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!