Caught up on these journals! Probably means nothing to you, dear 1-2 readers, but I was materially behind. Behind as in didn’t decide I’d do these until a week in and then took another week to get around to it. Now, I have plenty of extra time to totally abandon the habit.
Big decision on big boxes: 2 or 3? The 20′ with a 40′ perpendicular above it has been clear for months, and I narrowly resisted the temptation to add a 20′ buried below the other 20′. Seeing my stick of angle iron (1/8″x1.5″x20′) cost over $25 and contemplating how to make a 6″ lip around the 40′ containers’ upmost surface, I consider getting another 20′ container. Cut some strips off, fold out the walls’ sections that remain, and have a shade structure + the metal I need for my soil-retaining trim.
Hmm: I’ll want this on the 6’x8′ sections of deck atop the 20′. And wouldn’t it be cool to reinforce the 20′ where it touches the 40′ with steel from another 20′? Rebar + corten spiral staircase, obviously. Could the floor’s plywood be used to make a beefy industrial table? Lol the corner castings as the bases of the legs. Shelves, support for solar panel shade structure… seems like I’ll get lots of breath hold practice for freediving as I try and avoid breathing the (likely) lead paint from plasma cutting a container into little bits. Actually, I should setup a legit remote air rig. Even blower from vacuum with a fresh HEPA filter and extended hose to a snorkel would be much better than nothing…
So! Post-lead-mitigation, 3 containers it is. With the goal of totally subsuming 1 of the 20s. Oh, decks by windows and/or adding on to decks on the 20′ that result from stacking, too. One somewhat insane take would be to mount solar panels to the roof of the scrap 20 and cut off the rest of the container, welding on support legs. Could I zigzag this to get 40’x8’+ of panel substrate? Maybe probably worth playing with some generative design stuff; this can get nice and weird. I’m pretty sure 1,000 things can and will go wrong with this build, but it’s real tough to imagine this ends up boring. Collapsing maybe, but boring no.
