KCI – Inspiration

This little house journey was probably first inspired by my love of the children’s book Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burns.

Andrew was a boy who liked to “build things,” but his family often scolded him for taking their things to use as building supplies.  So Andrew, goes off to a meadow and builds his own tiny house.  Soon every kid in town has joined Andrew and he builds them all houses to suit their personalities. One gets a house built over the creek so he can sail his toy boats; another gets a house in the trees so she can bird watch; another gets an underground house so she can  be with her pets who live underground. As a kid, I was amazed. First that anyone could build their own house, and second that you could have a house suited perfectly for you.

When I built this tiny house, my brother gave me the first annual Andrew Henry Award.  The tiny house inspired him to follow his own dream of buying the boat he’s always wanted. There will be years of renovating before it’s seaworthy, but he’s calling his Florida Trawler “Andrew Henry.”

Interestingly, Doris Burns lived in her own tiny house when she wrote her books.

“According to the blurb accompanying that book, her studio was “a small cabin where she spends the day at work after chopping enough wood to keep the fire going through the day, hauling two buckets of water from the pump for washing brushes and pens and brewing ‘a perpetual pot of tea’”. In 1965 Waldron Island was without electricity, telephone service, running water or merchants. All of her goods and supplies were brought by boat from the mainland.”  Wikipedia (Note – since I still own the book, I can verify that this is what the blurb says.)

In any case, reading Andrew Henry’s Meadow was life changing.  It planted the seed of a tiny house, dozens of books germinated the seed, and Jay’s workshop fertilized it.  The plans made all the difference.  Without them, I wouldn’t have known where to begin.  Obviously, Bob St. Cyr and his class did 95% of the hard labour.  Sure I paid the bills, and I wielded the odd hammer, but the little house only exists because of Bob, Bob’s class (especially Denny and Aaron) and Jay.

Thanks so much.  I’ll send a final blog after all the finishing details and decorating are done.

KCI-bedding down for the winter

We put the little house to sleep in November – we drained the water and locked the doors.  That was pretty much it.

When the roofers came they missed some areas that needed caulking, so we recorded all of these, used some tape to show where the problems were and hopefully it will get fixed asap.

Though the daytime weather was beautiful (13 degree celcius), it was quite cool in the evening.  Still we were toasty warm.  I guess two people in a tiny space generate a fair bit of heat.  We didn’t notice this in the summer because the windows were always open, and even in the warmest weather we stayed cool.  Conversely, we’re staying toasty in lower temperatures.  We didn’t use a heater, though we had a little ceramic one. We turned it on for about 15 minutes, and then it just wasn’t necessary.  We’ve got good sleeping bags so maybe that makes a difference.  Someday, I might install propane. For now, this will do. We’re not staying there in the winter for more than a night or two so this won’t be a problem short term.

My gram's dog bed

I love sleeping under the eaves and hearing the rain fall, it makes me fall asleep with a smile.

The little couch is actually a dog bed that belonged to my Gram.  It just fit through the tiny door.  We had to take the door off its hinges to fit it in, but it worked.  Of course, now I wish the dog bed was a few inches longer so it would butt up right to the walls.  The stool is also ancient.  I haven’t brought anything new into the tiny house for furnishings and that’s satisfying.  I did buy material for the dog bed cushion and stool, but even that was bought on sale and I did the sewing myself.

KCI- Ceiling paneling

We went up a couple of weekends to install the ceiling paneling and the end gables.  We got more proficient and by the second weekend we were flying along.  We won’t be touching anything else until the spring.  So all trim work and baseboards will wait until then. Still, the house looks wonderful and it is worth every penny.  For inspiration, in the last ten years, I’ve had a picture on my fridge of a woman reading in her tiny house, now I can replace that house with my house.  It’s very satisfying.

We’ve got a queen sized mattress in the loft and it feels quite roomy.  I can sit up without knocking my head; however, I’m five feet tall.  My husband has to be more careful.

KCI-metal roof

The metal roof went on and it’s spectacular – charcoal gray.  They’ll be adding the faschia and soffits on Monday.  We’ve been sleeping in it every time we go down to my parent’s property and it makes going there a dream.  Every morning, I wake up, get the newspaper, make a cup of tea and sit on my little couch and ENJOY. Yes, every minute is a complete pleasure.  I can’t wait to get my pictures up, the table made and the final paneling done.

KCI-sleeping on camp mats

We paid an electrician and a plumber to come and complete some of the tasks.  Another guy came to install glass into the door. We lucked out here because Kevin had a window that was the perfect size for the opening. He gave us the window for $45.  Bargoon.

I painted the door yellow and it looks pretty good.  It’s not as bold a yellow as I’d wanted, but apparently they don’t make the bold colour choice in an exterior paint.  If I’m still indifferent to the colour, I’ll repaint. Life is too short not to be bold.

We’ve been sleeping in the tiny house (I need to give it a name) for a few nights.  We’ve only been using camp mats but it works. The one thing I hadn’t anticipated (duh) was how often I need to climb down the ladder in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  Unless you have a strong bladder, it might be better to opt for a model with a bedroom downstairs.  Some nights we’ve slept downstairs and that’s been fine too.  One night our 18 year old slept downstairs and we slept up; there’s plenty of room for our 20 year old if he ever chooses to stay with us.  The beach makes everything worth the effort.  Swimming in Lake Huron is amazing.  (Side note — we swam in August. It’s now November, we’re not swimming this week!)

The kitchen drawers were installed, I just have to put the pine drawer fronts and knobs on. We’re still waiting for the shelves, but that can happen in September when the students can do it.  I moved my Value Village dishes onto the existing shelves and that made it feel like home.  I’ll pick up a piece of memory foam so we can retire the camp mats. My hip bones will thank me.

In one of the pictures below, you’ll see how this house was tarped for months before the metal roof got installed.

We’ve cut back a lot of the branches so that there won’t be too many problems. Still, they’re oak trees, so the acorns falling on the roof creates quite a noise.

The picture of my folks on the grass shows how lovely the property is; to the left of us, is a bank that leads to a large sandy beach.  The little house is parked about 250 feet away from this area. That’s the only downside; we don’t have a view of the lake from our wee house.  We’d have driven the house closer to the bank, but there were just too many trees in the way.

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