“Let’s Get a Shipping Container”

Famous last words… When you go to bed knowing that a shipping container didn’t roll off a trailer onto a major road in front of your property, that is a great feeling! When you figure out how to get a 200-pound generator in the back of a car by yourself, that is a good feeling… Shipping container delivery day is one we will NEVER forget!!

Shipping Containers are all the rage these days… Want a shed? Want a house? For some people that is the same answer. In this case, we decided we needed an airtight space to store some things as we got the project off the ground. Little did we know what was to come. 

You all know Stephen by now, he is generally Uber-prepared and thinks through the steps that need to happen before they actually happen. He met with the driver on delivery day and had him check out the front entrance before coming onsite with the container to check it all out. The driver, Hector, commented that he had delivered shipping containers to the wildest places you can imagine, and he would have no problem getting the container through the gate and to its resting place. Man, with that kind of confidence and knowing he had the lay of the land, we were ready to go! 

Throughout the day, Hector and the crew of Stephen, his parents and I got to be friends. We talked through each scenario as he tried every which way to maneuver to get through the front gate. Back and forth, back and forth. He just never seemed to be able to get the right angle to get through the gate… After several hours we were finally defeated and decided that our only option was to cut down the post to the front gate. Now we needed a generator and an angle grinder. 

Generator ✅, Angle grinder- Nope. Stephen and his dad Tom jumped in the car (which was luckily on the other side of the container!) and sped to Home Depot that was only open for another 10 minutes. The consensus was that after all that maneuvering it wasn’t possible to back it down the hill or get it through the front gate.

I knew we had a generator by the airstream so my MIL and I thought that we could help by taking it down to the front gate to be ready for the angle grinder. We tried to lift it into the car… Oooppfffff. Nope, that thing would not budge! Knowing I didn’t have a choice not to show up at the gate without it, we looked around for anything that would help us get some leverage. There were a few buckets and a bench near us and I had an idea! We stair-stepped the generator on each level and slowly got it into the car. We drove down to the front gate and chatted with Hector some more. We told him we got the generator in the car and he looked at us in total disbelief, knowing how heavy it was. 

The idea that we had tackled the feat of getting the generator, seemed to give him some new resolve. He was talking about how he absolutely couldn’t bear to tell his boss about cutting down the post to the front gate and that he wanted to keep trying. Over the next hour he inched back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until FINALLLYYYYYYYYY he squeezed it within 1 inch of the fence post!!!!!!!! The site of the container through the front gate was more than we could handle!!! We were all jumping up and down high-fiving that Hector had done what seemed to be impossible!

After an inaudible call to Stephen to tell him we didn’t need the angle grinder (later clarified in text), we drove the container to its final resting spot… Only to realize the bed would have to extend upwards to get the container off… Upwards, towards the power lines… Ah man… What an oversight. Time to call another audible.

Not to worry, Stephen usually has the answer to everything. He got some electrical conduit that we had onsite and used it to push the power lines over while the container was put in place. Phewwwww! Like I said, a day I will NEVER forget! Even now, we call the shipping container “Hector” to commemorate the driver who made the impossible happen :)