My Tiny House Experience (so far)

Since my most viewed blog post is from way back in April when I talked about tiny houses, I figured I'd do a little update on my experiences thus far living in a tiny house.  Once we realized we had to start out renting, finding a little house (720 square feet) was pure luck.  This was about the size that we planned for our own tiny/small house, so I consider this a practice run in organization and space saving.

We could probably go a little smaller if we didn't have a need for a guest room.  Our second bedroom probably makes up about 20% of our house, and isn't currently used for much.  It is, however, an absolute requirement now that I am living so far from my family and friends.

Do I think I could have transitioned into a small house as easily if I hadn't sold nearly all of my belongings before we moved?  Nope.  

Being on a limited budget for furniture purchases required us to be creative with what we did have.  The toy chest as a coffee table was a no brainer - now we don't need a separate coffee table, and the chest stores all of our board games in an easily accessible location.  We don't have room to keep all six chairs at the table in the kitchen, so I'm using one as an end table near the couch, and the other as a bedside table.  Easily moved should we have dinner guests and need the extra seating, and fully functional in the meantime.

I'm also hopeful that the small space will help us considerably as we try to stay warm this winter.  To conserve energy, Karl and I always keep our thermostat pretty low.  With our house heating up so quickly once the furnace kicks on, we're able to push it even further.  We're shooting for 60 degrees when we're home, and 50 degrees overnight or at while we're out of the house.  The great part about the small house living is that I can always crank up the thermostat for 5-10 minutes to get the chill out of the air if I'm feeling a bit on the cold side.  However, the more you get used to keeping the thermostat low, the less you will realize you need it to be any higher.  If it's 72 degrees in your house, 35 degrees outside will feel much colder than if you already feel warm at 60 degrees.  Plus, who doesn't love snuggling under a blanket?

We're also becoming much more conscious of the food we keep in the house.  When you only have one cabinet to store everything, you can't really tuck too much food away and not plan to eat it in the near future.  This will hopefully reduce our grocery bills a bit, which is good when a trip to the Alaskan grocery store is enough to want to stop eating altogether when it's time to pay the bill.

My struggles so far?  The closet.  I'll admit it, I have a minor obsession with clothes and shoes (mostly shoes) and nowhere to put it all.  Everything is kind of packed in like sardines, with more shoes stuck in the corner of the bedroom.  I have no solution.  I'll let you know if I figure it out (doubtful).

My favorite part?  The house is so much cleaner than I would have ever expected.  I hate to vacuum, I hate to dust, and I really hate washing dishes.  However, a small house allows you to vacuum in a just a few minutes, and the lack of counter space necessitates dishwashing several times a day.  The small spaces motivates me to spend just a few minutes a day tidying up, and I'm rewarded with a neat, clean house almost all of the time.

Living in a small space certainly isn't for everyone, and you have to be in the right frame of mind to look at it for it's potential versus what you feel you're missing out on.  The first step is to realize that you don't need the majority of what you have stuffed in corners and closet.  The second step is making that a reality.  The third step is enjoying the simpler life!  I can say without a doubt that I am enjoying my small house a hundred times more than our house in Pittsburgh that was three times the size, so it was definitely the right choice for us.

A tisket, a tasket... Handmade birch bark baskets!

Before I attempted my birch bark baskets, I already had some experience in basketry.  As cliche as it sounds, basket weaving is actually something I enjoy!  The hardest part about it is finding supplies locally, rather than having to order reed sight unseen from the internet.

Needless to say, working with my harvested birch bark has been such a treat!  Once it gets wet (which is required considering you have to clean the forest gunk off of it), it really functions just like construction paper.  Take away the weaving part, and you can actually end up with a basket pretty quickly!  I sewed the first one, but went to hot glue for the next two.  Might be a little less 'natural' but it avoided the risk of tearing at the stitches.

I love how you naturally get two colors to use: the lighter shade is the outside of the bark, while the dark brown is the inside.

They looked pretty good initially, but I really thought they needed a little something extra.  I headed off to Joann's and found myself some moss to use as an accent.  I think I've found another hobby, and a cheap one at that!

By the way, I hit 5000 page views yesterday!  Woohoo!

Harvesting my craft supplies

I apologize for the sporadic nature of my posts...  I think I am going to go for a Monday-Wednesday-Friday kind of deal, because frankly, I don't have enough going on for five posts a week!

Last weekend, the Eagle River Nature Center was hosting a workshop on making your own baskets from birch bark.  I found out about the event a bit late, so it was already full when I called to get a slot.  In my somewhat snarky nature, I immediately find myself thinking "well fine you stupid nature center, I'll figure out how to do it myself."

So off I went to do some internet research and figure out how to go about doing such a thing.

Obviously, the first step was to find myself some birch bark.  Now, as Karl and I are both stewards of the forest (and not about to break the law either), we had to find some already dead birch trees.  Cutting the bark off of a live tree will lead to it's premature death, as well as making it an eyesore for other travelers through the woods.  We headed over the park at the end of our street, and set off on the trails looking for some fallen down birch trees.  It would appear that birch is a rather hardy tree, because almost every dead tree was something other than birch.  We found a few small ones, but the narrow trunk made for very thin bark that was nearly impossible to peel off.  Eventually, we found two pretty large trees and I was able to peel bark until my little heart was content.  Once I got started, it actually wasn't too difficult - all I used was a utility knife to score the bark, and a putty knife to loosen any stubborn areas.

Here's a sampling of what I brought home.  The pieces ended up in varying sizes, because it seemed that the bark would split where it decided, regardless of where you had planned.  Check back on Wednesday to see my creations!

What a lovely bathroom!

Jeez, I didn't realize how many days had gone by until I came to my blog and realized I hadn't read anyone else's for almost a week!  Having Karl working the same schedule as I am certainly requires some adjustments to my usual routine.  I'm used to having almost every evening to myself because Karl would be stuck at work until midnight or later.  Looks like the big compromise will be Karl's video game time... The prior rule was that he was not permitted to play any video games if I was home and awake.  Considering we rarely saw each other because our work schedules conflicted, it wasn't that much to ask.  Now that we're both home in the evenings and on weekends, neither one of us has that special "me time."  I'm sure we'll figure it out, but for right now it seems like we're on another planet!  I think I've seen Karl more in the last few months than I have in the last 6.5 years.

On to the next room in our tour!

The bathroom was actually the first room to be almost 100% complete.  I finished it up this weekend by making my shower curtain.  I fell in love with this fabric a few weeks ago and knew I had to use it for the bathroom.  I used four yards of fabric and stitched buttonholes across the top for the hooks.  Easy peasy!

Yes, guilty as charged.  I do not iron when I sew unless it is completely and totally unavoidable.

Isn't it fun?  Now my bathroom will be spring all year round!

I didn't have anywhere to hang my water conservation sign in the kitchen, so I decided to move it over to the bathroom.  Do you see the color coordination between the sign and the toilet seat cover?  Totally unplanned, yet completely perfect!  Anyway, the concept of water conservation is almost a joke here, since the city of Anchorage seems to think it's a good idea to charge everyone the same amount for water regardless of how many people are living in the house and how much water you use.  Doesn't sound like a good way to motivate anyone to reduce their water consumption...

The days are getting darker here so much more quickly than I'm used to!  The shorter days always seem to come as a surprise, but we're losing almost 6 minutes a day right now.  Adds up pretty quickly over a week!  I'm especially grateful of the window in my new office, because I know I'll get to take advantage of whatever daylight is out there.  Karl has to work in a basement though with no windows - good thing he says he's used to it!

Homemade Fireweed Jelly, Anyone??

In keeping with my goal of living simply and sustainably, I decided to have a go at making fireweed jelly.  Fireweed grows rampant in Alaska, and I was already in canning mode.  Fireweed is aptly named because it grows wonderfully in areas ravaged by forest fires and is often one of the first plants to pop to life.

The first step in making fireweed jelly is collecting your fireweed - we only had to go as far as the backyard!  Once we gathered a pile of stems, we went to work pulling off each individual bloom.

You don't want any green (stems or leaves) because your jelly may end up bitter.  This was like a never ending game of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not.  I'll go with He Loves Me, because Karl was a trooper and helped with the whole thing!

Once you've gathered eight cups of blossoms, rinse them really well and boil them with 5 cups of water and 1/4 cup of lemon juice until the blooms lose their color.  The water will turn a lovely purple!

Strain through a paper towel and cool to lukewarm.  Once you're ready to cook your jelly, combine the fireweed water with two boxes of Sure-Jell pectin and bring to a boil.  Then add 5 cups of sugar and bring to a boil again for one minute.  Spoon into your jelly jars with 1/4 inch headspace and process in your boiling water bath for ten minutes.

Fireweed jelly tastes a bit like cranberries to me, and is wonderfully sweet, fragrant, and smooth.  This batch made eight 8 oz jars, with a bit left over to toss in the fridge for tomorrow!  I am looking forward to toast for breakfast!

Recipe courtesy of alaskaoutdoorjournal.com.  My recipe included a bit of extra water to make up for what was lost with the paper towels.

And what do you do with 73 red salmon?

Why lots of things, of course!

First, you fillet the fish and and get rid of all the parts you don't want.  For example, this fish had a chunk missing because a seal tried to eat it.  We did not want to eat the same part.

Then you end up multiple coolers full of beautiful looking fillets.

At this point, you can give them a final cleaning and rinsing and put them in vacuum bags so they will store nicely in the freezer until you cook them up for dinner.  We did this with probably two thirds of the fish.

We also took about ten fish and made it into smoked salmon.  This is one of the more labor intensive options, as you need to cut the skin off as well as cut it into strips.  We then brined the salmon for two days in a mixture of brown sugar, salt, and soy sauce.  Then it went into the smoker for two more days.  Delicious!!

The last chunk of salmon was pressure canned by yours truly.  I had never used a pressure canner so it was quite the learning experience.  I've made jam using boiling water bath canning numerous times, but the two methods have some pretty distinct differences.  Pressure canning is the only safe way to can all meat and other low acid foods (like veggies) because boiling water won't get hot enough to kill potential germies.  This pressure canner will allow temperatures to reach 240 degrees.

To pressure can foods, you start by sterilizing your jars in the same way you would for boiling water bath canning.  Follow the directions of your pressure canner for how much water you need, but it's only a few inches.  Don't expect it to cover the jars!  You're harnessing the power of steam in this method.  Once you have everything in the canner, put on the heat and get your water to boiling.  The venting of the canner before you put the weight on is VERY important.  By venting the steam for at least ten minutes (follow your directions), you're forcing all of air out of your canner and leaving only the steam.  If you don't vent long enough, you're pressure won't go up once the weight is on.  Once you're properly vented, put your weight on and start watching the pressure go up.  For salmon, you want to cook at 11 psi for 100 minutes.  This means watching your pressure gauge the whole time and adjusting the heat on the stove up and down, and up and down, and up and down.  You definitely don't want it to drop below 11 psi or you will have to start your timer over!

I put all sorts of different things in with the salmon: garlic, lemon pepper, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, creole seasoning, bread and butter pickles, and pineapple.  We'll see what turns out good, and what won't make the final cut.  I'm told that canned salmon goes well with crackers, or mixed with mayo to make a tuna salad type dish.

And my favorite thing to do with the piles of fresh salmon - have your boyfriend cook you dinner!

For those of you that know Karl, I swear this is a real and true photo.  We've been together for almost 7 years, and not once has he cooked me dinner beyond a frozen pizza.  We move to Alaska, catch some fish, and bam! he's my personal chef!  He put some butter and lemon pepper all over these fillets, wrapped them in foil, and threw them on the grill.  Yummy!  I never liked fish, and Karl told me all these years that fresh fish is nothing like the garbage in the grocery store.  I didn't fully believe him, but he was right.  I may be a fish eater after all!

Tiny Houses = Living Simply

I think I may have redesigned the floor plan for the cabin about 87 times...  I'm back to one floor now, and I increased the footprint to 24' x 32'.  Construction logic states that it's cheaper to build up, than out, but I'm not so sure how true that is for smaller houses.  Increasing the footprint by 8' is likely going to be a lot cheaper than adding an entire second floor, and actually results in a similar amount of usable space.  Building stairs to code takes a LOT of space!  I think a lot of us are used to steps that are a bit steeper and narrower than what is currently required for new construction.  I was losing almost 75 square feet just by putting stairs in! So the current plans afford me 768 square feet for a kitchen, dining area, living room, bathroom, laundry room, and two bedrooms.  Don't forget to cram some closets in there, too - doggie food and a vacuum has to go somewhere!

So, depending on who you ask, my little cabin in the woods might qualify as a 'tiny house,' or maybe just a 'small house.'  By comparison to some hardcore tiny house-ers, our cabin will be a mansion!

Although, I am now completely sold on the concept of building one of these on a trailer rather than shelling out $80,000+ for an RV:

So for any of you that haven't heard of the tiny house movement, there are tons of blogs and websites dedicated to the people living ultra simply.  It does make you wonder, how much do we really need?  How much furniture/clothing/stuff do you have in your house that you probably wouldn't notice if it went missing?

Sure, Karl and I could borrow a couple hundred thousand dollars and build some big house with lots of rooms we probably wouldn't go in (other than stuffing some useless junk the closet of course).  We could then pay a ton of money to heat it, and furnish it, and maintain it, and continue to slave away working to pay for the big stupid house that we don't even use because we're too busy working just to pay for it.

Or...

We can go low key.  Live simply.  Keep the things that are important to us and forget the rest.  Spend more time together, doing things we love, and with friends and family.  Limit our expenses to the things that matter and stop the incessant consumerism that is so harmful to our planet.  And stop slaving day in and day out while life passes us by.

Of course, I may be a bit more of a hippie tree hugger than the average Joe.  But I really encourage everyone to make an effort to live simply.  It's an achievable goal, while the constant more more more will never be enough.

My great idea!

I've been thinking a lot about how to afford a fence for Willow so she can have a backyard at her new home.  Obviously, that's one of the major benefits of owning your property.  However, with the huge expenses of house building, I was worried that Willow would end up with a teeny little yard because we'd only be able to afford 20 feet of fence!

Until I had my great idea:

What is made of wood, roughly 4 feet in length, and easy to get for free because most companies have to pay for disposal?

Wooden pallets!!  A surprising number of people have beat me to this great idea, which means I have lots of examples to model my fence after.  Willow will be happy that the size of her yard will only be limited by our energy to dig post holes!

Chickens

Perhaps I'm starting to go overboard in my plans for a sustainable future, but I totally want to have my own chickens for eggs.  If you know me, you know I've talked about having chickens for awhile.  Having my little house in Alaska finally gives me the chance to do it!  This would probably be a plan for next spring, but I like to do lots of research so I know what I'm doing when the time comes.   I am also loving the idea of making a little chicken coop that's a mini version of the house.  Maybe Willow will have to get a matching doghouse, too (not that she'd even go near the thing - spoiled dog).

But seriously, who wouldn't want to be able to go outside and collect eggs from your own chickens?!?!  I see it the same way I see growing lettuce -  Oops, need some lettuce on your burger?  Why don't I just go outside and pick you a leaf?  Oh, scrambled eggs for breakfast?  Absolutely - no grocery store runs here!

Hmm, guess I'll need to get started on that greenhouse, too.  Definitely need to extend growing season as long as possible.

Clearly, I should have been born in like 1920.  Or 1820.  Some time period where these sorts of things were appreciated.  Even a time when striving to be a housewife was acceptable, which isn't so much the current climate in this country.  Luckily, Karl is very supportive and is cool with the idea of at least trying to live as sustainably (and therefore cheaply) as possible, thereby reducing our financial requirements.  And anyone that has spent any time considering this lifestyle knows that it is definitely still work, just a different kind!

In house building news, I'm still trying to crunch some numbers to see what kind of up front costs we're looking at.  I'm fine with leaving a lot of interior stuff until more money is available (and hello, doesn't adding shelving between exposed studs on interior walls sound totally awesome??)  What I really need to do is nail down a plan so we can figure out lumber costs, and whether we're going with a DIY raftered roof or manufactured trusses.  Karl's job will be to call Spenard Builder's Supply and get a quote on trusses so we can price that.  The other major expense will be a cistern and septic tank, so quotes will be needed on that, too.

Only ten weeks away - EEK!!

But I WANT a CABIN!

The more I think about the big move, the more disgusted I am at the thought of renting another house.  I seem to read about more and more people that have moved to Alaska and built themselves a small cabin, having limited finances and no prior building experience.  Well, why can't that be me?  Karl and I want to live as sustainably possible, and frankly, that gets pretty difficult when you are forced to rely on your landlord's crappy furnace, poorly insulated windows, and complete inability to install your own solar panels, geothermal heating, etc.

Also, it gets really difficult to find a place to live when you have a 65 lb. pitbull, because people seem to be convinced that she is going to eat babies and take over the world.

I'm currently in love with these:

www.intershelter.com

Granted, Karl would probably not let me get one that looked like an apple.   However, these dome shelters are fully portable, can withstand subzero temperature with a small space heater, and will hold up in hurricane force winds.  There's also options available to provide all of your own cooling, heating, and water needs 100% off grid.  Cost = $15,000 to $20,000 for a 20 foot model.  ($7000 to $10000 for a 14 footer.)  These are absolutely awesome, because they're actually designed to be temporary housing for disaster areas.

Yeah, it wouldn't be huge.  I don't need huge.  When I think of our house right now, we don't really use most of the space anyway.  In fact, it's mostly furniture taking up space, so we don't have a bunch of empty rooms.  Considering we're selling most of our stuff anyhow, I'm intrigued with the idea of staying super low maintenance.

Or, do I want to build a log cabin?

The biggest problem with building is the need to purchase land, which is a big up front cost in addition to the building costs.  If we were lucky, we'd get a lot with enough trees to cut for the wood.  However, this would definitely be a long term solution, especially if we were able to be on the grid for our utilities, at least while we figured out other options.  Running a generator for a couple of years isn't a very good option.

The benefit of buying the dome is that we could hopefully put it up in Karl's Dad's backyard.  Did I mention that you can build and rebuild these domes as many times as you want??  This way, we'd still be at his dad's house, have access to his shower and kitchen, but have our own privacy and avoid paying $1500 a month for rent as soon as we moved.  Maybe this would give us a lot more time to relax and adventure, before us both being forced to have full time jobs.  Expenses would be super low (and we wouldn't be cramping his dad's style by staying in his house for months).  Willow would probably be a lot happier, too.

Decisions, decisions.  Karl is so much more go with the flow, but I thrive on the planning.  I know that I will adjust so much better in Alaska if I can use it as an opportunity to create a life I do not have here, but that I desperately want.  Alaska has so many more people homesteading and living off grid than anywhere in Pennsylvania.  I would be infinitely happy if I could have my own little cabin, work part time or sell soap out the wazoo, and reduce expenses through energy independence, having my own greenhouse, canning and preserving, making my own bread, etc.  There's people out there doing it... why can't it be me?