Whats it REALLY like to live Tiny????

We have officially lived in our tiny house now for almost 2 MONTHS !! Can you believe it !!! ??
So NOW I can REALLY tell you what its like ! People ask me a lot of questions and NOW I REALLY can give you all educated HONEST answers.

Here's some of the questions I've been asked :


Don't you feel cramped ?

Usually no. Having a kiddo with autism, or we will say having MY kiddo with autism has always meant I have a space invader in my life, though he does not like to BE touched he sure does like to touch, bang, tap, squeeze, squish and INSIST we talk incessantly about his preferred topics ( i.e the HULK) . So do I feel cramped sometimes YES but no more than I did in my three bedroom home.


How is Noah doing in such a restricted space ?

Having a large space for Noah gives him more room to flail around and no boundaries or space limitations, for him that means he can spin right out of control. Having the smaller space seems to make him feel safer and more in control.


Can you really SLEEP in that  LOFT ?

Well I'm going to be HONEST with you, there are no windows in my loft, the first time I slept up there I did feel a bit claustrophobic, so I just simply spun myself around and instead of sleeping with my head to the back of the loft, I sleep with my head to the front . Noahs still sleeping on the pull out couch until his loft is done. If I sleep with my head to the front of the loft I can just look over the edge and see him as well.


What about having company over ?

So far I've the most people I've had in the house at one time is 5. Because I have a couch that seats 5 comfortable or 6 cozy and because I have cathedral ceilings everyone seemed to be feeling like they had their own space.

Where do you eat ?

Right now I have a small table that also doubles as a coffee table in front of the couch but in the future I plan on having a fold out bar top and seats( that will be project 257)

What is the biggest problem your dealing with right now ?

The only thing that is even remotely uncomfortable for me right now is at night when Noahs asleep I have to be really quiet, no tv or video's ect. I'm not really a tv person so it doesn't bother me much but it does prevent me from having company IN the house in the evening. Getting his loft done will remedy that. Until then we all just hang out on the porch.

What if you get married ? Where will you put the hubby ?

If I do ever meet THE ONE , he can bring his Tiny house on over and hook it on to mine and we will have a bigger tiny house :p

                                                                    Good Night Folks !!

                                                    See you all back here tomorrow :)

THE MAN BEHIND THE HAMMER INTERVIEW !! DIY TINY HOUSE !! TRIUMPH !!

Here it is !!! With lots of patience and perseverance I bring you the MAN BEHIND THE HAMMER INTERVIEW  straight from my Tiny house porch !!! I know you are going to LOVE it !!

There you go ! He just said it the they way it is. Tiny house living isn't just for the rich or gifted craftsmen. Anyone can have/build a tiny house ! So get on YOUTUBE , talk to friends and family. Or jump on the band wagon with me and we will build a Tiny House community together !!

Everyone go ahead and leave a comment and show Mr Jay some support ! He was convinced he broke the CAMERA !!

It was AWESOME to see you all on here !! See you tomorrow !!

RULES FOR A TINY HOUSE ON THE SPECTRUM

I finding out quickly that the rules in a tiny on the spectrum can change QUICKLY. Rules that were import like DON'T EAT ON THE COUCH take a back seat to this very very VERY import rule that was not really high on my list in a 3 bedroom home. The number one RULE in a tiny house BELIEVE it or not is something you would NEVER EVER think of most any place else. I even write this RIGHT NOW with the straightest of face, are you ready for it ??? NEVER EVER EVER FART in a tiny house !!!! This is not a joke people !! As I rite this right now I am hiding on my porch with the door wide open waiting for Noah's lactose intolerant little belly to settle down !

The man behind the Hammer ??? I know you are all waiting for this AWESOME interview I did with Mr Jay last night and I got to tell you all its been a frustrating ordeal trying to get the video up loaded. I mean I have tried everything short of just jumping up and down and crying to get this video to you all BUT unfortunately after finally up loading it for the zillionth time it finally published on YouTube (according to the message the page gave me) when I went to find it was GONE !! So now I am uploading it AGAIN and we still 188 minutes before its done !! Rule number 2 NEVER EVER THINK FOR EVEN A SECOND thinks won't change.

                                               So this is what got done tonight

These are the inside rails on my loft, the rails that will save my life when I'm half asleep trying to get to the powder room in a rush in the middle of the night. Honestly I have NO idea ho Jay pulled this one off with me on the couch muttering obscenities in a power struggle with my computer and Noah literally spinning in circles around the poor guys feet BUT not only DID he do it, he did a good job and walked out of here smiling !! TINY HOUSE on the SPECTRUM rule number 3, lots of people are curious and want to check out the tiny house and its inhabitants BUT its a great filter, only the REAL friends stick around ! HOW BLESSED WE ARE :)

INTERVIEW WITH THE MAN BEHIND THE HAMMER and the pot hanger ?

CRAZY busy weekend here ! Who would think a girl could run around in circles for 48 hours and get so little accomplished !!??? Yup I had big plans this weekend ! I WAS all set to get my loft finished and Noah's started, the skirting stained BUT we were FORCED to go to the fair Saturday and REALLY who could miss out on a time like this ???

PIG SCRAMBLE !!!

After 6 hours at a fair riding rides and eating UNRULEY amounts of FAIR food neither of us were feeling particularly well by the time we got home last night.

GAME ON TODAY. I got ahold of this BURLY dude today and his GIGANTIC  truck !

Meet my oldest son Nathanial (or as we like to call him BIG Nate)

Nope he's not standing on a chair and yes those are beams that go through a 11 foot cathedral ceiling behind him !

We was off to home depot ! We got the plywood for Noah's loft, some 2x4s and some 2x6s all loaded in his GIGANTIC truck and now its in a big stack in the loft just WAITING ! I can barely stand it !If kiddo wasn't sound to sleep I would be up there hammering away right now ! I've got BIG plans for his loft, I'm thinking either an ARK theme OR a tree house Theme. What do you all think ???

                   OOOOH and CHECK OUT my AWESOME yardsale find !!!

This baby right her is going to be my pot rack ! That's right ! A GREAT BIG pot rack for my little tiny house. I have no idea what it was in its past life but I do know what its going to be now.  Its going to be SO stinking cool !!

The BIG plan for tonight was suppose to be an INTERVIEW with JAY ! BOY OH BOY what an interview it was!!  BUT as I was sitting here writing patiently watching and WAITING (there's that word again) its been 2 HOURS since I started uploading the video and its only on 7% AND the upload time is showing in measurements of hours not minutes UHG ! So if you want tip and tricks of the trade. If you want to know how to do this Tiny house thing from scratch with a VERY small budget. Come on back here tomorrow night because I WILL be posting it for you all !!  

SEE YOU BACK HERE TOMORROW !!

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY !

Smiling to my self ON my TINY house porch :)

Well its Friday night people !!! Kicked back and smiling to myself . Its simply surreal just sitting here on my tiny house porch, I'm just TICKLED !! INSPIRED !! Got my feet up on my porch rail, just got done yacking with my FAVORITE sister (pass tense sister  inlaw BUT I wanted to keep HER) she's got the tiny house FEVER as well AND OOOOH BOY is it cool when you get to talk with some one who is OBSESSED with the same obsession as you ?? !! I got to tell ya this lady is tough, retired Army and been through the wringer BUT if anyone could pull off a tiny house it would be her !! AND she would make it fancy to boot !!

Tonight I'm feeling like a bit of relaxing is in order. I got a full weekend of projects I cant wait to share with you BUT tonight I'm sucking in some inspiration and I want to pass it on to you ALL !!


                                         Got A PRESENT FROM ME TO YOU !!
                                                
                                                                 (This is me)

                                                        HERE'S YOUR PRESENT !!!

 

       I didn't create this but this but let me tell you, had I thought of it I would had !! Hope you all enjoy and TONIGHT Be good to yourself !! Reflect on the blessings in you life AND RELAX !! I'm going to !!!

                                                 See you all tomorrow !!!!

Tiny house A 1000 REASONS

Today Noah and I made the trek to the big city to see his Cardiologist. Everything was GREAT ! If you hadn't read my previous post Noah had heart surgery August 22.

Noah's not a big fan of doctors offices or being touched a lot but Rochielle has some kind of ultrasound tech magic touch and its always a good experience for us.

After the doctors appointment we stopped at a church thrift store on our way home. There was an elderly man outside the store, with dirty clothes, unshaven with his bag beside him. He was sitting contently under a tree in front of the store entrance in what looked like a yoga stance. His eyes were closed, his hands clasped together over his head. His face was tan and leathery but he had the sweetest most peaceful smile on his face. How could you not just LOVE him ?

This isn't him but looks just like him ! I thought all the way home about him.

There are so many reasons I am writing this Blog. There are so many things that need to be said. I will try to keep my focus on my main objectives. What life is like living in a tiny house with my little boy who has autism and the journey that brought us here as well as our journey into the future. MORE THAN ANYTHING I want to share our experience, my drive to climb out of the clutches of poverty and WHAT drove me and still drives me. Like any parent I fight to give my son the best life I can but its not just that . Its something SO MUCH BIGGER ! I have worked as a behavioral specialist for 20 years, part of my work included working in shelters all over the state. As I mentioned in previous posts working with a demographic of individuals is completely different than being part of that group of people. Living in a shelter with my son was worlds away from working at a shelter. As a professional I was taught early on how to maintain professional boundaries, I was taught the "thems" and the USes" BUT I am here to tell you its a BIG wake up call when YOU become one of the "THEMS".  In the state of Maine the median income is 53,000, in my county its 40,000 with the majority of the community living well below the poverty guideline. I work at a community action agency within my community and for the first time I am seeing the hidden poor, the poor you don't see or know about. The elderly living in homes with little more than dirt floors, people that live in very rural areas with no working vehicle. In the last 6 months in this position I have seen things I never new existed, things I would like to unsee. Within that I am inspired by these very same people as they welcome me into there homes though often time afraid as they tell me their stories. These people are STRONG they are surviving in ways I never thought possible. So how do we even the odds for them ? For me its just to start some where and that place is this blog. Through this it is my BIG DREAM to build as many of these STRONG, hard working people a home as I can, a TINY home, a home that will be warm and efficient, a home where they can not be ashamed to have company over and won't cost them every dime they have to their name plus more to heat, a home with running water and working septic. A TINY HOME !! REALLY is that so much to ask ?  I don't know where or how but what I do know is I have started.


DO YOU have ideas ? How to make this happen ? Start here by sharing your thoughts/ideas

See ya'll tomorrow !!

I WANT IT ALL ! The TINY house storage story >

So my guess is every single one of you have said to yourselves. HMMMM Where does she put everything ? Well here is the done low on that. I spent the better half of the last 10 or so years collecting tiny house storage ideas, now I'm in my Tiny house I have realized that a LOT of them look good but aren't very functional. Like floor storage for example, it looks cool, seems like a good idea until your STANDING on the floor in a TINY house that is suppose to have storage IN it. NOPE not for this girl. Vertical storage is ok to a point but once you go beyond that point you feel like your living in a tiny matrix, so light on the vertical storage. So what does that leave ? Right now for me two things.  We have 10 outfits a piece for each season. Out of season cloths will go in secure top tubs and be stored in the house this year. Next year maybe I will have a tiny storage shed. That means having clothes that are versatile. My work requires I have office casual attire so I have cloths that can be spiced up with a scarf and a few pieces of jewelry or worn with a sweatshirt on the weekends plus a dirty work outfit. Noahs outfits were easy, he only wears jogging pants/shorts, Tshirts and many other variations of soft stretchy clothing EASY. Here is my cloths storage at the moment.

In the baskets you see along the wall are ALL mine and Noah's cloths the big baskets are shirts in one and pants in the other, the smaller baskets are for socks and unmentionables . Though the baskets are cute this is temporary until I feel confident in watching enough YouTube videos to attempt to build a storage unit under the couch. It will look something like this.

Only I will take the legs off my couch and sit the couch on top of a storage unit. That will free up space behind the couch and make that space look and feel more open.

I will also build in storage in the between beams of the under the loft, over the living room space for smaller items.

As for kitchen and bathroom storage I am working on a few ideas, I will get back to you on those.

If you have storage ideas or hacks you would like to share be sure to post in the comments.

Big day tomorrow ! We are off to the cardiologist for our first follow up after little misters heart surgery a few weeks ago . The BIG plan is to visit his FAVORITE Walmart Yes Kiddo has a favorite Walmart !!!

Thanks again for ALL your support !! We have literally THOUSANDS of views from all over the WORLD in just the 2 weeks Tiny House On The Spectrum has been live !!! The goal is to gain enough support to build a tiny house community !! Don't miss a minute of this EXCITING JOURNEY !!

                                             See you all tomorrow !!!

HOW DO I GET A TINY HOUSE YOU ASK ? Pst I got a secret !

The all time TOP comments I get are "OMG !! I WANT A TINY HOUSE SOOOO BAD ! " and the second TOP is this question " HOW DO I GET A TINY HOUSE ?"

WELL Lets start the conversation then. FIRST of all TINY means something different to different people. My tiny means 200 sqft, to someone else it 200 sqft isn't "really" a tiny house, if your going to be hard core you have to be under 150 sqft. Others cant stretch out in 300 sqft , and still there are some that consider 500 sqft a closet space. Listen there are no hard set rules to what is tiny to you. For me when I thought tiny the first thing I thought long and hard about is what do I REALLY NEED. I need low or no utility bills, I need no mortgage, but I also need a washing machine a bathtub and full size appliances. 200 sqft fit the bill. Someone else might be fine with a tiny fridge, a toaster oven and living in 100 sqft. Others may need say a Jacuzzi and need 500 sqft.

My Tiny house had a life before me. It was a barn/shed something like this.

It was bought used and gutted by Jay last fall and he installed all the basics. The used shed was only a few thousand dollars. BUT for about a thousand dollars, some reclaimed materials and some elbow grease you could start here.

Don't be scared, yes it is a lot of work but with that said its not all rocket science .

Or you could do I do. I watch YouTube. This guy seems to know what he's doing.

The other thing you can do is go to one of those Rent to own shed lots and buy one over time and finish it yourself or pay to have some one to do it for you.

WHERE CAN I PUT MY TINY HOUSE, I DON'T OWN PROPERTY ! ?

Well neither did I. I lease a lot for 200 a month, it includes water and sewage. Be creative, explore trailer parks, RV parks, a family members back yard, remember these Tiny houses can be moved relatively cheep on a flat bed even if you don't have wheels. AND you know I will sit my butt right here while I finish paying off my Tiny House and saving up for my own property! Like I said NO MORGAGE is the goal !! You may want to check your local regulations before investing, you may even consider moving to a town that is more flexible. In the end the question is "what are you willing to do to have the freedom of home ownership and start from there.

This is just the beginning of the thousands of ways to have a tiny house, really your are only limited to your imagination. I have only touched on this subject tonight but I will come back to it soon, and hopefully with an interview with someone who builds tiny houses !!

Stay tuned, stay tiny DREAM BIG !!

SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW !!

Rails, Nails and WHATS THAT GUNK ??

Can everybody say IT'S MONDAY !?!?!?! What a Monday it is ! Well to start out it was Noah's first day at his new childcare. Now Noah's not to partial to the first of anything . Up until now my close friend Wendy was the only one to EVER watch Noah and he was just fine with that. About 2 months ago Wendy broke the news, she's moving. I tried to entice her stay everyway I knew how, tried to bribe her, blackmail her even considered kidnapping her 10 year old Dachshund and holding him for ransom but nothing worked, Really I am grateful for the time she spent with Noah and her love and patience. So today was the first day and guess what ! HE NAILED IT !! BUT He must have held it in all day because 10 minutes after he got home he was a HOT MESS !

This a forget everything everywhere and chase my tail around kind of day, at some point I just decided to roll with it and do it anyway !

                                        We ALMOST got the rails done

Still a little more left to do but considering little Mister was spinning around in circles at the bottom of Jays ladder, I commend him for getting this done as much as he did. He finally gave in and got down and played the kiddo silly. In the commotion Jay had lost his glasses.

Then the on going mystery of the nondrying cement sealer. I figured that since now I had my washer all hooked up ready to go I should probably try to use it . Then for some mysterious reason it spent over an hour filling. When I went to investigate I found I had another problem as well.

Yes that is my washer drain hose( next project). My washer is draining instead of filling all the way, who knows why. Then the cement sealer that was SUPPOSE to dry completely in 3 hours, 3 days later turned to gunk when exposed to water !!!

                             OOOH AND DID ANYONE SAY SLEEP !!!??? I spent half the night looking down from the loft checking in on little mister, I finally gave up and laid down with him YAAAAWN !!

                                           

                 We I'm outa here tonight but tomorrow we are back in business !!

                                         Noah ? Well he's always in business

Edit: Woke up this morning and figured I should reread my post, I was EXHASTED last night ! Well as you can see I did some edits and probably missed a few !

                                                     I did find Jays glasses !! 

SWINGING from the Rafters ! Hiding from the Grinch !!

Whewhoo !!! Got some stuff done today !! Boy OH BOY does a GOOD Sunday sermon get me pumped !! Some good OLE country preaching can put a shine on just about any day. AND let me tell you, I was feeling a bit tired today, this blessed life of mine has been a lot of work lately !

Now I know the big plan was to get some stuff done outside but as I putted along picking up stuff and tidying up the yard my back said ENOUGH is ENOUGH .


                                                      Still looking pretty CUTE out here :)

To be honest with you that super cool wrap around couch in my living room does pull out into a quite comfy little bed but its not MY BED!
I'm not getting any younger and my body is rather particular to my memory foam mattress SO off I went back into the house to stare at my loft. As you ALL know I have been struggling with the placement of the stairs/ladder. Well I finally caved in and though this may not be the finally resting place of the route my loft it IS going to get me to MY BED !

                                                     
                                                        Ok their not so bad right ?

My next task was to build some railings so I don't break my neck trying to appease my back. I saw all kinds of ideas on YouTube but again I am going to be honest with ya, those handy guys with all their fancy tools giving all their instructions kind of sounds like a bunch of gibberish to me. So off  I go outside with my hand saw and screw gun figuring I would just wing it and hope for the best. I'm sawing away and Noah is running in and out of the house, saying something about the Grinch. So I got my wood all cut up and forgot the screws. Mean while Noahs sitting on the steps with his chin in his hand looking like that statue "the thinker ", as I walked pasted him he said "I wouldn't go in there", of course I'm thinking "UH  OH ! " I went to turn the door knob and that's when I realized Noah had locked us out !! I looked back at Noah and said "WHY BUDDY ? " " I locked him out " he responded. WHO ? Oh ya THE DAMN GRINCH ! UHG ! So of course you all know who I called ! JAY ! No answer UHG ! So we both sat on the steps as I tried to figure out how to get the air conditioner out of the window, thing weighs as much as a COW ! We sat there about 20 minutes or so and guess WHO comes driving in JAY !!! YEAH !!! He gets out of his car and takes one look at my half finished railings and says" whatcha doing ? " building railings, I said proudly. Jay shakes his head, I think he kind of smiled a bit as he loaded my half finished project in to his car. "I'll be back in a bit" he said as he drove off. Oh yes and he did get my door open again.

                                                     Check out THESE RAILINGS !

These puppy's are going up tomorrow night after work. JAY saves the day again !! Thank you Jay !!
The moral of the story is, there are still good people let in this world. AND I'm sleeping in MY OWN BED TONIGHT !!

GOOD NIGHT ALL ! Pictures of the installed railings tomorrow !!!

Shower Curtains, CEMENT and the Farmer and the Bell.

Woke up to a beautiful crisp fall morning. Popped a HEALTHY banana, pecan, chocolate chip banana bread in the oven and made a pot of hazelnut coffee. Soon I was sitting cozy on my little porch in my chair with my fuzzy blanket and a steaming cup of the delicious brew. WOW do I love FALL ! Noah stayed warm under the blankets with his tablet intently watching a bigfoot documentary like he was just seeing it for the first time (in all actuality he knows the script verbatim).  I wrote my list of everything we needed for todays projects, threw sweat pants and sweat shirts on both of us, grabbed us a slice of warm bread and of we went chocolatey fingers and all.



                                      Gluten free/ sugar free /Banana/Pecan/Chocolate Chip Bread

First stop was to grab my friend Wendy. She need a ride to the vet my big plan was hold her hostage for the morning so   A. I could talk to another adult. B. Get a few laughs (shes hysterically funny) and C. have and extra hand with Noah so do some things.

                                       After the vet our first stop was at the farmers market.

For a small farmers market, we scored BIG time ! I dragged back a huge bag of ORGANIC vegetables and a bottle of lemon ginger kombucha for 6 BUCKS !! YEAH ME !!

After we hit the BEST thrift store in the area. The place is HUGE with several small rooms, they even have a Christmas room. I was there looking for curtains. That's right, I threw in the towel on the whole Roman shades idea, I caved ! I'm WEAK ! But just wait until you see the curtains !

St. Sebastian's Thrift store

I was hoping to get some more pictures but honestly I knew I had about 10 minutes to find curtains before Noah would HAVE to go to the toy room( that was the blackmail) and my shopping trip would be over. This picture was just the cloth section !

We got home and I threw together a crockpot of Italian wedding soup LOADED with the veggies from the farmers market.

                                                             Italian Wedding Soup

Project time !

While I was at St, Sebastian's I also found the cutest shower hooks and considering one of my projects today was to install a homemade/custom made/ Rebecca fly by the seat of her pants made shower rod and curtain they were an awesome find ! First, I just want you all to know it is next to impossible to find a small hoop shower rod ANYWHERE and if you do it cost over 100 BUCKS ! NOPE ! I got this ! I pulled the hoop out of Noah's neglected trampoline and WALLA! A shower ROD !! SCORE ! Now the problem was how to get it to hang from the ceiling, So I sat on my toilet and looked at it and thought and thought and thought !! Finally I HAD IT ! I dug through my box of stuff under the sink and pulled out some hooks, then I taped the hoop to the ceiling and screwed the hooks down, then dropped the hoop in to the bend on each hook and SHAZZAM !! A shower rod !! 

Check this out !

Don't you just LOVE the shower hooks ?!?!?!

                      

                          On top of it all I found this chair !!! Isnt it stinking cute ???!!! 10 BUCKS !!

                                                                  There was a hitch

Yup ! That's my foot print ! Before I left this morning I slapped  a coat cement sealer on the floor of my little tub. The directions SAID it could handle traffic after 4 hours, so after 8 hours I stepped in to the tub to hand up my shower curtain and GUESS WHAT ! Oh well, we will cross that bridge tomorrow.

            AND if life just couldn't get any better, I told you I found the PERFECT curtains

Thinking I will be in the yard tomorrow working on some projects out there !!

Pictures too come !!

Thanks for stopping by ! See you all tomorrow !

      

Design and Friday Evening For Single Autism Mom.

Autism mom... some people think we wear it like a badge of strength or maybe we are looking for sympathy or attention , most people get tired of talking about autism EVERY time they see us. It was a bit fascinating at first but COME ON lady get a life ! Let me tell you a little bit about why we talk about our child's autism ALL the time. Because we live it ALL the time. Are we complaining ? Nope. Are we asking for sympathy ? Nope.
Our lives are isolating and often times we are the only ones left... everyone else walked away from our beautiful children or live some where on the out skirts of our lives, send us a message on facebook or an email here and there.
You won't see us out much as we don't have a sitter. When we do go to social functions without childcare we usually leave early so our child wont cause disruption or we can no longer subject them to all the painful stimuli that comes with so many faces and noises and transitions. If there is childcare we are asked to stay with our child as they don't feel "qualified" to watch them (which may be true). Our social interaction often means we have to manage kiddos behavior, our own reaction all while educating others at the same time....honestly its just a lot of work, so we just hang out and except our relationships are internet based, oh and write blogs (at least I do)Oh yes and dating ???? HAHAHHA ! NOPE !
A tiny house works for us, really we don't get much company. So when I( or another Autism parent) talk to you at nauseam about my/their child's autism know that I truly am grateful for this beautiful child of mine and as challenging it as it is for me , its even harder for him ! I just miss everyone else...

Speaking of design, anyone got any design ideas for stairs to this loft ?

Thank you all for stopping by ! I will be back tomorrow and its Saturday so I will post pictures of tomorrows project !! 

I Said TINY HOUSE COMMUNITY Not a CRAZY cult HAHAHAHA !!

Most people who know me know that I'm a devote Christian. Its no secret. I have a deep relationship with God for lots of reasons, that is part of MY story and though I would be ABSOLUTELY happy to share with you Jesus is a gentleman, he does not push himself on anyone, neither will I. With that said when I talk about my tiny house community I get teased( mostly in good fun). I mean EVEN Christians like tiny houses RIGHT ?

So let get down and dirty and talk about the fun stuff !! Tiny house communities !

When people think about tiny house communities often they think of something like this

They are cute but not for me, seriously, could you imagine Noah and I in one of those ?

I can tell you is would not end well (probably for me)

These are kind of cute

I like the colors and even the design but we live in MAINE, we don't like to look at each other all the time up here, how about some elbow room !

I was thinking something like this

Aaaaah the fresh air, the smell of pine needles !

OR ONE OF THESE !

                       Yup ! That's what I'm thinking when I think tiny house community, I think of these.

Where are the neighbors you ask ? Well of course they are there. They are just not shoved up my "need my space" Maine BUTT !

   In my minds eye I am walking through this tiny house community that has private gardens and community gardens, it has a large community space that everyone has access to or not. If you like to be communal you can, If not you don't have to be and I'm not going to get whacked in the mouth when you get up and stretch in the morning. When you have a tiny house you (or at least I ) need a big outside, and face it us Maina's are a private breed of people. The deal is to be able to achieve the dream of home ownership with out paying for that choice for the rest of your life. To be able to own your own home EVEN if you live on a fixed income or a blue collar pay check. AND for all you rich people who want to have a small foot print on this planet COME ON OVER !!  

Tomorrow I want to talk design !! Feel free to share your ideas, inspirations or just to stop by and yak !!

                             Come on back ! I will be here tomorrow night

                

Zucchini, Walnut,Blueberry bread and the loft chronicals

We now we are almost done with the bathroom (minus sealing the concrete in tub, the drainage for the washer and some trim) I'm on to bigger things like the LOFTS.
The lofts are super cool and very doable, and they have a surprising amount of room in them. I can actually sit straight up in my King size bed in my loft (if I'm in the middle) ! Check them out !

This is my loft before I moved my bed and a bunch of stuff into it. The picture was taken from the floor so its hard to see how much room there really is. Its actually 4 feet from floor to the tallest part of the ceiling, plus my KING size bed fits in there with a few feet on either side and at the foot.

So the loft isn't the dilemma, its where to put the stairs/ladder. Right now I have a ladder that pulls down from the floor. The only problem with that is when its down I can't pull out the hide away bed in the couch which means NO SPARE BEDROOM. Ive moved the ladder three times trying to figure this out. At first my plan was to build stairs with storage against the wall. After putting my ladder against the wall I realize there wasn't enough head space to climb into the loft safely. Both Jay and I PLUS are at a loss for a solution that I am happy with, So I enlisted some help.

Say HI to Julie and Bobby. Julie is a close friend of mine and Bobby is her husband. Bobby is also a carpenter but not just any carpenter he has actually built and houses for some BIG celebrities ! I am SO SIKED !! They came over last night and Bobby sized the place up, took some measurements and said he would let me know what he could design for me ! ARE THERE SPIRAL STAIRS IN OUR FUTURE ? We will see :)

Noahs Loft

Noah's loft is a lot deeper than this looks as it goes over the bathroom and extends over the porch. My vision is to have it be a tree house type theme. Again the loft rocks, the stairs..well a bit of a problem.

My plan is to build a set of stairs into this wall beside the bathroom door. They will go over the washing machine and into the loft

Neither Jay or Bobby seemed to impressed with this idea but I'm thinking it will save valuable space that either another ladder or stair case would take.

Zucchini, Walnut, Blueberry bread

As I sat here writing all this in deep thought and contemplation a knock came on the door. I didn't tell you guys this but I have THE ABSOLUTE BEST  neighbors !!! Countless times I have come home from work to bags of goodies on my front step, fresh zucchini, tomatos, cucumbers YUM !! Well tonight I was here as she came with her gifts PLUS Zucchini, Walnut blueberry bread so I was able to give her a GREAT BIG HUG ! Love me some SWEET people( the bread was amazing to !).

Well that's all for tonight folks. Feel free to share your thoughts and idea's ! I look forward to reading from you :)

Till tomorrow !!!

Roman Shades and Gramar, THERE I SAID IT !

 I have always loved Roman shades, they just look so, well designerish (I know that's not an actually word). I mean there are so many possibilities. In a tiny house a girl has got to be creative right ?  There are endless sizes and designs and best of all they can be used to tie in the theme of your home and set the mood. Not to mention the privacy factor ( I'll just leave that alone) I searched the internet high and low for Roman shades, I combed the thrift stores and the clearance racks. The thing about Roman shades is THEY ARE STINKING EXSPENSIVE ! So I did what I do, I found a DIY video and decided to make them myself. Check this out.

This lady is clear and concise, stepping us easily through every simple step Right ???? Oh and check out those beautiful Roman shades !! I saw this and promptly ran to Walmart and got all the supply's  I needed. Got home, spread everything out on the floor set up my laptop with the video playing in front of me . I paused the video at ever step. Now you saw her BEAUTIFUL shade.

Here's My Rendition

Loved LOVED the cloth ! BUT not till I got home and made the shade then put it up did I realize that it goes with nothing else in my house ! Then just incase you didn't notice it looks NOTHING like the shade in the video AND when I try to pull the shade up it falls off the window. So after I find the right cloth and learn how to cut a straight line I will give this another whirl . If you try it , let me know how it worked for you (then maybe you can show me :) ).

                                 

                                                           Grammar

Now for the grammar, YES, YES I know my grammar really leaves a lot to be desired. I mean a LOT, and I'm not even going to try to make excuses here , but deep down I think that spell check has a vendetta against me. Ive had a few emails with "feed back" that have eluded to my grammatical errors (mostly friends blatantly making fun of me)  so I have decided for the integrity of the blog to devote and entire evening to going through every post and HOPEFULLY correcting ALL my mistakes. In the end and over all when we read anything that one has pulled from their heart or imagination to either enrich or impact another's life I would hope the importance of what the writer is conveying remains the objective of the reader. To make that even easier for you I will work harder !

Hope you all had a blessed day !  See you tomorrow cause I coming with some thoughts about the Tiny house community !

  

TINY HOUSE EARTHQUAKE, another remodeling adventure !

Okay ! Deep breath! After last nights post you are probably all thinking I didn't get anything accomplished this weekend. Being a mom of a kiddo on the spectrum has really stretched me ! Sometimes we can fall down and get up in one big sweeping stride and that's what we did ! Part of the reason I am here writing this blog right now, why I bare all is because we are living in a world where people are losing hope. WELL I GOT PLENTY of that so I figured I better share some with you all ! Yes I've been stretched, YES I have on many occasions felt like giving up, but I CAN'T and because I CAN'T, I have been given no other choice I've had to increased my strength, increased my faith in God and become waaaay more creative :) So check out what we've done !

                                           Remember the drift wood from yesterdays post ?

 

                             

                Well there they ! The budget suddenly did not allow for metal pipe with shelves so I got creative. What do you think ?

                                                          

                                                            There's the shelving !

 

Some mason jars and yard sale shelving and we are ready to rock this bathroom !

A few matching towels this place will be the tiny house Regency !

I Even threw in a homemade Curtain

Score this half finished quilt at a yard sale , threw some clips and hoops on it and SHAZZAM !!

LOVING MY CHEAP WAYS !

                             

                                 While I was at is  pulled together this little number

                                      

I had this mirror kicking around, it was black and cheesy looking but 2.97 bought me a can of spray paint and WALLA !! I had the idea of the branches a few weeks ago and just couldn't wait to try it. I mean WHY NOT ? What's the worst thin that could happen ? After I got it together it seemed to be missing something.  Noah and I Headed to the Dollar store in search of some butterflies with no luck. We did find these adorable little birds, Don't they look cool ?!?!?!  Cost me 3.97 people !!!!

BUT WAIT FOR IT ! HERE'S THE BEST PART !!

You all remember Jay right ? Well he was over working his magic again ! If you all remember the reason for the bathroom make over ?

WE HAVE A WAGHING MACHINE !!!! I might just have to get this guy a superhero costume !!! He worked on this project all night, so you wanna bet I fed him some pork chops and garden fresh zucchini straight off the grill. But here was the hitch. The spin cycle shakes my whole tiny house !! Things were flying off the walls and shelves !! When I said EARTQUAKE I wasn't joking. Come on creativity !!!  

What was Noah doing during all this you ask ?

Thanks for stopping by !! See you all tomorrow !!!