It’s been a couple of weeks now since we moved next door to my best friend from both college and grad school and her husband. The benefits of community have already been lovely - and quite tasty! Having my fairy godfamily help us unload our stuff the day we arrived and then join us for take out on the living room floor was just the beginning of our participation in this lovely reciprocal community.
After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.
A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.
As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…
This weekend our Tiny Cohousing Community, Going Places, turned two. It’s crazy to think that we’ve been doing life together for two whole years, but here we are! In a lot of ways, being snowed in worked out even better because we have a brand new community mate named Rosemary and we got to hang out with her in our community for two days.
Yesterday, as has become our tradition, Isha and I went for a hike (this one urban) and recapped 2018 (what was good, what was hard, what we learned). We also shared what we’re excited about and nervous about for 2019. Since I haven’t been sharing with the greater world recently, I figured I’d share a few of the highlights at this point of transition and some excitement about the year to come.
Calling ADU Owners, Dwellers, Designers, and Builders from across America to share ADU stories for an exciting new project with AARP. The many benefits of ADUs - especially for multigenerational families - have caught the attention of AARP. They've commissioned a publication about ADUs, which will feature half a dozen case studies of ADUs with various configurations and uses. If you're an ADU owner, dweller, designer, builder, or city planner and you believe you can help with this project, we'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email at accessorydwellings@gmail.com by February 28th, letting us know which of the four items above you'd like to assist with and send along a photo!
This weekend Isha and I hosted our first dinner party for six here in T42. And it turns out it was actually trickier in our house than it had been in Bayside Bungalow, but we made it work and had a great time, too!Isha and I spent most of the afternoon Saturday prepping things up, using mostly ingredients from our winter CSA from Full Plate Farm and we had fun working in kitchen together.
Winter is a great time for your design process if you'd like to get your project launched this coming spring or summer.
This Winter Term I'm teaching two fun weekend design classes through Portland Community College:
In these intensive two day workshops we cover many of the considerations for designing a small space, visit with special guests who have created ADUs or tiny homes (respectively), and go through a set of design exercises to help you develop a design of your own.
The weeks between Winter Solstice and New Years Day are often reflective time for me anyhow, but that's been especially true for me this year. For one thing, I have my new spouse to dream and scheme with. Isha and I have been making our lists and checking them twice as we identify our goals, what we're going to commit to, and what we're going to let go.The other big life change this year is that I am delighted to be starting a new job as the Operations Coordinator for Green Hammer tomorrow!
Now that Yestermorrow is offering both the Tiny House Design-Build course in July and the Tiny House Design-Build Certificate in April/May, which both cater to the on-wheels crowd, we've decided to try something new, which is transforming the Less is More class into a week-long Containers, Cabins, and Cottages class, focusing on simple, creative small solutions that are NOT on wheels.
The week before last I caught a ride to our state capitol Salem, OR with Kol Peterson... We went to the Oregon Residential & Manufactured Structures Board to testify regarding the provisions drafted by BCD regarding HB 2737 - the small housing bill in Oregon. I can't make it tomorrow so instead I sent the following letter today.
This past weekend I taught another round of the ADU Design Workshop through Portland Community College. Nine students from Portland and the surrounding Metro area participated in the workshop this weekend, bringing projects ranging from garage and basement conversions to backyard cottages, additions, and renovation of a pole barn. Some of them had relevant professional backgrounds (appraising, real estate, amateur drafting) and some of them were brand new to design, development, and building.
Have you been dreaming about an ADU or tiny house for years now? If these long rainy days have you noodling and doodling, come join us for a design class to start making it more real! Fall is a great time to begin your design process if you'd like to get your project launched this coming spring or summer. This Fall Term I'm teaching two fun weekend design classes through Portland Community College!
