Exterior View of THE BARN

Here is what THE BARN will eventually look like from the front.  The roof will be black metal panels and the exterior wall will be a board and batten metal wall panel.  The windows and doors are black inside and out.  There will be barn doors on the front doors and the entrance will have a covered porch with stained wood trusses and supports. 

When Life hands you "Lemons" make "Lemonade"!

We took a couple trusses down and amongst all the chaos with our trusses coming down we decided to have a little fun with our friends and have a bon fire.  It was bitter sweet to watch them burn, but we will be moving forward soon and the new trusses are due to arrive Friday, September 27.  We have a contractor lined up to set them on Monday!  The Barn will have a roof soon!

Kale's Vision

Kale has a vision of what he wants his room to look like and he can actually visualize this enough to draw it on paper.  I'm amazed and how he can draw his space in plan view.  The nut definitely doesn't fall far from the tree.  The locker in the camper is actually for his room.  He LOVES it and has already started filling it with his things!

Our HOME on WHEELS!

So thought I would share my thoughts on living on wheels full time tonight! We originally had planned on having plenty of time to finish our barn and then we would concentrate on selling our house. Well, things didn’t work out as planned and we weren’t as far along as we thought we would be when we got an offer so the decision had to be made to rent or live on wheels. After analyzing everything with all of our animals and how that would work in a rental we ultimately decided camper life was our choice.....not the best decision we have ever made!

Now some of us love living on wheels. Kale and Dave think this is great! They aren’t as bothered by not having everything just so like Ava and I are. Kale loves the outdoor space almost as much as Siloh does. The outdoor oasis is my only saving grace. I love sitting down in the woods under my lights. We’ve had a couple parties down there and the space is perfect....all except for the walk back to the camper bathroom. My friend Jennie is right...we need an outhouse!

While we were packing up from our 4000 sf house we made plans on how we were going to fit in our tiny home. I know everyone watches the shows and it looks oh so cool and adventurous all up until you are actually doing it!! This is how we are making things work.....we removed the camper couch and put it in storage. I kept the camper table but brought our sitting room chairs so it would feel a little bit like home. We sit in that corner every night. Up until two weeks ago all we had was a cell phone watching tv off of a WiFi hotspot, but now we actually have WiFi setup in our outdoor kitchen. We watch Hulu and Netflix through our PlayStation. It seems to work for now! We actually have a line running from the telephone box across the road by the donkeys across the yard to our barn and then to our camper. It’s all temporary until they run the permanent box and line.

Food and storage was our other big consideration. We have a full size fridge and a very large pantry so we actually don’t lack for too much food space. We only have the necessities when it comes to pots and pans though and my once having 2 dishwashers is now down to a camper size kitchen sink. We eat off of paper plates and plastic utensils so not too many things need to actually be washed. I do miss my full size oven and counter space. I can’t wait to make my cookies again.

Clothing was an even bigger issue. Just Sunday I went shopping for dress pants because it was easier than finding them in storage. I have mostly summer tops and jeans for work here now, but will soon go to my parents to switch clothes out. We have a large closet and drawers in our bedroom and we even put our actual queen size mattress in our bedroom. Other than almost hitting our heads when we get up every morning it works out pretty good. The kids will need to get their fall clothes out soon too. They all have plastic storage units with drawers and that’s all they have. We hang our shoes on the back of the pantry door. All book bags go on hooks by the door and homework has its place in the metal racks on the wall.

The bathroom....oh how I miss a full size shower and a normal toilet that doesn’t flush with a foot lever. I do however love my laundry arrangement. My parents get my laundry at least twice a week and we swap dirty clothes for clean clothes.

Our system is working for the most part. Yes it does get hectic when everyone is getting ready at the same time to go somewhere. Living in a tiny space though makes you really think about what you need to live. I miss all my crafty things, but they are all in storage so in good time I will have my crafting space back again.

As far as the grand plan.....we should be under roof within the next couple of weeks and we will then pull our camper into the barn. It is setup with the sewer, electric and water to service the camper. I’ve learned to have a lot more patience living in the camper, but can’t wait to have this all as just a story to tell. I think the best line thus far was when I got up one morning and Dave said to me for the first time in our 19 years together....do you have to pee? I said yes why.....the shitter is full dear! He couldn’t wait to use that line on someone!

 

 

Learning to DANCE in the RAIN!

Sometimes there are setbacks and some hurt worse than others.  We took a big blow over the weekend when a storm rolled through.  We woke up to our daughter who was scared of the rain and wind and we brought in our canopy on the camper.  I will have to update on where we are living......forgot to tell the part that we live in our fifth wheel now that our house has sold.  That's another story though.  We went back to bed and Emelia crawled in bed with me and Dave went to the back bunk to sleep.  Then around 3:00 he heard a loud crash and looked outside.  Our trusses even though they were braced came tumbling down.  Now the process of rebuilding and figuring out where to start will begin.

 The trusses looked like dominoes except all of them are busted and not saveable.  We called our insurance company so it appears we won't be getting a roof on soon after all.

TRUSSES are up!

September 5 is a BIG DAY for our "BARN".  The trusses are up and you can really see how the barn is going to look.  It seems so big on the inside now.  Dave is getting excited.  He will start on the sheathing on the weekend and hopefully we will have a roof next week. 

 View on the landing!  The kids can really start to visualize their space now!

 This is a view from the landing down into our living room witch has a vaulted ceiling.  It looks so cool. 

WALLS and a COUCH!

It's August already and the walls are all up on the exterior and we are ready to have the trusses set. We are anxiously awaiting the trusses as we will be able to get under roof and finally begin to see our barn take shape.  The windows are waiting on us as is the garage door.  Meanwhile I'm shopping for couches because you don't want a new house and no furniture to go in it right?!?

 This is the couch I've been searching for.  I've decided I don't want this exact model, but will be ordering one a little shorter than this!  Oh I can't wait to start decorating!

We have a BEAM!

We have a beam!  This beam will allow us to have a open room from the kitchen to the living room.  My plan is to leave this beam exposed.  I'm going to wait until I have the walls up with shiplap to see if I like the look and if not we will wrap with wood.  It's coming together!

Walls are going up!

Dave wasted no time starting on the walls.  Kale had football camp so he helped Dave everyday during the week after camp was over.  He thought he was pretty big stuff helping out!  He is building the 10' walls for the main level and then he will build the top walls for the loft after that.  The other side of the barn will have 16' high walls.  Dave will build all of the interior walls under the loft as well so the rooms should start to take shape.

Back up a few weeks to MOTHER'S DAY weekend!

Back up a few weeks to MOTHER'S DAY weekend!

Dave isn't much on getting me flowers.....he has, but it is far and few between.  After purchasing our property we would go over and spend a lot of time down in the woods at a clearing the kids found and we had a fire pit, but up near the top of the hill just down from where our future walk-out basement will be is a clearing in the woods that seemed perfect for my little OUTDOOR OASIS!  I said Dave wouldn't this be cool if we strung lights here and had a table.  So for Mother's Day he worked until dark and then we plugged in the lights via extension cord to the car to try them out.  Fast forward to when the septic was installed and the electric was ran to the bottom of the hill.  I thought he was working on the septic and getting the electric hooked up, but little did I know he had a surpise for me.  He installed an outlet on a tree with a light switch for my lights.....and he even added a bottle opener too! It's the coolest space!