Facts + a Confession or Two

No hedging, no beating around the bush, no missing the trees for the forest (wait, what?), no getting lost in the thick jungle underbrush of convoluted intros, here are some straight up facts about our house!

 

• 8' x 24' trailer base + a 2' x 4' bump out + two lofts
• 200 ft2 of main floor + 100 in loft space = 300 ft2 total 
• Standard 2x6 lumber framing
• Stone wool insulation - R22

• Galvanized metal roofing 
• Standard drywall
• Propane on-demand hot water heater 

• 110v electrical hook-up to grid
• Well water + a grey water pit
• Wood stove heat + backup electric space heater
• Solar powered composting toilet

Now that I've got that out of the way, let's get to the real reason you're all here: my confession. 

Here it is. 

Ready?

Now!

Okay.

We're not done the house. 

We started this build in May of 2019. We had the opportunity to work steady on the tiny house for a few weeks before I started a new job. By the end of the summer, with a whole lot of help from friends and family, we had it framed, roofed, wired, insulated, and drywalled, so we moved in. Justin started working full time about the same time our little girl showed up in embryonic form. I spent most of my non-fomally-employed hours fairly incapacitated, and Justin took on my share of the chores on top of his work. 

Construction slowed dramatically. 

We (meaning, Justin) worked, slowly but surely, to complete projects such as lighting, flooring, plumbing, cupboards, stairs, railings, etc. on weekends and holidays to get the house as baby-ready as possible. 

Then our sweet P arrived! Construction was all but forgotten in a ocean of glorious baby cuddles, poopy diapers, and trying to figure out how to be parents. 

Now, we find ourselves creeping up on two years of house-building and wondering where the time went. In all truth, it has sometimes been a discouraging process in which we feel we have taken two steps forward and 1.83 steps back. However, as our little girl's first birthday approaches and we see construction picking up momentum again, we're so thankful for what this house has already given us. We have a warm, safe home to call our own and to care for our baby in. We have a stable, mortgage free place to live, which has come to mean even more than we originally imagined in this context of pandemic. We're happy, healthy, and housed. 

That's pretty great.