Money

Gaining Comforts

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Laura

Tiny House Ontario has become a lot more comfortable this year.  A little bit of rearranging, turning the cupboard door, the W/C (non addition) through the side window have all made things feel a bit bigger and easier to access.  It all helps to make the space feel better even though it is not yet completed.

Here is what it looks like now.

Due to the fact that we pay as we go with her, THO is very much a project that is still underway.  The major ones to do here are (in order of operation) the flooring ($1500 and time), the kitchen (drawers, 12 volt fridge and 2 burner cooker – $2000), the furnace ($1500), the well (plus solar and hand pumps -$7000).  None will be done this year unless we fall into a little bit of money and if this happens the furnace will jump que so that we can use THO more comfortably and with more safety this winter.

Categories: Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

LaMar Alexander

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Laura

Thank you Devlin for sharing LaMar Alexander with me!

He is very clear and he has cheap ebooks, which I am going to get today!

Categories: Environmentalism, Money, Off Grid, Open your eyes, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny house | Leave a comment

Somewhere Between Hard Knocks and Sloths

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Laura

An old friend Steve, wrote to me a while ago and said, “no offence meant here, but Tiny House Ontario is practically a hotel when compared to a hunting camp”.  “Yes, this is the point”, was my answer.  I have thought a lot about what Steve said and you know, he is not the only one either who puts these questions to me.  My cousin Irene says that she wonders about me (she thinks I have gone mad).  She has said to me more than once, “I lived that life for many years and I don’t understand why you want to go back to that!”

It is not about giving up on myself like men do in a hunting camp.  It is also not about doing without, or making due, like it was for my cousin Irene.  I simply don’t have five children to take care of in a home with no conveniences – I really do not know how women survived those hard times!  I do not idealize these times.  I do however idealize the less consumeristic life that people lead before all this advertising mania took over our lives.

There is a point to Tiny House Ontario and there are also several lines that I am not comfortable crossing.   Still, the lines are fuzzy when it comes to the way that I live.  I found this year when I was moving in, that I was not worried at all about plumbing, running water, electricity, but I did worry about two things.  Firstly, I needed to get the in-house built because of the weirdo that I picked up on here and secondly, how would I paint without a studio?  Now I have a bathroom – but I have not yet painted – but this may be just an issue of being so busy!  Time will tell me.

The Tiny House objective is NOT to lead a hard life.  I don’t always intend to live with no heat, plumbing, water, lights… so why do it now?   It is hard to explain even to myself, what I am trying to do.

Here is what I mean, with water as an example.

It is great to have running water and taps.  I get that!  Really I do!  Turn the tap or flush the toilet and presto snapo, there it is to take care of your needs.  Why would I want to give that up?  I mean, we need to have water to live.  We drink, cook, and wash up after cooking with it; we also need it for personal bathing, and cleaning house.  All of these needs are equally important for normal living (not for survival).  Why would I want to live without water?  I cannot live without water but I can, I found, easily live without running water.  Simply put, until I have a well installed, I have do my own running for water.  Fortunately, I have multiple sources of water within walking (or short driving) distance.  I have a few jugs that I can carry from my friend’s homes without having a vehicle to get them.  I have found that I can comfortably live with about 10 litres of water a day.  It is not difficult or even a hardship to plan through this requirement.  Still, if I did not have friends or family there, even this would become impossible, so I am grateful to them for allowing me to be a sponge (BAHAHAHA).

Along with cooking and cleaning with this 10 litres of water, I sponge bathe daily, wash my hair every third day, but even so, I need to shower weekly.  Thankfully, Liisa allows me to do this at her house, still, I think that the rain water shower will be great once it is fully hooked up.  I think, that with this connected that I will be able to reduce my dependence on gasoline because I drive to and from Liisa’s home for my weekly wash up.  Laundry, I bring to town – I do not pull out the scrub board much.

I guess, what I am saying is that my objective is not to live in a hunting camp.  I like things nice and I do also like to bathe and keep my hair looking fresh.  Tiny House Ontario is not about living a life of total hardship (or isolation).  I will in fact, put in a well with a hand pump as soon as money allows me to do this with cash.  My objective is to have a property without having a mortgage on it.  I don’t want any more debt than the mortgage on my Hamilton home (OK… I don’t want that either – but you know what I mean.  I hope.).

My objective is to build the most comfortable and ecologically sustainable life that I can with the least amount of money.  It is not an exercise in hardship.  It is an exercise in self sustainability and kinship with those around me.  As time and money dictate improvements will come.  A little at a time.  Tiny House Ontario is a work in progress.  I am not sweating the things that I could use there.  Still, if you know anyone who digs wells, donates solar arrays,  donates and installs septic systems, donates and puts on siding, has a tiny 12 watt fridge or a two burner interior propane cooker… all for free… let me know.  I am happy to bring on the conveniences.

Just because it is Tiny… does not mean that it is all free – but it also does not mean that it has to be awful either.   If only I had a money tree…

Really, honestly, I am totally happy with the model below.  A few cents at a time and with this, I grow a beautiful green life

Categories: Environmentalism, Forest, Friendship, Materialism, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Here begins the…

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Laura

I have looked in to putting a small addition on to the Tiny House.  I was thinking about a 4.5×9 foot or 40.5 foot (footprint) lean-to style addition which would have a bathroom with running rain water and I would have also moved the kitchen out there as well so that I could have a little desk under the stairs for painting.  I felt that it was important not just because of the bear that was seen there last year but because a person who strikes me as sort of a weirdo found this website and he feels a little threatening.  I am not too keen on running into him at night with my pants down to tell you the truth.  I think an indoor bathroom has suddenly become a requirement this year.  BUT… Building inspector weighing in and basically the short version of what is said is: “you cannot do this”.  So, there it is.  No addition but you can have multiple under 120 square feet footprint places that are not attached to each other…

Still, I want a bathroom not just for safety reasons but one with running rain water and I need the water from the roof surface in order to collect enough to make this feasible.  Therefore I have to have something close.  I returned to the idea of putting a galley at the front but my friend Liisa stopped by and suggested that I turn it and this was a great suggestion!  Thanks Liisa!

This little semi closed in “deck” 4×8 with a 4×4 footprint bathroom will be right off the front door .  One will have to go outside of Tiny House Ontario to use it, but it will be on a screened in deck with a covered roof and this will be put on deck blocks – unattached so that if there is a problem I can move it.  I know – it will not be easy to move a 4×4 structure but I do have friends with tractors that I am sure will help me if I get into any sort of bind.  I don’t expect any problems because I won’t attach the buildings to one another – I will simply put up a bit of flashing on the house to keep water from going in between where they will meet at the roof (of the covered deck)/wall (of Tiny House).

The GREAT thing is that when my cousin Kenny dug the hole where the gravel was put in and pounded down, he made this quite a lot bigger than the cement would be.  Great idea because the gravel allows for fantastic drainage.  Great too, because now I just have to add the cottage blocks at the correct depth and they should stay put very well, and even if they do sink a bit it is reasonably easy to correct a small structure like this with a car jack.

So far the deck blocks cost me $70.  The 2×4’s were left overs and I have still two more for reinforcing it.  I have to buy some more 2×4’s a used window and door and a screen door as well as some plywood… I have 2×6 and the steel roof already.

I will let you know what it costs and show you more photos when I have this all done.

Categories: Building code, Kingston, Money, Off Grid, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

The Trees: Speaking to the Issue

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Laura

My friend Colleen and I were chatting this morning, as we do from time to time.  Our chats are filled with banter about animal ethics, environmental issues, and we also very often speak about the problematic ways in which human beings behave.  There is often an emphasis on sheeplism and our frustrations in dealing with this.

During our banter, she mentioned a song called The Trees which is both written and performed by the iconic Canadian rock band Rush.  Since I have always been about as far away from the mainstream as possible, I had never heard this song.  My loss.  It is really great; meaningful on a lot of levels.

The way that this song connected to something that has been on my mind for the last bit was timely.  For the last few days I have been thinking a lot about the rules.  Not the dating book series, but the rules of society.  These rules, while put in place for the good of the whole, lost sight of a lot of things that are perfectly sensible.  Specifically, I am speaking about Tiny Houses and the Bylaws that prohibit people from making choices that are better for the land, environment, mental health and in a million and one ways are greater than any McMansion can ever possibly be.

I have for three days had the story on my mind about the fellow who bought some acres in the US and whose neighbour harassed him from the day that he moved there.  The story* messed up on so many levels, sort of Deliverance meets the Tiny House movement.  The post is interesting but here is my synopsis of it this Deliverance story, the blogger bought land and put a tiny house on it.  He hoped to live there for two years but made it only 5 months, in the time that he lived there he was constantly harassed and subjected to all sort of crazy from a weirdo next door (my words, not his).

The question is, who would you rather have for a neighbour?  A quiet person whose house is so small that you can’t see it and who leaves the land as natural as it was when the planet formed, or a lout who blares his music, lets his kid, big scary dogs and insanity into your life every day just because you happen to live next door?  You guessed it, the lout called the government and they are making him remove his Tiny House from his land.  It seems wrong that an innocuous Tiny House can be considered wrong in anyone’s mind.

I am of the opinion that the legality of Tiny Houses should not be questioned.  This should not be an issue.  If indeed laws are put in place to protect people then who exactly is this law protecting?  Why would anyone think that a Tiny House is dangerous?

Is this because refusing to participate in a consumer lifestyle is not acceptable and therefore a crime?

Here are the wonderful lyrics to the song that I think speaks to this issue.

“The Trees”

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas
The trouble with the maples
(And they’re quite convinced they’re right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade
There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream ‘Oppression!’
And the oaks just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
‘The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light’
Now there’s no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw
.
.
Categories: Art, Environmentalism, Forest, Materialism, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments