Ground Breaking News!!!

FINALLY!!!!!  We are breaking ground.After weeks of planning, drawings, creative financial loans and estimates we are starting the construction

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So the side of the house to the sidewalk is all rock and dirt, I think the previous owners used it as an RV pad, mom and dad used it to park the trailer and occasional family overflow parking.  So today the concrete contactor "Sals landscape" will be taking all the rock, dirt and broken concrete out.

Our grandson is loving all the excitement

More to come...we are excited to share this Tiny adventure with you!

The Contract Has Been Signed!

First deposit has been made, contract signed and permits submitted.

Thank you to Steve and Cheryl with Tiny Diamond Homes for agreeing to work with us...lots of work to do before the work of converting the 238 square feet garage into Soren and I's Tiny home.

The concrete must be poured then a pod delivered so we can finish emptying out the garage space.  Some item are to be sold, some given away and some are going to be stored until we can build some additional storage units to create a new tool shed, storage for the tiny home and a small storage for equipment (i.e. bikes, camping equipment, snowshoes.)



Here is a rudimentary drawing of the tiny home with the sheds we are building...I think the sheds for mom is close to the same size as my living space (me giggling.)

Considering we are moving from a 800 sqft apartment into a 228 sqft Tiny Home there are steps to take to ensure we can get our loved items into the home.

All furniture is being sold as we speak, dressers, cedar chest, couch, chairs, entertainment centers, desk, book cases, bar stools, surround sound, TV's, DVD player, bed frame...it all has to go as it wont fit into the tiny home.  We are building a bed frame that will allow storage (to replace the dressers) and custom closets.

We have over the past year downsized our closets and dressers.  I have capsuled my wardrobe into seasons to accommodate the 30 inches of hanging space we will each have in the tiny home. It was quite easy for me as I'm no longer working so having a professional wardrobe is no longer a priority.

I'm currently building a inventory list of everything we own then mapping it out on a house plan to make sure everything has it's place.  After watching over 200+ videos one of the biggest take aways I had was that if things stay "sitting out" or don't have a permanent place in the home it can appear dirty and cluttered...in a small space that can not happen.  So creating the inventory list against the house plan will make sure Soren and I feel peaceful in our new home...but where oh where will I put all my plants?

Sold some pieces of furniture today!

We had this beautiful TV entertainment/bookcase that we sold...the living room looks so much bigger.  

I also sold my desk chair...it was cute and I loved the teal color, but there is no space for it in the tiny home.  So we need to find a comfy spot for me to write, computer work weekly bojo planning.

So the coffee table will act as our entertainment center until that is sold!  It's funny our current living room space is bigger then our new tiny home kitchen and living combined.  I'm so excited!

Clean it out!

The garage needs to be cleaned out and the family did an amazing job feeding the boxes into the family room for mom and I to go over and reposition the camping equipment, bikes and tools.

So organizing the old, selling/donations the excess and building the tiny home all at the same time!

Listed half of the furniture in our apartment today

We have all the furniture that must go and it's making us realize we have a few things we have not accounted for in the tiny home.

My desk is small, but it holds a printer scanner, stationary, a large collection of markers/pens and my large laptop.  So back to Pinterest I go to see what creative ideas we can find.

So onto Facebook to coordinate the wall of all our apartment furniture...pretty soon we will be sitting on the floor with all are belongings.

We got the preliminary numbers!

Ouch!!!  It was higher than our estimate goal, but we can work with it.  Thankfully our builder will also work within our budget and allow us to do some labor to assist in lowering our total.  Søren wants his hands all over this project so if anything breakdown he knows how to fix it.  Plus we love doing projects together!!!  Let's work the numbers then work the bank!

You want what for the patio?

Holy guacamole we had a couple companies come to give us bids on the patio cover that we want extended 8 feet.  

Both companies stated we could not use the already existing cover because of it being against new codes, so new structures must be built.

$25,000 are you kidding me????

So to the drawing board we go to create a new patio for the back porch.  Maybe we might build a pergola….wouldn't be the first one!

Let the estimates begin!

Tiny Diamond Homes came by to take photos, measurements and our wish list and I know I overwhelmed poor Steve with the laundry list.  So Søren was amazing in making them a yummy home cooked meal of home chili spaghetti squash.

The good news is Steve said it's all doable the only thing that might hold us up is sewage lines from the tiny home into the big house plumbing.  We will make sure to add pictures once we start so you all can see...putting a sewage line into 22’ of ceiling may present a problem so he will meet with his plumber and get creative.

So now it's the waiting game for the next week until we get the bid/estimate.  It's not just the tiny home but we are also need concrete pads poured, 3 storage sheds, adding washer/dryer hookups in the upstairs of the big house, paint job to the exterior and a new patio cover.

One thing to note that our current company doesn't build patio covers so we are looking to do estimates from other companies for that.

We're building a Tiny Home….we're calling it the Thoreau Terrace

The how we got here is a long drawn out story that not many want to hear, but what I will tell you is the fun and challenging parts!

Not to say it did take us a while to discover what a health community and a real family are and so there was over a period of years letting things go, worldly possessions and yes people.

Slowly though our apartment Soren and I would go collect unneeded/unloved and excess stuff and take weekly donations to the ARC.  We often through our quiet times together would talk about our future house and day dream out loud of the things we wanted to include i.e. Sabina wanted a garden with a green house, Soren enjoys his comic books so we talked about a comic themed man cave.

As 2017 drove on my health from the stoke kept declining to the point where I went on disability from work in august.  The “dream home” suddenly stopped become a dream we wanted to come true and we focused even deeper into the fact that our purpose here on earth isn't to be wrapped up in the things but to be wrapped up in helping others change their negative mindset into something that will help this world and future generations.

October we found the term for our “lifestyle” called minimalist.  We really don't own much and don't have the desire to...we want to own memories not things.  At this time we also realized owning a home would not be something we would do...the typical “American dream” was not ours to have...but ágain we aren't like most typical Americans.  I've never really enjoyed clothes shopping (I only go when I have to or my mother tags me along.) But watching various YouTube videos of minimalism we also stumbled upon videos of tiny homes.

Tiny homes have come up in our lives many times and each time we both thought about how much fun it would be to live in one.

The thing that stuck me every time was the loft bedroom...it just seemed very inconvenient to me.  I don't want to prep my bed every night either...my bedroom must be it's own space.

We started interviewing various builders of tiny homes and stumbled upon one in where we enjoyed their company and energy….Tiny Diamond Homes. Sabina had a conversation with her mother about what we were going to do and after a conversation with Jesse (sabinas dad) they came to us with a different concept.

https://www.tinydiamondhomes.com/

You see land in Urban Colorado is pricy, there are ordinances that prohibits tiny homes from parking in certain areas so my parents thought why not convert their 1 car 228 sqft garage into a tiny home.

What a perfect idea!!

Out came the graph paper and window shopping.  This would be ideal as we would be there to assist as my parents aged, we would have our tiny home and I get a bonus with a garden and greenhouse!

So more to come on this project and we will try to include pictures and videos going forward...so cheers to our tiny home the Thoreau Terrace!

That's it...that's what we are!

Minimalist….not having focus on material things and enjoying life through experiences.  Søren and I find that we find success in life by the quality of people in our lives and the impact we have with others...not in how much or what we own i.e. BMW, big home filled with stuff and shallow relationships where conversation are around what we recently purchased or how much money we make a year.

So we have found a few great YouTube peeps who have great ideals around minimalism.

https://youtu.be/U6AI69M0pak

https://youtu.be/SVlgklDKFaI

https://youtu.be/jiKgllTTsIc

www.YouTube.com/exploringalternatives

Disability...Really?

We have worked so hard to work with these new meds to help me balance these debilitating migraines.  I'm not sure how much blogging I will be able to do considering it's hard these days to concentrate and write.

So today we started short term disability with my job and we also just in case started a state disability claim with the state (this process can take years to get approved) but typically with these type of hemiplegic migraines they can create permanent issues.

So due to this turn of health events the funding for the tiny home has drastically changed and our focus has been on finding a good balance for me.

But amongst the chaos I can still dream and add more to my Pinterest boards and research some ways to own our own space instead of renting and get into the tiny home that we both are looking forward to having!

My Health is Getting Me Down!

I've had so many additional episodes health wise and we found a great neurologist here locally that has help us identify this strand new onset of migraines I've been experiencing since the stroke.  

They are called Hemiplegic migraines, meaning that during the onset of the migraine I'm completely paralyzed on the right side, my face at times even droops giving the impression of a stroke.  These have been pretty scary and opened our eyes to the type of home we need...so no stairs or ladders.

So we will try some new meds and I will work with my job to ensure I don't loose my new position!

As far as the home...we are loving our minimalist home...BUT  the walls and home seem so blank.

We as americans feel like every space must be filled so when we live in large spaces we feel we must fill them...thus the clutter, debt and the must "need" to have everything everyone else has!

So I will continue with my beautiful blank walls...lol...I wont fill them, I won't fill them (my mantra I guess.)

Big spaces need to be filled!

Going through the home it's hard to gift others (via the arc) with our things because you look at voided space.

Don't get me wrong just like the next girl the beautiful homes with quality design I swoon and how they are just so pretty with the throw pillows all the candles, the throws laying on the corner of the chair just so oh the kitchens so perfectly organized.

However having the empty walls and getting rid of the things makes me feel like I'm living in a naked apartment.  Enter my new obsession and something I've liked for quite some time….tiny homes.

By definition a tiny home is a full furnished living space under 400 square feet and small homes under 1000 square feet.

Søren and I have been living in an apartment under 1000 square feet, actually it's 889 square feet, and we still feel like the space is too big. So it got us wondering could we do a tiny home.  Typical tiny homes are on a trailer so they can be mobile, similar to an RV, but most people park these in neighborhoods or back yards so we started doing our research.

In the Denver metro are it is difficult to park a tiny home with current zoning laws, so maybe a piece of land?

More to come after I do some hours wasting on Pinterest for ideas on tiny homes and to see if we can make this work!

Ok we tried the spark joy...

….it was great for the ideals of it but I don't like folding my things that way.

One thing Søren and I learned is we don't like to attach ourselves to things and most importantly we don't like feeling like we have to care about material possessions.

As far back as I can remember I didn't want the brand names, I really don't shop for clothes unless it's out of necessity, I've not ever been a girl who has been trendy...now my mom on the other hand makes sure to pick up the occasional top or dress for me that is classic but in the current trend.

So onto the rest of the house that has stuff instead of things that have meaning.

Let the purging begin!

So I'm reading this great book “spark Joy” written by Marie Condo http://tidyingup.com.  Thankfully I have a spouse who is totally on board.  This book give simple ways to help cut the clutter out of the home and your every day life.  So wish us luck cuz January will be cutting the clutter out!