Kitty Mischief

If you follow our Facebook page, you’ll know we are fond of a certain feline that likes to visit our tiny house.  He thinks it’s his clubhouse, naturally, and loves to explore all the nooks and high-up places.

Sometimes he beckons at the door, wanting us to let him in his “big house” (Nate’s mom’s house).  Other times he wants to hang out in his “clubhouse” and search for messes to make, or – if we’re lucky – simply a place to nap.

We look forward to getting a pet of our own someday but in the meantime we are enjoying  this little guy — even if he does get into mischief!  He loves exploring the depths of our cabinets and testing the integrity of our windowsills.    As I am writing he is perched sleepy-eyed on the cabinets overhead, finally tuckered out.  When he wakes he’ll be cuddly, but not for long.  He has a busy day ahead.

In other news, our stairs are here!  (As you can see they are kitty-approved).  Our helper Colin designed and built them.  They are much easier to use
than a ladder and give us more storage space (eventually we’ll put storage cabinets underneath the stairs).

We’re looking mighty dapper today, aren’t we?

Finally Living Tiny!

It’s been almost 3 weeks since moving into our tiny house!  Now that we’ve settled in a bit, here’s how things are going so far:

THE TRIUMPHS

Cooking.  I was worried about how our cooking routine might change when transitioning to tiny, as we have only a crockpot, microwave, and single burner hotplate for cooking appliances.  For simplicity’s sake, we’ve been shifting more from big made-from-scratch meals to sandwiches, salads, and other easily-prepared foods (e.g., veggies & hummus; protein smoothies).  Meals like this require minimal clean-up, which is important for our sensitive greywater system.  And since we wash everything by hand, it’s easier on us too!

We also grill a lot outside – even in November!  We learned that cooking indoors can contribute to excess smells and humidity in such a small space.  Fortunately, we can run our bathroom fan to vent out stale air.  While the crockpot doesn’t put steam into the air, it’s not the most pleasant thing to have everything smelling like chicken pot pie for a day or more (we actually did make pot pie in the crockpot, pie crust and all!)  Other meals we’ve made in the tiny house so far include tikka masala, pesto pasta, and tacos.  Not bad!

Storage.  For being only 300 sq ft, our house has a good amount of storage.  We have plenty of cabinet space for dry goods and cooking stuff.  We even have a dedicated hutch for our dishware.  Right now it’s just plastic plates and old mugs, but hopefully soon we will have some cute dishes…though we don’t need many!  Clothing storage has been more of a challenge, but we managed to fit both of our winter wardrobes (minus our few pieces of extra-fancy attire).  We just assembled our coat closet and dresser from IKEA.  Of course, we will need to switch out clothes when summer comes, but we are accustomed to doing that anyways.

The bathroom is also coming along nicely!  This week we installed a medicine cabinet and
corner shelf unit. With ample space under the sink, there’s not much more storage needed!

It’s so fulfilling to be finally able to enjoy our hard work!  Yet we are far from done!  There are still lots of little improvements that we’ll be working on over the winter  🙂

THE TROUBLES

Fireplace.  Mere days after finally moving into our tiny house, we discovered a big problem with our propane fireplace!  Upon removing the glass for routine cleaning, we noticed huge amounts of soot in the firebox and on the artificial logs.  Something’s not right, and we can’t run the fireplace until we figure out what.

Luckily, our electric space heater is doing a decent job keeping the house warm.  Thank goodness for our great insulation, electric blanket, down duvet, and hot tea!  Hopefully we can get our fireplace running properly before the truly cold season comes.

Humidity.  A chronic nemesis is indoor humidity.  Getting it below 60% in the tiny house has been a challenge (for the record, relative humidity should be around 40-50%, and even lower once the weather gets below freezing).  What happens when it gets too high?  First, humidity makes the air feel sticky and provides an environment for mold, dust mites, and other nasties to flourish.  Most importantly, it contributes to condensation forming on window panes, which can cause damage if the water is repeatedly settling on the wood frame.  And if condensation is on the windows, it is probably happening inside the walls… not good!!!

Did you know that you emit 1/4 cup of water into the air PER HOUR just from breathing??  After a night’s sleep, that means a lot of excess moisture in a small space.  While our tight building envelope is great for keeping heat in and preventing drafts, it’s bad at allowing humid indoor air to escape.  We run our bath fan for about a half hour each day to keep the humidity in check and slowly infuse fresh air into the house.  We found that this works better than a dehumidifier, and probably uses less electricity.

We learned that other preventative measures can help control humidity, such as:

• Limiting houseplants – they emit water vapor into the air
• Covering pots and use kitchen exhaust fan while cooking
• Using a bath fan while showering (and/or opening the bathroom window)
• Not hanging laundry indoors to dry
• Limiting use of gas ranges – water vapor is a by-product of burning gas

Now it’s time to sit back on our cozy couch and plan our next set of projects…

Our homemade back-of-couch table is perfect for holding decorations and the occasional cup of tea (or cocktail!)

It’s Turning Out Ok, for Having No Idea What We Are Doing

Now that we have our loft ladder and water system ready, we are almost ready to start sleeping in the tiny house!  As you can see from the photos below, the aesthetics are coming along, but we have been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work with our water system to get the house livable.

Earlier this week we wrapped our new 75′ water hose with aluminum foil, heated wire, and wrapped everything in foam insulation.  It took forever, but this will ensure we have running water all through winter.

Nate worked hard on the greywater system.  It is basically a 3′ deep hole filled with rocks and wood chips to filter outgoing water before it seeps into the ground.  Of course we will need to be super diligent about what goes down the drains.  It’s not a high tech system, but we don’t plan to use a lot of water for the time being.  We are basically “test driving” the house over winter and can keep showering at Nate’s Mom’s house or at the gym (if we get around to joining one!).  In spring we plan to move the tiny house to a semi-permanent location…still working out the details.

We also filled our 40lb propane tank so we can use our fireplace.  It makes the house warm fast, and the heat lingers even hours after shutting off the fireplace … I am confident we will have no trouble staying warm, especially up in the lofts.

Enjoy the photos!

Making Light, Water, & Fire!

The ceiling fan matches our floor!

We have lightttt!  And water.  And fire 🙂   What’s left?  Lots of trim, siding, and touch-ups!  And getting our furniture and other decor.  Our fridge and couch are on the way; yes, we’ll have an adorable little loveseat!

Interested in the technical details of our utilities?  See below.

Light.  We have an electrical panel consisting of two 15 amp GFI breakers.  When we’re ready to move in, we will simply wire into the electrical panel of our host house using a heavy-duty cord to get electricity.  Along with the ceiling fan and groovy blue pendant lights, we have a track light under the loft, sconces in the bedroom, undercabinet lights, and of course bathroom lighting.  No dark corners here!

Water.  Our water pipes are within the interior of the house rather than inside the exterior walls as is customary.  We did this to minimize the chance of frozen pipes and to keep our insulation as intact and efficient as possible.  The downside is that we now have to hide the ugly water pipes!  At least our utility  closet and vanity cabinet keeps most of the plumbing out of sight.

Fresh water comes from a garden hose which we can attach to the side of the house.  Waste water (grey water) from the sinks and shower flow out through a single pipe under the trailer.  We plan to create an artificial wetland to responsibly dispose of grey water and will scrutinize what goes down the drains.  It might be extra work to manage water like this, but it’s part of our goal of living conscientiously.  We don’t need toilet plumbing as we will use a composting toilet – more on that later ^_^

Fire.  When we started our fireplace for the first time, it warmed the whole house despite having the windows open.  I can’t wait to curl up on the couch in front of the flickering flames!  The fireplace has a remote so we can adjust the temperature even when we’re in the loft.

Like the fireplace, our water heater is propane-fueled and utilizes external air for combustion.  We originally had a less expensive water heater but ultimately bought a safer, more reliable, and more powerful direct-vented model (Rinnai v65i).  This unit fits in our utility closet and provides hot water on demand.