Tiny House Village

Hello! This week, my fellow students and I decided to make a tiny house community! Well, in my case, a tiny, tiny house. I have decided to build the Gypsy Junker from Deek Diedricksen (I'm going to re-name my Gypsy Junker to the Gypsy Awesomer!). Here is a video to show you about it from Tiny Yellow House:

We all decided to make mini models so below is my finished mini model (I will show you my fellow students' models as soon as they are done).

 

(My model)
 

(Will's Curbside Kid Cabin from Deek)

 

(Sarah's 'Trojan Turtle,' also from Deek)

 

 

 

(Ella's 'Hickshaw' from Deek)

 





I can't wait to get started! There will be more to come throughout the process. My mother/teacher made us promise that all of the materials we use in our homes have to be repurposed and recycled. By the way, I finished my Tear Drop trailer birdhouse (I actually finished it two months ago. Details, details.). Here is a picture:

 

 

(The Front)

 

 

(The Top)

 

Have a great week! Next weekend I am going to a tiny house workshop; there will be plenty of pictures to come!

Important News!!

Important news!!!! If you are reading this you must have some free time; this means you will have 10 minutes to go check out my Indiegogo fundraising site and Facebook and Twitter your friends about me. I am raising 1,500 dollars in three weeks and I need your help. Tell every one, your mom, your sister, your uncle, your grandpa, your cousin's, best friend's, barber's, uncle's girlfriend! Thank you so much and have a wonderful week; you got past Monday!

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)

Gifts From Sponsors

Exciting news! Today Phillip Howard from Howard's Wrecker Service called my dad and told him that he was done putting outriggers on my trailer! My mom, dad, and I went to see it with our own eyes and bring it home. This is the fabulousness that is my trailer:

 

(from the front)

 

 

(from the back)

 

 

 

(sexy time)

More good news! My mother knew the trailer was almost done and we knew we had to get a radiant barrier on the bottom of my trailer to deflect rodents and condensation and heat (oh my!), so she contacted EcoFoil and asked if they would be willing to donate some radiant barrier, and they said YES (supposed to be here this Tuesday)! We were very happy. We just got 500 sq. ft. of radient barrier for FREE, and it will help my tiny house instrumentally. As soon as it comes I will post more pictures, I promise. Now it is just time to put a deck on my trailer and get the shell of my house on so I can work through the winter. I am ecstatic, and I can't wait to start building!

If you want to help with the build, please donate what you can through my blog (it will all go straight to the tiny house, and you get a snappy little mention on the blog, plus and invite to the open house in May 2013), or contact my mom directly!

This post sponsored by:

My Free Workshop

Exciting news! On Monday November 19th I went to visit Andrew Odom of Tiny r(E)volution and see his (not so) tiny house. The reason I say not so tiny is because his home will be the size of two of my trailers back to back...not so tiny.

On our drive there we came across the funniest road sign:

 

(Bucksnort Road, and yes this is a real road)

I had a wonderful day with him, his little girl, Tilly and his wife Crystal. We (meaning the Odoms and my mother and me) talked and chatted about his tiny house, and I got some questions answered that otherwise might not have. Andrew answered my questions about water, plumbing, and electricity.

\

 

(Andrew's little girl Tilly)

 


Andrew showed me his tiny house binder, his manifesto and an unbelievable 23in. fan. It was such a cute fan; its blades were not even the length of my forearm, but apparently they do the job pretty well; they aren't supposed to cool you off, just move the air around for circulation.

All around it was a fun trip and I got so much knowledge out of that I think my mind went into over drive just thinking about it.

To end this blog, I want to say what I am thankful for: my family (I could do none of this without them), my softball team/my second family (they are always good for cheering me up when I am down)chocolate...it will always be there for me, yes, I am thankful for chocolate.

 

(Andrew and I)

My Podcast!

Here is my podcast! I hope you enjoy. Make sure to chack out Andrew Odom's blog while you're at it! Have a great week!

Podcast

I have some amazing news. Yesterday at approximately 2:15 pm Andrew Odom of Tiny r(E)volution called me to do a podcast interview. We had been e-mailing for about two weeks chatting and talking about tiny houses.  I have never done an interview of any kind, so as you can imagine I was freaking out! Even thought my heart was beating out of my chest I feel confident about the podcast. It was basically just an interview, and Andrew asked me questions about my house. I don't want to give too much away, so you will just have to wait a few more hours to hear me!

As many of you know, I play travel softball, and nearly every weekend is eaten up by softball tournaments or practices. Last weekend was the last tournament of the fall season...and we got second place! We played in the USSSA Children's Health Care of Atlanta (CHOA) softball tournament.

 

(My trophy)

The CHOA was a two-day tournament, and we got to get a hotel! It was in Conyers, Georgia, so it was 10 minutes east from the middle of nowhere. On Saturday we lost a game that we shouldn't have lost which made it so on Sunday we had to play five games in a row and then the championship. I felt like I was about to faint; it was just so exhausting.

To sum my weekend up...it was exciting, hectic, and triumphant.

Halloween Festivities

As you may know... yesterday was Halloween, or All Hallows Eve. Of course, since I am still the age where I can pass off as a young trick-or-treater; therefore I can get pounds of free candy for minimal effort. Well not minimal in my case. My neighbor hood has the houses just spaced the right distance apart to be horrible to walk to 500 houses. Plus a lot of the houses in my neighborhood decided to leave their porch lights on and not answer the door! Just a heads up to all you adults, when you leave your lights on...have candy ready or turn your lights off! Here is a photo gallery to show you the festivities I enjoyed! What did you do for Halloween?

(My CANDY haul!)

 

(Crazy socks)

 

 

(My Hunger Games Pumpkin)

 

 

(Dia de los Muertos sugar skull)

 

(The top of my sugar skull)

 

(My classmate Quinn's sugar skull)

 

(Pumpkin seeds)

 
 



 

(My first place trophy)

Over the weekend my team, the 12U Georgia Titans, won our first tournament! This is not just a regular tournament win, our team is now qualified to go to a USSSA national tournament. This is also our first tournament and it is a big vode of confidence for all of the girls (including me). You are reading this blog writen by the catcher that threw the last out to win our game. No biggie...

My Major Haul!

Today was a major score! We went shopping for my classmates and my small projects. I got sandpaper (three kinds, might I add), paint, and paint mixers. My paint is only samples because I don't need much. Below I'll show you all my supplies. Paints from Behr Interior and Exterior, and Martha Living  Specialty Finish. All of this was bought at Home Depot.

 

(The complete haul)

 

(Sandpaper and sticks)

 
 

 

(My paint colors)

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture...but my mother saw the paint with the totally blue lid and picked it up and shook it; it did nothing. She shook it again and splattered paint over Home Depot's floor. Way to go, Mom. I love you, though.

 

 

We also went to Atlantis Hydroponics for our brand- new student who is growing plants hydroponically. The dude there was awwesome. He gave us a rubber tree, an aloe vera, some NASA tomatoes, and other vegetables and fruits grown hydroponically. If you don't know what hydroponic means, you can go to the Atlantis Hydroponics website; they will tell you all about it. The man that helped us even told us that we can take a field trip there, or he can come to us, and he invited us to visit his personal greenhouse about five miles away from HoneyFern. AMAZING! What did you do today? I love my school!