Stuff, Stuff, Stuff

It's moving day! Well, at least it is this Saturday. With our upcoming move there have been a few things coming up (in my head) that I think would be good to adress...

When my family and I moved into the house we are moving from (the farmhouse) I said to myself, "I am going to keep my room flawless!" Two weeks later the only place you could see my floor was the path from my door to my bed and closet. Obviously, I failed at my resolution. As we are moving into the new old house (townhouse) this week I said to myself, "I am going to keep my room organized." Some memories came up though. Why had I failed the first time? What did I do that was wrong? Then it hit me like a piece of a baseball bat flying from Babe Ruth's hands: I had too much STUFF! Yes, it all makes perfect sense now. No wonder I could only make a path from the door to my bed; I didn't have any space on my shelves.

My next question was, "How do I keep that from hapening this time?" The answer I think many of you know: Don't have do much freakin' stuff. Pardon my French. With that revelation I then decided to have a mini rant to my mother as we were packing. It went like this: "I hate all of this stuff. I just want to throw it all out. I hate it all. I hate it. I hate, hate, hate it! I...I...I don't..... I JUST HATE IT ALL!"  I managed to calm down after that. I guess the lesson is not to aquire stuff that you are going to lose your head over. After all, it is just stuff. When I think about it, by the time I am in college I will probably have thrown all of it out and gotten a new set of stuff. Who knows?

DC Has Been Good To Me

The first thing I would like to say is I'm sorry; I have been traveling over Christmas and this past week I have been sick! My apologies for not giving all of you information on my trip. There is so much to say but I don't know how. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go!

When we decided to go up North we knew we would go through Washington DC. My mother and I had heard that there was a tiny house village named Boneyard Studios. We contacted them and they said they would love to show us around! Everybody at Boneyard Studios wanted to keep the location private; I am going to keep the information they trusted me with secret. Here are some pictures from my time with them. (My dad took the pictures and took maybe five, so it will be limited)

 (The heart of our nation's capitol. Yay! We are in DC)

 (The outside view of the houses)

(The outside of Brian's House)

 (The inside of Brian's house)

 (Lee's House)

 (The outside of Jay's house)

 (Jay's living space)

(Jay's Interior) 

                                      (Their common area)

 

(Their beautiful garden) 

 

(Using a blowtorch...scary!)

(My beautiful family. Yes, my little cousin I am holding is apparently camera shy)

                             (Beautiful mountain ranges in West VA)

(SNOW!!!)

 (Coming back into GA)

 

 

More building in the weeks to come; we have a tiny house workshop in Orlando with Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, and we are planning on having a friend come down and help us with framing in mid-February.

 

If you would like to support this endeavor, please feel free to click the "Donate" button on this blog. Any amount helps me get closer to a finished house. My school is trying to be a federal non-profit, so we can send you a donation letter if you need one. Won't help for this year's taxes, but there's always next year's!

 

Thanks for all of the support and comments!

Framing the Floor Pt. 1

Saturday was exciting! Here's how the 'plan' was written up: Thrift store junking' leaving around 9:30, Pawn shop for framing nail gun, Home Depot for nuts, bolts, drill bits and much more hardware; come home around 11:00 and put the entire frame on the trailer including the sub floor. That was the plan, but here's how it really happened: We had to clean the house before we did anything, left at 11:00(when we are supposed to start); Got to Thrift store and the shop had changed to where it was just junk; went to pawn shop and the nail gun was beat up and about $200; my father sees the Pawn shop put a nail gun an sale for $69 when brand new it is $79; go to HomeDepot and get a Husky nail gun and drill bits and the other things we need; come home and realize that the bolts are one inch too long; go back to store and switch them out; when we finally got home it was 3:00 but we had to get something done. Below I am explaining how the 'first layer' will be put on the trailer and the photo gallery from our excursion:

(Explaination)

(Almost Finished)

 

(Taking a Break)
 

 (entering the mothership)
 

(A Girl and Her Drill)

 

(Goofing around in the Home Depot)

 

(Price of 2x4x16 untreated wood planks

 

(Price of Framing Nails)

 

(Price of Lag Skrews)

 
 

(Price of the Washers

 

(My washers)

 

 

It is going to take all of the money in my little savings jar to build this house. If anyone of you would like to help me out, donate by clicking the support button on the right hand side. Thank you

EcoFoil

I finally got my Double Bubble Radient Barrier EcoFoil! It arrived at about three o' clock and I was extatic! This weekend I will put the floor frame, insulation, Double Bubble, and insulation on my trailer with my dad. I can't wait! Here is a picture of what it looks like:

 

(The moment it was plopped on my doorstep!)

 

(You can see the radiant, vapor, and pest barrier, the white)

My Trailer Puzzle

My EcoFoil Double Bubble is on the way; I got it for free thanks to my mother who says, ''They can't say yes if we don't ask!" I am so excited to actually start attaching things on my trailer! I purchased six 2x4x16 untreated wood planks from Home Depot (I didn't know this, but UNtreated wood is better because sometimes the chemicals in treated wood can be released and put harmful things in the small spaces of your house). Below you can see me explaining how my first layer of materials is going to be placed. Making a house is like a complicated puzzle!

By the way, TWO WEEKS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!! I am so excited. I get to see family! I will be taking lots of picture on my way there! Happy Holidays! And for those like my family (who celebrate multiple holidays)...Happy Hanukkah!

Support America

Because it is the Christmas season, I thought I would share with you a little thing each person can do to get our economy on track. I was watching ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and found out that the average American spends around $700 each year on Christmas presents. I know Jesus encouraged giving, but by golly!

I also learned that if we spend just $64 on American-made items we can create 200,000 jobs, so buy, buy, buy (useful things of course)! Many things are made in America, but they are under the shadow of foreign-made goods, so I thought I should help you out: Whitman's Chocolate, Blacksmith Coffee, Sundance leather, and Two Sisters are made in America. If you would like to see many more shops and products that are made in America, click here.

Frontier House

So far this week I don't have any exciting news to report, but I would like to share with you this cool project that was conducted in 2001. It is called Frontier House and I loved it! I hope you will, too.

 

 

(To watch the full episode 1 and more episodes click in the far upper right hand corner. Some are split into multiple segments)