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!