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. 

 

Tiny House Floor Plan

Tiny House Floor Plans (it may change tomorrow) :D

 

Here is the main floor plan of our tiny house. **** Plans subject to change… when we put up the walls… our layout may have to change. ;) Trying to keep an open mind!
You can not see the doors very well but there is a set of french doors right in the middle of the building. Which will be open once you walk in. The two lofts are on the ends and will cover the Master Bed and Bath and the other will cover the Kitchen and Washroom.

Lofts will be 15x15 each. One will be divided into 3 nooks and the other will be divided into 2 nooks. Both lofts will have a little space for a commons area which will allow sunlight to shine through each window and room to make some built in cabinets or shelves for board games, etc.

We are officially on the map

WE ARE OFFICIALLY ON THE MAP

 

Our mailbox might be a little “squatchy” but it is UP and we can get MAIL!!!! That makes this official right?

 Where all the dreams come true! Tom's Welding Shop!

It is so AWESOME to see our future unfold! We are overwhelmed with positive energy. I love it! Oh and we love Bigfoot!!!

Pre layout planning

The layout has begun!!!

 

The layout has begun!!! We are so excited to see our ideas on paper and the dirt moving!!! We purchased a 16x40 Lofted Barn from Derksen Building. For the next 4 weeks until the building arrives…. we have a lot of work ahead of us. Our new home should be here the week of 08/18/2014. We are doing all of the work ourselves… please excuse my “blueprints” :) These are our dreams and ideas that we have talked about and dreamed about. Here they are on paper and ready to come alive!
The main floor of the barn/cabin will have the following: Living Area, Kitchen, Bathroom/Wash Room, Master bedroom and on-suite bathroom. :) The two lofts upstairs will be completely up to the kids to design and layout.

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