Trailer Trash

Given that the house will have it's entire second story removed to create a colonial, we cannot stay in the house. The construction is slated to take approximately 5 months, so couch surfing, staying at the in-laws, and a tent in the backyard were not options. We decided to obtain an RV Trailer and park it in our yard. The construction company is happy because we'll be there to answer questions. We're happy because we can keep a close eye on things.

Picking out the trailer was the easy part. We went with the biggest one we could afford.

Roughly 320 Square Feet of Living Space for 3 humans
and 2 cats (one of which is flatulent).

It turns out that buying a trailer is actually easier than buying a car.  The process from beginning to end was painless.  Delivery has been a whole 'nother ball of wax.

On Wednesday, the Trailer Delivery Guy showed up around the time he said he would (8:30am). After he and Wombat disassembled the swing set, he backed our shiny new trailer into its spot more easily than I can back my CRV into the driveway. This is when he tells us that in order to set it up permanently, we need 55 cinder blocks and some wood to make piers. (This will keep movement to a minimum when we walk around in it, etc). He tells is to go get the stuff and he'll come back and do the set up.

Side note: This is the first time we are hearing this in spite of countless phone calls and several visits to the dealership. They knew it was being parked in a yard and not on a pad in a campground.

So off we go to Home Depot. When we arrive, we are told all the rental delivery trucks are out, but one will be back within the hour. We go to find someone to help us collect the blocks and the wood. Once it's all done an hour has elapsed.

Another side note:  Y'know those big shelves that Home Depot has?  The ones they put palettes of big heavy stuff on? So apparently, they are supposed to rotate the palettes so the heavy stuff never ends up all the way in the back because then you can't reach the heavy stuff nor can you use a forklift to get it down because...physics.  Our concrete blocks were sitting at the back of one of those palettes on the second shelf up.  The Home Depot guy had to climb up on the palettes and retrieve them one at a time with the help of another Home Depot guy, all while telling us how this goes against regulation.  This is why it took an hour to get our stuff.

Materials collected and paid for, Wombat returns to the desk where you rent the truck. Initially he's told there is one, but jk.  The one in the parking lot is actually slated for a grill delivery.  After briefly pondering how badly we would break the CRV with all those blocks, he leaves me to hang by our carts of stuff and goes down the street to Budget and rents a box truck. While waiting for what seemed like hours, I had one old lady question whether I was helping Trump build his wall. An older gentleman wanted to know who would let a "little lady" do the hard labor that these materials would require. Plus general stink eye because, god forbid, you had to take an extra 5 steps to walk around me.

55 concrete blocks.  3 Carts of stuff.

Once home, Wombat calls the trailer place to let them know Trailer Delivery Guy that we were good to go.  The Trailer Delivery Guy Scheduler informs Wombat that Trailer Delivery Guy actually had to go do something else for the afternoon, but maybe he'd be back in time to take care of it.  Or maybe it will be tomorrow.  (It turned out it would be the next day - much later than they said it would be).

The two hour estimate for delivery, set up, and walk through, actually turned out to need several days to get it done.  This is just the pre-game.  I can't wait to see how the actual construction will go.