Have you ever thought of living in a tiny house?
I’m guessing we have all fantasised about stripping down to the bare essentials and leaving it all for a simpler, more streamlined life that isn’t tied down by so many possessions.
I considered it for about five minutes while streaming Tiny House Nation on Netflix or scrolling through Instagram, but I never seriously entertained it.
My husband and I have 10 dogs and four cats and work from home, so a tiny house has never really been an option.
Until now.
Long story short, we’re in the process of building a house, that house will not be finished for another six months (at least), we need to sell our current house, and have a lot of land next to our new home.
We didn't--surprise!--find a rental that would take all our pets, so a tiny home was what we came up with. It would help us bypass the need for permits because it's really a trailer, but I'm calling it a tiny home.
Now, I’m kind of cheating a little because (1) this is not a permanent lifestyle change and (2) we’re putting the cats and most of our stuff in an apartment my father-in-law owns in Porto Heli, about 10 minutes away.
But it’s going to be a huge change. Of course, I’m going to make it my own one DIY at a time.
BEFORE MOVING DAY
I don’t know what we’ll call the baby yet. She arrived on a hot June morning on the bed of a truck and was lifted on to a crane and placed atop a cute little hill, among pine trees, and with a gorgeous view of the ocean—and of our construction.
She has three—THREE!—bedrooms, a normal-size shower, and even air-conditioning (even though we haven’t managed to snag an audience with HRH the AC tech).
The walls were blue and peach and there was a dreadful textured kitchen backsplash tile situation that absolutely HAD to go.
Me being me, I had a list of things that I wanted to accomplish before we completely moved in:
· Temporary fence to contain the dogs when needed
· Inexpensive (ha!) deck for outdoor living
· Interior and exterior paint
· New kitchen backsplash
I initially wanted to paint the exterior of the house white and shutters and trim black, but settled for just the shutters and trim because Greeks. Nobody wanted to paint the interior, so after getting everything from “I can start in September” to “it’s impossible to paint that kind of wall material,” I did it myself last weekend. I think it looks pretty good. I'll post pics on IG soon.
The deck was a stroke of genius from my contractor, Angelo, and masterful work from his handyman, Damian. I’m including a pic and will write an entire post on how we (they) did it for less than €1,400.
We are waiting on the fence to be finished to clean up and start moving in. It should happen within the next few days and hopefully by this weekend. Still no AC yet. The kitchen backsplash tile has been ordered (white subway—thank you @mariakillam for the great series on finishes on your feed).
I’m excited and terrified at the same time—my favorite mix of emotions. I’ll try to document it all here in the weeks and months to come if I haven’t gone insane.
I welcome your suggestions, observations, and tips on how I can make this semi-voluntary, hopefully short experience, easier and more enjoyable for me and my little family!
And who knows? I may end up wanting to never move back into a “normal”-size home… but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
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