A Beautiful Day!

This photo is of the house a couple of weeks ago - the trees were so pretty.





Here's a photo of the lights on the porch. Hard to get the full effect

It was a gorgeous day here on the south coast. I took Rosie for a hike up the Chetco river on a forest service road around 3:30 PM. The sun was getting low in the sky and it was chilly and very refreshing.

Stormy Weather

We had a real shingle-shaker last night! It poured rain and the wind came in sustained bursts that were hard to believe. My neighbors here live in RV's and I guess many got rocked pretty hard. While the wind was loud in here, I only felt a little movement on a couple of the really strong blasts. It felt so cozy to hear the rain and wind, snuggled up under a down comforter in the loft.

Saturday I went to my storage and managed to locate my box of Christmas decorations and I have it stored in the trunk of my car until I can find time to decorate. I think this year I will outline the porch in lights. Last year I put LED candles in the windows that faced the road. That really made the house look like one of those Christmas village miniatures! I suppose that with some good planning I could outline the whole house. We'll see.

Feels Like Fall!

The winter storms have started here on the southern Oregon coast and I love it. It's wonderful to hole up inside with a good book, warm and cozy while the winds whips and rain lashes the house. I pop on Vince Guaraldi's Christmas CD, light an apple-cinnamon candle, turn on the wood stove (fake fire and all!) and bliss out. We might not get snow here, except on brief, rare occasions, but it still feels like early winter does back east in Illinois where I'm originally from.
The house holds heat well and I'm experimenting with NOT using the propane furnace this winter. Propane is kind of expensive and since I also use it for water heating and cooking, I want to conserve it as much as possible. My electric bills have averaged about $5 per month and even if they double using the little electric stove, it will still be cheaper than propane. I don't run any heat at night.
We haven't yet had an extended period of cold/clouds, so many days the sun pops out for a while and heats things up pretty quickly. One side of the house faces south which gives me maximum solar gain in the winter. For the summer I installed matchstick blinds on the outside of the house and they kept the house cool.
The little windows in the gable ends of the house are essential to regulating the temperature in here! I would strongly advise anyone building a tiny to make sure to include them. The air in the lofts can get stuffy and humid very quickly when I'm cooking or on a warm day. Opening the upstairs windows draws fresh air up and clears out the stagnant air at the peak.
The cats and the dog are all curled up, snoozing and if I don't get up and move soon, I'll be asleep, too!

A Year Later...

It's now been one year since I moved into my tiny house (November 2008-2009) and I'm still loving it! Here is the most recent article I wrote for the Tumbelweed website.

Since I moved into my Tumbleweed house last November, I have been tinkering and experimenting with this special space.
My female cat took a fall out of the loft one night a few months ago - she wasn’t seriously hurt, thank goodness, but I vowed to make the loft safer for the cats. First, I got a larger, but thinner mattress that doesn’t protrude over the end of the loft. Then I had my contractor friend, Rich Weaver, build an extension eight inches wide about two-thirds of the way across the end of the loft. He also designed a lovely wooden railing for added safety. When I came home and saw the finished work, I was struck at how it made the interior of the house feel like the inside of a small boat! I love this new addition and plan to expand on the nautical theme.
Rich also installed wooden blocks to hold the ladder for climbing. He always takes care to make things look attractive and I was very pleased with the blocks’ effectiveness and look.
I’ve added wire shelves in the kitchen, and in the bathroom - in a somewhat unusual way. Both the office and bathroom have very little space for storage, so I decided to make use of the ceiling space between the rafters. By installing the shelving on the ceiling, I can put all of my tall/long items overhead! Of course, I’m a tall gal, so this is ideal for me.
Expanding rods are wonderful tools in a tiny house! I use them for all the window curtains, drying rods and for flexible overhead storage between rafters.
While my pots and pans hang cheerfully over the kitchen window, I found a great out-of-the-way spot for those pesky lids - the shelf brackets! I put a couple of nails at the bottom and the lids just snuggle right in.
An extra mesh bag has found a new calling as overhead storage in one of the closets - keeps my bike helmet and rain gear out of the way.
I’d love to hear about other folks’ storage solutions for small spaces - please feel free to comment with your ideas.

And so it begins...

This article was first published on the Tumbleweed Tiny House website.

Do you remember the first time you threw a blanket over a card table or clothes line and crawled inside? That supremely satisfied feeling of being in your own small space? That’s how I feel in my Tumbleweed house. It’s especially true whenever I climb up into the sleeping loft and peer down at the cozy space below. I had a small house before this one – less than a thousand square feet - but there were rooms I seldom entered. It seemed that the dog and cats and I spent most of our time together in the kitchen, the bedroom, or the living room. Now we must share a smaller space, which, of course, has meant that we’ve all had to make some adjustments.

Both cats have finally learned to climb the ladder. I’m working on a shelving scheme that will allow them to move up and down without the ladder, so I don’t have to play elevator or move the ladder when I’m at home. Rosebud, my standard poodle, is very patient at taking indoor traffic direction from me, but he sometimes prefers to stay outside, supervising activities in the RV park. I’m always surprised when he tries a new spot for snoozing or cat and dog share a space - new behaviors for them!

Everything has a place and needs to be in that place. My stainless steel cookware is a decorative accent over one of the windows and cloth covered boxes keep my personal items at hand but out of sight. No letting my mail pile up for days before dealing with it. Dishes get done at the end of the meal. But I can spend a good hour and the house is spic and span, while in my bigger house, an hour would’ve barely made a dent!

Even in this small house, I still can sit in the living room, curl up with a book on the bench in the office, sit on the porch steps for some sun, or climb upstairs for a nap. I feel like Goldilocks who found a space that is just right!