Next Chapter

Obviously it has been a while since an update here... I am sad to report my tiny house dreams as detailed in this blog have diminished. The house I was so excited about in the last post was a mess upon inspection, I have left my previous career, and now have a new goal I've been focusing on.

Last fall I began working towards a masters degree. I hope to find a career that is more financially supportive, while still making a positive impact. This has lead me to sustainability and environmental education/activism.

So while someday I do hope to have my own home that is smaller than average size and more environmentally friendly than the horrid McMansions that litter our country- first step is getting that degree.

I will leave my past posts up for the time, they may prove useful to someone somewhere whether for guidance or a good laugh at my naivete.

Happy birthday to me!

This past friday I turned 29. I also bought a house. Sort of.

In my hunt to find an apartment, my neighbor suggested buying property instead of throwing money away into renting. On a whim I was searching Craig's List for houses and found "Unique home for sale in suburbs". My jaw dropped.

It's a frickin' dome house! This house is located on a dead end street, around 600 sqft, even has a fenced in yard. Best of all- it is in my budget. I was almost jumping out of my skin in excitement going to tour the house. Coming up the walkway I was greeted by three big happy dogs, always a good sign. Turns out, I have met the owners and their adorable pack at the local dog park years ago! Their dog Balto is a doppelganger of my former foster, Kaiser (or is Kaiser Balto's doppleganger...). Small world or destiny?

This adorable derp belongs to an awesome family now who love him. to pieces.

The house is a little odd looking from outside (okay, it is kinda ugly)- but inside it is charming and spacious! The walls are composed of interlocking triangles, with triangle windows throughout. Much like the tiny house I was planning, the bedroom is lofted above the kitchen and the living area feels spacious with a high ceiling. The house also comes with a door into an H.P. Lovecraft universe...

Can't help feel a Zelda vibe with all the triangles.

Cthulhu, you there?

Friday I mustered my courage and made an offer that is just contingent on the inspection. Now I'm just trying to keep my hopes in check incase the inspector discovers the house was built over a cursed burial ground or was built using a hot glue gun, that may be a deal breaker.

This house could be the perfect transition while I continue to work toward my tiny house on wheels, or I may even find myself happy to remain there for years. It is a tiny house after all! Curious, I had made the goal a few years back that I wanted to be moved into my tiny house before I turned 30. That goal seemed unreachable recently.  This whirlwind seems designed more than coincidence, like God is pushing for me to get a tiny house too. I'm going to keep thanking him for it.

And that is how I bought myself a house on my 29th birthday.

If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak

Here is where things currently stand; there is a little pie shaped lot nestled in an older housing plan for $11,000. There used to be a house on the property but it was demolished a few years back- which means utility hook ups already in place! There is the ever present issue of legality and money. The township this pie piece is located in does not allow any RVs to park anywhere. Slowly there has been progress in different areas of the country to legally allow tiny homes, so I am not discouraged by the current zoning laws. The money is another battle.

Even with diligent saving, I am not even halfway to purchasing just the land. Then I'd need funds for the actual house. Loans for land, I'm learning, are not as easily granted as for homes. Factor in my limited credit history, student loans, and meager income- few banks are likely to be supportive.

When I left my apartment to move back with family, I believed it would be a temporary situation. One or two years tops before I'd be living in my tiny home. It will be three years in the fall, and despite small steps- moving into my house is still years away. Time to reevaluate my strategy.

At first it felt as though moving into an apartment would be giving up on my tiny house. But if I am going to invest such a large amount of time and money into a project, I want to do it right. I don't want to rush construction, buy subpar materials, and I really don't want another loan over my head. Not having my own place has made me anxious to jump into the water head first without checking the depth. One piece of advice from multiple tiny home builders is to take the time to research and plan before building.

So that is where things stand. My goal of living tiny before I'm 30 is no longer feasible, a realization that lifted a weight. The stress of bringing this large project together in a short amount of time has dissipated, just leaving the stress of finding an apartment, trying to find freelance work, getting some semblance of a social life, being aware of current events but not overwhelmed by the news, learning how to meal plan, planting the right flowers so bees don't die out....

Back in the Burgh

I have returned from my adventures in the Rockies in one piece, though burned in some places. But I climbed a friggin' mountain and now feel determined to fight just as hard to get my tiny home completed. Hopefully it be quite as physically painful... Here are some snapshots from the trip!

5th generation cowgirl lead us through the mountains.

Why am I smirking? Just conquered a friggin' mountain!

Even in the beginning of spring, it is magical here.

While I was away, my wonderful brother, his energetic wife, my supportive father, and a reliable friend from church picked up the science cabinets I hope to use in my kitchen. Even if they think I'm crazy (which I'm sure they did before I ever started this tiny house adventure!), my family has been wonderful through this journey. I don't think I would have ever attempted this without such open minded and supportive people in my life. :) My cabinets are now added to my accumulated inventory and await the construction phase.

Anyone else ever travel halfway across the country to avoid heavy lifting?

On the subject of land, I may have mentioned before there were two properties I was excited about possibly purchasing. They were in neighborhoods I liked (close to work and good dog walking roads) and under $20,000. Before my trip I had driven past them both and was very disappointed to find the land very uneven and wooded- making them practical for my home would likely be out of my budget. My aunt is in reality and was able to talk with the representing agents, but I haven't touched base with her since returning from Colorado. Fingers crossed she has encouraging news!

Another big purchase I made recently was for a tiny house bundle from Ok Tiny that included blueprints for multiple houses from multiple designers, books about downsizing, personal tiny house stories, classes on Sketch Up, etc. It was $99, and I cringed making the payment but think the plethora of resources will be worth it.

I'll leave you with an image of the creepiest motel sign in Colorado, possibly the nation.

Blinded with Science (furniture)

As the lack of activity on this blog has likely relayed, I've hit a roadblock with finding a place to park my home. 

But I did just buy these awesome cabinets from Construction Junction for my kitchen. They used to be in a chemistry lab. 

Tomorrow I leave for my first vacation in almost 8 years to spend a week in the mountains, so radio silence will continue.

Sometimes You Can Choose Your Neighbor

Macy Miller is a big name in the tiny house world and has some great resources. One of these I found extremely helpful was a video class, I grabbed one on parking your tiny house. Fantastic buy! Macy is an architect and has a great understanding of the building codes and zoning laws.

Here is the low down. There are a couple different ways to classify a tiny house on a trailer, the most logical for my situation is calling it an RV. This means my home would fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation- not the Department of Housing that has stricter regulations on what spaces you can live in. While there are still regulations and inspections required, these are fairly simple.

My trailer, which is the foundation of my house, is required to have specific safety features (most trailer builders are very familiar with these). The completed house also has to fit within certain measurements.  These measurements are pretty standard across the country to make sure someone doesn't take a bridge out with their trailer. All this info can be found buried on your state's transportation website.

In PA the trailer cannot be more than 8 ft 6 in wide, longer than 40 ft and have a gross weight under 38,000 lbs. Again, most tiny house builders are very familiar with these regulations and work within them.

The next step would be zoning. This part is a little more wobbly... There isn't a residential code for tiny homes, though most would be legal in trailer parks. That is not always an option or favorable choice. The thing with zoning is there are not zoning officers going around checking that a hair salon isn't opening up in a neighborhood or a tiny house isn't parked in someone's backyard. If no one calls to complain, you can park your tiny home in a residential area.
Macy recommends not just getting permission from the landowners where you are parking but the neighbors as well. If everyone is on board with your house, there should be no complaints to zoning (as long as you aren't an obnoxious neighbor). But should any issues arise, houses on wheels are relatively easy to move!

Now comes the awkward part. I don't have any close friends or family with land to park, so I have to look elsewhere. So anyone willing to let me park in your backyard? If anyone owns land with space, preferably in the North Hills not too far from I-279, and would like a considerate renter (who also wouldn't mind doing yard work). Must be okay with a friendly but occasionally loud beagle.

Look at that sweet face!

If this sounds even slightly interesting, feel free to contact me via the messenger on the right.

Miss Lippert Goes to Washington

A little break from the tiny house journey to share about a different adventure.

Yesterday was an amazing day, the magnitude of which I was not aware of until today. I attended the Women's March on Washington with half a million other women and men.

The day was amazing in a multitude of ways; the sheer number of people that attended filled the streets we were supposed to march down. While in the thick of the event, we did not understand how momentous our gathering was- no one could get on the internet to figure out why we weren't moving after the planned march time. It was a sea of black, white, brown, young, old, men, women, gays, trans, straight people wearing pink hats. There were people playing drums, response chants being shouted, humorous and serious signs.

What there wasn't? A single arrest. A single moment I felt unsafe. No one was rude or aggressive. We were packed like sardines and everyone was smiling and laughing. I met people who had been on a bus for 11 hours from Vermont who were crammed in a metro car with us- they were joyful to be there.

Today I was giddy reading the news stories of all the sister protests world wide (even in Antarctica!). My steel city also joined in with a sister march, so proud! This is the most hopeful I have felt since November. I feel encouraged, invigorated, to make a positive change! There were many different causes represented; women's rights, environmental protection, health care, etc but they all have the same roots in something very simple- love. Sounds cheesy but it is true. I think the event was truly blessed and it wasn't a coincidence the weather was so nice, the crowd were never agitated, the police were respected.

Retail Therapy

This time of year is often a gloomy one, drained from the holidays and gloomy from the dreary weather. What better way to lift one's spirits than with spending money on material possessions!

A while back I had found this wonderful little sconce at Construction Junction. Without any idea originally where to put it, I couldn't pass it up for just $15.

While browsing Craig's List, I found another light. It kept popping up in my searches for lights and eventually was being offered for free. At first glance it looked quite tacky, and not a surprise that it was being given away. But looking closer at it, the glass looked similar to the sconce I bought- the pair could be good for my bathroom. I took a Saturday morning and drove 40 minutes south of Pittsburgh to pick up the light and a bathroom door. We rendezvoused at a BP and to my delight, the glass was an exact match! The light as a whole was in nice shape too, just needs some cleaning and paint. (Remember if you can't have someone go with you, meet in public places!)

While I was in the area, I planned to pick up a door on clearance at 84 Lumber. First hurdle, the place is a friggin' maze! There are at least half a dozen buildings but none are labeled well from the outside and there wasn't a soul around to ask. When I did find the retail shop, second hurdle; the staff said they didn't have the door, was in their book but nowhere in the warehouse. I had called the day before to confirm it was still for sale, had cleared out my car and drove almost an hour, and now they don't have it?! The guy went back a second time, still nothing. I was so angry and frustrated- this was the first and only door I have found in months of searching that fit what I wanted. The second staffer went to look. He found the door and thankfully I did not have to write a scathing review about a horrible experience and incompetent staff (though the one kid light a cigarette while in the warehouse. Seriously why does anyone under 30 even try smoking? Expensive, gross and we all know better).
So my new $15 bathroom door and light made the trek back home! It was a bit crowded in the car if I'm honest, and I may have broken some laws since I couldn't see anything to my right.... Still worth it.

That is the top of my door. It is about 3 inches from the windshield.

My latest trip confirmed a vision for my bathroom. Once again I stopped off at Construction Junction after church and found the perfect medicine cabinet. Solid wood with an aged mirror, with a little paint and tlc it will fit wonderfully in the shabby chic white bathroom in my head. But the cherry on my recent shopping spree was in the lighting section. Can you find it?

If you look closely, you can see a sleeping cat in the reflection.

Another glass cover exactly like my lights! I have never seen this design before in my life and now I'm stumbling upon it everywhere. I'm sure I'll find out it is something made by Wal-Mart in the 90s that I'm just naive too, but for now it is a fun treasure.

Happy little family.

Oh look, a cat in the middle of something. How surprising.

Tune in next time folks for a riveting tale of zoning laws, the department of transportation, and occupancy laws! Stay sexy and don't get murdered!

Land of the something...

The focus of this journal is to catalog my journey to tiny house ownership; that also includes some personal aspects. I do not indent to delve into politics but will be honest that the recent presidential election left me devastated, ashamed, and afraid. I have spent more energy trying to educate myself on being more educated and active in politics (which we should have learned about in school, right? because I have never needed to use calculus but voting seems like something everyone would need when you live in a republic). ANYWAYS, this topic has sucked my time and then sucked my motivation for a time with such a horrific turn of events.

With that out of the way TINY HOUSE STUFF!

It has been very slow, almost stagnant trying to get information about the legality of parking my house. Only two local officials actually replied and answered my questions, though their answers were almost less than helpful. There was a back and forth similarly to when your mom says "go ask your dad" and your dad replies "go ask your mom". No one seems to know a solid answer since tiny homes are such a grey area.
I am thinking of presenting the local government with a few places I want to park and asking "what would I have to do to live here?".  That means actually finding land, three options I've found for that.

1. Trailer park: my house would likely be very permissible in a trailer park. They would also be already set up for water and electric hook ups. Unfortunately there are not any parks in the area I want to live (and many have lots close together and poor management).

2. Buy land: This would offer the most freedom but being short on money anyways, not very practical. Plus the area I want to live in can be price because it is in a popular school district (I just like it because it is the perfect distance between the city and country, close to work, friends and fam).

3. Rent land: This is likely the route I will end up going but the most awkward by far. I don't know anyone personally that has land I could rent space from, so this means going up to strangers and asking if i can be their neighbor. There are some places Jack and I pass on our daily walks that I picture my house sitting on.

So now I'm drafting up letters to give to a few neighbors and browsing Zillow. To keep my spirits up, I am also doing more shopping! Last weekend I purchased two large windows for the living area. Brand new and only $150 for both! I don't have a photo of them (they are just simple white windows anyways) but here is a photo of tape on my wall so I could get an idea of the window sizes.

Outer square is 42x36, the size I bought

Just one more segway from the normal topic, all day Wednesday I was in a horribly dark mood. While walking Jack, we found a scared kitten hiding under a porch. After assuring the neighbors I wasn't a prowler, we caught the little guy. Once inside with food and warmth, he quickly started purring and giving nose boops! Can't help but think God sent this little guy for me to find to help lift my spirit. How can you not feel happy looking at this face, and those adorable piggies!

So cute, I just want to squeeze him!

Shopping!

With building my house I plan on using mostly salvaged materials, to be eco friendly and save money. This does cause a little issue because I can't make any solidified plans since I don't know what materials I'll find and those dimensions. So even though I don't have a house or even the trailer yet, still shopping!

I've been searching Craig's List quite frequently for windows. Being such an important part of keeping my house insulated, I'm only looking at new windows. On the one end of my house I want to make a bay window. Instead of using an actual bay window, I'm going to use three separate windows and build the walls out. I got the idea from the Cleone design from Tiny House Design.

I found a set of three matching windows and negotiated with the seller for a total of $135, that is $45 per window! When I went to pick them up I discovered one casement window and two single hung. They were also brown on the outside. Well, I did find them on Craig's List and for what I paid I can't complain (too much...). And the seller had a dog so I gave him my business card for the shelter because I can't help myself.

Next on my shopping spree, a kitchen sink. I really like the old fashion farm house sinks. Another Craig's List find for just $50. Other people were asking over $100 (and new, this could easily be $300+). The look is unique and having part of the sink continuing as a counter is handy for washing dishes or working with messy food. This thing is friggin' heavy though! I ended up having to drive around with it in my car for a few days, I could feel the difference in my car's acceleration. I was a bit worried about the weight with having a foundation with a weight limit; I reached out on a fb group and it was almost unanimous "Awesome, you should get that!". And they suggested to just cut weight elsewhere.

This thing took up most of my car, my poor little hatchback!

Just needs new hardware and some tlc.

Remember shoppers, always be safe when buying off Craig's List! Either meet somewhere public or take a buddy. And always follow Jack Donaghy's advice,

Danga Zone! Part One

One of the most stressful and confusing aspects of this whole process for me has been tackling zoning laws. The most I can understand on my own is there are federal guidelines for all building codes; individual states, counties, and townships can either defer to these general codes or have their own specific ones. (This could be completely wrong, but again, not my field). The course of action least likely to give me a headache seemed to contact township officials directly. I emailed six townships/boroughs in the area I'd like to live. Here is a copy of the letter sent to them:

I am writing with questions about your township's zoning and residency laws. Specifically, those relevant to 'tiny homes'.
I'm working on building a tiny house on a 26ft trailer. You may have seen one of the many shows about people downsizing to similar small homes. Regardless of the recent popularity of tiny homes, they can be extremely practical solutions for people looking for affordable home ownership, those wanting to live a more green lifestyle, or someone wanting to spend time enjoying life instead of maintaining a larger residence.

Being an unconventional structure, the residence laws regarding a tiny house can be fuzzy or restrictive. In your township, would a home residing on a trailer bed and approximately 210 square feet be legal? Would you be able to provide me with the official regulations relevant to this? If such a home is not allowed in your township, what steps would I need to take for reassessment of the restrictions?

If you have questions for me, please feel free to ask. If you are interested in my personal experience of building my tiny home, I am keeping a journal called Little House in the Steel City.
Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to your reply!

I sent that letter to six different municipalities on September 22nd. Within two days I had one reply just asking me to call the office. Given the chaos that is my day job, I haven't had the chance to do that and something tells me a local township official doesn't answer his work number during the late hours when I actually have free time. Another reply from a different township said I was the first person to ask such a question and they would look into the answer.

The other four townships have not given any answers. But that won't stop me...

This is the exact album cover I remember seeing in my dad's collection as a kid.
At the time I prefered the Spice Girls.

And for my unrelated note that I like to throw into these posts, I have become enthralled with Gustav Holst's mesmerizing suite called "The Planets". The suite is made up of 7 parts that each represent a different planet (Earth isn't included and Pluto wasn't discovered at the time). My favorite and probably the most popular is Jupiter. Honestly the whole thing is fantastic though. It is on YouTube as well as numerous other musical outlets. Go listen and tell my your favorite planet!

Two completely different styles of album art for the same piece of music, I can't pick a favorite.

*insert witty title here*

It has been a while.

Things have been going quite slow on the house front, thus there hasn't been much to write about. I am at an unfortunate cross roads with money. While I had the idea of raising funds through donations and art commissions, that just hasn't been manifesting. And while I have a nice amount of savings set aside, it isn't enough for this whole project. That means loan hunting. It is a boring process that stresses me out to no end, I won't share the feelings.
Though this project has slowed almost to a stop, I am determined create my tiny home.

In other news, I found that a while back I was getting a lot of views from Russia. I was extremely confused until I remembered my post about the mailslot I purchased. Having people across the globe read about my little adventure gave me a smile! Привет!

I've been rewatching Sherlock, so I leave you with this:

Book Review: Your Message Here by Andrew Odom

One of the big draws of tiny living is the monetary savings. You can own your own home without selling your soul, utilities won't rob you blind as you attempt to prevent becoming a human puddle or popsicle (depending on the season). The cost of constructing a tiny home can be relatively inexpensive. Relatively.

An average home in Western Pennsylvania can run between $125,000 and $212,400. Most budgets for tiny homes (without crazy bells and whistles) are around $20,000. While I really don't have $125,000, I also don't have $20,000 either. Given my current employment, saving that money anytime soon is not a plausible option.

This conundrum lead me to purchase Your Message Here by Andrew Odom, a book to help tiny house builders with the financial side of building. Reviews I read raved about the ebook, one even claimed she hardly paid a thing herself during the build. I quickly learned after purchasing the book, this would not be the case for me.

Your Message Here is written by Andrew Odom who runs Tiny r(E)volution, a company that runs a site about tiny houses offering many free resources as well as buyable ebooks. (many of the blog posts are great and I do highly recommend using their site during your research) This is where the big issue forms for me: Andrew is writing this book for tiny builders looking to make a business out of their tiny house. He advises creating accounts for your build on facebook, twitter, blogging sites, even getting business cards made. Create an internet presence to present to potential sponsors to see you have something to offer them by investing you your tiny home.

Now this in and of itself is not bad advice and Andrew gives good instructions and resources to do this, but this is not a plausible route for every tiny home builder. I have a full time job that takes up usually over 40hrs a week and other annoying but required responsibilities on top of just trying to learn from scratch how to frame a house on a trailer. I do not have time (or the passion really) to create a whole business around my tiny home.

Second issue: Your Message Here  recommends using the novelty of your project to intrigue possible sponsors. Tiny homes, while still a rarity for the everyday person, are permeating the culture. FYI has the show Tiny House Nation, HGTV has three separate shows about tiny homes. A tiny home project many not seem so unique when there are collectively over 100+ episodes following individuals going small. And I know that I am far from the first person to be blogging about their build (and I'm sure many of them are more poetic in their posts).

This interest from the mainstream american could be two fold; those of us wanting to go tiny may be seen as following a fad. Regardless of the numerous people who did their homework before going small, there are sure to be some who have over romanticized the idea. Though with the attention from the television shows, and with 84 Lumber now offering tiny home packages, maybe this will open a door. Though the majority of people are unlikely to downsize so drastically, tiny homes could become an acceptable lifestyle. Zoning laws could be revised to be more accommodating, landowners may opt to invest by renting portions of their land to park a home, and a family may skip a mini mansion for a reasonable ranch home.

Conclusion: While a good book if you are looking to invest the time into creating a following for your tiny build, this book is not for everyone. If you don't want to spend time advertising yourself on social networks, skip this read. Instead, I highly recommend Andrew's free blog: Tiny r(E)volution.

Из России с любовью

When I started this journey, I honestly thought I would take a year to plan and a year to build my tiny house. Looking back, there isn't one big thing that screwed up my timeline; I had to move out of my apartment, was assigned new responsibilities at work, had to find a new car, was diagnosed with Lyme disease then un-diagnosed with Lyme disease. Most recently a family member struggling with depression was hospitalized. It is amazing how you can so easily get caught up in surviving the day, weeks and months quickly pass.
People in my life keep getting pregnant as well, which means baby showers, which means presents, which means paintings for me. Cost effective but time consuming.

I am determined to begin my build before this year is up and have been researching trailers. There are so many options to choose, it is almost paralyzing. Thankfully there are quite a few online resources available that weren't around even a few years ago, but it still requires research.
To break up the stress of trailer shopping, I've been shopping for other house parts. Mostly trivial but still cool. Example one: this sweet mail slot.

Courtesy BolshevismLand on Etsy, I found this slot that says "Pochta"- the name of the Russian postal service. Most of the slots I found were either so bland they ruined the aesthetics or yelled "LOOK AT ME, I AM A FANCY OLD TIMEY WAY TO DELIVER MAIL!" This one is the perfect combination of character, simplicity, and will hopefully be helpful if Red Dawn ever comes to fruition.

Since I cannot expect you to be waiting by your computers for my next update, may I recommend my newest favorite podcast: Mystery Show. As stated on their site, Myster Show is "A podcast where Starlee Kine solves mysteries." Simple but charming, much like my sweet mail slot. Only it isn't in Russian.

Construction Junction, what's your function?

 A unique situation has fallen into my lap. One of the trailer makers I contacted has a 24" low-utility trailer already made to sell. Pros of this development is my build could start by the end of this month. Cons are two of man's greatest enemies: time and money. I had hoped to save enough money to avoid taking a loan out and I am not close at this point. I was also expecting to have a few weeks while waiting for the trailer to be built to finalize my design. Besides my front door, I have no other materials or even the exact plans for the house.

Not helping this decision is the rollercoaster life has been in just the past week. I learned that I don't actually have lyme disease; someone had misread my initial blood work. While there are still some tests the doc wanted to run, it seems most likely all the health issues I've been having the past few months were all from stress. STRESS! Sure, it is a relief to not have a serious disease but it is slightly embarrassing that my body was just flipping out on itself from living life. Also, there isn't a pill to take and fix stress (well, any legal ones that don't cause lifelong ramifications or death).


On a more uplifting note, I took my first trip to Construction Junction! This store boasts a huge warehouse of materials from hardware to toilets in every color. I had hoped to find my windows, but there was nothing that grabbed my attention. What I did find was a box old key hole covers for $1 each (and while it wouldn't break my budget, my dad was sweet and insisted on buying them for me). They are perfect additions to my type drawer display.

One of the few decorations that will definitely be in the tiny house.

So there is a big decision to be made in the next few days that could possibly jump start my build. At this point I have no idea which way I am leaning. Until next time...

Money for nothin' and your tiny houses for free

Last post I mentioned my need for cash to fund my project. I am not looking for handouts while binge watching Agent Carter, I would rather work for everything I earn. Currently working a full time job at a nonprofit hasn't been the most lucrative business choice, but it gives me more happiness and purpose.

To compensate, I am advertising art commissions!  Like most of my generation, I have a degree in something completely different and unrelated to my current career. Though it isn't quite a shocker to not find a job with an art degree in any economy... Anyways, I am taking requests and it doesn't have to be a grand oil portrait. Below are some of the Valentine's Day cards I made for my co-workers.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't know about grass because I have dichromatic vision."

"I want to go slow with you!"

"I'd watch the world end with you."

If you'd like your own one of a kind illustration for yourself or as a gift, it only costs $15! Not only will you get a unique piece of art, but you will know your purchase went to a positive cause and not a secret booze habit. Mostly because I don't drink (I just don't like the taste, it isn't that weird. Stop looking at me like that...). Few rules to keep in mind:

     1. No porn. I'll consider artistic nudity depending on the context.

     2. No violence to innocents. Killing zombies- hokey dokey. Kicking puppies- no deal. 

     3. While the original art is yours, I retain the rights to anything created by my hand. So no making          copies of anything to sell on the street corner. 

Most of my portfolio is viewable at Melanie Loves To Draw and my deviantArt page. To make a commission request, just send me a message or write a note when making a donation to my Crowdrise: Trailer Fund. My pencil and brush await your orders!