Inching Along

Look at how nice and clean it looks with doors!

So many little details!

Hello readers! Well I'm back to being a slacker and posting once a week. :/ Well, that's not entirely true, I guess. I certainly haven't been slacking in any other sense. Now that we live in the tiny house, everything that still needs to be done stares us in the face from the moment we get home...and dare to sit down. It's certainly motivating- from that OCD-I-need-order-now! point of view, but it can wear you down too. I'm no stranger to having many pots on the fire...but right now, I feel like it's just this one huge unruly TANK on the fire, and I can't wait to get on with just living in the place! (And returning to my usual hobbies)

Putting in the pinch latches.

Over the last week we have worked on a variety of things from the closet and cabinet doors to more shelving (and color!) in the kitchen and bathroom. Dan has been home the last week or so and is putting a lot of effort into getting the inside finished, but he stinks at remembering to take pictures! So we don't have a ton to share this time around, but I'll share what we've got!

With every door we put in place, the interior really began to take that final form we have been dreaming about for over a year. Being a neat freak, it was especially pleasing to me to see all of those storage areas closed off and hidden away. I doubt Wendy-buns is very happy about that, but I'm sure she will find another way to be a mischievous little thing. Now the only things left from a cabinet/storage perspective are an additional shelf under the kitchen counter, and a set of three drawers. As I mentioned before, cabinetry is certainly a new area for both of us and we have learned a lot- through trial and error. If we do this again, I will definitely devote more time and planning to the counters. There is already quite the list of "things we would do differently" when it comes to the kitchen cabinets, but we try not to spend too much time in "Should Have" World, since it's just a sure fire way to frustrate yourself and lose sight of what matters most. 

Supervisor Bun-buns- "Do as I say,
not as I do, Dad!"

So instead of focusing on things that we could have done better, we have made efforts to focus on what brings us the most satisfaction and joy...and for me, choosing a decor/color scheme is high up there. I LOVE color. Ask anyone who knows me well and they will back this trait 100%. I avoid black, white, and gray like the plague. My uncle once described me as a rainbow. I'm sure sitting next to my cousin who happened to be sporting a gray sweater and black pants (love you LB!) made me stick out a liiiiiittle more. ;)

I love bright happy, inspiring colors, and with so much pine all throughout, having a few splashes of intense color is going to look great. We had already chosen a nice green to be the accent color, but in true Jess fashion, I changed my mind and added MORE colors. I decided to work from a favorite and cherished gift from my parents. I have a great deal of Swedish blood and I love the simplicity and quality put into Scandinavian goods. A little store where I grew up sells a lot of Swedish goods, and I'm always asking for presents or certificates to this place. I love just about everything in there! One year I received this dish towel (which I treat more as art- I will never dirty it!) that I love love love. I decided to use this towel as my inspiration for colors. 

Pre-drilling to put on the knobs. I'm a knob and forgot
to take a picture of them all in place! Next time!

I got a bright happy yellow (I always use yellow and green wherever I'm living)  and a nice blue based on the towel. I am thinking I will probably throw in a few splashes of classic Swedish red as well, but that will have to be pretty minimal since red is quite intense. I cut and built some basic shelving for the kitchen and painted them all yellow. I also didn't like how dark the bathroom is with the dark brown stain of the door sucking up what little light that does manage to filter in there. So I said, "What the heck! I'll paint that door yellow too." It's going to take several coats, but even with just the first two or three I noticed a marked difference in the amount of light reflected, and the space also seems a little bigger too. 

Color inspiration :)

Yellow in the bathroom.

We put up the shelves in the kitchen and that immediately brought a smile to my face. It adds another layer of cozy to that area and the yellow adds a splash of happiness and fun. Not to mention, with these little shelves being used for the most common dishes, it frees up more space down below for food storage. As of now, the pile in the great room is down to basically pantry goods. I'm still figuring out where all these things will go, but obviously, it would be great if food lived in the kitchen. 

What's next on the list? Hooking up the propane to the gas cook top, waxing and buffing the counters to get a nice shine, building the unit in the great room that will house our loveseat/dining set up, and then.....we will probably take a break for a while. haha We are both feeling a little worn out and jaded at this point, so we know a break is needed. BALANCE IS KEY!

But don't you worry, even when we are "on break" there will still be plenty to check out and read! We have already discussed doing a series How-We-Did-It posts, to provide better details and also tips we have learned along the way for any future builders out there! I am a big proponent of simply sharing the information. I would love to see more people doing what we have done, and the biggest obstacle, most of the time, is just learning how. It's so easy to get overwhelmed and think that you are not capable, but you are! You can! Look at us- we are by no means professional builders or architects, but here we are sharing our experiences and our nearly finished tiny house! We are so grateful for all of those folks out there that openly shared how they accomplished things versus trying to sell it to you somehow. I feel that for a lot of people, the simple lack of information is the first road block that many never get past. Knowledge is power; knowledge is confidence...and we want to share that with you! From the very start, one of our goals was to become contributors to this movement and inspire others to take that first step. If you really want to do this, trust me, YOU CAN. 



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I pre-drilled to a certain depth so that we could sink the screws in:
A) so we didn't need to use ridiculously long screws,
B) so we didn't risk splitting the wood, and
C) so it looks nicer. :)

Yay! Happy yellow shelves! :)