Tiny House Building through a Texas Winter of RAIN pt 1

Rain and more Rain in Austin these weeks giving me time to write about our Tiny House building these past months.

In leu of floor plans, John and I's first steps were to build a teeny Tiny house made of cardboard. Our first construction had little movable parts including a tiny Tahila with her arms outstretched.

I made lists of what I wanted, felt were my "need to have's", in my space. Windows prominently fill the wall space. I like to sit on the floor so floor space for seating is important and space for stretching, turning and dancing. We decided the wall could fold down for a work table or as needed. That meant space for movement :)

Out on the farm the ducks all came around to watch us as the sun came up and the day began.















We strive to keep wood from going to the dump and the following days were spent taking apart pallets (labeled HT, meaning not chemically treated).

And removed many many many nails
Baby Chicks were born and I went to sleep and woke listening to them peep peeping.



The oak pile grew and grew from the older pallets and the planing began. Our days of sunshine ended a day into this process and then the remaining time we spent in sleet. Texas weather has been abnormal this year and unpredictable.
                             

John

Rodney

Me

It was all worth it for the beauty we found as the layers pealed away.

These will be placed carefully on the Trailer bed to become my floor!

House cleaning of the mind in Gratitude

“And then a man came forth and said, Speak to us of Houses

… But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed. 

Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast. 

It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye. 

You shall not fold you wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down. 

You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living. 

And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing. 

For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.”

- Kahlil Gibran, from 'The Prophet'

Without much amazement this morning, I see clearly that a "flushing out" is needed. An internal purging and balancing must take place, as I work through a similar filtering system of my external life and possessions in preparation to move in my Tiny House.

As asked on a tiny house blog for house prep....or in zen texts:

What is essential to me?
What do I no longer need to hold on to?
What is the too much?