It’s been an exhausting, but rewarding, whirlwind of activity these last couple weeks. I’m attempting to move-in to my tiny house this week.
Sharing a reflective beer with my dad after a a busy day of patching drywall, hanging blinds, hanging shelves, unpacking, figuring out the amount of pipe needed for running a gas line to my new stove, figuring out the pieces of pipe needed to be able to have water to both my wash tub and washing machine, and then heading to home depot to get all the stuff… I told him that, in a way, I was happy the contractor fell through. This last month I feel like I’ve really bonded with my little house – and with my family. I’m super thankful to have such a great support network here.
First – huge thanks to my dad, who seems to enjoy both having things to to do around my house, but also finds a lot of joy in the fact that I’m so excited about my little home. The other best part is spending time with other family. “Uncle” Corny, who provides me a place to live while all this is happening. My niece Nanel, who helped with a lot of the painting. My brother-in-law, Ed, who came and cut down my dead/dying trees. My nephew Jared, who helped with the demo. My brother Jerry who came and hauled off the old appliances. My niece Jayme and her son, who helped me put in the living room carpet. My friend, Jen, who helped with the bedroom carpet. And then there are the favors my dad called in like the Godfather, with Don Putzer, who put in my AC & Furnace, and Brad Christensen, who ground out the stumps left behind from the cut trees.
And of course, I’d be remiss to not give thanks to my once-again-former-boss Sean, who provided the opportunity that allowed me to relocate here and to buy this tiny home. He’s off to a new opportunity and I wish him all the best!
This renovation is taking a village. I’m very thankful.
For me, this is the best part of having moved back home. Doing these projects together. These memories I will cherish forever.
The Bedroom – The Last Room
I’m only now getting to the back bedroom because it was the room I was storing all my stuff in. With the carpet down in the living room, I was able to relocate everything out of the bedroom to get it ready to paint and carpet.
A before-ish shot of the bedroom. It’s green because of the plastic on the windows. The green makes it look cleaner than it is.
I wasn’t sure about what to do with the shelves. They were covered with contact paper, coated with paint and then covered with wall paper on top of that. (WTH?!)
After taking about 20-30 minutes to remove the paper from a shelf, I quickly discovered that the wood below wasn’t even finished or sanded. Argh.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do….
Fortunately, my sister, Gabriel, stopped by and helpfully suggested I just go out and buy new shelves. Brilliant. I could always re-purpose this wood for something else.
So I proceeded to take all the shelves down, and only bothered to measure them afterwards. Of course, they were some totally non-standard size. But I’d have to worry about that later because painting needed to happen first.
The next day, the room was clean and coated in a fresh coat of paint. My friend Jen was originally going to help me pack things, but I enlisted her to help me move some boxes and lay the carpeting in the bedroom. It took about an hour and it turned out really well!
This room looks so different!
I found some pre-finished 8′ board in the lumber section and Home Depot was able to cut the six pieces I needed, but it was an inch less deep than the old shelves. I decided to just get the six short shelves to see how I felt about it. I ended up mounting it on the forward end of the bracket. I figured that this way I could run cables along the wall if I wanted to. Overall, I was really pleased about how it turned out.
I really like how light can pass through the back of the shelves, but will I be annoyed when stuff starts falling through them?
I was also able to find some top-down-bottom-up shades at Home Depot. I installed those in the bedroom. As I sat on the floor there, admiring the room, I felt like this place was finally “mine”. I really felt like I could live here. So I started unpacking the art I’ve had stored for the last year.
Art just wants to be freeeeeee
After unpacking and hanging some pieces around the house, I realized it was about midnight and I didn’t want to turn into a pumpkin. I also really needed a shower.
Much to my surprise, upon returning to my crash pad, the power was out. So with my phone as a flashlight, I packed up an overnight bag, my laptop, my comforter and my espresso machine (yes, the espresso machine.) and headed back to the little house.
This Espresso Machine is my Co-Pilot.
I was going to camp on my bedroom floor.
Floor Bed!
I’m not going to lie, sleeping on the floor totally sucks. But I finally spent the night in my little house!
And besides, it was awesome to wake up to this happy little footed mug from Dylan Kendall filled with a delicious Americano. I hadn’t seen this mug in over a year.
I can’t wait to see this view every morning!
