One thing that has caught my interest these past few years are small homes. A few years ago they were such a small concept that nobody had really heard of them. Google searchs would turn up nothing most of the time. Now… you can google small homes and get hundreds of hits. Perhaps more.
In this day and age where social acceptance is becoming less dictated by keeping up with the Joneses and more about satisfaction with yourself and how your life affects this planet.. you are seeing a movement. Yes, there is a movement going on out there and it’s one that is telling the system that we are not going to listen to you and your rules anymore. This is not a George Orwell novel… you arent actually in charge of my life… I am. I am going to live in a house of my choosing and you can’t do a damn thing about it. Yes… its that kind of movement. Right up my alley.
So… visit often and check out the links and articles of interest that I post here. Viva la vie bohemme.
Scott
I came across a wonderful video on the small house movement over at Youtube.com and felt like sharing it with you. Sit down and relax a bit and take a listen would you?
what is considered a small home? i live in a bungalow in sw calgary and like to think we live small too, but maybe not?
A fair question for sure. How many square feet is your place? It really depends on you and your needs and what you feel comfortable with and how you sustain it and it sustains you really. For 7 years my ex-wife and I lived without issue in a 400 sq ft home. She didnt mind but I loved it. I like small spaces. Always have. When I think of small home living… I tend to think under 400 sq ft. Anything larger than that is starting to really be a waste of space. Thats my opinion of course. What purpose does each room have? Bathroom? To clean yourself and take care of um…ahem..”business”. How much space do you need to do that? How about the kitchen? To cook food right? How much space do you need there? The bedroom? Sleep. Not much room needed there. It’s the people who spend a great deal of their lives entertaining that have an issue with space really. It’s hard to entertain in small living spaces I will concede. I just ask myself this question… whats more important… money saved and a smaller carbon footprint… or my social status?
In the end its a personal choice. I can find no fault in anyones choices except those living terribly frivolous. In this day and age with the knowledge we have about global warming… anybody driving an SUV and living in anything over 2000sq ft should really shake their heads. If they did… I wonder if they would hear anything inside? lol
Cheers mate.
Well… I’m a wreck! Nervous as hell. I am taking the plunge and continuing to move ahead with my plans towards my Tumbleweed home. The step I took today was in getting a 20′ motorhome to live in. This is the step I need to take in order to bank cash. It’s the cash I need to build the Tumbleweed. It’s the Tumbleweed that will allow me to continue to bank cash so I can actually retire one day and also have some money for my daughters education when she is older. Damn money!! I hate that we need it so much. Maybe as the years go by and once my daughter is long gone into her own life as a young adult, perhaps then I might start looking at an even more extreme way of life living completely off the grid where money is no longer needed all that much. That would be grande. Ah well, thats too far ahead to really consider. Right now however, I need to start planning for the RV lifestyle.
I have been reading for days upon days on it and got it pretty near cased. What I need to do now is put the knowledge to work and apply it. The motorhome is a bit smaller than I would have liked but then… in a way it’s priming me and my daughter for the day we move into the Tumbleweed. The RV has completely functioning stove, fridge, furnace, toilet, water, electrical, etc. It runs like a charm and is pretty well setup for a small unit. I think my cat will adjust slowest. lol. Cats are great though, they adapt to any environment as do kids. I feel a bit guilty exposing my daughter to this for the next 12 months but at the same time, I need to look at it differently. She is going to take something from this that will be beneficial in her future for sure and kids really are far more resilient than we ever give them credit for. Being in such a small space will force us to be more interactive with each other and more than likely be outside just that much more. If anything, it will make us even closer if you can imagine that.
Well, here are pics of the beast as it is right now. I will post pictures later on down the road when we get settled in and are actually living in it like a home.
Well, I picked up the machine this weekend. Paid a whopping $200 for it. What a deal. Yes, it runs. Yes, everything works in it. Actually… the guy was just tired of having it and needed the space for it urgent so he was willing to give it away. I couldnt do that though… I offered him the two bills. Right now there is an alternator issue…I’m pretty sure its the regulator. Because of this… I chose to tow it to site rather than risk driving it and have the battery die while on the highway. Wouldnt be too cool. So… now I’m broke. Again. lol.
I spent the past few days working on it a bit, spent last night in it while it snowed then froze over. I need to clearly spend a few more bucks insulating this unit before I feel its ready to invite a 7 yr old little gir (my daughter) to spend any time in it. It’s one thing for me to rough it but it just wouldnt be fair to put her in that environment. Maybe I’m just a softie and want my daughter to be safe and sound. Can you blame me?
Anyways, I worked out a deal with my landlord where I am going to take on a roomie in the months ahead thus lowering my costs and then come spring, I will do the live-aboard thing. When the weather is warmer, THAT is a much better time to do trial runs on this sort of thing. It gives me a few months to work on it (even if those months are the cold ones. Ick).
So… there you have it. Not diving directly into the deep end just yet. As much as the impetious side of me wants to… it’s the matured side of me full of all kinds of wisdom that is yielding. I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers.
So, its been a few weeks and I have been slowly making some changes, bringing stuff into it and so on. I have insulated the undercarriage a bit, put wind blocks around the base to keep out the chill, put plastic on the windows… and started stuffing insulation in nooks and cranny’s I am finding. There is still some drafts and only some cans of that expanding foam will take care of that. I will be doing that in a few weeks. My next purchase will be tank heaters so the grey and black water tanks dont freeze up. Its not too much of an urgent matter though… I dont plan at this point to move in until perhaps January. It all depends. When it gets real cold around that time, I will do some test runs on my own for a few nights and see how painfull it gets if at all. If it is too cold, I will wait until feb or so before moving in. I dont want to be introducing my daughter to an extreme environment if it is untested.
Here are pics of how it looks now. It has plenty of mood lighting. The pics are darker due to it being taken at night time and there is no flash on my camera like the ones taken above at the start.
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