Evolve

Posted on December 19, 2020 by Laura
  • My Time Reaching (self portrait), Artist Laura Lee Moreland
Girl with the Yellow Umbrella, Artist Laura Lee Moreland

It has been some time since I published anything here. This is because I am no longer living in my tiny house. Due to this, I felt it was dishonest of me to write as though I were.

Bella In and Out – Artist Laura Lee Moreland

Some of you may have noticed that I shut down the associated Facebook page about a year and a half ago when I was making the transition. This was because I was getting a lot of nonsense there from people who thought I was running a business or owed them information because of their misconception that blogging and living in a self built tiny house makes me a business. With around 80,000 followers there, it was a full time (not for pay) job, which was increasingly stress inducing, and really – to be completely honest – not part of my life objectives. I don’t want to give the impression that this was all unhappy! There are so many lovely people who I have come in contact here, and on my Facebook page. Still, there are trolls and goodness knows we don’t need those in our lives taking up our oxygen. So, those few nasty jerks pushed me (ironically) in the direction I wanted to be going, thanks for that!!

The Dancer, Artist Laura Lee Moreland

Fishy – Artist Laura Lee Moreland

So, here I am, a full time artist now, which was my evolvement plan – despite my housing situation. Extreme housing costs put this off for me for a long time now BUT, I had already moved in with my spouse to a small house (a little over 900 square feet) in Guelph Ontario. Here, I continue to concentrate on painting and (if Covid gets stopped) teaching in my home Atelier.

The Mathematician, Artist Laura Lee Moreland

As you see, I have attached a couple of examples of my work; if you are interested in seeing my evolvement, you can find me here:

https://www.instagram.com/atelieroflauraleemoreland/

https://www.facebook.com/AtelierofLauraLeeMoreland

https://atelieroflauraleemoreland.com

I wish to thank all of the readers I have had over these last ten years. I wish all of you well and hope for a better year in 2021.

Follow your dreams

❤ Laura

Malala, Artist Laura Lee Moreland

Categories: Tiny House Ontario | 7 Comments

Bunkie Give Away!

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Laura

You have all entered to win the free bunkie from Bunkie Life I hope!

If not, please do so here!

The draw is in 12 days!

You do not need to make a purchase to win, the contest is in its second year and it is an advertizing promotion. The company owner wants you to know his company name if you ever want to buy a Bunkie!

(if you are worried about the legitimacy of this give away you can check out the information about it on bunkie life.com or google the contest.  There are no strings, YEAH!)

 

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Categories: Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

ATTENTION: LENNOX & ADDINGTON and CITY OF KINGSTON!!!

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Laura

I can’t help but sing, The times they are a changin’.  Feel free to play this in the background while you read along.

 

Alicia wrote to me (thank you) to let me know that she found this gem while looking around the Stone Mills Township website.  It is absolutely awesome news for those who own property in Lennox and Addington.

Not only are you able to build a secondary dwelling on your property that you can rent out, but it looks like for the time being you can apply for a $20,000 grant to help with the costs.

While looking all of this up to be sure that it was accurate, I also found out that the City of Kingston has also opened up for secondary dwellings!  And they too have a grant program for home owners!!!

When I posted this, my co-Admin Lulu (awesome thanks!)  let me know that Simcoe County is also allowing secondary units and the have a $25,000 grant available as well!

Since Canadians are not accustomed to having secondary dwellings, I will share some options – my suggestions would be to match the style of your house so that the smaller house fits your neighbourhood.  Fence off a small section of your yard or property  and put in a separate driveway, so that that the neighbouring house is clearly seperate from your own.  If you are in town, corner lots are ideal for this.  If you are rural it is just a matter of finding a place on your land which is most comfortable to separate.

  • You can build yourself and rent out the secondary dwelling.  (requires personal investment)
  • You can look for someone who wants to build a tiny house and have a land lease drawn up.  I would suggest something like a 50-100 year transferable lease with the homeowners having the first option to buy.   (requires very little personal investment)

I am SO HAPPY that these options are finally opening up!

 

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Categories: Tiny House Ontario | 6 Comments

Tow-Tek Trailers

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Laura

I would like to thank Tow-Tek Trailers from Mitchell Ontario for their generous donation to the proposed Tiny House Community in the area of Kitchener Ontario. It is nice to see that a trailer company that really believes in the tiny house movement!

I have been communicating with the owner of this company, Ron for the last few months, fact is, that he has an excellent product and has done a quite a bit of research so that he can understand not just our needs, but what we are looking for in a trailer.

The consequence is that he is producing and selling absolutely gorgeous trailers that are custom made for tiny housers in this province (or outside of it too I suppose). The work is excellent and the prices are fair too; particularly considering the quality of this product. Fact is, Ron and his guys will even frame it up for you to your specs!

I invite all of you who are building a tiny house on wheels to take a peek at their product at thier facebook page and give them a like.

Tow-Tek is located at 3882 Wellington Road South in Mitchell Ontario and can be reached at 519-872-7855

Here is some eye candy for you!

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Categories: Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cloth Porch Closure

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Laura

Every year Hj and I close the cloth porch at the end of fall.  This year is no exception to the rule, though we did find it difficult to do it this year because of the rain!  As my friend Colleen points out, we girls with curly hair could expand so much that we will take flight if the wind hits us!  HA!

The problem with the rain though is that I don’t want to capture water in the porch before I close it up tight, because it is then difficult to get rid of the dampness, and it turns into a sort of green house.  YUCK!

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Photo stolen from Colleen Murphy (who is not the only one with Moxie)

Though it does not look like a big deal, every year the job of closing up the porch is massive!  Up and down the ladder getting everything perfect and closed so that the tarps do not billow, takes some head work as well at time.  It is not a physically difficult job with the exception of moving and climbing up and down the ladder; just annoying.

So when Hj and I were fixing the porch this year, I was also executing a plan to use a new system for this as well.

What I wanted is a UV protected (to keep algae from growing), clear, reinforced, cover that can can be easily rolled up in the spring and then rolled down in the fall.  For this I needed to purchase some items:

3x clear polyethylene 10×12 tarps @ $15.99 each =$32

1x box of 3 1/2 coated screws @ $9.99 = $10

10x 8 foot long 2×2 pressure treated boards @4.43 =$45

2x 12 foot long 2×2 pressure treated boards @ 2.00 (heavily discounted) =4

60x large heavy duty washers (already had these)

50 feet of nylon rope @$3.38 = $4

1x clear tarp tape @10.  = $10

TOTAL $105.

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Should any of you also be considering closing your porch I will share my method.  Over the door, I simply removed the panel that has the cloth in it and covered it with tarp, then Hj put it back in place.  This was done with the remnant of the side tarps that had to be cut to size folded at the edge and taped using special UV and weather resistant tarp tape.

Once they were cut to fit over the existing boards (longer at the bottom and top, they were rolled onto the new 2×2 header boards and stapled on.  Then the header board was screwed in place, paying attention to put the nylon ropes up that will tie them in place in the warm months.

After the header board and ropes are up then a base board is attached to the bottom being careful to roll this up on the OUTSIDE so that the tarp is against the wall tight, the bottom is then stapled on and rolled up then secured with large washers and screws when the tarp is both: tight against the wall, AND down all the way to the bottom board.

After the top and bottom are done, it is just a matter of cutting the 2×2’s to the right size for vertical edges, then use a screw with a large washer to secure these down.  The washers are to keep the screws from going in too far and to create a larger surface tension to hold the boards so that the tarps will stay.  We also put the screws through the grommets where these were available to us.

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In the spring, the vertical boards will be removed and numbered… and the tarps will be rolled up tight against the roofline.

Next fall, they will simply be unrolled and screwed down again at the bottom, and the side boards will be put back in place.  I estimate that opening and closing the porch now will be a half hour job instead of a two day ordeal.

With the cloth of the porch and the reinforcement lines of the tarps the porch is not really clear enough to see through (unfortunately); however, the porch is bright and wind free. In the sunny days it will be really warm out there as well.  We don’t heat the cloth porch, but use it for cooking, and doing dishes year around.  We also store our snow shoes there and use the  room to take off our boots and winter clothing.  It is a sort of “mud” room in the winter.

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The only unfortunate thing is that I did not think of making roll up tarps much sooner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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