One car fully legal

Denise and I started off the day with a trip to the auto insurance company.  We chose a company last week while still at home and completed then necessary paperwork signing, scanning and sending documents.  It was nice to meet Mrs Boatswain in person today after a few calls and emails last week.  

With that done we were able to go to the post office and get the keys to the PO box we reserved.  We decided to use the post office in the center of the island instead of the Christiansted location since we didn't know where we'd end up for work.  Our neighbors of the property, Ryan and Sarah, said they picked Christiansted due to the ease of entry at busy times.  We'll see how this goes and possibly change it next year.  Now it's time to change our address on everything!  Send us an email @ taubertdomes@gmail.com if you'd like the PO box address.  

Our final stop was the DMV to change the title and register our 2013 Subaru Legacy.  

With weather like this we really didn't mind the hour wait for the vehicle safety inspection.  Everyone at the DMV were nice and really helpful.  It was a great idea to get the first car through the port and customs using a broker.  Ferrol Trucking had all my required paperwork to register the car in the glove box; all we needed was the insurance card.  This made the process easy for all of us and got us on our way in a few hours.  

We officially have VI plates!  Had we actually looked at a calendar we would have known to take the car in tomorrow instead of today.  We have an April sticker on the windshield which means the sticker is good until the end of that month, so we shorted ourselves 30 days.  Oh well, we had a good time and have better things to do tomorrow clearing brush on our road.  

Dinner tonight was shrimp, steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes served on a fancy cat tree box kitchen table.  Everything turned out perfect and we enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner together.  

Kevin & Denise

We're home!

Denise and I made it to our new home on Saturday.

Thursday our other Subaru left for the island. We had to meet the trucking company at the target parking lot because realtors were showing the house during the pickup window. 

Thinking back on this today it was a good thing this was the pickup location.  While waiting for the truck I heard a horn and a crash about 500' down at the intersection.  I couldn't see anything but waited about a minute and decided I'd better see if they needed help.  I arrived about 2 minutes after the crash and people were still standing around.  A 370z had T-boned another car and nobody had called 911 or checked on the driver in the the time it took me to arrive!  Unbelievable that many people do not react well in these situations.  I made the call, checked for injuries and stayed with the driver of the red car until the fire department arrived to get her out.  She had taken an airbag to the head but didn't appear to have major injuries.  (I took the picture after the fire department arrived and traffic was directed around the wreck).

Our plane left late Friday night so we spent the day clearing the last of the stuff out of the house.  We had to pause and leave a few times to allow realtors to show the house, but were able to get a lot accomplished.  We spent some time with our friend Ronda, our awesome neighbors Steve and Cheryl, had a wonderful dinner at Don and Jayne Knoop's house and headed to the airport.

Overall the flight with the cats went well. TSA at PDX was awesome.  They were polite and suggested we could send our stuff through the belt, collect it and go to a private screening area for the cat carriers.  This was a tremendous help so Jack, our freak cat would not have an issue getting out and going through the metal detectors.

Christy, our Delta gate agent in Portland allowed us to treat our folding kennel as a stroller and place it at the end of the jet way so we'd have it available for our 4 hour layover in Atlanta.  This allowed us to let them out of the under-seat carriers and let them relax a bit.

We were exhausted when we arrived in St Croix but were pleased to see the first Subaru waiting for us in the parking lot.  We loaded all of our luggage and made a stop to pick up a litter box and some basics then headed to our rental.  Lenny, A friend we met in February is renting us a master bedroom in his house.  We unloaded the stuff then went for nachos at Lenny's restaurant.

Sunday, today, we woke up late, unpacked a few more things and planned a trip to our property.  First we had to respond to the offers on the house.  Good news is we received good offers above asking price and accepted the best one today.  Joys of a digital age allows us to do the paper work from here.

When we arrived at the road to our property we took a walk down it and found our rocks we used to mark the beginning of the lot back in February.  Once we stepped over the line it was nice to look out and see the awesome view again.  

We spent the rest of the day going to various stores to pick up the necessities and then a trip to Home Depot for tools to clear the property.  

We brought our machetes we took home last trip and purchased a weed eater and chain saw today.  We're not doing major clearing yet but just enough to get the car through, but that will have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday.  Tomorrows plans are paying the auto insurance, registering the car, getting our PO box and a few other things that needed us to be on island to complete.  

Did I mention the weather here is perfect? 

Kevin & Denise

Delta: An increment of a Variable

Delta Airlines: The increment of our variable departure date. 

We originally had tickets to leave April 25th.  We received an email to double check the size of our Delta Airlines under-seat cat carriers against the allowed dimensions for the specific planes on our route.  Turns out our carriers would fit (which they should since they're Delta carriers).  The problem came when we contacted Seaborne Airlines, a leg in our flight.  We normally fly Portland to Atlanta, Atlanta to St Croix, but decided on the cheaper flight through Puerto Rico using their partner, Seasborne.  We already had to pay for the cats so a cheaper flight appeared to be a better option.  All tickets were booked through Delta. 

While on the phone with Seaborne Denise was informed there'd be an additional $200 per cat charge paid at the gate in Puerto Rico.  And, here's the larger issue, only one cat is allowed on their flight. Good thing we found this our prior to our arrival in Puerto Rico with two cats. 

Denise contacted Delta and at first they didn't seem to care about the issue.  Long story short, they fixed their issue and we're now leaving April 27th flying Portland to Atlanta, and Atlanta to St Croix with both cats and removing the Puerto Rico leg. 

Good thing these two guys are worth it.

Looks like we're camping in the empty house for two more days.

Kevin & Denise

Launch control this is Houston, we are go for launch!

The papers are signed, monies paid and deed recorded; we officially own the property, 100 Estate Clairmont, 1.2 acres in St Croix USVI.  Here's a link to the Google Map property location.

Here's a view from the property looking NE to Salt River Bay and Buck Island.

This view is looking directly North with St Thomas, St John and the British Virgin Islands.

And here's the view looking to the NW towards Puerto Rico.

All the pictures are from the top of the property when we were there at the beginning of February.  The NW view was obstructed by the bushes because I couldn't maneuver around them.  The house will be a little lower and in a saddle on the hill which will extend the view.  I'll post some of the house design pictures soon.  Anyone need that container company address again to move with us?

Kevin & Denise

The container is on its way

The container was lifted onto the chassis this morning and is on its way.  I was a bit worried I'd overloaded it with all the wood working and regular tools but turns out I did alright.  Denise said she had confidence in me the whole time.  I'll have the official weight when it reaches the port in Seattle.  Empty weight of the container is 4,820 lbs.  Josh from DryBox made this look easy, from backing next to the container, to placing it on the trailer.  I added the link in case any of you are considering joining us.  Grab a 20', 40' or 53' container and come along!

Trying to balance the load throughout the container has been a challenge.  Looking at a full house and deciding what to put in first, where to put it for weight distribution, and when we'll need it on the island was tough.  Everything is tightly loaded and strapped in for the truck ride north to the Seattle port, rail trip east to New York, and boat trip south to the island. 

It was a big relief when it left the ground and didn't lean to one side or tip the lifter over.  The driveway's at a slight down angle so gravity was working against Josh since it's lifted by chains.  

Within a few minutes he had it between the lift arms and locked into place.  

Four of these is all it takes to lift it in to place.  

The container will head to Chahelis Washington and be transferred to a standard chassis tomorrow morning.  Vanport Trucking will take it to the port, BNSF will take it to NY and Blue Ocean Transport will take it to St Croix.  

Blue Ocean let me know the first car made it to Florida and will be loaded on the ship Thursday.  We should have it there when we arrive.  Less than 10 days until we leave!

That's all for now. 

Kevin & Denise

The Container is full!

It's official!

As of an hour ago the container is officially full. 

I'll contact the shipping company in the morning and start the process of loading the container on a chassis, trucking it to Seattle, and have it head east to New York to catch the boat south. 

It was a weird feeling a few weeks ago to leave work without our badges, computers and all the associated stuff we used on a daily basis.  The weird thing today is being in this empty house without any of my tools to do simple tasks.  The container's closed, locked and all my tools are inside.  Good thing I have awesome friends and neighbors if I need anything in the last few weeks. 

Yeah, I finally started the blog!

Welcome friends!

This is our site to share our adventure of our move to St Croix, USVI, the building of our dome home, employment and whatever's next in our future.  Denise and I are normally not big social media users of Facebook, Twitter or whatever's hot right now so we figured a site you can visit when you want, without annoying feeds would be a better option.  I'll try to keep the updates short but wanted to catch everybody up on this post.  Denise did start her TaubertDomes Instagram page if you'd prefer that platform. 

It's been a crazy couple of weeks since Denise and I left our jobs of 19 1/2 years.  Our last day of work was March 16th.  After returning from the islands at the first of the year and announcing our intent to move, we've been working day and night to plan the house, property and pack our current home into the 20' shipping container in the driveway.  We went to St Croix at the end of January to find and purchase our new property; closing should be the week of  4/9/18.  Being off work has allowed us to focus on specific tasks from start to "mostly finished".  This is a big difference than working 10 hours a day then trying to tackle all the tasks that come with the move. 

For all our CenturyLink friends, thank you for your emails and your support.  We'd also like to thank all our existing and new friends we've met along the way!  You've all really helped us deal with the stress of uprooting and moving to a far away place.  Having an awesome wife who is also my best friend really helps too.  24/7 together through this adventure and we're happy, confident and excited about the future.  Warm weather here we come!

Subaru Legacy #1 was loaded on the little trailer 4/6, headed for the big car carrier and off to Florida.  From there Blue Ocean Transport will take it to St Croix.  We were a little disappointed that our Yakima Skybox 16 was not able to go to the islands.  It has traveled the country with us during our road trips and would have been useful on the island.  The total height was 6' 4" and we had 1" to spare on the ship, however the mainland transport carrier was going to charge us a truck rate of over $400 because of the height was equal to a Suburban.  We tried a few options but ultimately we sold the cargo box. 

You can see the corner of the container in the picture from our bedroom window.  It's 99.5% full but it's been raining so we've been putting off the last bit of stuff to cram in.  I've spent the past few months keeping the doors closed during rainy days to minimize moisture and reduce mold and rust.  The problem is it rains most of the winter in the NW so we've been staging things in the garage until a dry time.  It's a new container and the door seals are extremely good so I'm hoping we have dry goods upon arrival. 

Our house is now empty except for the last items for the container and stuff we're donating when we leave. This includes the few plates, forks, knives and basic cooking utensils needed to survive.  We're using up food in the freezer and using our neighbors card table and a few chairs as a kitchen area.  We're down to living out of our suit cases until our one way trip to St Croix on April 25th. 

I hope to have the container on its way next week.  The 2016 Legacy will be shipped the day before we leave. 

That's all for now. 

Kevin & Denise