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.