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....

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!

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.