6.7.20 18:28 // Check-in

Hey all!

I know it's been radio silence over here - and that's because for the past two months, I've been fully soaking in all the joys the tiny house has to offer.

Since my last post in April, there have been quite a few highlights. Among them are cool critter sightings, a virtual college graduation, and what I truly believe was a real poltergeist experience. Over the next few blog posts I will go into each topic in more depth. For now, here's a quick recap - I know quite a few of you are waiting :)

Highlight 1: Critters

As you can imagine, a tiny house on a marsh attracts a lot of interesting critters. So far, I have seen turkeys, turtles, frogs, fish, one groundhog, and a band of wild cats that patrol the area.

Me trying to get a pic of a local friendly turtle. Weirdly enough, he was roaming around in a graveyard.

Six of the stray cats sitting in a row. At 8:00 PM each night, they gather in a circle next door, presumably to discuss very important cat matters.

Highlight 2: Graduation

As many of you know, I just graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Biology! While it was weird to celebrate virtually, it was a day to remember.

Thank you everyone for making this day unforgettable, and to my family for organizing a surprise parade! It was awesome!!!!

Highlight 3: Mysterious activity

Believer or not, it's undeniable that there have been some very strange happenings in and around the tiny house. 

This topic will surely get its own post, because I want to get into as much detail as possible. For now I'll leave it a mystery and won't give away too much just yet.

Watching me.

Highlight 4: Frustrations

The tiny house may seem like a fairytale, and it is! Even so, the house does come with its own set of frustrations. I'm still getting used to the compost toilet, and sometimes the propane tank will run out of gas while I'm mid-shower, making the water go ice cold without warning. At least it makes me wide awake at work in the morning!

Living eco-friendly is not very glamorous, but overall I find the frustrations more whimsical than anything and don't take the little inconveniences too seriously. I think that's key for a lot of things in life.

Highlight 5: Garden

The warmer weather has inspired me to work on my garden! The whole area has exploded in green ferns and cattail reeds. I love the little marsh so much.

The marsh.

Some roses I'm growing.

A surprising amount of people have taken an interest in the tiny house blog, and I'm excited to share more about the adventures going on here! If you want to get an email notification when I make a new post, you can enter your email in the box!

Til the next adventure,

💛 Dia

4.22.20 19:17 // Oddities - Happy Earth Day

It's been four full days since moving into the tiny house...can that really be true? As I've taken a few days to settle in, I've started noticing curiosities about the house that give it even more character that I was first aware of.

As I was fiddling around with some light switches and searching for the thermostat, I came across a unique looking button pad. It turns out that this controls the main light and fan. When I pressed on it, it shifted in its place, and that's when I noticed it was actually a remote control. I can lay in the loft or sit in the beanbag chair to read while controlling the lights remotely. Luxurious.

The stairs in the tiny house are adorable, but downright dangerous in the dark. Do not go down them wearing socks if you expect to live and see another day. These stairs are narrow, steep, and slippery. I had to start using my fish tank LEDs as a night light to ward off the grim reaper while going down them. Once I got the hang of them, they weren't too bad. 

Look a little closer - do you notice anything odd? I didn't at first either, because it's subtle. Look closer and you'll see that one of the stair steps is *the kitchen counter*. I burst out laughing when I saw this and think that it only adds to the odd charm that is the tiny house. 

Next up is the compost bin, and there will be two types of people - ones who find this cool, and ones who find this gross. The idea behind a compost bin is this: decompose organic materials into a rich compost which can then be used to fertilize your garden. Scraps like coffee grounds, egg shells, and produce bits can be thrown in here and turned into compost. 

Food scraps and yard waste make up more than 28 percent of what we throw away. Turning your scraps into compost reduces waste that ends up in landfills and can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are released.

Inside the compost bin.

The duck hook is a bizarre little friend that appears to exist for no other reason than to be aesthetically pleasing. Towels slide right off of him and so I don't see any other purpose other than to be extremely adorable. The duck adds a touch of humor to the kitchen and makes me smile. 

I saved this oddity for last because it's the biggest difference between living here versus a regular apartment: the compost toilet. 

I had heard of these before, but had no idea how they actually worked. According to letsgogreen.com, a composting toilet, through the use of aerobic microbes and a carefully controlled balance of environmental factors, achieves its purpose of composting waste quickly and without any odor. 

Essentially, it breaks down waste and converts it right back to earth. This is a little more of an earthy-crunchy lifestyle than I was used to, but the tiny house's commitment to the earth through its design was a reminder that I had started getting lazy with my eco-friendly habits, and it felt good to reconnect with that. Today is Earth Day, so it feels fitting to have that reminder. 

The composting toilet. 

The charm of the tiny house is completely unprecedented by any place I've known. Every day feels like camping and it's really a dream. My next project is to clean up the patio area and figure out what types of plants will look nice there in the summer. It's right by the water and has so much potential to be gorgeous. 

I've hoped you've enjoyed keeping up with this, please leave a comment if you have a question or just want to say hi. :)

Til next time,

Dia

4/19/20 // 8:53 // First Letter at the Tiny House

Today is my first morning in the tiny house. I write this perched on the steps; the songs of frog calls and bluejays are music to my ears. The aroma of the morning's coffee is wafting throughout the downstairs cabin. It feels like heaven, especially for someone who spent a lot of time living in the city.

I set an alarm for 5:30 to catch the sunrise. It turns out that the corner of the pond faces east (even checked with my compass), so seeing the oranges and hazy pinks over the water was glorious. I watched the mist rise from the water's surface, and a couple of the resident stray cats regarded me with interest as I soaked in the day.

I was so eager to camp out here that I decided to forego waiting for my bed to ship and slept in the loft with just a comforter and pillow full camp-style. I didn't sleep much because apparently my body at 24 doesn't appreciate sleeping on floors as much it did at 14. Nevertheless, I feel awake and full of energy just from the experience of being here.

Last night I got to unpack and add my own personal touches to the house. It made me so happy to know I have my very own place in the world. In my exhaustion I messed up the order of my periodic table "Think" decoration and had a good laugh:

Clearly I *wasn't* thinking!!!

The man next door who owns the property came by with a loaf of fresh baked raisin pecan bread, still warm wrapped up in its paper sack. It's delicious. We chit chatted for a few minutes and when he noticed my ukulele, he invited me to play with his wife's group. 

I'm an introverted person and spend the bulk of my time alone. My biggest goal is to get out of my shell a little bit by being friendly with them. I'm going to pick up some potted plants for the patio at some point and think I'll get them one too.

I keep thinking of how this is all such a dream. If I knew as a kid my life would turn out this good, I would have never believed it. I keep a picture of myself as a kid in the window to remind myself that bad times don't last forever. I keep my wooden bird from Jackson in the window because I miss him so much.

Tomorrow I think I will wake up for the sunrise again, make coffee, and sit outside with my Birds of Massachusetts book and see if I can identify anything. I'm enjoying my time alone here and also looking forward to having Jackson, his family, and my family over once social distancing is ended. 

Sending love, 

Dia

04/17/20 19:04 // -19 hours // The downsizing process - Breaking Free

As someone who felt sure I was a minimalist, it turns out I was just really good at fitting a ton of junk into small living spaces.

I won't sugarcoat it, the downsizing process was not easy. Starting with clothes, I put each item in a stack based on the category of clothing. Pants stack, shirts stack, soon mountains grew around me. When I finally finished sorting, I looked at the pillars of horror. How had it gotten this bad?

I learned a lot about myself that I hadn't known before. I learned that I owned thirty-one pairs of shoes, and that some had ridiculous purposes such as The Fourth of July Shoes. I questioned how many style purses I truly needed. As I sorted, it became clear that you need a lot less than you'd think.

I was in shock when I realized I owned thirty-one pairs of shoes. 

To me, old band t-shirts are being sixteen years old again, a warm summer night breathless with anticipation for the band to come out on stage. It's the glint in the eye of a faded stuffed animal that reminds me living in more simple times. I tend to attach memories to items, and it's hard for me to let go.

As I sorted through my "hobbies" bin, I was honest with myself about which interests I had grown out of and which were still important to me. Deciding what to keep, and what to toss reminded me that I should spend more time doing activities that feed my soul and cut back on things like mindless phone scrolling. I'm genuinely excited to reconnect with the things I love.

After approximately the 8 hour mark of cleaning, I was sure I was finished and this was everything coming with me to the tiny house. The longer I looked at it, the more my heart sank and I realized my work was not yet done.

I thought I had gotten rid of everything but the essentials, but I quickly realized there was no way this could all fit comfortably in the tiny house.

So back to sorting I went. It took about three hours to complete what I deemed The Second Pass and this is where things got very interesting. 

It began to feel less like a chore and more of a game. Could I do without this wall decoration? Sure, the house didn't really have the space anyway. The faded pillows from college? Toss 'em. The more I let go of, the lighter and lighter I felt until I was completely weightless. Everything I owned now had a specific purpose or fed my soul.

So this is it folks, everything I'm taking with me to the tiny house. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything has intention. 

Minimalism is not about throwing away everything you have. It's about being mindful about the things we let into our lives so that we can live clutter-free and clear minded. I learned a lot about myself during this process and feel more peaceful than ever. Tomorrow I will pick up the keys and begin making the tiny house my own. 

Updates soon, 

Dia 

04/16/20 23:00 // 1.5 days until move-in

In one and a half days, I'll be handed the keys to a tiny house. The rental process was a mad dash and took just two days to have the agreement signed before someone else could beat me to it. I give big thanks to my family for all of the research they did to help make this happen. I've always adored tiny houses but never dreamed I'd have the opportunity to live in one.

Right now it's a crazy rush of packing and downsizing, and wondering if I can live tiny or if I'm really just addicted to tiny house reality TV shows. Four hours were spent today sorting through clothes and rationalizing with myself why I needed twelve separate pairs of animal-themed socks. I'm happy to say that the more I let go, the lighter I feel.

The sheer amount of clothes I had was honestly horrific and the hardest part to downsize. The dreaded Trash Bag Mountain has been reduced to just two small baskets of clothes. A a bin of winter things will be stored away and I'll switch them out when the seasons change.

This pandemic has been hard to adjust to and makes everything feel so alien. I miss everyone and it's been pretty lonely at times. I'm grateful we found the tiny house refuge and hopefully it'll lift my spirits up again. I'm so excited for what this adventure will bring!!!

Until next time,
Dia

Remaining clothes. These bins fit a lot more than you'd think - they're pretty deep. I discovered rolling t-shirts into a cylinder shape instead of folding them flat saves a lot of space.  While tiny, the half loft across from the bedroom will be great for storage.