My oh my oh my!! What has happened in the last year? How has this all escaped from me? I could only say.... This is GOOD and BAD!

How great it is that I have not got caught up in the rat race but have gotten caught up in our home, our land, our garden, our adventures, our love! But, in the same breath it is so awful that I have forsaken this blog. I love hearing from everyone... all around the world who have adventured out of the rat race and simplified their lifestyle. I want to hear more. I want to learn more. I want to see what YOU are doing!

As for me....
The weather got cold and we decided to take a break from our Tiny House (House of Atlas) and move our work to the barn! We started preparing the barn for chickens, goats, our new dog, and maybe even a pig! Boy, we took on a new task that had a few surprises. We ended up getting several chickens, 2 goats, 32 rabbits, 3 peacocks, turkey, pot belly pig and a new Great Dane puppy. Having all of these animals around really started to give us a feel of homesteading! We were learning about vaccines, milking, raising babies, butchering, eggs, etc.

Once spring arrived and the rain came... we soon realized that our barn would need a lot more work before our animals could live in it. Rain came in all directions of the barn and soon flooded the land. It was literally a swamp that the animals were living in and it was not healthy! Sadly to say... we parted ways with most of the animals and focused on our garden. Gardening was such a learning curve! The kids learned to work the garden.. they learned the differences in herbs and what a few vegetables. We had always talked about cucumbers and which cucumbers would be the best for canning. As we studied and came across different plants... our cucumber selection turned into 14 different crops.

We canned alright! After giving away so much produce and eating some ourselves... we canned 22 Gallons of cucumbers! We learned so much about canning!










TJ and I have NEVER been in a position where we could take the kids on a vacation. Both of us had been to New Orleans previously. We fell in LOVE with the culture, the people, the environment, the music, the food, the smells (good and bad) and the weather! A few weeks before the schools spring break... we decided this was our chance. Our chance to show the kids what we love! Sure enough, we took a little getaway to New Orleans.








Summer came and the sun was HOT! School was out and the roads stayed HOT! We were running here to there and back. We decided to continue a few project that winter had placed on hold. Insulating under our home as well as finishing the underpinning and trim. We put the kids to work this summer building our fire pit also. We dug a huge 6-7 foot square hole about 5 feet deep. We laid concert blocks along the bottom and used clay and rock to form the sides and ring. As school was approaching we found ourselves getting busy with the kids and attempting to reinstate a routine and pattern. :)

What else can I say? School started back. The garden died away. Days started getting shorter. Our bodies started talking. TJ was diagnosed with RA and had a Gout flareup as well as a few stomach issues. Gastritis and acid reflex was not a welcoming sign. Antibiotics and several trips to the doctor and we are still fighting it. I, myself, had an Echo and EKG that showed a leaky valve... just something to watch as well as a total hysterectomy. Followed by Christmas!!!! What can I say? We have a wonderful family and our children are safe. We are loved and more than we can imagine! It has been a wonderful year and I promise not to wait this long for the next blog!!

Barn project is no easy project!

So.... we have taken a little break from the tiny house. We have some trim left, our bathroom not complete and our kitchen isn't complete. Our bathroom and kitchen are function able just not complete yet. It is mid December here in the Ozarks. We have had some really strangely nice days but it is getting pretty chilly. Our other BIG project is our barn.

The barn needed a lot of LOVE and work. We cleaned the old hay out, trimmed the trees and branches, nailed down the wind blown damaged tin, replaced a beam, tore out old stalls and rotten wood. The barn hasn't been used in years... except to store old hay.

We even did a little decorating on the old barn :)

None of this could have happened if it wasn't for the man of dreams!! TJ has been such an anchor in my life! He was right by my side when I was sick. He was next to me through the surgery and recovery. I know this is crazy but he has had my blood on his hands... my spinal fluids on his hands.... ugh!!! :) My point is this... even while our house is on a break.... TJ doesn't stop making my dreams come true. He doesn't stop. The barn was in pretty bad shape and now it housing 6 chickens, 21 rabbits, and 2 peacocks. :) Yep... he is pretty amazing!

About the barn again: We have 26 New Zealand rabbits that will be raising. The primary reason for getting them is for meat. This will provide our family with a lot of meat that is nutritious and delicious. We are eager to have meat from the rabbits and honestly... I am excited to try a new recipe. I'll post all about the recipe too! I'm also looking into their pelts and tanning the hides. Not sure what to do with them or what I can make but I'm sure I'll come up with something! :) Message me if you have any recommendations. 

If you haven't found us on Facebook... we are here > https://www.facebook.com/poordevilcreations

or 

Find us on Google+ under "House of Atlas"

Thanks for reading our blog and sharing our story!!

Stephanie Thompson

Here at the "House of Atlas" we have been very busy!!! We have both bathrooms up and running and usable! :)

WOOT WOOT!

Not only have we been extremely busy but we have also had a lot of fun getting our bathrooms complete. In the washroom we have a shower/tub, sink, toilet, hot water heater and washer/dryer. The wash room sees a lot of dirty clothes and washes a lot of dirty butts. :) With 5 kids... I did not want to down size on the washer and dryer. I felt that we needed full size units and let alone... it is running all the time. We also decided that we wanted and needed a 65 Gallon water heater. With total of 7 of us... we did not want to run out of hot water if we needed to take back to back showers. We also decided to go electric so that we did not have to vent a gas water heater. Our goal was to put NO holes through the roof for vents. We didn't have the room to put vents through the roof anyways because the kids lofts are there. The vents would have been going straight through their space. So... we did electric water heater.

We had the opportunity to use some items that we have carried around for awhile. Items that most people considered junk or trash.... but we see STUFF!  :P We used TJ's great grandfathers suitcase as our vanity in the washroom. Harvey Jones carried that suitcase for years and would be tickled to see it as our vanity top. We also bought a little galvanized bucket for 5.99 at Tractor Supply here in Harrison AR. We then picked out the faucet at Home Depot along with a sink drain setup. Then... we put them all together. After it is said and done... we have $70 invested in the sink vanity.

 

We did a very similar set up in the main bathroom. However, we found an awesome old wash tub at the flea market. We paid $12 for the wash tub. TJ's pawpaw had the old wood hoarded up in the barn. We bought the drain setup at Home Depot and the faucet from Lowes.  With a tiny house, you also have less storage of course. For our main bathroom vanity, we used an old toolbox that TJ had. I cleaned it up real nice and lined the drawers with mats. We used an old Mobil Oil Can to hide the plumbing and used the other piece next to the toilet for extra toilet paper and cleaners.

Oh and I can't forget the shower/tub excitement! We had to make custom shower rings for the tubs. This only took a little thinking... we wanted to make sure that the shower curtain rings would moves all around the ring and be free from the anchors. So, this is what TJ designed and made.

Recycled and beautiful!

On July 31st, 2014 I shared a post titled: To the Wind of Change

We had decided where to build our Tiny House and the huge decision to remove the old chicken house. The decision was hard because TJ's PawPaw had built it and there were several memories made. Of course, We wanted to save all that we could including the tin off of the roof. We knew we wanted to use it in our home and his PawPaw would be just tickled to see him save it and use it..... that is just what we did.

We pulled each sheet off of the old chicken house and knew it would be perfect in our living room. What we didn't know was.... there was just enough!!! Each sheet was 12 foot long and we were able to cut those in half and cut smaller sections for the shorter sides. There were just enough sheets for us to use and finish the living room ceiling! What a blessing!

Tj's PawPaw kept everything! We are so thankful that he did!! We found perfect pieces to finish out the ceiling and tie it all together. Here are just a few pictures.

I can't tell you how excited we were to have all the foam insulation covered! It started to feel like a real home and most importantly... OUR HOME!

THE BUILDING HAS ARRIVED!!! 


Today at 11:30am we welcomed a new bundle of joy into this world! He is 16x40 with 2 lofts. Weighing about 11,000-12,000 lbs. His name is "House of Atlas"

Atlas was a Greek mythology Titan who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.....but if you want to be technical "celestial sphere" on his shoulders. We don't know what that is... so we are going to go with the weight of the "world"on his shoulders :) We feel as if we can relate to him in his battles and stress. We have been faced with so much yet we still carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Life doesn't stop. Bills do not stop. Hungry kids do not stop. ;) So... we present you the "House of Atlas" (storage building...LOL)

We woke up this morning to rain! It is raining and storming! Our house should have been here August 27th but the delivery dude had truck trouble... it was moved to Thursday and then Friday and now September 3rd! Everyone keep your fingers crossed!!! This has been the hardest thing... waiting. We have been ready since last week and we are in a bit of a stand still waiting for the building. Once it arrives, we have the deck to finish on it, plumbing, electrical, insulation, etc.

We are overwhelmed by the positive feedback and the kindness that you guys have shown us! We really appreciate all the support and good vibes! We have the wonderful folks at TinyHouseBuild.com that featured our story. If you haven't checked out their website... I ask that you do. They have a website full of GREAT information and resources. Lots of ideas, floor plans, videos, and a link to their facebook as well!

Here is a link to their website with our story:
http://tinyhousebuild.com/tiny-houses-for-large-families/

Also, here is the link to their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/tinyhousebuilddotcom

We hope to have another post tomorrow about the arrival of our home!!! Keep those fingers crossed!

THE CONSTRUCTION STARTS

We built the deck to go on our house yesterday. It is a 12 x 8 deck for now. We can always add onto it. This will give us room to do a lot of the prefab cutting and a landing pad while we work on the interior. We are very excited!  Our house should be here on Wednesday if everything goes planned. The delivery date has been moved twice due to truck issues with the delivery company. 

Our deck is made from 2x10's. The actual size of the deck is 12x8. We went ahead and built the frame of the deck in our current garage. So that once the building arrives, we can assemble the deck on site and have a good landing area to work. 

The picture above is the bottom of the deck. We went ahead and built is upside down and used a few corner braces for support. 

 

To the wind of change

To the wind of change

It has been just a week but a lot of change has taken place! The old chicken house is gone and a load of dirty base has been laid. We have the land prepped and ready for our home.





To see the old chicken house come down was really hard. Paw Paw (Jimmie Adams) poured the concrete for the chicken house in 1977 and built the chicken house that year. This is the very spot that he held my hand out and had me catch my very first fresh egg. I remember the egg being so huge in my little ol’ hand and the warmth and wetness from the egg. It was an experience that I will never forget and thankful for memories like those. The chicken house had old barn tin for the roof which we were able to save and will use in our house. This is something that Paw Paw would love to see. :)

Our Journey

We want to share our adventure! :) We are sure you have heard of the tiny house movement and the mass movement of fine folks wanting to share their stories of how they are becoming one with nature and simplifying their lifestyle…. but please listen to ours. We do not fit in this category.

We are in our mid 30’s and have been faced with a lot of negativity but we are taking it all positive!!! I will start with this: We are a family of 7!! :) We have 5 children from the ages 10 to 16. (4 girls and 1 boy) With saying that… we are DOWN SIZING to a TINY HOUSE ;) A tiny house that we can afford and make sure everyone is happy. For us to make certain everyone has their own space is going to be a 16x40. We are selling everything that we own to gather enough money to purchase this building. The barn/cabin that we have looked at has two lofts. The two lofts will be what the kids will occupy…. all 5 of them. :)
We have talked to all the children about the journey and how this may or may not be for each of them but for our family…. this is the best decision. As I had mentioned, we are in our 30’s and we have been faced with a lot of stress. My husband, TJ, 3 years ago had back surgery. This set us back quite a bit and put a strain on our family as he was our main bread winner. He has been slowly recovering from the surgery.  I was working 2 jobs and going to school full time as well as taking care of all of the kids while he was recovering. However, 7 months ago in October I turned 31. I turn 31 on the 25th of October and we discovered I had a Brain Tumor in my 4th Ventricle on the 28th of October. :( I had emergency Brain Surgery on November 4th to remove the Tumor. I have been off of work since and I am still having complications with balance and vision. We have always been able to provide for our children with a fairly large home with plenty of space to call their own……. but now… we are down to one income and the stress is not worth it!

TJ and I are too young to be too stressed and too worried about the future and our health.

It is impossible to improve if we continue to dwell on the negative. We have to look at the positive side and with saying that….we are very blessed that this has happened to us at such a young age and we have realized what we want in life before it is too late to change it!!!

We are on one income right now and have sold everything in our current home (rental) to save up enough for the down payment and first month’s rent on the 16x40 barn/cabin. Our children are taking everything very well and have been open to the change. We are currently using camping chairs in our living room as furniture and boxes for our dressers. We are scared! We are happy! This is one adventure that is bitter sweet!!
Overall, we just wanted to share with you that this “building” is going to be our family’s home! Some may call it a shed, a barn, a building, a small cabin….. But for us this will be our home. The one place we call home.




Thanks for following our blog!
-Stephanie