Tiny House/Gallery on Wheels - More than a Dream?

One Sketch of ObscurAbode Dreams

Recently I was feeling really down due to health problems. I wondered, will I ever get to live out my dreams of a tiny home/gallery on wheels? And I was chatting with my bro, Milo about it. We had a moment of clarity when I asked if he'd like to help me build the Tiny Home/Gallery on wheels we've been talking about, live in it until we some day help him build the cob home of his dreams, and let me bunk with him when we run gallery showings.

I love this guy.  We aren't related by blood, but I love him like a brother and  we sort of adopted each other when he was 18. He is one of very few people in the world who I have told they could live or crash here in our home if they ever needed to. Strangely, Milo is the only one of the 3 non blood relations who hasn't taken us up on it. I say non blood relations because the same holds true for my sister, but we've never lived together as adults.  Milo is currently staying with some friends of ours in exchange for his help in turning their yard from dirt nap to sustainable desert oasis. He has a great site called Vegan Meal Adventures http://veganmealadventures.com/ which I have mentioned before, yet he doesn't hassle me for being a meat eater because he knows how much I love and miss my veggies and how I long to eat them once we get my allergic reactions sorted out. He is also one of the few people who really gets all my health problems yet doesn't treat me like broken glass. And last but not least he's an artist, and we have a common love for tiny homes, and sustainable living. Why we have never discussed the possibility of teaming up to make our dreams a reality before this? I have no idea, but I'm glad I gutted up and asked the question. And his response was an instant YES! No hesitation.

Dreams of Creating a Tiny Sustainable Lifestyle

We agreed that we will not build anything until he is out of school and my health is more under control. So that gives us till Fall 2014 or so to brain storm, plan, fund raise, save, scrimp and make it happen. In order to move from dream to reality, we decided the first step is to share all the sketches and inspirational photos we like with each other, so I set up a google docs folder, and we are using it to brain dump all our ideas, hopes, goals, dreams, and inspirations towards a tiny home/gallery on wheels. Originally I was thinking of calling it ObscurAbode, but we're going to toss other names around like Pinwheel. We figure the name will come together when the house/gallery does.

I suspect a few things will hold true: Our design will be creative/artistic as we are both artists, meticulous as we both tend to research, plan and prepare with attention to detail, as self sustainable as possible, innovative, and accessible to people with disabilities. The rest is going to come together after we both share what we need, want and hope to see in this project.

It presents a unique challenge to create something which is both a house that feels like home, and a gallery which is open to the public. For one thing, we have been discussing how to make the most use of vertical space and still have it accessible to people with mobility issues. This is important not only because I will be staying there on occasion, but more importantly because we want the gallery to be wheelchair accessible. Two of our most fun and innovative ideas have been inspired by thinking about people with disabilities as relates to our tiny home. One is a chair rail/lift system which can be used with or without power to move around the home both vertically and horizontally, and another is an accessible fold out restroom/changing room/shower. Both are very exciting and we are looking forward to making them a reality. In the mean time, I am sketching, playing with a floor plan app on my cell phone, and considering building tiny models so that we can visualize our ideas in 3d. Will my dreams of a tiny house/gallery on wheels come true? Stay tuned!

Self Care Sunday

Sunday is usually my day off from "work" and a day of fun and relaxation with my loved ones. Carlie always has Sundays off (as long as she's in town) and Patch usually has mornings free. Soon we'll be trying to get Nick, our adopted nephew, time on Sundays too as he's moving in today and tomorrow. Sometimes we have Sunday Brunch together.

This Sunday was all about "self care" a term Shellie Ruge talked about in our recent support group for those affected by 1045. She gave us a list that breaks self care into several categories.  The 5 categories are Mind, Body, Spirit, Feelings, and Kid. After a busy couple of weeks (to put it mildly) Saturday was the largest Trans* Pride group ever to participate in Phoenix Pride. It was beautiful, and exhausting. So Sunday became Self Care Sunday and although I did still participate behind the scenes with 1045, I also managed to finally get in (Mind) an hour of reading, (Body) soaked in a tea bath and then used aloe from the yard to treat my pride sunburn, (Feelings) did some crying in front of the TV, (Kid) went out to dinner with Carlie, got some frozen yogurt yumness, and (Spirit) did some gardening and deep breathing before bed.

Paper Cutting over Acrylic Paint

Yesterday I covered each of the 5 areas by happenstance, because I'd made it  a day of self care. But really the goal is to do something different from each category, at least once a day. Since this whole thing started I have been trying to eat healthy, and make sure I do my hour of blogging each week, even tho I am not always getting the blogging done on Sunday as planned. I kept telling myself  "today I'm going to spend an hour reading in my hammock" or "today I will make art that is just for me" and then finding myself at the end of the day having done nothing. But now that I have a list of suggested activities, and orders from Shellie to do at least one a  day,  I plan to be much better about self care. Here are some suggestions in each category:
Mind: Reading, Writing, Sudoku, Body: Exercise, Stretching, Eating Healthy, Spirit: Singing, Meditation, Spiritual Practice, Feelings: Crying, Sharing, Journaling, Kid: Art for fun, Games, Being Silly.

This is important for anyone going through difficult times. I hope that all my friends will read this and take care of themselves as well.

ObscurAbode, The Dream

I have a dream! A dream of a Tiny Home/Camera Obscura/Artist Studio/Gallery/Community Resource Center on wheels which I can move from place to place interacting with other artists, building community, sharing and learning skills, Knitting it Forward with others, and holding Gallery Shows for local artists wherever I go.  I think my inner nomad needs a chance to come out. As a young person, I was privileged to travel around the US a bit with my family, and to Germany as a teen to see a bit of the world, but the travel bug was not really satisfied before my disability kicked in.

Now that I am starting to be healthier but am still have so far to go, I have decided that I want to learn to be more self sustaining by growing my own food, and creating objects people can barter, trade or buy from me to help me make my dream a reality. I have begun doing that with my Peace Full Creations. Please "Like" the Facebook page!

As far as the Gallery, it would be called ObscurA, and I plan to have a sign on the house that says ObscureAbode, and has a sign that can come down or move over to cover the last few letters so that it will then say "ObscurA, the Gallery is Open", or "Welcome to my Abode". I imagine it would be a rotating show. So that if I was parked somewhere for a month, every weekend would focus on a different artist, with the final show focusing on myself, and several other artists. Some artists have already said they want in on the deal, which is fun and exciting. If you are an artist and you'd like to help make this a reality, let me know.

As part of manifesting this dream, I did a quick and dirty sketch up of a tiny home/gallery on wheels which you see above, but it is nowhere near the reality of what I will build. For one thing, after much investigation, I changed my plan to have the entrance on the short side, and a fold down porch on one of the long sides, that wraps around to the front porch (short side) ... that may make no sense in your mind but I will sketch it out in the future. For another thing, I have been wanting to make it all in copper tones, with a steam punk aesthetic. At first I might have to build it bare bones, but eventually it will come together into the creative home/gallery I envision. In the mean time, I thought I had better post about the dream here, and hopefully my fellow tiny home enthusiasts, artists and friends can send out positive vibes to make it happen all the sooner!

Alternatives to the traditional tiny house methods

Prefab Shed/Tiny House

I think I will be going with SIP panel homes for our first tiny house build for ease of build, and surprisingly, overall cost. I found the one on the left available through Direct Buy for $2500. Of course you have to have a membership to Direct Buy, so hat is not accessible to everyone. One manufacturer who has created a light weight, highly insulated and relatively low cost SIP is SING core panels. You can find them at http://www.singtinyhouse.com/ and are one route I was considering for this first build. First I am working on a cost comparison from start to finish of the build.

So far the cheapest build I've seen is 8,000 for a tiny house that was built using traditional materials, some of them scavenged, reclaimed, recycled, or upcycled and that home is not finished yet. However, alternative build methods seem to be finding even cheaper ways of building a tiny home.

Pallets and Plastic $500 Tiny House

Some people have been working on building an entire tiny home out of pallets. One man and has 2 designs he's working with for that idea that he says would be free to build and can be found on his website http://www.tinyfreehouse.com/ but he is currently in a holding pattern. One would be  bit too drafty and not strong enough for my liking, the other has a bit more potential, and of course you could use the dip cloth method of dipping a material such as fishing net material, burlap, or other material that is natural fibers and has holes in it, in a sustainable, light weight cement like mix to put over the pallets, and you'd have a non traditional looking tiny home. This would not work for a tiny home on a trailer, but since the first home we'll be building will be on a cement slab in someone's back yard, I thought we would look at all alternatives.

Straw Bale Tiny House

A slightly modern looking take on the tiny pallet house is found on Lloyd's blog and pictured above: http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2011/01/tiny-house-built-of-pallets.html and cost $500 to make, so certainly the cheapest method. The version pictured above seems to be using some sort of plastic to make the place less drafty and more private although I believe the original was built. Unfortunatley Lloyd did not link to the original article.

Another low cost alternative method is straw bale building. Sometimes these are built by an individual, a couple or a whole community. A friend of mine is going to be setting up a trip for a group of us to go help build a sustainable farm some of her friends are working on in exchange for education on their sustainable practices a place to stay while there, and vegan meals. I may need to bring some alternative food sources to keep myself healthy while there due to my allergies, but I think it's worth a shot. I may not be able to contribute as much physically as others due to my disability, but I'm stubborn and persistent when working on projects, and I'm creative and get things done. See my food blog,  desertfoodlover.blogspot.com if you're curious about better healthy through yumness as I like to say. More on that later. If you'd like to try living in a tiny straw bale house, check out this straw bale village: http://tinyhouseblog.com/straw-bale/tiny-straw-bale-village-getaway/

Well there are more, but that is all the time I have for now. So expect an alternative building methods part two post in the near future as I continue investigating, planning, pricing and generally doing the prep work for our upcoming build. Please post any links to low cost tiny house building methods in the comments section!

How to feed a vegetarian.

How to Feed a Vegetarian

We are going to start having meatless mondays, and i found this article useful for how to make my vegetarian friends feel welcome.