Coming Full Circle... and Moving Forward

Two years ago this week I moved to Portland and this week I’m Housesitting the Tiny Barn at the location where my first tiny house was parked when My Tiny Adventure Began. So, in a way, it feels like I’ve come full circle. Once again the raspberries are dripping off their bushes and the tomatoes are vining as tall as the apple tree. Once again the school bells are ringing and there’s an excited chatter of children freshly back to school. Once again the mornings are starting with a smidge of crispness and the Canadian geese are honking on their southern migration. It’s nice to be here again, in this oasis of a garden, at the transition time between summer and fall.

And yet, so much has changed in 2 years, too. This garden has become even more glorious in two years. The raspberry canes are taller, the bamboo is thriving, and the day old chicks we slipped under a broody chicken (see April Fooling my Hen) are providing plenty of eggs each day. The tiny house I lived in here is back up in Olympia where Brittany Yunker is renting Bayside Bungalow out as a tiny cottage on wheels.

Meanwhile, the tiny house I’m caring for here this week is the Tiny Barn, which wasn’t yet a figment of anyone’s imagination this time two years ago. I helped my friend develop her design and boneyard materials the winter before last. Over my spring break that year I helped the owner and some other friends of hers construct the shell of the Tiny Barn in a week long tiny house building blitz. Her friends finished it up beautifully, so it’s fun to stay here in the same spot but in a delightful new house. And, of course, I have greater appreciation for this little house now that I’ve had the chance to live in other tiny houses in the past two years, including A Tiny Move for a Tiny House, My Summer Garden Cottage, My Home Sweet Yurt, and more recently Home, Sweet Pea.

Additionally, this week I’ve been site managing for Caravan – The Tiny House Hotel while Deb and Kol are on their honeymoon. The country’s first tiny house hotel wasn’t yet in the works when I first moved to Portland. Now I get to show off Caravan's Tiny Houses while I tidy up and visit with guests when they check in. They’ve come from all over the world to stay here and many of them stay specifically to try out living in a tiny house. In fact, I’m always a bit surprised when I’m talking with guests about tiny houses and they say “Oh, tiny houses are a thing?” Um, yes, perhaps I’m just caught up in this little world, but I’m pretty sure tiny houses are a thing.

While I’ve been in Cully this week I’ve had the chance to visit with several of my tiny house friends and make a few new ones. Only one of them had a tiny house two years ago and now I have six friends in the neighborhood with tiny houses!

A group of us gathered at Caravan – The Tiny House Hotel earlier this week to discuss our dream of creating a Tiny House Community here in Portland, perhaps developing something similar to A Vision for Tiny Cohousing. Then a couple of us made a trip to the permit counter at the Bureau of Development Services to explore what the options might be and last night we visit a potential site, met some new additions to Portland's tiny house community, and toured their tiny abode. We have a long road ahead of us, but it’s exciting to see how far we’ve come in the past two years as the Tiny House Movement Gains Momentum.

Housesitting the Tiny Barn

This week I'm Coming Full Circle... and Moving Forward. It's been fun the past couple days to housesit for a friend of mine and stay in the Tiny Barn. A year and a half ago I helped the owner talk through some Tiny House Floorplan Considerations and dream up a design (which, of course, changed quite a bit once we got to building!) Soon we were Seeking: Everything But the Kitchen Sink, so along the way I helped her boneyard materials, which involved Picking Up Studs on Valentine's Day and Successful Window Shopping. Over spring break I helped her and a group of other friends construct the shell of the Tiny Barn in a week-long build blitz, which I chronicled here on my blog:

• Day 1: Tiny House Foundation
• Day 2: Tiny House Wall Framing
• Day 3: Tiny House Subfloor & Sheathing
• Day 4: Tiny House Plumbing & Wiring Begins
• Day 5: Tiny House Takes Shape
• Day 6: Tiny House Windows
• Day 7: Roofing in the Rain
• Tiny House Build Week: Lessons Learned

Then I ducked out of the building and focused back on my masters degree in urban planning while the tiny homeowner and her talented friends finished up the wee guest house. I shared a couple updates here:

• Tiny Barn Exterior Wrapping Up
• Update on the Tiny Barn Build

So it's a treat now to get to see what it's like to be inside the space now that it's finished. I really do love the layout of this little house!

The generous porch is big enough to really use, unlike the Shrinky Dink Porch I was living with when I lived in this location. To make it even better, the leaded glass doors spill rainbows into the space, which is lovely!

The galley kitchen under the loft is also very spacious and great for cooking up a tasty feast with a 2 burner propane cooktop, a propane oven, and the biggest little fridge I've ever seen in a tiny house. The bathroom is at the back with a shower and room for a bucket toilet (though this house doesn't have one, so when someone stays in this little guest house they use the toilet in the main house.)

The gambrel roof that emerged on Day 5 of the build blitz when the Tiny Barn took shape creates an enormous amount of space in the sleeping loft. There's even enough room that the storage loft over the window seat could probably be used as another sleeping space - as long as the person using it wasn't squirmy!

But without a doubt, my favorite part is the window seat, which runs the short length of the house and overlooks the garden. This is such a great place to hunker down with a book and I've taken to sleeping here, too, since I'm planning a windowseat bed in my vardo.

It was a treat to get to housesit for the Tiny Barn for the week, especially since I was taking care of Caravan's Tiny Houses for the past week, too.

Tiny House Construction Essentials: Plumbing Systems

Remember Casa Pequena, that tiny house we framed and wrapped in just 2 days at the Casa Verde festival in McMinnville last April? If not, here's a sweet video of the Case Pequena build.

It's time for Casa Pequena to be plumbed. Fortunately, Shelter Wise and Portland Alternative Dwellings are teaming up to offer a Tiny House Construction Essentials series and the next class is the plumbing session. Derin Williams of Shelter Wise and Ian Bruner of Bruner Plumbing will be leading the session on Monday, September 16th from 5:30-8:00pm. You can find more information and register for the session on the PAD Workshops page. Sign up today!

Lina's Next Adventure

This post from last summer was lingering in draft mode. Now that Niche is having it's first birthday, I realized I'd better get it posted! -Lina

This summer I've been going through a Transition Time as I wrapped up my Masters of Urban and Regional Planning, my Urban Design Certificate, my work with Intrinsic Ventures in the Ford District. On top of all that, I moved from my Home, Sweet Yurt into my Home, Sweet Pea. And then I immediately spent a couple weeks catching up with my long-lost family.

So as the dust settles, I'd like to introduce you to Niche Consulting LLC and tell you about my next adventures. In January I created Niche, my own sustainable design consulting company, so that I could do design and lifestyle consulting with people interested in creating their own small homes and so that I could work on sustainable development projects. You can read Lina's Next Adventure, the letter I wrote to the folks in the Ford Building for more about that.

I remember declaring as a sophomore in college that I wanted to be a sustainability consultant someday, but I didn’t know quite what that meant. So I was researching the sort of companies for which I’d like to work. The trouble was that I was most intrigued by fringy sustainable housing ideas like natural building, cohousing communities, district sustainable energy use, and creating small homes by converting garages and basements. I couldn’t find a single company that seemed like it would allow me to pursue my passions.

But as I graduated, the parent of one of my dearest friends gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. Gayle told me:

“The jobs you’ll love best throughout your career probably don’t exist yet. So just be ready for them, when they’re ready for you.”

What better way to prepare myself for all the exciting projects to come than to create a company that will allow me the flexibility to pursue them?

I give credit to three people for convincing me I could – and should – start my own company. Matt Eppelsheimer of Rocket Life Incorporated taught me an incredible amount about start-ups. Joan Grimm helped me understand that creating my own single-member LLC would enable me to work with companies like Portland Alternative Dwellings more easily on a contract-basis. And Lizzy Caston, a fellow Portland State University Masters of Urban and Regional Planning alum, inspired me to strike out on my own by telling me about creating her own consulting company. I met with her for a cup of tea in early January and by the end of the week my company was registered!

Now that my graduate school degree is complete, I have the time to see what that means to be self-employed. I'm looking forward to site managing for Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel in September, co-instructing the Tiny House Design-Build course at Yestermorrow in September-October, team teaching Tiny House Basics Workshops with Dee Williams and Joan Grimm in November, and doing some capacity-building work with Portland Alternative Dwellings. Hopefully, I'll also have lots of opportunities to do consultations with individuals.

If you've who have been trying to find your niche and haven't yet, maybe it's time to make it! If you'd like to talk to me about small house designs or tiny lifestyle consultation, please contact me.

Tiny Open House at Bayside Bungalow

Two years ago, my friend Brittany gave me one of the best gifts I've ever received when she offered to let me rent her tiny house on wheels to decide if the Little Life is really a good fit for me. I LOVED the little house and my first Year of Living Little, so I've been living in tiny houses ever since. Now Brittany rents her tiny house out by the night so other people can try on tiny. On Sunday, August 18th she's opening Bayside Bungalow up for anyone to come see for themselves. If you're in Olympia or can get yourself there, go check it out! You'll find her invitation below:

***

Many people over the past year have asked if they could see the Bayside Bungalow and check out the tiny little house that I now rent out as a vacation rental.  Alas, the time has come for a (tiny) Open House!

Are you interested in exploring, testing, touching, trying, photographing, peeing in (the composting toilet - duh!), measuring & learning more about tiny houses?  Then this is for you!  Learn about how it was built, why I decided to build it, how it works, what goes in (water, electricity & food) and how it all comes out (gray water, urine-diverting toilet system), and most of all - does it fit YOU?  Bring on the questions!  Bring a sketchpad, measuring tape & camera & explore this tiny house.

What: Open House at the Bayside Bungalow tiny house vacation rental

When: Sunday, August 18, 2pm-6pm

Where: The Bayside Bungalow in Olympia, WA

Your host: Brittany Yunker, builder & owner of the Bayside Bungalow

For directions & more info, photos, or to make a reservation, visit www.baysidebungalow.com

Please invite a friend & swing by!  I look forward to meeting you.

Cheers,

Brittany YunkerThe Bayside Bungalow ~A tiny house on Puget Sound~ www.baysidebungalow.com Olympia, WA bbyunker@gmail.com 360.556.9719

Home, Sweet Pea

Yesterday a handful of friends helped me move My 190 Things to my new home, Sweet Pea. We made the move in one trip and it only took a couple hours, though it would have been quicker if we hadn't gotten stuck in rush hour traffic. I'm grateful to the friends who were willing to schlep boxes and sit in traffic in the summer heat in exchange for beer and pizza in the garden afterwards! Thanks, friends!

Sweet Pea is the smallest of the three peas in POD49. (The other two "peas" are 2-bedroom bungalows, home to my fabulous neighbors. Check out this Oregonian article about POD49 to learn more.) I'm so excited to introduce you to this jewel box of a house! These gorgeous photos were taken by talented photographer (and fellow tiny house dweller) Chris Tack of Tiny Tack House. You can see more of his brilliant work at Tack Photography.

Sweet Pea was designed by Dee Williams and built by master craftswoman Katy Andersen. And since you may want one of your own once you've seen it, I should mention that the Sweet Pea plans are now available on Portland Alternative Dwelling's website!

The Sweet Pea has a side entry with French doors that open out onto the porch. To the right is a window seat with a bump out over the tongue.

The house was built out to the edges of the wheel wells so it's extra wide. The walls are tall, too, so the sleeping loft is especially roomy. I found that I can orient my bed either direction because the loft is so large, so I've turned it so that I can look straight out the skylight. I especially love the view of the bamboo from my bed!

The kitchen has metallic countertops and a butcher block for chopping. It's fully set up for cooking with a propane range, a mini fridge, a sweet little sink, and a range hood. I love the built-in pantry where I can put all my mason jars. I'm really excited to have a proper kitchen again. I made do with My Kitchen Cupboard, but having running water and a gas stove again is definitely inspiring me to cook!

The bathroom is equipped with an Airhead compost toilet and a shower/tub combo. Even though it is too warm right now to take a bath, I'm excited about the prospect of taking a bath on a cold day this fall! After living in my Home Sweet Yurt for ten months I will always be grateful for having hot running water in my living space! I'm glad I tested the limits of my minimalism and that I will not take for granted the resources available to me.

I've loved spending my morning finding a place for everything so that everything can be in its place! I'm finding there's plenty of space to spare. At 120 square feet, plus a sleeping loft, Sweet Pea is much more roomy than the 113 round foot yurt. And it's so impeccably crafted that I'm sure I'll learn a lot from living here that I can use on my own build. I look forward to having this be my Home, Sweet Pea, until my own little house is complete.

Perfect Packing Weather

It’s Transition Time and I’ve now caught up on sleep enough to tackle the next steps. This morning is grey so it seems like the perfect whether to bustle around the house, organizing and clustering in preparation for my move into the Sweet Pea in Pod 49 on Monday. A lot of people I know are transitioning right now, too. I helped a friend move last weekend and yesterday had breakfast with a friend who was in the midst of packing. So yesterday evening I was feeling inspired to start packing myself and this morning I've continued.

One of the things I’m discovering, however, is that it’s tricky to pack two days before a move when you don’t own much more than you use! Many of the items that surround me are things that I actually will use in the next two days. I’m finding that packing in advance is especially difficult since I don’t have a good place to put the bags I’ve already packed! My floor space is mostly dedicated to circulation and there aren’t any counters. I’m making do by putting everything on top of my dressers and My Kitchen Cupboard.

As I sorted through my dresser I pulled up My 200 Things inventory spreadsheet again because I was curious to see where I’d land.

I began My 200 Things Challenge in September when I moved into my Home Sweet Yurt with 198 Things. Over the past 10 months I did my best to not acquire new things. There were a few items I picked up and a few I let go. In January when I did my New Year’s Re-Inventory I discovered I’d slipped a little. Part of it was that I realized there were some things I hadn’t counted in the first place. I was at 214 Things. So I did some Taking Stock without Stocking Up and got myself down to 197 things. But then I went shopping for The Minimalist's New Clothes in February and found 6 great items so I ended up at 203 things.

I was pretty content with what I had at that point. So I decided that it was okay to have 203 Things. After all, as I explained in My 100 Things Challenge: Who’s Counting Anyway? for me the challenge isn’t so much about the number as it is about the intent. The goal was to be more mindful of my possessions and to consider everything I own more carefully.

When My Tiny House Adventure Began, I was thinking of my stuff in terms of volume. I’d been living in the 832 square foot house I own so I was trying to figure out which items would fit in the 121 square foot tiny house I was renting? When I began My 200 Things Challenge I began thinking in terms of count instead of volume. Suddenly it wasn’t about whether or not something would physically fit within the space but whether I wanted and needed it there at all.

So I haven’t been real precious about the exact number. I could have been stricter with myself, but it just wasn’t that important to me to be precise. I had plenty of other things to focus my attention on. Nevertheless, I’ve found it to be a useful exercise. I am more contentious about what I bring into my home. Because my new year’s resolution was to go paperless, I’ve been Strategizing Digitizing, Getting All My Docs in a Row, and especially contentious about not letting more paperwork into my life. I find that these days I’m more likely to consider whether or not an object fits into my life, rather than just whether or not it fits into my space. Therefore, I feel like I’ve succeeded in My 200 Things Challenge, regardless of the number.

But in case you’re curious, I AM keeping track. I’ll report on Monday what my count ends up being!

Now it's turning into a beautiful day and I'm off to Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel! This weekend I'm site managing at Caravan while Kol and Deb are out of town. I think it will be lovely to sit under the canopy between tidying up Rosebud and checking in tonight's guest. I'm so glad the weather is cooperating with my best intentions these days!

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Update on 8/6/13: The yurt came partially furnished so there are are eight items I’ve been living with this year that I’m not taking with me: the bed frame, the mini fridge, the nightstand, the table, 2 chairs, and 2 water jugs. I've decided to not count these items on my updated list. My final count? 190 Things. You can see My 190 Things List here.

Transition Time

It’s August 1^st and today marks the first day of the rest of my life. Perhaps I’m being dramatic, but today feels like a pivot point. It seems I often set myself up so that several major things change all at once in my life, but this particular moment in time feels more extreme than usual.

My last three shifts went like this:

1) When I first moved to Portland My Tiny House Adventure Began right between my grad school orientation and the first day of classes. I left the last orientation activity, drove up to Olympia, and the next morning we drove Bayside Bungalow down to Portland. My sisters arrived that evening and helped me move in. We ate dinner at the Grilled Cheese Grill (which is next door to Caravan – The Tiny House Hotel – things seem to come full circle!) The next day I settled into this charming little tiny house on wheels. And the following day my Masters of Urban and Regional Planning coursework began.

2) The day before my 29th birthday we got the Tiny House on the Road Again and returned Bayside Bungalow to its bayside location in Olympia. So I had began A New Year in a New Home. I spent my birthday settling into My Summer Garden Cottage, while continuing My Summer Dream Job: Design Building Tiny Houses.

3) In late September I Downsized from a Tiny House to a Tinier House and moved into my Home Sweet Yurt the weekend before starting my second year of grad school. It’s been a great ten months here in the yurt. I’ve enjoying going through (almost) a full set of seasons here.

The past 10 days have been a time of big transitions. I celebrated another revolution around the sun on Monday, July 22 with A Big Birthday Bash at the Tiny House Hotel. A week later on Monday, July 29, I turned in my final project for Urban Design Methods and finished up my masters coursework. (I celebrated by contacting Rob at Iron Eagle about my tiny house trailer order!) Tuesday and Wednesday I wrapped up my work with Intrinsic Ventures as the Planning & Communications Coordinator for their Ford District properties. This coming Monday on August 5^th some friends are helping me move from the yurt to a new tiny house on wheels, The Sweet Pea in Pod 49. I’ll be doing sustainable design consulting through my company Niche Consulting and working with Dee Williams and Joan Grimm of Portland Alternative Dwellings.

So this morning, after 10 hours of sleep, I woke up ready for Lina’s Next Adventure. But first… a break. My to do list is a mile long, but I’m giving myself the day off today. I love the idea of finishing everything on the to do list and then being able to relax, but it turns out I never do seem to finish everything on the to do list. There are too many opportunities, too many ideas, too much potential for the list to ever be empty. So I’m trying to teach myself to relax sometimes anyhow. I find that even if the things I’m doing are super fun, I don’t really feel like I can unwind unless my time is unscheduled. So I’m giving myself a secular Sabbath today. Nothing scheduled. I’ll base my actions on my whims.

This is sustainability, right? My health and happiness depends on my ability to recognize my own limits and to live within them so that I can thrive. I’m so curious to see what the day will bring! It's drizzling today for the first day in months. I may get out there to explore yet, but right now curling back up with my kitty for another nap sounds awfully nice!

My Storage Locker

During my first year of graduate school I gained access to a locker in the urban planning building, which was a big help. I was living 7 miles from campus in the Cully neighborhood and commuting downtown by bike or bus, so it was fabulous to not have to schlep everything every day.

This week as I wrapped up my coursework, my FINAL final project was to clean out my locker. When I did, I discovered that over time I’d collected quite a bit of stuff. I also realized I wasn’t counting these items in My 200 Things Challenge. So I'm writing all about it to clear my conscience.

My locker became a repository for things that I used when I was on campus (textbooks, snacks, my chalk bag for trips to the climbing wall, etc.) But I had a bad habit of stashing stuff here that I intended to send to someone but never seemed to find the time to actually pop in the mail.

I was also startled to discover how much paperwork I'd collected over the past two years. My new year's resolution was to go paper free so I began Strategizing Digitizing. All my paperwork went into a file in my locker to be scanned (at some later date, of course, when I had time.) By the time I looked at that daunting stack of paperwork I decided I can't possibly need it all. I spent an hour Getting all My Docs in a Row and narrowed it down to just a small collection of documents that I really need. I’ll be scanning documents in the next couple days while I still have access to a high speed scanner.

In the end, there were just a few items to take home. A box of envelopes. My gym gear. Some uneaten snacks. And a gift (from last year!) that I need to mail (not pictured because that would ruin the surprise!) as soon as my sister Heidi sends me her mailing address (nudge, nudge!)

Simple Living vs. Intentional Living

This post has been lingering in draft mode, but I feel compelled to share it today because I just read Kate Goonight's post on Naj Haus called Doing Justice to Complexity. It resonated with me because she writes about how complexity and intention help us understand ourselves better. Thank you Kate for articulating so beautifully why we do difficult things that help us examine our intentions and get better at figuring ourselves out!

Someone dear to me recently pointed out that my so-called simple lifestyle isn’t always convenient – or even simple, for that matter. And he has a good point. In my attempt to simplify there are many things I’ve added into my life. Several of them actually make my daily life more complex.

For instance, I because I do not have access to laundry facilities where I live I make a trip to the Belmont Eco Laundry every week or so. This entails the following actions:

1)   Filling either my 35 or 50 liter backpack with laundry (depending on whether or not I’m washing bedding)

2)   Biking 15 minutes to the Laundromat (or bussing on rainy days)

3)   Running a load of laundry through the washer and dryer

4)   Loading my backpack back up

5)   Biking or bussing home

6)   Putting my clothes away

The trip takes me about an hour and 15 minutes. On rainy days it takes an hour and a half unless I time the bus really well. During this time I cannot make myself a lunch or tidy up my Home Sweet Yurt. However, there is free wifi at the Belmont Eco Laundry so I often catch up on emails, do research, or prep a blog post. (I’d also like to point out that the only steps unique to my laundry set up are steps 2 and 5 when I’m transporting myself and my laundry to and from a washing machine and dryer, though since I'm not home my multi-tasking ability is limited.)

There are weeks that I cram too much into my days and do not allocate an hour and a half for my laundry so I get behind on it. And although I haven’t quite pared down to a minimalist wardrobe, I do not own enough clothing to go very long without doing my laundry. Getting behind makes life more complex because it’s harder to transport two loads of laundry by bike or bus.

Would it be simpler to just do laundry in the comfort of my own home? Absolutely!

So maybe it’s a misnomer to call this simple living. Perhaps it would be better to call it intentional living or mindful living. I have become more mindful of my living space and more intentional about my daily activities because of living in a tiny house. When I fetch water or fill up propane tanks I’m more conscientious about my resource consumption. If I ever catch myself feeling sorry for myself when doing my chores I remember that people the world over work much harder than me to do their laundry, acquire their water, and heat their homes. I find that living the way I do puts the inconvenience into perspective. It helps me remember that unlimited hot running water, in-home laundry facilities, and central heat are luxuries available to only a small fraction of the people on the planet.

I’m not saying that those of us who have access need to deprive ourselves of conveniences. After all, many appliances and technologies were originally designed to simplify life. But I do think we should be mindful of how we use these tools since many of them have also added complication and waste. We can be more creative about using resources efficiently and sharing more of them. When I had my very own washing machine in my 2-bedroom bungalow I could do laundry without going out in the rain or getting out of my jammies. But my fancy frontloading Energy Star washing machine only ran 2-3 hours a week. The rest of the time it sat there, waiting for me. It was convenient. But it certainly wasn’t efficient.

Now I share a washing machine with hundreds of other people. We’re participating in the sharing economy by using the Laundromat. We aren’t responsible for owning the machines, but we make good use of them. The owner of the facility presumably makes a decent living by providing this service to us.

I Love My Laundromat, but I’ll admit that it would be really nice to have laundry facilities even closer to home. This is one of the reasons I like the idea of living in a Tiny House Community (especially Tiny Cohousing). I love the idea of sharing a washer and dryer, a full-sized oven, and a hot tub with other like-minded people. I like the notion of continuing to be mindful of living space, resource consumption, and daily activities while also participating in community and having access to technologies that make life simple and convenient.

There are people all across America trying to get tiny house communities started. Are you part of one of these efforts? If so, what tools and facilities you plan to share amongst the members?