One Solid Con...

Holy smokes we made it!!


Hello readers! It's been too long, I know!

After three months of living in the tiny house, I was still quietly boasting to myself, "And I don't see one single con to how much we have changed." WELL. I stand corrected. When living in about 100 square feet, there is one con I can think of: you get reeaalll close with your partner, and you share everything-- including colds.

Dan and I are both recovering from getting sick over the last two weeks. We both started out with head/chest colds, while Dan made a slow recovery, I graduated to severe dehydration and pneumonia. Let me tell you, I do not wish this combination on my worst enemy. I've never been this sick for this long- EVER. I lost 8 lbs within a week, and I'm a petite gal without a lot extra on my frame, now I'm down to the stickly little figure I had as a pre-pubescent high schooler. NOT OKAY.

Between the head splitting coughs, full body wretches, spine locked in pain, wheezing lungs, sleepless nights, and bone gripping weakness, it was a victory to bathe and dress myself. Let alone cook, or clean...and definitely not work on house projects. Dan and I struggled just to keep this place from looking like a college dorm most days. We even used every dish we had before finally getting up the gumption to wash them. Not a fun couple of weeks. 

One thing about a tiny place-- if you don't pick up and clean up after each activity- it looks like a bomb went off in no time.

So, I don't have much to report. :/ Just yesterday, Dan and I finally put up the beginnings of the kitchen drawers. We used brackets to mount each piece of plywood. Next comes the face trim over those rough boards, and after that- we build the boxes that will fit in as drawers. Even having those rough boards in place made us feel like we were finally getting a grip on life again- not to mention it's nice to have more spaces to organize the kitchen items.

Meanwhile- the new countertops are still up in my Dad's attic, awaiting another coat of poly. I think about 336 hours between coats is enough time, right? HA. The good thing is, the poly doesn't care. I just hope there isn't a layer of dust on the dang things! I'll be up there today applying the second coat.  

Well, I have about a million things to catch up on, so that's all for today folks! 
We are officially back on the wagon! Regular posting is back! In fact- I feel I owe all you loyal readers some serious content, so I'll be pushing to get up all the back dated photos of our build on our face book page. I created albums carefully chronicling each day we worked- I stopped mid-May. So expect to see a butt-load of pictures on the page soon!

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3 Tiny House Habits....Weird Ones

Sure we all do quirky stuff every now and again, but I've developed some new weird habits thanks to living in a tiny house.

Bein' weirdos.

Panorama eye candy :)

3 Weird Tiny House Habits

Number One: At least a couple mornings a week, I “lock” the house- as I'm leaving and walking through the yard. I casually throw my arm back, with a halfway glance, point my car keys at The Pod and hit the lock button. I have never in my life done this anywhere else.

….Maybe it's because the tiny house is on wheels?

Karate CHOP!

Number Two:On weekend mornings, Dan and I often amuse ourselves for a good half hour, by “dancing” on the ceiling. I first discovered this fun activity while attempting to stretch my legs in bed. I was laying on my back and swung my leg up for a straighten and stretch. I was delighted to find that my lower extremities are just the right length to “stand” flat footed on the ceiling. Well, simply “standing” there didn't last long and we soon graduated to river dancing and fake fighting/duels.

No surface goes unused here, my friends.

Number Three: Glitchy transitions- here's one that's two fold. Dan and I each have our own hiccups as we switch from being at home in the tiny house and being out, working in the day to day world. I seem to throw a wide array of unrelated assignments onto different areas of the house. Sometimes I sit on the floor in the kitchen and read- other times, when I'm talking passionately about something, I find myself standing on the counter in the great room. My soap box perhaps? ;) And Dan- well, he forgets where modern plumbing exists. Just the other day, he was helping out at his Dad's store and went outside to toss a few things in the dumpster. Without thinking, he sauntered to the back of the lot and wizzed all over. (all over...haha inside joke) Half way through, the realization struck him like lightning- "I'm not in the woods- there is a toilet inside- this probably isn't appropriate..."   HA!

So are we the only two tiny house nuts with quirky habits? We'd love to hear from other tiny house people!

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Easing Back Into Work Mode

Kitchen drawer hole...

Happy New Year, Everyone!!

Things are pretty slow going (progress wise) around The Pod right now. All work on the house came to a stop as the holidays approached. Now that the holidays have passed and we enter the new year, excuses for procrastinating have become sparse. Time to get back on the wagon! 

It can definitely be challenging to take a break from a project of this length and magnitude, then snap right back to worker-bee mode. I think the biggest reason is- we are happy and comfortable right now! All the major eye sores and heavy traffic areas of the house are taken care of-- so after working our tooshies off for a solid year- it's easy to ignore the small stuff.......for a while, anyways. 

 That little OCD person that lives in my head has started kicking up a fuss over the last week. The kitchen drawers, the cubby doors, and the counter all need to be addressed. I puttered around the house Saturday morning doing everything BUT work on those projects. Finally, begrudgingly, I put together a list of materials, bundled up, and headed out the door.  I realized getting started again was like ripping off a band-aid; just suck it up and do it NOW. You'll be happy you did. 

And I was! Dan was helping his Dad out for the day, so I was on my own with no excuses. I headed out to the big box store and grabbed the needed supplies to begin the kitchen drawers and work on the counter top. Dan had already cut the new lengths for the primary counter top, so I started by sanding the edges smooth, then I brought them inside to begin the paint wash. 

I made use of the brown color we still had from painting the rafters and the door partition in the kitchen. Much like I did for the kitchen counters with the green paint, I created a simple wash by mixing water with a small amount of paint. I was surprised to see it look like an inviting cup of cocoa!

I applied three coats of the wash and we both love the color that came out! We just need to add coats of poly now. Not only is it going to look great next to the other brown accents, but it will hide a whole lot more of the stains and crumbs that inevitably pile up each day. Also, having the poly coating will ensure that we can scrub the crap out of it if we need to. The tung oil wasn't quite cutting it for this area. Too much traffic! 

As for the kitchen drawers and cubby doors- we are part way there. We now have the wood cut to the sizes we need for both the cubby doors and the skeleton of the drawers. At first, we were going to use those fancy rolling tracks to install our drawers, but after quick inspection of the space- we found, surprise surprise, that it was not square, among other difficult details like the protrusion of the wheel well. It would have been a tedious nightmare if we went that route.

Saloon style door- you can see a little,
but most of the clutter will be hidden. 

Instead, we decided to knock it back another 60 years and go with the old school way. Make a shelf....now make a box that fits in there- hey look, now it's a drawer.  Sure they won't have that stealth mode drawer opening capability, but who cares? We certainly don't- and that's what matters. We want EASY. We want FUNCTIONAL. Let other people have the shiny, pretty, perfect. I will always love this house more than any other shelter I experience (unless we build more!), because Dan and I built it together...it is a reflection of us...showing our strengths and weaknesses, our commitment to one another, and this way of life....it is truly ours in every sense of the word.

In other news, Dan's sister came to visit and see the place for the first time. It was really nice to have her over for company- and it's always fun to see people's reactions. She has been following along the whole time, so we were excited for her to come see the place! She loved it, remarked at how the pictures don't quite do it justice (we agree), and marveled at how it all came together. Thanks for coming over, Julia! Your enthusiasm and encouragement mean more than you know! 

Family visit :)

I'm sure many of you are wondering how we did with the -10 degree weather a few days ago. We did just fine! Sure, it wasn't a balmy 72 in The Pod, but still livable. We made use of the electric oil radiator. Dan was supposed to turn it to high when he headed to bed, but that slipped his mind. Even with the single heater working on medium...the house only dropped to 56 degrees. Coincidentally, a very comfortable sleeping temperature for me. I was breathing easier, but I did notice my nose seemed a little cold when I woke up. No biggie! I threw on a few layers, turned the lights on (which bring more heat) and got a pot of water boiling- the house warmed quickly. 

I'm glad to know we can manage -10 with just the electric heater, but I hope we don't have to face anything harsher than that for the rest of the season. Next winter, we will be on solar power- so electric heaters will not work out as great. A non-electric heat source will be on the list of things to sort out in the spring.

Thanks for reading!
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