Stuff

A Beautiful & Practical Addition

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Laura

I have  been thinking a lot about space at Tiny House Ontario and thought, if I could get rid of the table and two chairs I would have a lot more space to move around.  I looked all over for a table that is the right height for eating and playing cards at the sofa as well as for writing and painting.  I could not find any small tables with drop leaves that are sturdy enough to take daily use.

As you all know, I have a very talented cousin, Vernie, who can build anything.  So I drew up some plans, and he gave it some thought (since I had no idea how it had to be built) and he just finished building a perfectly sublime, sturdy, functional, little drop leaf butternut table for me.

I picked it up today.  I can’t tell you how gorgeous it is, so I took photos.  I makes me really happy to have the opportunity to have Vernie and his family close by, but it is wonderful to have the opportunity to have him build me these custom pieces for my Tiny House.  Having his art around me, makes me feel so totally at home.

 

 

Categories: Art, Family, Friendship, Kingston, Magical, Ontario, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

House and Home

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Laura

It has been a couple of days since I last posted.  Basically, I have been at the Hamilton house working on my family tree stuff and fretting about the dental surgery that I will leave for shortly.  If all goes well I leave to go back to my beloved Tiny House Ontario tomorrow morning.

I think that this is what she will look like when I arrive only perhaps a little more fall like?

 

It is a funny thing because THO feels like home to me more than any other place I have ever lived, yet she is still so far from being finished.  Still, there are a lot of small jobs like eve troughs to the water barrels, covering the cloth porch,  flooring, stone patio needs laying, drive needs 5/8 stone on the drive and so on and so on.  This list of small but time consuming jobs will never end.  This is part of what I like so much about it.  I love projects.  Still there is HUGE/EXPENSIVE stuff too, that has to be done. THO has no heat, no kitchen appliances and only partially finished cabinets, no water running or otherwise, these take more time because of the cost.

I am nearing the second year of work on THO and bit by bit she becomes more complete, to be sure.  This year she got a lot of time and attention from me because I did not produce much in my creative life after my computer accident.  Still truthfully I did not spend as much time there as I wanted to.  Baby being broken twice, as well as visitors here in Hamilton, and a trip home for medical and another now for dental turned the 30 potential weeks of THO stay, into about 25 weeks there.  Missing 5 weeks of the year is a lot!  Next year I hope to do better.

 

Categories: Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario, View | 2 Comments

The Piles

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Laura

I have another confession.  I don’t want to be one of “those families”… you know who I mean… every neighbourhood has them.  Their places are run down, and half put together, they have stuff all over their yards that never seems to be used, just sits there rotting and taking up space.  If anyone was doing a project at their house, my neat-freak Mom used to say, “they need to clean that mess up because it is starting to look like the ____ ‘s place”.  You can fill in the blank for your particularly messy family.  My mom kept a very clean home and she did not like mess.  Mom, she would hate my piles!

These days they have a name for people who keep too much junk.  They even have a TV show about them, Hoarders.

The thing is, that there is a fine line between people who hoard and people who keep stuff because it is useful.  Artists often keep a lot of bits.  So too do people who tinker.  Me, I have a few left over building supplies which I am still using for projects.  It is not out of hand but takes up about a 12x 9 space… just as big a footprint as THO, so this, in my opinion is what makes it look so bad.

I put it all on the far side of the house, so that you can’t see it when you drive up, but from the cloth porch, there it is, a little hoard of stuff.  It would be nice to have a shed with some upper beams to slide all that stuff in.  A shed feels a bit like a slippery slope for allowing me to collect more stuff – but admittedly it would be handy for the rotation of seasonal gear, such as boots and sandals, snow shoes and flippers.

Fortunately, I live far enough away from others that the mess is not seen by anyone but me and my visitors.  Still, I wonder, would my remnants piles drive you crazy if you lived next door?  Be honest.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Off Grid, Ontario, Re-Use, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 4 Comments

Junk in the trunk

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Laura

This is a boring utility post which has to do with living at THO.  This is my garbage and recycling.  I had a lot of it because of the steel application on the outside.

Since my computer went for a swim, I have not felt much like writing/painting/visiting/being creative, so I thought I would concentrate on the errands/and small jobs that I have been putting off, so I needed to rent a car for a couple of days.  Getting rid of this, one one such errand.

I do not have garbage or recycling pick up and besides, I had a lot of steel bits that had to be dropped off at Kimco metal recyclers in Kingston.  Everything else went to the recycling depot.

Looks a whole lot tidier, but I still have a pile of small wood bits which would be excellent kindling for someone who burns wood.  If you do this, please bring an empty box and I will load it up for you to bring home.

Categories: Kingston, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Laura

Last night I went to a poetry reading in Kingston.  I was caught in the pouring rain which came to us at the tail end of the Issac storm.  I knew I would get wet but I went through it anyway.  To tell you the truth it was sort of fun!  There was lots of water so it was a bit like a ride at a water park.

We have had so little rain this year that I was glad to see it come.  It was nice to be soaked right to the skin.  Thing is that when I arrived I ran right in and only at the half time break when I wanted to get a card from my purse (tucked safely in my trunk) did I run back out in the rain again.

Turns out, my truck did not lock properly and it was gaping open when I went out.  The trunk was filled right to the top with water – about 6 inches deep.  The terrible thing about this, is that my camera and my Mac laptop were both totally submerged.  SUBMERGED.

Worse… My laptop had the only copy of the draft of my novel on it.  Plus all other writing outside of this blog.  Over a year of my writing disolved like sugar in tea.

I have brought it in to see if they can recover the data but I am not very hopeful.  I am sitting now at the public library posting.  I have huge tears rolling down my cheeks as I write and I feel like I have been kicked really hard in the stomach.

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UPDATE: After writing this – I remembered that I printed a hard copy of my novel, two months ago, so even with the data lost I can type it again!  Feeling like I can breathe again….

Categories: Drought, Original Art work of Laura Moreland, Stuff | Tags: , | 6 Comments