Moving Day - Tiny House

If I had a dream place to live, it would be in a tiny house. I don't need much space for myself. I like the idea of an energy efficient house with low ceilings to help save the environment and save me money.

If I had a dream town to live in it would be Chagrin Falls, Ohio. It is  quaint and quiet and there are wonderful activities all year round. There are even several craft and art shows, and local artists show in the town shops. I could go back to painting again.

Hard to believe, just a few months ago, I was struggling to survive and living with my daughter, because I couldn't even afford rent on my own. Well my bad Karma has finally been "debt paid" (I hope) because things miraculously got better when I turned 60.

My daughter's friend found this adorable little cottage, with rent less than the apartments I was looking at. The apartments sounded nice, but I love the yard and flowers and gardening. I will only do container gardening, but there is a huge patio that I can do it on. And the house, although not with much storage. is just perfect.

There are pretty gardens and patios all around the house.

The former owner fed birds too, so I'm sure they will come for me. I love watching the birds.

And where is this cottage you ask? That's right, within walking distance of downtown Chagrin Falls. A decent walk, and a pretty darn good walk to the Post Office, but unless I'm under the weather, I can make it.

Today is my last day with the family (until they're forced to take me when I'm really old) I'll miss them. Guess I'll have to get busy with my own life finally.

Life on Mars - The Week of High Winds

The last wind storm a tree blew over on our house. Seems like people get a little odd around here with the winds kick up too. Or should I say a little odder.

Tuesday night, winds caused power to flicker on and off just as I was writing to a seller who had her wrong payment information so my payment went nowhere, and she input a wrong tracking number so it looked like she was scamming me. I wrote her a long email, hit enter and the power cut out for just a second, but it was long enough to make my email disappear into the ether.

Wednesday, the power went out for three hours. That's the day I usually sew, but sales have been so lousy that I cleaned the house. That entailed switching loads and placing things in the washer for when power came back on, sweeping with a broom, and wiping the counters with the tiny bit of water I managed to get out of the water tank before it went totally dry. We have a well and no power, no pump, no water.

I had a seller that told me his 8 year old bought something from me and would I cancel the order. I really wish people would quit blaming their kids on their mistakes. Really. If you didn't see the $24 international shipping before you bought, I might think you were kinda dumb to buy before looking at shipping, but I'd understand.

Main door to the house is falling off the rotten frame again. Used to slam shut when the cats opened it, now it stays open and I can't keep it shut, because the latch barely reaches the hole for it. Every morning I come into a freezing room with the door to the outside open about 6". Storm door doesn't shut all the way either, so that's a waste too.

I cut off a piece of my thumb knuckle peeling an onion. I broke a molar and the chipped pieces are cutting my tongue. Shopping with the MIL lately is fun, she cut her med dose in half (without her Dr's knowledge) and she's worse in the dark of winter, so whenever we drive, every other car is driven by that damn drunk that hit her a few years ago.

Here's to a better next week. After all March comes in like a Lion and leaves like a Lamb, right?

Goals and Tiny Houses - Setting and Keeping

Love this little cottage - click pic for more info

When I make goals, I do it in a big way. When the kids were little, I wanted to go back to school. I did  (even though it took me 11 years to graduate). In High School, I wanted to go to school in France, I did (Summer abroad in college). I wanted to become an artist/designer (from a very early age, maybe about 5) and I did. I wanted to travel around the world, and got to do that with my career. I've also started reading again, something I've wanted to do for years and made easy with my kindle.

It's really been about 5 years since I've had goals. I went through a period of depression when I lost my job, and decided I didn't want that life anymore. I really had decided it, before I lost the job. I hated working for the type of arrogant jerks that my business forced me to. It does seem, however, that working freelance, makes them a bit easier to work with. I recently returned to freelance and I get paid cash plus commission. I also have my online craft stores, as many of you already know.

There are still a few places I'd like to travel to. And when I can work AND collect retirement, I plan to do a lot of traveling. That will be soon. I will live meagerly so that I can travel, because my retirement will not be too great. Maybe my freelance income will pick up too. You never know.

I recently have set a new goal, but I'm not sure how I can accomplish it but I will figure it out. I want to build myself a tiny house, pretty much by myself. The issue is not so much the building of the house. I can do that pretty easily if I can do it fairly soon, before my old body gives out. The issue is finding a small lot, close enough to a city that will allow the building of a tiny, off the grid house.

Most cities have a minimum square foot limit, and I'm not even sure a trailer park will allow you to build something without wheels. There are small lots here, but our county will only allow a certain size lot for septic and well. They don't have provisions for composting toilet or water cistern, which I plan to use. I also hope to use minimal electricity via solar panels and maybe corn pellet heating. I'd also like to use as much scrap/junkyard material as possible.

This one is portable and has a porch - click pic for info

It's a dream, I'm not sure will come to fruition, but I won't give up on it. I would really love to design and build a house all by myself (cept maybe a little heavy lifting, like the tub. I built a big shed mostly by myself with one hand (the other was broken). I raised the walls myself with levers. The house I plan on building is not much more complicated than the shed. I can do wiring and plumbing too. Of course if you want to come and cheer me on, you're more than welcome.

Resources tinyhouseblog.com  - tumbleweedhouses.com