Finding Tiny...
The journey to Tiny Living has been an Adventure, well… that’s one way to put it! I would probably describe it more like one of those obstacle course mud runs that are so popular nowadays. Personally, I don’t see the appeal in putting myself through such trials, but with going Tiny I believe the payout will be bigger on the other side of the finish line.
Once we found land to buy and the deed transferred, the race was on to find our starting point. As previously mentioned, Jeff had built a very tiny house from the ground up years ago. Since he had already proven his prowess in this manner, we both thought it might be a good idea to find a structure that already had some bones instead of starting from scratch.
We spent almost a year looking for the right fit. We looked at shipping containers, truck trailers, Quonset huts, manufactured homes and we even considered buying a run down house, having it moved and fixing it up, just like the TV Show Texas Flip & Move. We finally found our fit in Tahoe via Craigslist (Jeff LOVES Craigslist; We also found our land on Craigslist). The owner was selling an unfinished construction office trailer on an old travel trailer base. The trailer had been completely gutted, but had beautiful new siding and it was already framed. I knew within about 5 seconds of seeing the inside that this was going to be our Tiny Home. I whispered to Jeff “I want this.” Jeff grinned from ear to ear, because I had never said that about anything we had looked at prior. The owner had been trying to sell it for some time, so we made him a low ball cash offer… and he accepted.
The first really big obstacle was to move the trailer about 1.5 hours down the mountain to where we would store the trailer and work on it. We had a lot of quotes, most were very high. It couldn’t be this hard, could it? Let’s not even talk about the DMV struggles we’ve had. Eventually, we found an independent hauler on UShip.com. We planned to move the trailer right before the first snow fall of the season. We were worried about the move and the anxiety built. The axles and wheels appeared spindly, rusty and old. We weren’t sure they would hold up. Also, we had to pull straight out into highway traffic coming down a mountain pass! Our hauler with his 10 year old son laughed at our fears. He simply said... “We go!” and we went.
We followed our soon to be house down the mountain, holding our breath and watching as it bounced along the narrow 2 lane highway. We both noticed that there seemed to be a lot of pine cones coming off our house. We couldn’t figure out where they were coming from! As perplexed as we were about the pinecones, we soon discovered their source. Remember, I said the previous owner had been trying to sell the trailer for a long time? Well, we found out later that we had a family of woodland creatures living and storing their food in the existing roof insulation. What a mess!
Each time Jeff and I clear a hurdle, we grow as people and in our partnership with each other. As he loves to remind me, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Stay tuned as the adventure continues…