Monthly Archives: September 2012

Newish Utility Cupboard

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Laura

A few days ago I took out the shelves that I had been using in the kitchen of THO.  I built them last summer out of left over lumber from the house construction but did not find them deep enough to be good practical storage for dishes and so forth. When I took them down I thought that they would make a really great utility cupboard for tiny building supplies such as nails and screws, extra hinges and thingamajiggers.  I decided to put it up on the South facing wall inside of the cloth porch.  Truthfully, I had this stuff in one of those big exterior use plastic storage bins with all the stuff like the big tarps, string, rope, chain, oil and so on, and this was a nuisance because the containers were constantly popping open and dumping.  Can you just about hear me cursing?

Only problem with the idea of repurposing this, is that I wanted to put it up high and and I was both too short and not quite strong enough to get them up there on my one and screw the things in.  So, it turned out good that my husband decided to come down to help me with this task on the weekend.  I held it up and he drilled it to the wall.  Bammo-presto, in a few seconds the job was well on it’s way!

After this, he put on some 1×3 to trim it up while I attached hinges to some left over 12 inch wide boards from the kitchen construction, for doors.  Oddly, I also had two hook and eye catches in the odds and ends that would eventually go in here, so I put one inside to hold door one closed and then I put the other one on to hook the two together.  I also coated them with lemon oil although I am not sure that this is strong enough for exterior use, but if they start to look ratty I will simply finish them later.

In future, I will have to stand on a step ladder to reach any of the small thingies in the newly reused cupboard – but even so, I think that this is markedly more practical, than having to root around and find them in the abyss outside!

The bonus is that the abyss itself, does not seem all that awful now either!  Funny how simple stuff makes life so much easier sometimes!

Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Re-Use, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Sunny Honey Bunny

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Laura

Waking up at Tiny House Ontario is really nice, particularly when the dogs are there and not in a hurry to get out of bed but rather prefer a little cuddle and a tummy rub.  This morning was one such beginning.   Honey Bunny (the red chihuahua) loves to sit in the sun, I often find her chasing sunny spots around as they move throughout the day.  She was so sweet and cuddly this morning.

My husband made a surprise visit down because there are a couple of jobs that require two people’s hands.  I had mentioned this problem, so he drove down with the four dogs just to help me.  Thanks Hj!  We have been doing some work today, but stopped now for a baked potato and to use the internet because we needed to take a quick trip to Rona for some wood and lemon oil.

This photo is the sun coming in from the West – where in the morning it comes through the East.  Still this is, essentially, what I wake up to at THO.

The wonderful painting on the dresser is by Kingston artist Geoff Smith.  I purchased this from him a few months ago and have not yet decided how to frame it.  I loved the bridge, life seems to always be a series of going through things.  The painting seemed to me to be a material visual of this.  How would you frame this one, if it were in your Tiny House?

Categories: Dogs, Family, Friendship, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Big Bonny and Tree Hugger

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Laura

Bonny is a huge oak tree.  She lives near the end of my driveway, since long before my driveway, and since long before I existed.

When my girlfriend Colleen Murphy came to visit, she took a number of photos of her.  We also noticed a coon up in her branches and today when I walked the dogs, I found that the coon was scurrying around up there, so Bonny must be her home.  I took a couple of photos of Colleen with Bonny and wanted to share the joy!

FYI: At about five foot up Bonny’s circumference is about five metres; I guess at her base she is more like 8 -9 metres.  She is a real living giant.

Categories: Environmentalism, Forest, Friendship, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Sustainable living, View | 1 Comment

This Morning

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Laura

This morning when I woke at Tiny House Ontario, it was not the forest, but the phone that greeted me.  A call about my computer and then another call to meet my cousin Sandy at the family graveyard.  I had never been there before, because no one seemed to know how to find it, but he had been brought there by my Great Uncle George when he was young and remembered vaguely.  We met there this morning about about 9:00 am.

I won’t share where it is unless you are family and want to know, but I will share that it is a bit of an odyssey to get there.  When we arrived there was just one stone visible and a little marker that says J McC.  Sandy remembered that there were more and had a trowel so we checked under the moss and found that there were a number of bits.  Here is what we found of our ancestors headstones as well as the ruins from the original house, well, barns, outbuildings.

The thread of belonging for this is:  The McConnell’s married into the Hendersons who married into the Comptons, who married into the Rickards, who married into the Morelands.  The former farm is on a Kingston escarpment where the water runs sulfur.

I think that these folks are my great, great, great grandparents – but am not 100% sure, Sandy will look at his notes.  It will be cool to get them up on Ancestry.com because they will not exist there having been buried for the last 40 years or so.

Categories: Family, Kingston, Open your eyes, View | 4 Comments

Funny Drawers

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Laura

This Tiny space under the stairs has been driving me insane!  It is about 4 square feet of floor space but only about 12 inches of not very functional (low) kitchen counter top.  The thing is, that I knew if I could put drawers in there, that they would be totally wonderful because they would quadruple the space.  It is a work in progress and eventually, I will inset a pull out cutting board right under the counter top.  My grandparents house had these and they are super practical because they make more counter space by just pulling them out.

Cupboards would be easier and less expensive to build, but I enjoy cooking and to do this, one needs to have ingredients.  Kitchen drawers are simply a lot more funtional than cupboards, particularly in a Tiny space.

I really did not know what to do, so I googled, Utubed and so forth until I found a super easy way to do it.  Then I started a little bit at a time.  I went to Rona about ten times to get stuff.  The men who work there were really nice to me and cut everything perfect!  The drawers run really smooth and when the front face gets on there none of the yucky understuff that I am showing you in these photos will show up.

Since today was the last day that I had the rental car, so I picked up the front boards and had them cut to size too, but I thought I would wait to do the rest in the morning because today I actually felt like catching up on my blog posts.  Perhaps I will finish the job tomorrow or the next day?

Categories: Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments