Start small...the stake out.

      Just yesterday, the day after Christmas, my dad, brother, and I went over to my granny's to stake out the footprint of my tiny house. Later I said I would start calling it my small living space in order to come off more original.
      One spot that was almost perfect would have required extra demolition including the removal of a sick tree and a large stump.  The final nix on the spot was a future issue of having to move the small living space to another piece of land, because there are too many obstacles in the way like huge trees and a fence with more trees on its other side.
      The spot I chose is directly behind granny's house but lined up with the back fence so that my front door would face the tres amigos of trees instead of her kitchen window.  It's also located near a water spikit which I'm sure will be quite useful.  Behind it's back right corner is a giant oak that is sure to produce lots of shade during summer to keep me cool.
      We could have gotten started today on the piers but the weather is on the soggy side and my brother might not be able to get the pipe he needs to get started.
      Wish us luck!

A great man once said:

You're my reflection, and all I see is you.
      -Justin Timberlake

I am now counting down the days until I am done at the candle place.  Beeswax Co. will no longer have Emily's awesome hands making their beeswax candles.  It was once about the money, then it was the job itself, and now it's the drive and the lack of desire to make candles.  It's a waste of my time really, a waste of life.  I know it's like 40 degrees outside but when you're stuck inside all day you miss the entire season.  It's a terrible life to live.  TEN MORE DAYS!!!  I gave them ten more days because .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 <<< That's April's opinion.  because! they were all butt hurt, and it doesn't sound like much but really it's 3 weeks and a Monday to me since I'm only there for 3 days a week.  This will all be over soon and I will feel good!

GP said I could build a tiny house in her backyard, but the trailer as a base is going to be too expensive for my starter budget, so we will build it on a welded frame on pier and beam.  That way we can move it if we need to, with a forklift and a trailer hahaha!  But seriously.

I want Mexican food.  I want a margarita.  I want my friends!

Tiny Dog Big House; Tiny House Big Dog

It's harder to get a loan for the right amount of money...then they want high interest or they want it attached to the ground.

I think I'm going to have to consult with GP about changing things up a bit. Maybe we can just demolish the shed, recycle good bits of the materials, build the tiny house attached to the ground and have an awning that serves as a covered storage space for pottery and other tools. Then there's still space for a small kiln shack.

This option not only cleans up the back yard, but makes it more useful.
I think I will consult with her soon.

The foundation.

The foundation of my tiny house will be a flat trailer. My brother has volunteered to help weld it together. I have to figure out how much weight it needs to be able to hold. I will probably barter with him before I pay him.)

The least expensive a tiny house has cost was $15,000 and the most expensive was $50,000. I'd like to keep it as far down as possible and one way was to build my own trailer.

Because I love setting goals that are terribly time framed (like this pottery I'm going to have for consignment downtown, I told him I'd have the stuff in a month, though it'll probably be quicker) I'll say that I'll start building at the end of the year.  That's when I had hoped to have had my loans paid off but work was crap so I didn't make as much as I should've.

Later on I'll wear a shirt that says, "ask me about my tiny house"...Haha!

Perhaps I'll fit it on a pocket of pizza!

Last night I found a blog on tiny houses from which I printed a building check list from.  From that moment I realized that not one tiny house could ever be the same because one must build their home specifically around their needs.  After scrolling through a website where you get to visit with other tiny home dwellers and travel to take a workshop on building your home I started judging their spaces on how certain things weren't important while other things were or just the fact that they didn't have something I was going to make a must. 
The one thing I'm up in the air about is running water/plumbing.  It sure would make living a bit easier and I'm sure my environmental conscious would be in good use anyways like it was when I had my apartment off campus, but perhaps I could have the option.  Maybe I could fit everything with plumbing and have the option of connecting it depending on where I end up moving the house to.  I'm just wondering how grey water systems work on tiny houses, would it be cheaper to truck water in/how does that hook up or is it just a jug/tank system? Composting toilets aren't half bad honestly.
Other questions I have revolve around Where can I live legally in my tiny house?  Where do I find the codes to build tiny? How many skylights would I need?
Now I just need to work on organizing and accumulating savings and setting aside time to plan plan plan study study study blah blah blah yay potential tiny house!

I wanna build a tiny house. I'm gonna build a tiny house.

Everyone in my family asks me, What are you gonna do with all of your stuff? At that point I lower my head and think to myself They don't get the point of living in a tiny house.
It's true, I have a lot of stuff in my room, I have a lot of art supplies, I have stuff outside in a shed waiting for my future, I HAVE TONS OF "CRAP"!  When I look around my parents' house in which I dwell I think of all the space that is pointless: the hallway, the huge living room, the dining room, the kitchen floor, the bathroom tub, the huge counter, my room and every unknown item in every mysterious box.  Next I think about the things I would "need": a bed, a stove, an oven, a cozy chair, a small refrigerator/freezer, a toilet, a sink, a closet, a book shelf, a table, solar powered hook up, running water, and of course a place to make and fire pottery.
It's really fun dreaming up this house and what it could mean for my future or even my now! I have two new friends, Stella and Jane, and they have been building the inside of their tiny house!  I only got to help them a few times and then I think I annoyed them with my imustknoweverythingbecauseiwatchmuchtoomuchHGTV so that's a big bummer...I could vent about it but you're no psychiatrist. Short story short, I haven't been invited back.  Anyways!  Ugh, I was skeptical at first about their tiny space of dwelling but one day my friend Shimarah (I hope I spelt that correctly -I tend to just call her shimmy) posted Tiny: A story about living small...and if it's not that, sorry, Netflix Tiny House and it should pop up on top.
There's something spooky about open space. To this day I still don't like going to sleep to an empty house.  Any(evilcat)thing could be lurking around the corner! Even the two bedroom apartment I stayed in one semester off campus was pushing the spookometer!
To wrap this first declaration of my dream to build a tiny house up I will say this:  I already started drawing plans the moment the film turned off.  And it should cost hopefully less than half of the amount of loans I've had to pay back...and still paying back. Boo you whorish loans!

Tag Awareness Day

      I tend to tag my posts, so today I will honor the largest tags:  Gardening and Camp Chrysalis.  We're ignoring the fact that I probably mentioned my break up about as much as I mentioned camp because it's now about pressing onward!  "Pressin' on!  My distress is going, going, gone!  Pressin' on, pressin' on....to go back to where I was would just be wrong!!! I'm pressin' on."Relient K (click here for YouTube video)

      Right now it is raining outside so our garden is getting watered for FREE! Some say that nothing is truly for free...but the weather is, right?!  A Doe came around and ate up our cantaloupe and cucumbers down to the root and chomped down the leaves to the squash and zucchini.  She also managed to trim up the tomatoes a bit, the pieces that were sticking out of the cage.  Needless to say, we plan on finding a way to put a fence around it all...though right now my dad fashioned some temporary ones.  I wonder if we'll replant some things... if it's not too late. 
      Why aren't our roses blooming anymore?!  They did so well for so long and after their last pruning they pooped out on us.  Our hibiscus are blooming now in their place though.  We need to plant more fragrant flowers so that the bees and butterflies hang out at our place!  Slackers.

       Staff training for camp has begun.  I think it rained around this same time last year too.  The owner of Beeswax Co. asked me if I was working this summer at camp...so I'm thinking he doesn't realize that if I worked at camp I wouldn't work for them.  Peace out, I'll be at camp!  Just kidding...  I am going to Ebert Ranch Camp with the middle school youth as a sponsor.  That's exciting because I've been to Ebert except I didn't get to live the camp life there, it was just for staff training.  I'll get my own horse!!!  Woohoo!
     There are a handful of returning staff so I hope to go up there one of these weekends to visit my favorites!  There have also been quite a few changes made to how the camp is run and also aesthetics.  I want to know everything!!!

      On this Memorial Day Holiday I have thrown some pots including a medium planter for my friend Marta's graduation present.  I  also made a wobbly and a not wobbly ring holder.  Meow meow meow. 

...my brain is ever changing...