New website – same blog

This post is for all of you who follow this blog or signed up for email notifications.

Firstly, thank you! I love hearing your comments and questions and getting to know you all through your own blogs.

Since moving into the tiny house and moving from full time to part time work, I hope to have more opportunities to post and share my stories and experiences. I would love to continue sharing these with you. To stay updated, please head to http://tinygolightly.com/ and sign up so you don’t miss any posts.

This site will stay active, but the new posts will be published at Tiny go Lightly instead. All of the old posts are still there though, promise! I’ve also started a Facebook page to share more pictures and links along the way: https://www.facebook.com/tinygolightly/

Thanks again, and please keep in touch! 🙂

Sarah

Solar Power

Knowing where to start with the solar stuff can be a bit overwhelming. As I mentioned in my last post, the first thing I would recommend without hesitation is speaking to a solar expert – I happened to luck out and find a total gem, if he’s in your area don’t hesitate to call Geoff at Sustainable Impact. He’s a wealth of knowledge and I even got to be solar apprentice on installation day!

The other place to start is by doing some research and a bit of energy use mapping. There are some pretty simple templates out there and the internet has all sorts of magical information on it these days, including calculators that can tell you how much energy certain appliances use. At this point in the tiny house planning I’ve got a pretty clear idea of what appliances I intend to use and how much power I’ll need. I don’t have any laundry facilities and thanks to my beautiful Nectre Baker’s Oven I also knew I wouldn’t need any kind of electric oven or cooktop. I haven’t factored in many conveniences – no microwave, TV, dishwasher or washing machine. I don’t know how much of this going old school slow living will drive me crazy in the long run, but as an upside, this made planning the electrics a bit easier.

 

I went with second hand batteries and two solar panels, hopefully enough to run all appliances in my house and last a few days without full sun. It’s a bit of an experiment at this stage, to figure out how much I’ll use and how quickly the panels will recharge my batteries.

But there’s definitely power coming in and as a bonus, they look fantastic!

There’s a control panel that mounts all the electrics for the system, including a power point tracker, inverter and the safety isolators. The electrics needed to be close to the batteries, out of the weather and accessible for power readings, so we put them inside on the front wall. Some people have suggested the board isn’t pretty enough to be featured on the wall the way it is, but I kinda love that it represents an important characteristic of the whole house. It might end up being covered later on, but for now I’m still trying to figure out what all the readings mean and how it works. Next step will be getting the electrician back to set up my power points and lights. So close to full power now! Very exciting.

A lesson in asking

Occasionally throughout this project, when people have asked me where I’m living, I’ve joked that ‘I’m homeless’. That’s really just not true, in fact the opposite is. I’ve been in abundance of homes for a while now, and I certainly don’t take that for granted.

Tonight, walking into my local supermarket, I saw a woman sitting out the front asking for change. Maybe homelessness was on my mind after chatting with co-workers about the change in local Melbourne laws that are making sleeping rough an offence. Maybe it’s just always a little bit on my mind, knowing that family violence is one of the top reasons people end up on the street.

Usually, I would give a few coins in passing and tell myself that I do enough, I give to charities regularly and work for a service that tries to improve the system overall. Stopping to talk to someone can sometimes feel daunting, and although I admire those people you see chatting with people on the street, I’m a bit ashamed to say I’ve never been one of them. At least, not until tonight. After I’d walked into the supermarket with only a quick smile for this woman, I turned around and walked back out.

‘Hey’, I said. ‘Is there anything in there I could get for you?’

The woman’s response surprised me. She looked down into the bag by her side.
‘Thanks, but I’ve got heaps of food. Hey! Do you want these bananas?’ She took some ripe bananas out of her bag and handed them to me. I accepted them gratefully (do you know how hard it is to find ripe bananas in a supermarket these days?) before realising I still had to go in and do my shopping. I told her I’d come and stop on my way back out.

When I finished my shopping I had some cash for her. She had sorted through her bag and managed to fill a whole plastic bag with food she wanted to give me.
‘Do you want any of this?’ She asked me. ‘I just hate waste and I’m not going to be able to eat it all.’ I commented on how much she had put in the bag to give me – fruit, biscuits, bread. ‘Yeah’, she said. ‘It’ll just go bad if I can’t use it. Someone came out earlier and offered me bananas. When I told her I already had some she got offended and stormed off in a rush. I thought, well it was a nice offer but there’s no reason to get upset! There’s only so many bananas you can eat in a day.’

We ended up chatting. She asked to use my phone to check the weather and the radar and then wished me a nice evening. In the end, I walked away with more than I’d given her. And it was a surprising reminder of something so obvious that we often forget it:
Sometimes we like to think we’re helping and that we know how best to do that. Don’t assume you’re helping just because it feels good to you. You might be able to help someone or even give them a way to help themselves, but ask them what that looks like and if they even want it. Choice is a powerful tool that many people have taken away from them, especially in times of hardship. Respecting someone’s ability to choose for themselves is important and empowering, even if it doesn’t sit as nicely as our usual go-to options.

I gave her the money and let go of any judgements around the ‘right things to spend it on’. Cos if I was ever sleeping rough or experiencing homelessness, you can better my bottom dollar I’d like to be choosing what gets me by.

And I’m just not sure it’d be bananas.

 

On a related note, this is a very interesting read for anyone looking to learn a little about economics and human behaviour without having to study it or read textbooks. Think, Freakonomics meets global poverty.
It will make more sense why this note is related if you read the book.

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011)
Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Tiny Christmas

I always loved Christmas growing up, and still do. I love time with my family, I love relaxing and having nothing better to do all day than kick back and share great food in the summer heat. It’s just that now as an adult, sometimes I find it hard to look past the excess in what I feel should instead be more of a celebration of what we already have. Tiny Christmas was an attempt to get back to basics and focus on what I love most about this holiday – connection, friendship and gratitude.

For Tiny Christmas, I posted out invites and with each invite went a packet of seeds out to grow. Anyone who has had the joy of nurturing something from seed and reaping the rewards at the end can appreciate the deep satisfaction of growing your own food. The connection with the earth, with the simple and yet incredibly complex processes that take place along the way, the appreciation that comes for something you’ve invested your time and attention in. These elements in all things form the basics of what tiny living is about for me.

Although, sadly, none of the seeds had quite enough time to produce enough food to eat, everyone got creative and brought gifts to share. The meals that were created were not just filled with connection and thought but were delicious and down right beautiful in some cases – Tessa’s tiny house pie was a work of art, filled with home grown treasures. The generosity and engagement that has come from all angles in this project has constantly staggered me. Sometimes all we need is to create a space and some time for our actions to catch up with our values and our beliefs. I think this tiny does just that – not just for me but for so many people who have been involved up until this point.

Earlier in the year, I heard a talk about new year’s resolutions and the benefits of instead practising gratitude for all the things you’ve achieved and experienced in the year gone by. I collected jars from the op shop to make ‘joy jars’ for Christmas – a way to collect memories and moments of joy throughout the year. The jars can then be opened at the end of the year to relive those moments and reflect on all the little things we often forget to savour as the days, then weeks, then months disappear each year. Slow living is so much about enjoying those little moments of bliss and contentedness, the juicy splashes of satisfaction that come from getting back to basics and earning your wins, from having time to connect with nature, friends and family, yourself.

I must admit, in the lead up there were moments where the days had gotten away from me and I came close to panicking a little. Two days before, I still hadn’t organised anything at all for Tiny Christmas since sending the invites out. Originally, I had grand plans for growing my own contribution or at least finding another waste free way to share ethical food – dumpster diving perhaps? Unfortunately, the plans didn’t quite materialise this year. I did end up shopping for some food and came close to falling in a flap and buying a whole bunch of everything we might need, just to make sure everything was right and everyone happy and the fridge and pantry stocked for the apocalypse ready for when everyone arrived! Cos, well that’s how Christmas works, right?

With some helpful grounding from the very people I invited to Tiny Christmas, I thankfully managed to avoid the flap. The day before, I literally had nothing suitable for a lunch with fifteen people. The two on-loan camp chairs and my two old camping mugs I’ve been managing with for the past couple of months weren’t quite going to cut the chaff this time around.

BUT, as I have been lucky enough to discover time and time again, there is always enough stuff in the world and more than enough people willing to share. My parents lent me a table and chairs (and wine glasses and salad bowls and let’s be honest, the list goes on), Sean and Brodie helped dust them off and decorate them with flowers from Mum’s garden. Duncan brought his entire cutlery drawer, Tessa and Jim brought plates and a drinks dispenser, Noel whipped out a garden umbrella when we all started to fry in the sun and everyone brought food and drinks and joy to spare. It was all an incredible, and amazingly stress free, Tiny Christmas Miracle.

We sat, we chatted, we ate, made new friends and reconnected with old ones. It was just time spent together and it’s all that matters in the end.

I know sometimes this gratitude and intention stuff sounds corny, but it’s hard to care about sounding cliche when it’s so true for me. There have been many days that I just can’t wipe the smile off my face lately and this was definitely one of them. So, happy Tiny Christmas and new year to you all! Thank you so much to everyone who helped make it happen, I can’t wait to share it with you all again next year.

For now at least though, I hope you fill your joy jars with love and satisfaction, and all the tiny miracles that surround you. You’re all in my jar. xx

Linings: silver and ply

I used up any leftovers from my outside cladding in the parts that won’t be visible – like here under my stairs and inside my cupboards

Internal walls are covered

Insulated

Look Dad, I cut a hole. Such skillz

Lining boards – doubling as an excellent picnic table

The crew hard at work

A dodgy game of tetris

Nicole’s impressive attention to detail plugging my dodgy tetris gaps

James’s pièce de résistance

 

Spring Fling: Tiny Camouflage

Tiles and taking punts

I mentioned my Nectre Baker’s Oven way back before I started building, this baby was my first purchase for the project. And now it’s inside!

Getting here took some preparation and involved few new challenges, especially since I’m now flying solo. The position of my stove in the kitchen relies on it sitting over the wheel well, which meant I couldn’t just lay some tiles and sit the stove flat on the floor. The raised metal cover for my wheels meant building a frame over a split level foundation. For my first solo endeavour, this took some brain power. Luckily I had a back up brain – Brodes to the rescue once more. Together we formulated a box, made completely from scraps and offcuts.

Much maths. So thinking.

To heat proof the timber stand, I put two layers of cement sheeting down before laying tiles on top. Unfortunately, by this stage my supervision had left the building and it was up to some guess work and packet instructions to get the tiles on.

Here’s what I learnt about tiling:

• Start with adhesive, mixed up like pancake mix and slathered on. Dad keeps telling me given the different thicknesses of the slate tiles I had, I should’ve lumped more adhesive on and bedded them down till they were even – more under the thin one and less under the thick. Easier said than done, I reckon.
• The packet said to spread the adhesive using a spreader thingy – they look like a wide tooth comb. I started off all well and good but after a few combs in the same spot, my lovely neat rows became clumpy, poopy, stressful, not at all like the pictures, lumps of clag. I freaked slightly and whacked the tiles down quick smart, in case the adhesive was drying out. One tile in particular was thicker than the rest and didn’t seem to be sitting quite right, so I gave it a second round of adhesive and hoped it would do. Now that I’ve seen a few more pics I think one of my mistakes was combing in different directions. Straight lines one way, seems to be the way to go.
• Speaking of – straight lines are a whole other thing. I used scrap pieces of timber between the tiles to keep them evenly spaced. You can buy spacers (they’re pretty small, starting at 1mm), but by adding cement sheeting to the sides of the hearth I’d increased the width of it and my spacers left a big gap either side. You can use whatever you like, just make sure you have something on hand (having said that, probably don’t listen to my advice. But it worked ok for me).
• Grout – this came in massive tubs and seemed like overkill. I found a little premixed squeezie bottle of it and then basically pretended I was icing a hearth cake. Whenever I’ve found myself in this situation (out of my depth, doing something new), I relate it back to something familiar. Icing – I can do! Squeeze it out, smoosh it in, scrape it off, don’t lick fingers, not so hard. I kinda gave up trying to do it the right way in the end and just used my hands and some skinny scraps of timber I had laying around. The small gaps were the easiest, the big ones were harder to squish the grout into and crumbled a bit in the end.

I’m pretty sure there’s a proper way to tile and I’m not sure the above instructions cover it, but I’m worrying less about right and wrong and more about finding something that works. Common sense and youtube will get you so far, but without someone else’s experience to rely on now some of it is just going to require taking a punt.

I think I took for granted the emotional support that comes from letting someone else deal with problems when they crop up. I took for granted the implicit trust in Tom to find a solution for tricky situations when they arose – because he always did. After the first two days of going it alone, I was exhausted. Not depleted, but physically and emotionally worn out. And I can’t even say I was working alone for those days! I’ve had family and friends floating around, chipping in and lending extra pairs of hands here and there. But being the one who has to decide, who has to actually bear the brunt of the work being done and who has to think through every step, it’s tiring. It’s what I’ve been waiting for, don’t get me wrong. Every step is that much more rewarding when you’ve had to figure out every inch, or in my case, millimetre of it.

Can’t you tell, from these smiles? Stupidly excited by a small win.

Things are moving more slowly and I’m still lacking lots of tools and knowledge that I’ll need. But each step forward leads to another one, I’m counting on that snowball effect kicking in again soon. I’m collecting more tools, getting better at giving it a go and fixing things that don’t work. That’s gotta be most of it, right?

Lots of updates still to come on the big things like plumbing and electricity, things are falling into place now. Just in time to get some important bits in place before Christmas hopefully!

Tiny Pets

I do have some actual building updates, but my brain is pretty fried tonight and I’m not sure where to start. So…here are some pictures of furry friends instead!

Mac the cat came for morning cuddles – not strictly in my tiny house cos I was cheating and sleeping in my niece’s bed, but sometimes you just need a real bed.

This gorgeous pup came down from next door for a visit and was clearly in the mood for a cuddle too! It took her a while to figure out the makeshift step but she was very happy to clean up my breakfast scraps once she did.

      

Squee! xx

Chapter Two.

Here’s what lock up brought: the chance to spend a night in the tiny, sealed in and safe from the elements. It’s still more or less camping, don’t get me wrong. But with all of the cladding on, most of the eaves tucked in and the house essentially water tight, it was safe to bring in some bedding and take the plunge.

Fi Khubs Nanachub – one of my nearest and dearest – happened to be in town and shared the metaphoric crossing of the threshold, shifting this project from the building of a house to the making of a home.  I don’t have any power yet, so candles (brave, or just stupid?) and solar powered lanterns got us through an atmospheric and relaxed evening.

I’ve since upgraded to fairy lights and an LED strip light powered from a battery (on loan from the ever resourceful Noel). Between all these options and a head torch I have more than enough to light my way. Since Fi and I stayed that first night, I’ve slept over every chance I’ve had. I was worried that I’d be cold up there without any insulation in my walls and no wood heater installed yet, but so far it has been more than cosy enough! It is a bit of a worry that the spring time sun manages to shine straight onto my face through the east facing window and wake me up with its heat and light already, in October. It’s possible that my faith in the double glazed glass may have been slightly over done, some curtains may be required later in the year. Either that or Saree may finally become an early riser! Never too late to learn, right? 😛

The evening light isn’t too shabby either – here’s the view from my pillow tonight.

I made a detour to collect some old tea boxes on the weekend too. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be able to use them for just yet but they were too special to pass up. I’m hoping I can work them into my stairs somehow – maybe if I build the frame first then find a way to include these as a storage option? Either way, they’re working well as make shift tables for now. Gotta have somewhere nice to put fancy housewarming flowers from the farmers markets 😉

  

I’m feeling inspired at the moment by this rustic collection of crates and pallets from Tiny House Giant Journey. I like that it’s not so obviously a staircase, but still functions as one. Clever!

Having said that, there’s still plenty of work to do before I get to the stairs. And so far I haven’t been lured into the temptation of a mid work day nap, despite having a bed available. Winning! It certainly makes the weekends a little less tedious, not having to pack up at the end of the day and head back to my parents’ place, just to turn back around the next day.

It also makes it feel a little bit more real. Waking up and realising – that sound of birds chattering in the morning, the view belting down on my head and lulling me to sleep each night, the smell of pine and cypress – every decision so far that has led me to this point, is mine.

Thanks for the visit Khubsee! Your Nan’s yoyos got me through a tough day building. Next time you’re down hopefully I’ll be set up enough to make us an inhouse cup of tea for breakfast! 😉 xx

The ‘L’ word

Some things sneak up on you without noticing, even though it feels like you’ve been waiting a lifetime for them to arrive. Last weekend, quietly and without ceremony, the final pieces of cladding went onto the dormer window and my tiny was sealed up and suddenly secure from the elements.

This is it. This is what lock up looks like. It’s hard to think back to July, only 3 months ago, when I was feeling frustrated at the lack of momentum and inability to just get started. I’m not even sure I knew what ‘lock up’ meant back then! Is it ridiculous to be feeling nostalgic about a project that I’m not even halfway through yet? Either way, it’s a pretty special feeling – to look at this creation and know that it’s mine, that soon it will be my home.

There are a few final details to go to finish the outside of the tiny: eave boards underneath the overhangs, guttering on the front gable, the timber architraves (trim) around the windows and door and plenty more paint!

The timber architraves are going to make a world of difference. I had imagined something a bit more rustic, a bit more rough and ready, maybe like old silver farm fence palings. Once again, finding time to hunt down these kind of second hand resources is tricky. I’m sure they’re out there, but working full time and having professionals come to help out mean materials need to be ready to go with little time for foraging. Instead, Tom grabbed a 75 x 125mm cypress sleeper from the hardware shop and stripped it down to fit around window frames. This took a bit of wrangling, given how far out they sit from the cladding (obviously designed for a brick house or something with much thicker walls). The architraves were checked out to sit right over the edge of the window frame, also covering up the flashing that ran around the sides.

Turned out pretty nicely, don’t you think??

Tomorrow should finish off the outside and will also be a momentous occasion – the first sleep over in the tiny! It will be glorified camping at this stage, but a pretty big deal nonetheless.

After that a whole new chapter awaits…the inside! I’m grateful that I’m still loving every tiny moment, cos there’s still a long way to go. I guess there’s lots of L words in the end. L is for lock up, for loving this project that has taken over since I took the plunge to make it happen, and the new life that is taking shape around this tiny home.