I've been blogging for almost six weeks about my tiny dream and the realization that I must get rid of my stuff is finally sinking in. I once said something to the effect that I would miss seeing my things in this house, but I finally realized, that even if we never make it to a tiny house we can live much smaller than we are in our 800 sq ft house. We have a lot of things we never or basically never use. If they were gone, after the work of getting rid of them, I'd never notice.
There is in fact a sizable amount in our basement that we are holding for a big garage sale next May. Since we have an abundance of free time and a shortage of money we are considering getting the jump on that with craigslist/ebay/jbf. It might help get that debt down and keep us floating a little longer.
Also the idea that we may need to move into our in-laws house and rent ours to avoid undesirable financial effects really has me thinking about what I would need to take with me, and by extension what will actually fit in the tiny house. Aside from some crafting things for me and some woodworking things for David if it doesn't fit in the tiny house we don't actually need it. I'm loathe to store a great amount of unnecessary things so why store them now?
If the best I can come up with is, "Because it's work to go through everything" well, that's just not good enough is it?
8.24.2012
8.20.2012
reflections on moving
Sorry for the posting break, but it's been a busy week. David's brother is entering a phD program two states away. So with a family of four, the youngest being 3 weeks old, obviously there were some things he asked for help with. So this week I've been hip deep in toddlers and babies, plaster repair (I'm the best drywaller in the family), trash picking up, carpet cleaning, screen replacing, etc..
And in the midst of it all I was thinking about my own home and the little projects that build up when you own an old home. I think about all the awkward spaces and scraped together solutions. Those add charm and character. One of my problems with new development these days is the lack of quality in the finish work, but also the squareness of it all. Homes today are built like the big box stores they come from, because darn it that's easy.
Easy perhaps, but never interesting. Oh, they may try with crown molding and tray ceilings, but true character in a house is hard won from people living in them and working solutions around problems only to create a new problem 20 years down the road, which may make them question why they ever put that there... You see? There is an organic life to old homes that I cherish.
Without wasting too much space, how do I achieve that feeling in my tiny home from the start?
And in the midst of it all I was thinking about my own home and the little projects that build up when you own an old home. I think about all the awkward spaces and scraped together solutions. Those add charm and character. One of my problems with new development these days is the lack of quality in the finish work, but also the squareness of it all. Homes today are built like the big box stores they come from, because darn it that's easy.
Easy perhaps, but never interesting. Oh, they may try with crown molding and tray ceilings, but true character in a house is hard won from people living in them and working solutions around problems only to create a new problem 20 years down the road, which may make them question why they ever put that there... You see? There is an organic life to old homes that I cherish.
Without wasting too much space, how do I achieve that feeling in my tiny home from the start?
8.07.2012
saucer v3
Since my last post I have been hard at work to give David his stairs, and in so doing I also fixed the head space issue and moved back to the bench with trundle, and shrunk that entertainment center down to a less obscene size.
So by moving the stairs into the bathroom area, I will indeed lose space in the loft, but as long as my trusty graph paper can be believed, my queen sized mattress will fit in that nook, snug and cozy. As shown in the sketch of our elevation from a few weeks back, you can see we always planned to have a gentler roof pitch over the loft, so adequate head space in the upper half of the staircase is also solved. We lost a little closet space, but reason that a fair amount of it will be made up under the stairs. We may even consider moving the staircase back into the main room by 3 treads or so in future layouts just to see the effect and to give the toilet area back some stolen elbow room.
Another change new to this plan over v2 is in the kitchen. It is no longer linear, with the dishwasher turned and a storage cabinet open to the dining area added for, well whatever ends up being needed.. probably shoes and bedding right off the top of my head.
Please don't ask about the table. Originally it was going to fold up like the picture frame table or a Murphy bed table, however they won't work for us.. Why? Because the only good place for windows on that whole wall is right there and I haven't figured it out yet. We will have to build something and I am still mulling over variables in my head. Not the least of which is more windows.. Otherwise this house will be a cave.
So by moving the stairs into the bathroom area, I will indeed lose space in the loft, but as long as my trusty graph paper can be believed, my queen sized mattress will fit in that nook, snug and cozy. As shown in the sketch of our elevation from a few weeks back, you can see we always planned to have a gentler roof pitch over the loft, so adequate head space in the upper half of the staircase is also solved. We lost a little closet space, but reason that a fair amount of it will be made up under the stairs. We may even consider moving the staircase back into the main room by 3 treads or so in future layouts just to see the effect and to give the toilet area back some stolen elbow room.
Another change new to this plan over v2 is in the kitchen. It is no longer linear, with the dishwasher turned and a storage cabinet open to the dining area added for, well whatever ends up being needed.. probably shoes and bedding right off the top of my head.
Please don't ask about the table. Originally it was going to fold up like the picture frame table or a Murphy bed table, however they won't work for us.. Why? Because the only good place for windows on that whole wall is right there and I haven't figured it out yet. We will have to build something and I am still mulling over variables in my head. Not the least of which is more windows.. Otherwise this house will be a cave.
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