Tiny House Problems

After two years of living in a tiny house, we have had plenty of Tiny House Fails. Our composting toilet breaking and leaking was a big one, water freezing in our drain pipe during the winter, mold and too much condensation in the cold months, and bug problems on the farm are only the ones I've written about on this blog. The list goes on: cracking our hips on the ceiling as we try to make the bed, hitting our backs or butts on the shelf as we go up our ladder, somehow still managing to lose gloves and other important items even though we only have 160 square feet to look for something!

Sarah PlummerMay 7, 2017Tiny house, TINY HOUSE PROBLEMS, TINY LIVING, GAME, FUN, FUNNY, ADVENTURE, DREAM LIVINGComment

The Joy of Less

If you've visited this blog in the past few weeks, you might have noticed that I created a new page titled TIny House Tour. I finally had professional photos taken of our tiny house and posted them so you all could see the glory that is Lil Blue! Most of the photos I've taken on my phone don't do it justice. It's hard to take a good picture in such a small space without a good lens. I haven't posted many photos of our bathroom because it's the hardest area to try and photograph, but now you can all enjoy a full tour of the entire (tiny) space!

Two Year Anniversary

Today is April 11 which means that it has officially been two years since we moved our tiny house onto the farm!! We made it! Two years was always our minimum goal to reach and we are so happy to celebrate this milestone today.

Sarah PlummerApril 11, 2017ANNIVERSARY, TINY HOUSE, TINY LIVING, JOURNEY, BEGINNING, ADVENTURE, DREAM LIVING, GOALSComment

Friday Inspiration: Thunderstorms and Rainbows

We have had some amazing thunderstorms this week in Iowa. It has been beautiful! Last summer, as we were just getting settled into Lil Blue, we seemed to have much more extreme weather. We had severe thunderstorms, tornado watches and warnings, rain and high winds all the time. That, as well as high heat and humidity---and no air conditioner! It was not fun. This year, the storms seem much more mellow, which is nice because then we aren't worried about blowing away! And we still get to enjoy the beauty of them. For this week's Friday Inspiration, I just want to show you some pictures of the beauty we've seen on the farm in these storms. We even had the most remarkable double rainbow!

Chalkboard Freezer Tutorial

just finished a project I've been wanting to do for a long time and it wasn't hard at all! Originally, we painted a chalkboard on our bathroom sliding door when we moved in to Lil Blue. I loved the idea of having a chalkboard. I wanted to write out our weekly meal plan on it, or write notes and grocery lists, or just have fun with drawings and designs. But shortly after we moved in we realized we had no other spot in the whole house to hang our mirror other than on that door....covering up the chalkboard.

Composting Toilet, Pros and Cons

I've got some shit to talk about. Literally.

In all my research for tiny houses, it looks like the majority of dwellers use some kind of a composting toilet. Which makes sense because then you don't need to worry about plumbing, having extra water, and hooking into some kind of sewer or septic tank. If you Google "composting toilet", you will see loads of different options for composting toilets. Ones that reduce mess or possible smell by using multiple compartments or turn cranks; ones that require electricity so it can heat up waste and condense it; and varying sizes including huge (and I mean giant!) thrones. These all range in price but can be up to over a thousand dollars!

One Year Tiny

It's official. We have been living tiny for over ONE YEAR!!!!!! I can't believe we are already at that mark. In some ways it seems like our journey from how it all began til now started forever ago. And in other ways it feels like it JUST happened. We have now experienced every season in this house and on the farm, making us officially out of the transition period now that we have a better idea of what to expect throughout the year.

Sarah PlummerJune 13, 2016TINY HOUSE, LIL BLUE, FARM LIFE, ANNIVERSARY, ONE YEAR, DREAM LIVING, LIFESTYLE, ADVENTUREComment

Spring has Sprung!

Though winter was kind of rough for us in the tiny house, spring came early! We have enjoyed a major thaw the past month or so with warmer temperatures and happier living. We no longer are in fear of our water freezing or quite as concerned with our heat sources. We've already packed away our winter coats (though it may still be a bit premature for that) and are looking forward to a season of enjoying tiny living without constantly being in survival mode.

Tiny House Fail

Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that this winter has been a particularly hard one. We have had worse winters in the past with lower temperatures and a lot more snow. But it also definitely has not been an easy first winter in the tiny house. Every day feels like WINTER VS. TINY HOUSE and we are constantly losing the battle.

Sarah PlummerFebruary 10, 2016TINY HOUSE, LIL BLUE, WINTER, TINY LIVING, FAIL, ADVENTURE, TINY HOUSE PROBLEMS, MOLD, COLD, FREEZING, DREAM LIVING Comment

Our Water Headache

The biggest difficulty and the hardest transition for us living tiny has been our constant challenge of getting water. Our house is hook-up ready which means we have a spigot on the outside of the house that we can connect a hose to in order to have instantly running water. However, where we are parked, there is no water source to connect to in that way. We knew this when we decided to park here and realized that that would be a big learning curve to work through.

Christmas!!!! (Part 2)

I wrote my Christmas Part 1 post in November and promised to have another part to show all that we did to decorate Lil Blue for the holidays. Even though Christmas and New Years have both passed, it's never too late to enjoy the season and some decorations.

Frosty Farm

We have had such a warm start to winter here in Iowa, it's basically been a long long fall. Which has been nice and kind of a relief as we are nervous for tiny house living and what that entails during a rough and cold winter. Even though we have enjoyed the warmth and greenery, I was longing for a white Christmas and was certain it was not going to happen. Then we woke up on Christmas Eve day to the perfect big-flake snowfall and a couple of inches covering the ground. It was gorgeous!