Mad Max / Off the Grid tips n' tricks

[Turd Ferguson]

I was thinking about a shipping container home. Some are pretty cool. I have a friend that is a master welder and he can do amazing shit with metal and we have a good source of cheap shipping containers from ADM.... next to nothing on the cost. Pretty much, you just weld them together in the pattern you want your house to look like, then you finish the insides with drywall and wood floors or whatever, and spray on stucco on the outside, or wood panel if thats your thing. I'm seriously considering building one of these if I can get off my ass and get motivated. It would definitely be for the off-grid purpose, way in the boonies if I did it.

Hardest part around here is getting the cheap wooded property you'd wanna build it on.

[alaric89]

That is pretty cool. Just think how cool and cheap and good houses could be without zoning laws and building codes. If you want to be innovative you have to live out in the boonies where no one sees you.

[Bill Brasky]

For me, being off grid means a variety of things.  I usually think in woodsy terms.  But you could really be anywhere. 

Its not inconceivable that I could find a perfect place.  It doesn't mean I have to own it.  I could make some arrangements, and be very comfortable for a very long time, and own nothing at all.

That'd be off-grid, wouldn't it?

I think in slightly weirder terms than most.  I'm the kind of guy who would buy a lighthouse, and I'd probably get my ass crushed in it.

I'll know it when I see it.

I guess I see being dependent on the sewer and water system as a big hurdle for more urban type places to be off-grid. I have this issue right now, and it kind of bothers me.

I don't think ownership really matters much to off-griddyness.

I understand the weirdness thing. I ended up in an old nunnery.

Yeah, the sewer especially.  But I'm thinking about one person, and your considerations are for (more). 

I guess if you were really obsessed with it, you could have a contractor illegally install a sand mound.  Cisterns are easy.  I have an obsolete concrete septic tank buried in the back yard.  A little elbow grease and 40 ft of 6" pipe, I could be shittin pretty by tomorrow.  I'm assuming theres a buried well, too.  This place was built before the city water ran through.

You might have the same, since the place is pre-Depression. 

[blackie]

Just think how cool and cheap and good houses could be without zoning laws and building codes. If you want to be innovative you have to live out in the boonies where no one sees you.

I don't know dude. The two places I have owned property there wasn't zoning, and no real building codes. The houses didn't seem cheaper or better....pretty much the same types of houses see everywhere.

[blackie]

I guess if you were really obsessed with it, you could have a contractor illegally install a sand mound.  Cisterns are easy.  I have an obsolete concrete septic tank buried in the back yard.  A little elbow grease and 40 ft of 6" pipe, I could be shittin pretty by tomorrow.  I'm assuming theres a buried well, too.  This place was built before the city water ran through.

You might have the same, since the place is pre-Depression.  

The history on the place is a little bit weird. It was built in 1928-1929. I guess the Bishop of Portland got the diocese into millions of dollars of debt around the time he had this place built.

John Gregory Murray (1925-1931)

Following the death of Bishop Louis Sebastian Walsh, Murray was appointed the fifth Bishop of Portland, Maine, by Pope Pius XI on May 29, 1925.[7] His installation took place at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on October 12 of that year.[7] During his five-year tenure in Portland, Murray established thirty new parishes and dedicated himself to Catholic education.[5] He also founded a diocesan weekly newspaper, Church World, in 1930.[5]

During the Great Depression, Murray organized relief committees to raise money for the homeless and unemployed families.[5] He was required to obtain loans and to mortgage church property to continue funding hospitals, orphanages, and other institutions.[5] Consequently, the diocese accumulated millions of dollars in debt.[5]

I don't think there is an old well or septic tank. If there is, it is under a parking lot, and I don't own most of that.

I've got about 1/3 of an acre. There is no zoning, so if I wanted to put in a sand mount/cistern, it probably wouldn't be illegal. The ground is mostly sand. I've got about 2000sf in the basement, so I was considering putting a 1000 gallon holding tank down there.

But my real goal is to find a bunch of land for sale in town(no zoning), in an ideal location. I've seen 150 acre tracks of land for under 100k. In my dream world I would be building an off grid place from scratch, and keeping the current place as an office or to run a business out of or whatever.

[alaric89]

Just think how cool and cheap and good houses could be without zoning laws and building codes. If you want to be innovative you have to live out in the boonies where no one sees you.

I don't know dude. The two places I have owned property there wasn't zoning, and no real building codes. The houses didn't seem cheaper or better....pretty much the same types of houses see everywhere.

Maybe it's different in urban areas. Where I grew up people were building all kinds of crazy stuff before the developers started to have zoning there. Though not all of it was very good.
I would love to see someone plop down a earthship or geodesic dome right in the middle of a cookie cutter suburb.

[Turd Ferguson]

This, right here, would be my dream shipping container home.

Or something very similar.

Basically, 8 shipping containers, a metal roof and lots of glass. Not much too it.

[Riddler]

that's fucking stupid
what if you're cocked up & wanna drive your '68 charger in the front door & out the back..?????hmmmmm?
you got these opposing dumass staircases obviously in the way

[Turd Ferguson]

that's fucking stupid
what if you're cocked up & wanna drive your '68 charger in the front door & out the back..?????hmmmmm?
you got these opposing dumass staircases obviously in the way

Its enough room for a fuckin Harley. Dont bitch.

You wanna drive a truck through it, youre gonna have to do some amazing CHIP's TV show, up on  2 wheels move between the fuckers, cuz I aint movin em.  I will open the doors for you though.

[Bill Brasky]

There is no zoning, so if I wanted to put in a sand mount/cistern, it probably wouldn't be illegal.

Usually, zoning or no-zoning, there is local ordinance of municipality whereby all residences who have sanitary sewer running across their frontage are required to attach. 

Of course, yours could be the exception to the rule.  The easy way to find out would simply be to ask the sewer authority.  Tell em, at the window, hello.  I'd like to enquirer about a sandmound permit at 420 Blackie Drive.  If they freak out, theres your answer.

[Riddler]

just fucking DO it.

at night w/ headlamps or nite vision....tell the dump truck drivers to squelch their headlights @ a block away each time they bring a load of stone/sand

we built a big dry well w/ cinderblocks & crushed stone

[alaric89]

I decided My wife's Golf should be one colour again. I thought I would make a little article on how I did it, for kicks. I would say criticisms and advice are welcome but hey this is the FTL BBS. I'll get em without asking I am sure.
These techniques are not for winning The Riddler but They work good enough to BS most people who don't look too closely. A while back Me and the ball-and-chain got slammed from the side from a little electric car. I have the maintenance book. German cars tend to be easy to take apart as long as you find the little "keys" and the inside door card was easy to remove following the instructions in the book. After accessing the doors inside, I carefully press popped the door back out pushing on the biggest surface I could by cutting little peaces of wood to fit. Basically I set it up carefully and popped it back out in one push. This is the best way to avoid wrinkling and tool marks. On the fender I had a little less luck and had to BS quite a bit with Bondo after I pushed it out a little using the trim mounting holes with bolts and accessing a little with a crowbar from the inside taillight access panel.

The results were thus after a very long break in the action. 2 huge underpaint rust spots appeared. I scraped off the paint and set water based rust eating solution on it overnight. It was pretty badly pitted when most of the rust and old paint was removed.
TIP: Before touching up a cars paint Do not wash it. Just clean the part you are going to work on. Overspray doesn't stick very well to dirt.
TIP: Be patient with the drying of the bondo and paints. It isn't worth it to hurry.


To hide the pitting I used a thin layer of bondo. I use old plastic containers for bondo. I cut out a little applicator to mix the goop and apply it, and a big flat one to use to trawl it off, You shouldn't leave more than you need unless you really like sanding.
Tip: When sanding, Trust the feeling in your fingers to find rough and smooth (you want smooth) you cant really see them.
Tip: Use sandpaper rapped around a small block of wood to smooth it over. Never sand with just your fingers in paper.

Just before painting. Note I screwed up when I repainted the fender. I discovered another rust patch, down low. My original plan was to mask the door by itself and paint it from the trim down, (because this would have been the easiest way to hide the new paint)  but I had to redo the other sections.

I am a minimalist with the primer. Both thin and only covering the naked metal. I like to use Rust-Oleum brand primer because, in my experience, it sticks and and can be stuck too very well and it inhibits rust.

I didn't fix the rust pitting in the inside of the door this photo is just to show the difference the bondo process does.

I figure as long as I keep it dirty the repair will pretty much disappear.

[Riddler]

dude, i ain't gonne bust your stones.......it's not a corvette, after all.

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

Those types of buildings aren't very good for human living because there's too much air you'd have to condition either by electrical units or some solar (thermal) unit(s). Keep storage buildings for storage and make a human habitation nearby like everyone else has been doing since ancient Mesopotamia existed.

[Riddler]

Those types of buildings aren't very good for human living because there's too much air you'd have to condition either by electrical units or some solar (thermal) unit(s). Keep storage buildings for storage and make a human habitation nearby like everyone else has been doing since ancient Mesopotamia existed.

not if you bury the motherfucker...
but, i suppose, there goze the ambiance