Sifting through belongings

This is by far the hardest part so far! Not because I want to keep a lot of stuff but because being environmentally conscious  when moving is tough. 

Junk Removal

We started with 1-800-junk.

http://www.1800gotjunk.com/us_en

I really liked how they try to salvage as much as possible and them incinerate the rest keeping landfills less full. I know there are debated on fumes with this process. That is a whole other issue and another reason why we are doing a tiny house to minimize waste. 

So $600 later we have all the useable items left. (Our home was a short sale so we were left with some lovely junk😑)

Then we took 6 loads to Goodwill with our SUV.

Garage Sales

Next step was selling things online. Thank you whoever came up with idea for online garage sales on Facebook. Was able to sell a lot at reasonable prices and save people the time and gas to run all over town looking for things they need, I highly recommend searching for online garage sale in your city on Facebook.

So most items were sold then our house sold in 5 days and we have to be out in another 5 days. Yikes! So the plan now is to just move stuff out and organize later. 

Memorabilia 

I am finding the stuff purchased while traveling difficult to get rid of along with other memorabilia. The tricky part is we want to take pictures of these and take our pictures and make them into books. We use shutterfly. Of course this takes time which we will hopefully have more of once we get moved and settled.

We are going to do the t shirt quilts as well. The clothes were actually the easiest think to get rid of. I am struggling with the office supplies, nick knacks and tools/hardware stuff. 

So that is where we are now. Moving stuff out and then organizing later. 

One car load at a time cause Daddy has to work

Helping move stuff into Grandma's temporarily 

Blog has not yet been edited for spelling or grammar.

The only time I have time to write is during my son's naps while he naps on me.

Family and friend backlash

Change is good

Be prepared! You may get backlash and confusion and hurt feelings from others. This is normal. Most humans resist change. Change is scary and can be upsetting for some. Do your research before telling others. 

Be ready for things like:

How is that enough space for your family?

What about your home? Your assists? Your equity?

Where will you put it?

What about insurance?

What about bad weather? 

Where will you sleep?

I guess you can't hav us over anymore! Where will you entertain? 

What about privacy? 

What about when your kids are teenagers?

What if your solar runs out? 

Won't it devalue like a car? 

In hindsight we should have waited to tell people but I was so excited to start this journey, I told people right away. After more research and calm conversations we are in a better place and people are getting excited about it.

Do you have to be construction savvy to start a tiny house?

Building your tiny house

Ok... Here's the deal... My hubby and I almost decided not to build a home due to the fact we have zero know how on building let alone plumbing or electric. We are two busy parents with no time to research countless hours on YouTube on how to build things. It would literally take us 10 years! I have so much respect for those who can and will build their tiny home themselves. We are in a place where we need the tiny house quickly so I can stay at home with my son and we can be financially ok still. 

Off grid = low tech?

I have very strong feelings about being environmentally conscious! I especially like the Native American teaching that states anything you do must be sustainable for the next 7 generations. In other words whatever I do now, can I do without harming anyone or anything for hundreds of years? I always try to keep that in mind when making decisions. With that being said off grid doesn't have to mean I am going to sit in a shack, burn wood, shower once a month and have no connection to the real world. Technology has a purpose as long as we use it wisely. We plan to have a modern yet self sustaining home. 

We will have rain water collection, solar power, wood burning her source, propane oven and composting toilet. We are hoping to have some sort of grey water system and a skinny fridge. Of course as we research we can try to adapt old ways of doing things such as underground fridge, outside toilet for summer, etc but with a toddler we feel what works best for us right now is take things slow.

Back to basics

How funny we live in a world that going back to basics takes research. I would love to have self sustaining lifestyle. We have done chickens and will again. I will continue to improve my gardening skills and would love to get better at composting and the zero waste lifestyle. That is really what led us to tiny house idea because it was a step in the right direction but a baby step. Someday maybe an earthship or portable green house. Who knows the possibilities are endless. 

Main Point 

Take it slow! Do what works for your family! I was so caught up in being fully sustainable and off grid right away but it was too overwhelming. We all do the best we can at each moment. As long as it brings you and others joy... Go for it!

The Lofts

Ahhh the bedroom. This was one of the hardest parts of our tiny house decision. We are still a bit nervous about noise but I think we came up with a decent plan. 

Privacy

Almost everyone we talk to about our tiny  home mentions privacy. Yes of course a concern and for us it was more about noise. With hubby getting up for work and our toddler usually still sleeping, we were worried about noise while hubby gets ready. So here's what we came up with:

Something like this for our loft and maybe a curtain to pull across. We will also have a fan running or white notice app on our phone to help our son stay asleep.

We are thinking something like this half wall for second loft to give our future teenager privacy and could also run a sheet or something for privacy. Of courses plan is to have our son in his own tiny home as he gets older.

Why Tiny House Living For Our Family

We have all heard the myths:

"Way to small for your family!"

"Your toddler needs more space!"

"Not enough room to cook!"

"Not safe for storms!"

"You will have no equity!"

"It will devalue like a car!"

And it goes on and on...

What about the reasons to build and live in a Tiny Home:

https://youtu.be/wYhtKE-oEEM

Andrew Morrison on TedX

For us it's about lifestyle!

We wanted the following:

Time- time together and time for fun.

How much time out of the day do we spend cleaning our homes, taking care of the yard, updating and maintains our homes? For us and our five acres it felt like that is ALL we do. 

We want time to read, write, explore and spend quality time together discussing big ideas and the ways of the world which is why we want to go "TINY". I could deep clean the whole tiny house in the time it takes me to deep clean our current kitchen. 

Remodeling 

Our current home of 2,189 square feet needs some upgrades. Nothing essential (those costed us 1,000's when we moved in) but things like updating the kitchen, new carpets, update bathroom, etc. remodeling your home costs a lot! Remodeling tiny house... No problem! Our current home if we want to update kitchen we are tearing down walls, running new piping so making jokes in ceiling downstairs, rerunning gas lines, etc. Tiny houses can easily be remodeled quickly and are much more cost effective.

Space Issues

Most Tiny Home enthusiasts are outdoor lovers but not all. We are choosing tiny living because we want to spend more time appreciating nature. As my amazing husband taught me, "Cold is only an issue if you are not dressed appropriately." I learned very quickly that comfort trumps fashion any day in a Minnesota winter. Also, Minnesota has tons of great indoor parks, libraries, museums, galleries etc to enjoy. 

Too small for our adventurous toddler. We don't think so. He always want to be next to us anyway. It will certainly cut down on the frantic cries when I step in another room to clean or put away laundry. Our son also prefers to be outside. He cries every time we bring him inside. With less cleaning we will have time to play outside and mommy doesn't have to stay up late cleaning to keep baby happy! 

Too small to cook. Well I am no chef, but design is everything! That is the wonderful thing about tiny homes is you build them to fit your needs. I only need room to cut veggies and fruits so we opted for an L shaped kitchen instead of a U shape. 

We are confident our family of three plus 5 pets will fit just right in our home! It's all about planning. Personally we feel there is so much wasted space in our current home. We had daycare downstairs so we really didn't live in that space, our son sleeps with us so the second bedroom upstairs was never used, we only used one of the bathrooms and we spent all our time in the 4 seasons with the fireplace. So when it comes down to it we were heating, cooling, cleaning, maintaining 2,189 square feet of which about 500 square feet was used. Too wasteful for my taste.

Safety

Storm safety. Of course safety is a concern with any home. When we were grounds keepers for camp Kicci Yappi we lived in a double wide trailer. If it was tornado warning we would had to the closes store with a tornado safety area. Of course we asked ahead of time. We plan to do the same with our tiny home. Either a store or neighbor willing to take us in. 

We are using a contractor versus building ourselves because we want to be sure plumbing, electrical, gas, etc are put in properly. If you are planning on building yourself be sure to have licensed electrician and plumber take a look. Of course you need smoke and CO2 detectors and any other safety items you would normally have. 

Here's a link for more safety tips

http://tinyrevolution.us/2012/03/06/how-to-make-your-tiny-house-https://youtu.be/wYhtKE-oEEM/

Link about keeping tiny house from being stolen 

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blogs/tumbleweed/6494951-but-wont-someone-steal-my-tiny-house-on-wheels

Money

Ok the number one bonus is mortgage free. We can put more money in saving and travel! Everyone talks about assets. Well the way I see it is you buy a home and that is an asset only if it can be sold at a greater value them purchased which with interest and updates and maintenance is arguably impossible. 

We are selling our home now and even though we may get some money out of the deal we put more than that amount paying interest and updates so really in my opinion a home is not really an asset.

I am joy here to start an argument about homes and value and what not. We all do what's best for our families and for us this works best! 

Mobility 

The mobility factor is huge for us! We want to be able to follow our dreams and not have to sell a house every time we are ready for something new. It has taken months to get the house ready, do research, find a realtor and come up with places for us and pets while we have showings. I want to be at stay at home

Mom, coach and tutor for now. Eventually I want to work at or start an environmental school. My hubby needs the freedom to search out the job of his dreams without worrying about the stress it will put on us if it isn't a good fit. We don't necessarily want to be driving it every year but nice to have it as an option.

The Kitchen

Appliances

Stove

We went back and forth about electric versus gas stove for the Tiny House. We decided on gas because we want to spread out our resources. We will use wood burning for heat, gas for stove (also second heating source) and solar power for everything else. I selfishly like the way gas stoves cook more evenly as well. 

We are thinking tall and skinny fridge but we want freezer on the bottom.

Half size dishwasher. Several studies show it saves more water than hand wash, which I believe cause with hand washing the water is running a lot. 

Him small stove like the one pictured here. 

Something like this for sink and hopefully we can find low flow environmentally friendly faucet or attachment.

The Design

We like this light wood with the light creamy counter top. 

We like the shelf idea in this photo versus heavy cabinets. 

Hopefully we can find these cool shelves that look like natural wood!

And something like this for backsplash.

The Bathroom

The Essentials

Toilet

We know the first thing people usually worry about in a Tiny Home is the toilet. 

We knew we wanted a composting toilet from the beginning because we would like to have the house suitable for off-grid use.

Here is a link to some options

http://clotheslinetinyhomes.com/2012/10/03/everyone-poops-tiny-house-toilet-options/

We still haven't narrowed in on the exact brand/model we like but we are not worried at all. 

Here is YouTube link to a fun couple with insight and instructions on composting toilets. 

http://youtu.be/dYR6GPmDzVM

Here is their website:

http://www.gonewiththewynns.com/prepare-dump-composting-toilet

Shower 

Next the shower! 

We know we want a small tub for soaking our toddler and me in apple cider vinegar or Epsom salts. Here are some designs we like.

We would prefer some sort of fun tiles but will probably be to heavy. We need to talk with our contractor.

The Sink

We currently have a bowl sink in our basement and we love the look. We also like the idea of having it in the corner to optimize space. 

Here are some ideas

We like the corner idea in this photo 

We like the wood shelf in this photo 

We like the pebble backsplash in this photo

These pebbles are neat too and love the shelf idea.

The Layout

We are thinking something like this:

Our will be a rectangle but we like the toilet in the corner and sink in the corner.

We will probably do some sort of barn door for privacy

The Floor

We really like the idea of cork flooring because it is eco friendly, lighter than wood, and can be used in the bathroom as well. We will most likely use the cork flooring for the whole house to make it appear longer.

Our Design

Choosing a Design- the basics. 

Ok this is my favorite part by far. I am by no means artistic but really enjoy designing rooms. Maybe because the possibilities are endless or maybe because it is like a painting that unfolds its beauty as it issue but either way I am excited to see how it all manifests.

We went with Andrew Morrison's design because we liked how spacious it looked. 

Pictures from (http://tinyhousebuild.com/photo-gallery/)

We are making adjustments and are so excited to work with our contractor Tiny Green Cabins owner Jim.

(http://tinygreencabins.com)

You know how everything happens for a reason...well Jim is already building the Andrew Morrison tiny home right now for another family, so when we make adjustments it will be a lot easier! 

We are thinking of a natural look with whit as the main walls, accents of brown, green, blue and yellow. We want to really feel like we are outside while in the Tiny home. We will incorporate rocks and twigs to give it a natural feel. 

Tiny beginnings

Tiny House Brainstorming 

"Ok where do we start?" Is what we were asking ourselves. With my husband working full time, me working daycare at home full time and part time coaching and raising an infant the possibilities were overwhelming! We started by casually watching the show Tiny House Nation. To get an idea of what layout would work for us. 

Networking

While watching the show I saw my former colleague Ryan Kasl and his family and immediately got excited. So I talked with his wife and she gave me some tips and we decided to try to get on the show. We realized we had to make some quick decisions and searched Pinterest like crazy. We narrowed down some likes and dislikes and got our first interview for the show. No word yet on if we get on but it was a great way to get the ball rolling. Next, it was time to find a trailer and contractor. 

Trailer and contractor

This was by far the hardest part. Being in Minnesota we realized quickly that most of the Tiny House movement is on the East Coast or West Coast. I networked with people on Facebook and found Joshua. (tinyhousebasics@gmail.com) Make sure to like him on Facebook!  He was great and answered all our questions and got us a quote. The only tricky part was the trailer would be made in Washington And we would have to have it shipped to us. While thinking about this we found a great company called The Natural Built Home Store (http://www.naturalbuilthome.com/) and they were willing to take on the tiny house challenge and help us with our home. We purchased Andy Morrison's plans and sent them off to the contractor to get an estimate. (http://tinyhousebuild.com) 

While waiting for this estimate my sister in-law (also a soon to be tiny house owner) saw a TV special mentioning a contractor in Minnesota. Apparently I had missed him in all my google searches. So we e mailed him and got an immediate response and as they say the rest is history! 

What started my tiny house dreams

We have all been there...that ah huh moment when the light bulb flicks on and life is clear. My moment was going to my naturopathic doctor and finding out my thyroid and adrenal system was close to failing. How? I eat organic non gmo food, go to chiropractor and use all natural and homemade cleaning and hygiene products. Well turns out adrenal and thyroid issues can be caused by stress and lack of sleep. Considering my past of straight A student, college athelete, new mom and always having two or three jobs I knew what caused my health issues. I realized I can't sustain this busy lifestyle forever so something had to change. I started by quitting my second job (coaching gymnastics), which was really hard for me because I have been a coach for 15 years. That helped for a little bit but then money got tight so I added more daycare kids to my organic licensed daycare. Well after several months of a full daycare load, cleaning non stop and being up till 2 am making organic meals for 8 children I again realized something had to change. At first we liked the Earthships! Still love them but haven't been able to find contractor that can do it and money wise wasn't an option. Looked into container homes but again they ended up being out of our price range. Then we discovered tiny houses on wheels. It was perfect! Affordable, mobility, and sustainable! So our google searching began.....

Welcome and Enjoy!

It starts....