I did it

I put in an offer.
I find out whether or not it's accepted on Monday.
Cross your fingers, toes, eyes, I don't care.
Eep!

I have a dream ...

These ladies, they just look so happy. Shortly, this will be me


(http://www.vintagelucys.etsy.com/)



 

 ps: these are phenomenally fantastic tea towels that you can buy from vintage lucys.

I don't know if I ever mentioned why I love etsy so much:

a) it's original

b) it's not Walmart

c) I'd much rather pay the little guy any day than captain capitalist

If you're into space and that sort of thing

You kinda gotta be to live in a trailer. Into space. Or into saving it. Because you barely have any of it. So space just becomes a little more important. Like storage space for the copious bottles of wine you didn't have room for before:

(http://www.winebeds.etsy.com/)

And living space (I could live in my bed, I'd be thrilled if I never had to get out of it - completely and utterly satisfied) - with drawers in it. I am still convinced that someone should create a bed with a full dresser underneath. As well as a chair with shelving below the seat. And a sofa chair with storage space below the cushion. But this bed is a great start:

(http://www.mrnash.etsy.com/)



Or outer space ... ok - maybe living in a mobile home doesn't make you consider the value of outer space. But this is a beautiful table:

(http://www.studio724.etsy.com/)

More space saving ideas from etsy:

Upward Mobility: I wish that I knew what I know now ...:

"It doesn't matter what size your mobile is, it's small.

Which means that every time you choose to add a shelf,

chest, rack, or set of drawer..."



Living with Jack Kerouac

Ever try to read Jack Kerouac? I did. And sometimes I thought I needed to be on acid or drunk on red wine or completely sleep deprived or outdoors in order to understand what the hell I was reading. If you read Kerouac, and think about those ways of being, it might make sense to you too. Whatever it took, I think that in order to get his books, you had to get freedom. And you have to respect a lifestyle that's a little more people-minded and a little less capitalist. Small capitalists would understand it. Like children, and old people who aren't really playing that game anymore.

When serious players buy homes they don't view trailers. They end up living in the doll houses in the suburbs with attached garages and fenced in yards and they either don't know the neighbours or only know the ones they don't feel threatened by. And they sleep in king sized beds and dream about the day when they pay off their mortgage.

A friend told me "you will always live in debt. You are never going to be debt free. It's reality. Get used to it".

But he doesn't live in a trailer either. I have this image in my head, of living in my trailer, with my little mortgage, paying it off, and Uncle Sam furioiusly hammering on the windows because I don't have to let him in. Mr Moneybags is there too, wagging a disapproving finger at me and sort of tsk tsk-ing. I don't want to go to bed at night only to dream about freedom. I don't want to live with Sammy boy and Moneybags. I'm going to live in BC - arguably the most naturally beautiful part of my country, I'm going to live with my boys: Jay, Wayne and Kerouac. I'm going to live without debt, without the restrictions that brings. I'm going to live free.

Evolution

I tried, but it didn't take

I thought I was making a move to a simple life. Going from living in a house to a trailer, purging our stuff and starting over, moving from a large-ish city (population 600,000) to a small one (population 30,000). But when I looked into it, I'm not doing "simple living" at all.

I found out it's actually pretty serious stuff. There's this Simple Living Manifesto I found from zenhabits.net. It lists 72 ways to simplify your life. You'd think they could simplify the process a bit, but no.

The way they put it, It means getting rid of the clutter so you are left with only that which gives you value. and you can do it in 2 steps:

1. Identify what’s most important to you.
2. Eliminate everything else.

or, since that is apparently too vague and difficult for most people (myself included), you can follow their instruction manual and achieve satisfaction after all 72 simplification tasks are complete. Reading that list wasn't so appealing to me either. But I'm also not interested in killing babies, which is apparently what I'm doing if I don't at least make an effort



So, assuming it's on the list somewhere referring to de-cluttering my life, I started by cleaning out my inbox, outbox, junkbox ... all the electronic mailboxes I had. It took an hour. I don't feel much better. And I'm pretty sure that if I had that hour back, I might be able to use it napping, or reading a book, or petting my puppy which, simply, makes me happy.

Instead, taking on simplicity, seriously, is completely time consuming. I feel like I have yet another goal on the horizon and 71 more tasks on my agenda (I did find "declutter your digital packrattery" on the list). I'm not sure I'm cut out for this, and I'm not sure I want to be either.

Not to mention, it's not a happy moment when I realized that I accidentally deleted a whole number of emails I was keeping for posterity's sake, including one from a personal hero I've never met but have corresponded with. I feel like I just gave my autographed baseball to the dog to be used as a chew toy.


ps - that image, it's for sale. I'm not telling you where. Because one of the 72 steps to simplicity is "limit your buying habits" - so why market a simple living product when buying unecessary material goods is completely antithetical to the goals of simplicity?

I smell a ruse. I'll try again tomorrow when I'm feeling less suspicious.

Andrea Zittel, I think I love you

So I've been daydreaming about the trailer we're going to one day (hopefully sooner than later) buy, fix up, and call home. And I've been thinking about living simply, considering living small. I don't think it's a condition you are stuck with because you lack the finances to cut yourself a bigger chunk of the real estate pie - unless you are living in a rooming house. I've been in a rooming house. If you live in one of those 10ft by 14ft holes in the wall, I'm so so sorry. I will be living one step up in a trailer. But seriously, I don't think living small and simply is a devastation, I think it's a talent.

And because I love to think of myself as talented, I've been coming up with the most creative uses of space I can think of. If only I had the time, tools, materials and skill, I'd be building myself a kitchen table with a wine rack for a base. Or a kitchen table with a spice rack built in, right underneath the table top, edging all four sides. Or one with shelving below the table top made to hold place settings. Lots of table ideas for sure.

But none of my own ideas even compare to the space saving, multi-purpose furniture creations of Andrea Zittel - American designer and sculpture artist. She's amazing. And if she wants to come live in BC with me and Jay, and design our interior space for us, I'm sure there's room available (can you hear me Andrea? I'd gladly and lovingly adopt you in a heartbeat and Jay will just have to roll over and make room)



(http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/chasing_andrea.php)

Refurbishing

With eco awareness about everything being so necessary and so trendy lately, I find it all around me. Unlike most of the fads I find myself involuntarily involved in or surrounded with though, I'm quite pleased with the influence of environmental movements that are currently so prevalent. Because I believe in them whole-heartedly.

Do I believe that the world is going to end due to global warming? I'm not sure. Do I believe that we are doomed to a world where our only options for nourishment come from chemically synthesized meal capsules and filtered urine? I sure hope not. Do I believe that we are creating a potentially apocalyptically inhospital environment that we then have no choice but to live in? I think we're on our way. I fully believe that we are consuming natural resources and producing harmful and artificial resources at such an excellerated rate and disproportionate level that we are currently and will continue to destroy the environment.

Due to these beliefs, I have become fascinated and slightly obsessed with refurbishing. I believe that renovating a crap-shack trailer is the ultimate act of refurbishing - you are literally taking the trash out of the trailer and creating something beautiful AND functional anew. But then you have to fill it. You have to make it a space you can live in. And I believe, that as much as possible, we can do this ethically by using old, recycled or refurbished furniture.

Like this (one of my absolute favorites - so ingenious!)



(www.ruffhouseart.etsy.com)

Again, I think this bench is completely genious work from www.reGEARED.etsy.com who uses bicycle parts to create real works of art:



And I think we can never overlook how much wood is made available when buildings are renovated, when an old piece of furniture becomes damaged or when you simply take a walk in the woods. I think we are doing a huge disservice to the earth by insisting that the best way to build anything is with new materials and new wood. This chair and table I think are just absolutely stunning displays of what you can do with salvaged wood, patience and skill (or what you can buy from someone who possesses all of those things)



(www.nicbonanno.etsy.com)



(www.RecycledBrooklyn.etsy.com)

So, when it comes to buying a piece of new furniture, or when you are completely furnishing a new space, think about it. Nobody said that re-used had to mean washed up.

Back in business

My real estate agent in Kelowna found me a doozie (doozY?)
Well I love the place anyway. It's a mobile with an addition on the side, a front and a back porch, lots o windows and a little fish pond for our puppy to drown in if he's not careful or for us to look at if we're smart about it. I think we'll choose being smart. Because nobody would choose being dumb, on purpose anyway.

So I called the bank. Who said "Nooooo this looks like your budget will be too tight" and tried to get me to buy a condo instead. What are they thinking? As if I need to name them:

THE BENEFITS OF BUYING A MOBILE HOME INCLUDE
- a lack of upstairs neighbours who can hear your puppy howling like you're beating him every time you go out for groceries without him
- a yard for your puppy to pee in as opposed to peeing in the tub (that's where apartment and condo building puppies pee isn't it?)
- a shed to keep your cool shit - like tools and gardening equipment - in
- the need to own cool shit like tools and gardening equipment
- a price tag that is about 1/5 the price tag on the condo the bank would prefer you buy
Need I go on?

Benefits aside, I can't believe I can't, but the bank doesn't believe I can afford a trailer. Or my bank doesn't anyway. Or the bitchy mortgage specialist I was referred to by my bank doesn't. Or so I thought - until I found out that my bank doesn't even finance mobile homes and the bitch really wanted a commission of my mortgage regardless, didn't care that I wanted to live in a mobile, didn't understand why I would want to live in a mobile and thought she could sell me a condo. So, now that I understand her game, I moved on. I did the thing you threaten to do, went to another bank and suddenly I can afford a trailer again.

The things we lost in the purge

Deciding to live small (and move across the country) means seriously simplifying so we've spent weeks trying to ditch the clutter, mess, unnecessaries and inessentials.

Jay made a rule that we had to get rid of an item per day. It became a new form of entertainment to watch people come over to visit and leave with a dart board or speaker system. I thought I'd be sad to see our stuff go but it turned into more of a game where the goal was to end up homeless with no possessions and only the clothes on your back.

What I lost and don't need to find:

1 Queen size bed - I gave it to some street-youth who just got their first apartment

All pit-stained tee shirts and holey toed socks

12 speed bicycle - Gave this one to a bicycle-less bicycle courier (he needed it more than I did)

VCR - remember VCRs?

A bunch of other stuff ... I guess you know the purge was the right decision when you can't even remember it a week later

The best bit - without all that shit in the way, there is tons of open space for Wayne to get his beauty rest.

I wish that I knew what I know now ...

It doesn't matter what size your mobile is, it's small. Which means that every time you choose to add a shelf, chest, rack, or set of drawers for storage, you're using up valuable floor space that you can no longer use for things like dancing, somersaults, yoga or wrestling. Because the ability to yoga-wrestle in my own home is so important to me, I went on a hunt for some good lookin storage solutions. And I wish on a fish that I'd thought of these earlier:


(http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/organizing/modern-spaces-small-space-storage-gallery-021315)


(JeremiahCollection.etsy.com)


(Garrendenny Lane)


(DoorCountyWoodworks.etsy.com)

Not to worry though, we've decided to buy and possibly rehabilitate another mobile home - in BC! Because once you've got the fever ...

We`re going mobile, but the trailer stays where it is

Grand tally: 11 days of work in
$1000 (approx) spent on supplies and materials
$451 spent on beer
Injuries sustained: not a one

Time left to finish the job: none. We`re moving to BC at the end of next month. Where we will be approximately (exactly) 2396 km from the trailer in Ontario.

But ask me if I`m in love.
All I can do is try and tell you what it feels like.

It`s like a breath of fresh air. Rolling downhill. Letting water run down your back. Taking a warm bath. Hitting snooze. Biting into a fresh steak. Rolling into a bed still warm from the body that was sleeping in it just a few minutes ago. Like a place that càn`t help but feel like home. Where I can decompress and wash the city off me, drop my stress at the door, stretch, yawn, and be happy.

Trailer and error

So my boyfriend bought a trailer.

And we committed to turning the craphole into a castle. First stop - walk in and immediately assume fetal position on the floor thinking about all of the work ahead of you. Second step - get rid of that stench. The carpet gone, the windows open (the windows that do actually open that is: 7 windows in the front end and none of them do), the rotten patches cut out of the floor, the mold cleaned out of the fridge, the whole job a lot bigger than we thought it was going to be. Time consuming, affordable, and slightly less than manageable when working full time 5 hours away from our weekend getaway. Difficult, but never a bad idea.

These guys could do it:


(http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/the_mini-home_f.php)

And we sure tried. End result: that photo at the top that we took when we first got there, it still looks just like that. It looks nothing like the masterpiece that Dan Hall and Andy Thomson created above. Inside, things have gotten much better. We hardley ever go fetal anymore.

(Not) For sale (anymore - we bought it): a piece of heaven Asking price: $5000

When someone offers to sell you a home for $5000, ask them where it is. If it's that one sitting in the middle of the trailer court with the windows broken, some guy peeing on the back door and a tree poking out of the roof, say no. But if it's a trailer sitting in the middle of the woods, surrounded by lakes, rivers and wildlife, think about it.

While you're thinking, rather than considering the million reasons why you can't find work in a town of 800 people, and why you would rather not make a daily one-hour commute to the next town, consider whether or not you like the view. Ask yourself if you enjoy the water. Think about the possibility of owning your summer cottage outright, with no mortgages, minimal utility bills and land taxes, with nature waiting, literally, at your doorstep. And if you can say no to that, slap yourself in the face and consider it again. While you're at it, think about the number of people who spend hundreds of thousands on their summer getaways.

And when you realize that it doesn't get much better than this, say yes.