (or the contract) given him by Military Recruiters about “guaranteed training,” and a job in his choice of fields, when he “graduated.”

Many of the responses urged the solicitor of this advise to be extremely wary, and spoke harshly about the integrity of the recruiters, and the Armed Forces in general.

Okay, I understand this. In this day and age, there are a lot of things “wrong” with the system. Like everywhere else, it’s “Buyer Beware.” But then, the tone on the list seemed to have shifted, and it was implied that most of the people who enter Military Service are incapable, slave-minded zombies, murdering miscreants incapable of succeeding at  anything resembling a normal “day to day life,” in society. I’m summarizing here…

Few of them spoke of the opportunities presented to kids who might not have opportunities for education and job skills otherwise, especially in this horror of a failing economy.

Few of them spoke of the desperate circumstances one might leave, or the ability to leave impoverished conditions, to obtain this opportunity for growth, in the most honorable of ways.

Few of them spoke of the skills one can acquire while serving honorably in Military Service.

Few of them spoke to the foundation that Military Service can provide, as one grows into adulthood.

Anyone talking to military recruiters today knows that signing the contract may mean finding yourself in conflict. (We fight wars on television, for crying out loud.) The United State’s position in the World Arena isn’t a mystery.  Joining the Military means taking a stand, and becoming part of something greater, in spite of the rants from “idealistically challenged” liberals who think that the world is just “Roses and Honey” without American Intervention into tyranny.

But here’s my “favorite” response;

Beginning of quoted post:

“This is my message to any young person with ears to hear it:

There are few jobs in the world where losing your life is a daily — and highly likely — possibility. There are even fewer jobs where you are paid — and fully expected — to kill men, women, and children withOUT questioning your superiors (or their motives) at any time. Unless you’re a psychopath and murder, mutilation, and mayhem is your idea of a gay ol’ time, find something else to do — find ANYTHING else to do.

Yes, you read right. The author is claiming that those serving in our Military are nothing more than brainless, morally deprived, psychopathic “woman and baby-killing murderers,” who actually take pleasure in participating in the death of others…

If you want to fight for “freedom”, try fighting for your own personal freedom from our oppressive corporate culture FIRST and then find your own unique path from there. Don’t pretend to defend *my* personal freedom and liberty when you don’t have it yourself and most likely have NEVER had it and then spend the rest of your life acting like *I* or anyone else OWES you some vague debt of gratitude.

Need I remind the author that the lives (and deaths) of all those “brainless, morally deprived, psychopathic “woman and baby-killing murderers” paid for his right to not only attack and libel their character, but to voice his views in public?

And, trust me, the second you sign on with the military, you just LOST whatever tidbit of personal freedom you thought you once had. Don’t let the military machine destroy your spirit while you’re figuring out who you are and what you’re meant to do in this life.

Yeah, you get shanghai’d, and smuggled onto a ship, where you do forced labor until you die, or get a debilitating disease. And then… you die. You can’t possibly grow stronger, find your place in this world, and then return home to make the world and your local neighborhood a better place. After all, that would be uncivilized…

There are a THOUSAND better options: wander in the wilderness, become a monk, work in a soup kitchen, work in a homeless shelter, build a mountain retreat on FREE government land, fix bicycles for kids and give ’em away, serve the poor . . . you’re much more likely to remain ALIVE and actually do some good in this sorry-ass world — instead of promulgating death and destruction as a hired killer for the rich white guys. And the bonus? You’ll sleep better every night for the rest of your life . . . I guarantee it.”

Sure, there are other options, but for many of us, the unemployment rates are climbing faster than a Space Shuttle lift-off, and a life lived as a monk wandering the wilderness isn’t going to feed our families.  Oh… and that FREE government land you’re going on about was paid for with blood, too… Soldier’s blood.

End of quoted post.

Look, I know that “Big Government” and even the Armed Forces are things to be leary of. I know that, as “the little guys,” we sometimes get lost in the shuffle, and in fact, it seems like it happens pretty often. Those in “Authority” aren’t always  “fair.” But, I can assure you that after traveling  all over the world, life here in the United States is indeed better than a life lived in other places on the rock.

Me? I’m old enough to remember guys and girls who left America as kids, and returned as grown men and women, whose lives were forever changed not only by what they endured and witnessed, but by the way they were treated when they returned to us.

I remember watching them spat upon in airports, and I remember watching their terror at the mobs that threatened them, as they simply tried to return to their families. I remember their tears, as they tried to readjust to “life” after living with death.

I remember those we left behind, those we couldn’t find, those we couldn’t rescue, those we couldn’t save.

I remember watching as my friends were slowly lowered into the ground, and covered with sod.

I’m old enough now to remember that I became one of those guys…

And although I’m scarred too… I’m the better for it.

I remember, and I cannot, I will not ever forget.

I’m not going to name the author of the above quoted post, although I’ll add that he says that he’s a Vietnam Vet.  Suffice it to say, the author makes me genuinely sick to my stomach. However the fact that brave American Men and Women put their lives on the line every day gives the author the right to say it.

Contrary to the “quoted author” of that post, I don’t think of people looking to serve our country as “murderers, baby-killers, or psychopathic criminals.” I think of them as brave and heroic souls who are willing to put their bodies where their mouths (and hearts are), and stand the line so that we (and evidently this author I quoted) can say whatever we want, while they risk flying bullets, bombs, and death…

And I owe them a debt that I can never repay, for their sacrifice, their heroism and their patriotism.

What would YOU tell someone thinking of joining the Armed Services?

I know what I’d tell them…

It starts with telling the author of that “advise” I quoted above, this:

Okay, gentle readers, if you’ve gotten this far… have you got any suggestions?
I’m listening, if you have any advice. Right now, I’m going to go take an antacid…

Stay tuned…

“Evolution or Intelligent Design?” Say what?

As some of you know, my family is building a home, out of shipping containers and old aircraft hangar parts. We’re doing it, because it’s the only way we’re going to get back into a home, after Katrina ate our old one…

Last time you were here, we started discussing how this house came to be. And, at the end of that discussion, I promised to give you a more “complicated” description of evolution…

But, since President Bush says that “the facts about evolution should be weighed against those of intelligent design…” and the President of the United States couldn’t possibly be wrong… I’m taking all the credit for this house…

(I’m also taking about twenty minutes off, so I can stop laughing about the prospects of President Bush always [or possibly ever] being “right…” about anything! Doesn’t anybody check his speeches before he gets in front of a camera, or a microphone? Oy Vay… And I voted for this idiot… He seemed like “the lesser of two evils…” Gawd, what was I thinking?)

Color me “disillusioned.”

And three months into this (the “blogging” thing, not the “building” thing…) I’m still getting email from people scratching their heads, trying to figure out what medication we need to be on… So, I think a “primer” is in order.

“So Obiewan, tell us… I still don’t get it… How exactly does this house thing work?”

When we started thinking about the house, we started taking a hard look at the circumstances that brought us to this path…

Hurricanes ate our homes, twice. In a &$^%#@!! row. First, there was Ivan. Now, you expect a hurricane named Ivan to come in and do some damage… After all, it’s a “cold war” kinda name, huh? But then, Katrina waltzed in, to show us a “lady” could kick some butt, too…

Alas, as a home is just a giant shell where you put all your stuff, we lost our valuables as well as our shelter. Now, I can live without all those boxes of clothes I outgrew eating everything that could possibly be fried in the South… but we also lost our photos of our children, video tapes of “first steps,” and even some of our “memories and dreams.” That’s the part of “new construction” that can never be rebuilt.

So, we decided to build something a little more worthy, when measured against Mother Nature, and even the locals, this time…

Crisis brings out the best in people, but it also brings out the worst. Everywhere we look now, we see crime, violence, and hardship. Everybody around us is scrambling, and some of them are really taking advantage of the “goodness of others” for nothing less than “greed’s sake.”

For example, we don’t have much, but we’re not gonna let anybody go hungry. And, because we’ve lived “close to the earth” before, we stay “well stocked” so the pantry supports us, when things get hard. It’s common for us to have bags of groceries ready to hand out the front door, to people in need.

Imagine our chagrin, when we found out that some of the people we were “feeding” were taking the food to the doorstep of the local “Circle K” and selling it for beer money… Argh!

In fact, people told us, when we confronted them with “the facts” that it was “well-known” that we were an easy touch, and that we were known to the neighbors as “the instant six-pack…”

Now, I’m flattered as all get out, but I don’t know how my abdominals got into this… LOL!

I admit it’s because we don’t live on a golf course, and we’re not surrounded by mansions. We’re “everyday people.” Hell, we could be the poster children for “the common man.” Really “common.”

The hardest part is the realization that we look at people differently now. We’re not so optimistic, we’re “suspicious…” And that just stinks…

The hurricanes didn’t just take our shelter away, they took our spirits too.

Now, we know we can’t heal every one, but we can heal those we can reach. And that means that we have to start this healing, at home. Which means we have to rebuild one, obviously.

This home needed to provide all of our needs, keep us safe from all harm, and we needed to live with it, and not just inside it. The house needed to be a part of our lives, and not just a place for us to throw our dirty socks at the end of the day…

So we started plotting…

The house needed to be strong. (And, it needed to be “bulletproof.”) And what’s stronger than steel? So, we needed to figure out how to get the steel we needed, when all around us, building drives up the price of construction materials.

I know! We’ll use stuff that nobody wants… Right?

I started looking around, and I realized that I had what I needed, and it was right under everybody’s noses. All I needed was a way to assemble some bits and pieces together into the house I needed.

So, like a lemming looking for the proverbial cliff, I started looking through every indexed page on the Internet. And, low and behold, there are grants that allow you to take down aircraft hangars, for “recycling” purposes. Now, you gotta do your homework, and there are a lot of bridges to cross, but it’s possible. Hangars are made of… steel. So, a hangar can provide the “bones” for a house. The skin can be used as “siding” or sheathing materials.

Or even fencing… Tall, magnificent, privacy insuring fencing…

But that’s not the only resource we found available. We live on the Gulf Coast, near shipping ports. And shipping ports always have a mountain of steel, just sitting there, for the taking… in the form of shipping containers.

And nobody wants shipping containers. The shipping companies here don’t even want them. It’s because America isn’t an “export nation.” Now, don’t get me started on that, because it’s another post, filled with rants, tirades, and obscenities…

But, nobody “here” on the Gulf really wants them, either. If they did, they’d sell them at Walmart. You can be sure of that… Talk about your “rollback specials…”

Where was I? Oh yeah… Shipping Containers.

After all, shipping containers are ugly, they’re too small to use by themselves, and they just aren’t “kosher.” Well, “kosher” or not, they ARE steel, and they are easy to stack up. And at $1000 a pop, for 300+ square feet, they’re cheap-cheap-cheap!

Now, you have to start thinking this through. Shipping containers measure about 8’x8’x40′ in the “standard” configuration. You can find taller ones, called “cubes” by the trade, that are slightly taller. At 9’6” tall, they provide more headroom, so using them gets you a taller ceiling.

Now, if you connect a few of these babies together, side by side, you get a box that is 24’x40′, with a ceiling height of 9’plus… That’s 960 square feet, for $3000. That’s $3.12 a square foot, for the “raw” space… Let’s see your local contractor do that!

I can hear THAT phone call now…

“Hello? I was just wondering… Can you build me a house shell, for about $5 a square foot, that’s bulletproof, weather resistant, and capable of being erected in one day? Well… can you? Hello? Hello? Martha, I think they hung up!”

Now stack this newly created box on top of another identical one, and you have a 1,920 square foot house, for less than the price of that old mini-van that’s sitting in your driveway… A house that exceeds the average size of family homes in America, by about 120 square feet, according to statistics.

(Admittedly, this is dependent on whose numbers you believe…)

Of course, building a home isn’t that simple. You have to insulate the boxes, cut holes in them for windows and doors, and plumb and power them. But, you’re already well ahead of the game, because you’re already “closed in” against weather, and the structure is easily secured.

And, it took ONE DAY!

Yep. One day. All you did was drop them down onto a slab or pilings, and connect them together, with connectors that are already built into them.

You can see where this is going… High speed construction, cheap components, and a face that Mother Nature can’t put a dent in, without trying REALLY hard.

Ever see what happens to a shipping container that gets hit by a huge tree limb? Nothing. It might scratch the paint a little bit. But it’s like hitting a Hummer with a dirt bike… You get out of the cab, and after making sure everyone is okay, you just laugh…

You have your basic box now… What’s next?

Next time, we’re gonna address some of the more important issues of home ownership. Issues we all share, and need solutions to.

And, I’m gonna keep you in suspense about what the first topic will be…

Why? Because I’m like that.

Stay tuned…

“Garbage” House Floorplans – Building an “Alternative” Home

Okay Campers,

I’ve spent the day (night actually) getting ready to do battle with the politicians in Jackson, MS.

I have a hearing to determine whether or not I can discard “reclaimed” hangar trusses, as part of my “dismantling and recycling” effort to build a house out of the materials.

I’ve already discussed why I want to “discard” the trusses in previous posts, so I’m not going to recap. Suffice to say that I’ve figured out a way to build my house, without them.

I’m doing some “crayon drawings” of the house for the lackeys in Jackson. In keeping with my K.I.S.S. methodology, I’m going to show them “basic illustrations” of the home, so that they can see it’s really “just like any other home,” once you “cover up the bones…”

This is the South, and things move slower here. In fact, you’d think you were still in the 1960’s, if you weren’t careful. So, I’m gonna speak clearly, throw in a lot of “y’all’s,” and “I reckons…” and see what happens.

I’ve got a pretty good idea now where the house will sit. It’s a little bit out of town, but that’s fine by me. I”m sure it’s fine by the locals too.

They’re still trying to figure out if I should be lynched, or just “tarred-and-feathered.”

You see, I’m “going over the heads” of the locals here, and they just hate that. They seem to think that they can build their little “time bubble,” without any outside interference, and keep things “slow and stupid.”

My trip to Jackson is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. And, my courting of the press, both regional and national, is going to make them even madder. Once the “public” sees what and why this is happening, they won’t be able to stop me.

Taking up a position against me in an election year, would be a really bad idea.

Sometimes you have to drag people kicking and screaming into the 21st century. This is one of those times.

I’ve gotten my foundation, Garage Level, and Main Level crayon drawings finished. They’re rudimentary, but they’ll accomplish my goals.

My intention here is to just look like “Common Joe” walking into talk about a home for his family. I don’t really want to come off as a tree-hugging activist, even though the “Green” aspects of this house are very promising.

Here’s a peek at what I’m showing the guys at the meeting…

Garage (ground) Level

Main Level

As you can see, it’s just your average house, with average stuff!

No reason to get all uppity and think that “The Communists are coming!” LOL!

I’ll post more info, right before I leave for “the firing squad…”

Stay tuned…

My family needs a home. [This is no joke.]

Welcome to what I like to call… ALTERNATIVE HOUSING 101.1:

Last post, I brought you up to speed on why my family is trying to find a safe place to live. After you read that, you’ll see why I’m so desperate to get something built to protect my family, come what may.

I’ll recap just a little bit, in case you’re new to these parts… LOL!

Like lots of families, mine got hammered by hurricanes. We lost everything, and had to start over again. My heart breaks as I watch the Mississippi River rise to flood stage, condemning many other families to suffer what we suffer here in Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina took everything she could carry away.

Here in South Mississippi, insurance companies draw things out as long as possible, and the insured suffer the entire time. This means that in the meantime, the insured have to just suck it up, and solve problems without assistance. Even though it seems like “Katrina was forever ago,” the scars still linger. A lot of us are still waiting, and we’re forced to do what we have to and wait for our day in court, to hopefully get the healing that we thought paying our insurance assured you of, in case of disaster.

After the storm, lots of us moved into any apartment we could find, to regroup until we could get our houses rebuilt. And unfortunately, some landlords have become opportunists, bent on extracting every penny they can, in this “crisis created bonanza.”  Some of them do little or nothing to maintain properties, and raise the rents every chance they get, out of nothing less than greed. My family is, unfortunately involved with one of these slumlords, and we need to find a way out, before something worse happens to us. My previous post describes the conditions we live in, as we try to “heal our wounds.”

So I’m sure that you’re asking yourself; “Where do they start?”

Well, first you assess your situation, and figure out your options…

In this part of the country, wages are lower than you’d expect. We don’t have huge technology centers, large manufacturing corridors, or high-paid trade jobs laying around waiting for people to fill them. The biggest local employer is Wal-Mart. It’s “work your butt off, and then die.“

You don’t get much more than a buck or two over minimum wage around here, and rebuilding a family is a “scrimp and save” proposition, at best. So recovery takes longer, much longer sometimes than you actually have.

And, contrary to what you see on TV, in this part of the country we didn’t get much in the way of “aid.” Most “aid” was offered contingent on what your insurance company did, and if they did nothing, you got the really short end of the stick. Here in coastal Mississippi, we heard a lot of promises, but in the end, we wished we’d lived in New Orleans, because that seems to be the only place that got any real “attention.”

It’s like everywhere else didn’t really even exist. Infuriating as that is, we’re just using common sense, and whatever resources we can bring to bear, to find solutions to difficult problems.

The “aid” programs are so filled with political twists and “almost impossible to navigate bureaucracy,” that they’re almost worthless unless you have 40 hours a week to comb through them, and a Ph.D. in double-speak.

I think it’s because that way, politicians can claim they fostered all these programs (thus insuring re-election), that in reality never get used, because the common man can’t possibly qualify for them.  You would think that I was looking for the “Lost Ark of the Covenant,” or something!

Some of you know that I’m exploring a series of programs that allow citizens to apply for grants to “re-urbanize” Mississippi. It seems that so many people fled Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, that the tax base took a severe hit. So, the Fed, and those self-aggrandizing poltroons in Jackson decided to give away small parcels of land, located in “re-urbanization corridors,“ to entice families to return and get taxed to death!

I coupled this with a grant underwritten by Homeland Security and the FAA, to remove old steel hangar buildings, to recycle into an alternative housing source. It seems that the Feds think terrorists are gonna drive up to your hangar and blow up the city with a car-bomb or something. So, they’re removing the old metal hangars, and replacing them with more durable, and “hardened” structures to protect the aircraft, and mankind as we know it.

Don’t get me started on this one, because it makes me crazy. You don’t store “fueled” aircraft, you fuel them on the tarmac, so there really isn’t anything highly volatile in a hangar, to explode and kill everyone for miles around, but whatever. And let’s not forget that small airports are seldom located in the middle of population centers, so that fuel’s gonna have to be REALLY REALLY high octane, to impact the “locals”…

But, I’ll  take advantage of this opportunity, to turn a pig into a purse… I have the (3) hangars all picked out, already.

The caveat is that you can’t sell off any of the material, and you have to use it to build a “private structure,” not for resale. Okay, I’m in.

In fact, I’m trying to tie four different grants together, to allow the construction of a home for my family. I’m gonna “re-use, recycle, redesign, restore, and renew” a whole bunch of stuff, to get “the palace of my dreams.” I am tying the land, the structure, the “recycling,” and the “energy efficiency” into one big, tidy package, and waiting to watch the Fed Grant checks roll in, to help me finance/pay for it all.

And, I’m gonna do it cost-effectively, and hopefully without much of a a mortgage, on the other side. Plus, I’ll get a tax credit or two that I’ll probably never benefit from, but…

Next time, I’ll let you in on how I’m dealing with all the “snags and loopholes” that have sprung up, to try and stop me in my tracks…