Oak Flooring

   Last weekend I was perusing craigslist, as I commonly do, and saw an ad for free used oak flooring. The catch is that it is still in the house and needs to be removed. It is a peg oak floor, which means each board has screws inset into the wood and then finished off with a overlay peg. It was probably laid in the 1930's, so it's old growth oak. With today's prices, we could never afford a floor like this.
    This leads me to today. I checked my phone and had an email from the Craigslist-er about the oak flooring. She said the other person, who was suppose to come and get it last weekend, flaked and was I still interested. I said yes I am still interested and here is my phone number. She called about 30 minutes later and we got all the detail and the address.  An hour later we arrived at the house and took a look at the floor we will someday call home. Matt and I had called some friends for anyone who could help. Thankfully one of our friends was available to come help for a few hours. Ken works with reclaimed wood as a career and knows a lot about what we were up against. Without him we would have been spinning our wheels trying to get anything done. Instead, he allowed us to focus on the job and what steps needed to accomplish it. Ken came in after we got the first board out, announced that we should start from the other side of the room for easier removal. We moved to the other side and started to work. It was not exactly easy but it was easier. At the end of the day completed removing a quarter of the floor, and have a day or two more of work to have it completely out. I am excited about this because it will be the first item gathered for our Tiny house.  It will be beautiful, reclaimed, green, and time well spent with my husband for our future.

Tiny house vacation

    I just received wonderful news! I have a friend that I've been talking with about tiny houses and showing her my research on them. She calls me out of the blue and asked if I would like to go stay in a tiny house. She found out that someone she knows actually lives in a tiny abode. With this news I am doing a little jig of joy. I will be sleeping in a tiny house on Jan 4th.

    Today I started my quest for building materials and brain stormed ideas on how to build the house with limited expenses.  I came across the answer to one and a partial answer for the other. I am a big fan of Craigslist, freecycle, and thrift stores. I love hunting for useable item, that someone else either no longer wants or needs to get rid of. I took a stroll through Craigslist looking for FREE. I found a lady that needed a perfect size oak flooring to be removed from her home. Over this past summer, I saw many of this type of building materials offered for free. I will continue to look and start to gather up materials I know are needed for such a project.  Little bits by little bits. If anything over the past month, I've realized it is much easier to spend all the money than save any of it. We will just continue to be patient.

On the Road to Sanity

    I have spent time dwelling on the fact that being in my 30's, the idea of imprisoning myself to a 30 year mortgage is not very appealing. After my 401k tanked, with others of my generation, my grandmother and I had many talks about what my retirement years will look like.  I envisioned a nice box under a bridge, she disagrees but could not give me any advise for a different outcome.
With that I married Matt and we began to live the renters life. We lived comfortably, but never really getting ahead. We spent most of our money on rent or food. Our expenditures are manly car, rent, food, insurance, and cell phone.  No cable and no internet. At the end of October, we were hunting for a new rental and one we could sustain on a single paycheck budget. Friends came to the rescue and saved us from being homeless. We  moved into a small cottage behind a main house and this allowed us to live within our means.
    One day I was looking at how to organize a tiny kitchen and tiny spaces, to make the most of our new digs. I was fortunate to come across Tiny Houses. Since then I have fallen in love with the idea of owning a place to live, and being able to take it where ever life leads.  I introduced my husband to the idea and he was apprehensive to say the least. He mentioned that when we first moved in together, we had  basically one skillet, coffee press, and a bed. We didn't want for anything and we were less stressed. Now look around, we have way too many stuff to fit into something so small. I took a good look around and thought, yeah your right, we have way too much crap. To continually cleaning the house and keeping things in their place, has been a constant struggle.  I started to weed out the excess of our life. I prescribed to the Fly Lady's 27 fling boogie and everyday I put 27 things in a box, immediately carry it out to the car, and drive to the local donation center to unload my belonging and lower my stress. One of the best things about the closest donation center, is that it is drop off only and there is no store to go into to.
    With the house shaping up, my husband started to come around to the possibility of living big in a tiny house. We had many conversations about what it would mean for us to live Tiny. The best part we started to spend more unified time together. Our daily lives are filled with distractions, self-orchestrated to fill the passing time. We are busy, like everyone these days, but now we carved out time to be together, planning our future place of residence.

Above is a photo of the ProtoHouse. The house I would like to style my own from.