How Building a Tiny House with my Husband Saved our Relationship

I used to smile to myself as I read states about the number one most common things couples flight about. For example the Top 6 Marriage - Killing Money Issues, "haha!" I would think, none of those things effect us. Until a bigger problem started appearing in our relationship, BOREDOM. 

You gotta keep it spicy! 

At the time I was working two jobs part-time and pursuing my masters full time. Patrick on the other hand was working a 7-3pm shift and paying most of the bills. When we finally had a moment to spend together- we wasted it watching TV, movies or being on our devices. 

This may be normal for some couples, but our relationship has always flourished when we work as a team toward something incredible. When we first meet we quickly learned that we loved projects, trying new things, traveling or building. While we were planning to move to New Zealand, we had a singular focus on the goal of saving enough and making a home here. Once we arrived, we traveled and went about the huge project of setting up a home in a new country. But once we figured everything out and the day to day started getting mundane, we started picking fights. 

Rock bottom was when Patrick wanted to return to the USA while I was still in the midst of my studies. But luckily we had both been marinating a plan in the back of our minds. And when the opportunity arose to act on it- we had nothing to lose at that point. 

So it was all or nothing, and I am so glad to say we left nothing behind and gained everything by trusting in our teamwork and ability to manifest our wildest dreams.

It's never too late for shutters

Hi there,
This is our first post since hearing the disappointing news about the election. The best way we found to keep from crying was to get started on a small project!

Pat used some free pallets, primer, paint and his nail gun to whip up some shutters for the house. I will let the photos speak for themselves. 

Thanks for reading!

-Pat and Cori

Modifications- Improving the Tiny House!

HI Readers! Pat and I have just finished a long day of cleaning and "renovating" and wanted to share some photos with you!

Living in such a small space means everything really has to work well. Things have to be convenient and useful. Otherwise you might find yourself wanting to give up all together. For example, when we ordered our storage crates, we were still undecided about what sort of seating we wanted. Little did we know that the plush seat we made, bumped the height of our "couch". It wasn't a huge deal, just a slight inconvenience when we were watching TV or on the computer. So we decided to cut off the very short legs of the crate! While we were down there we decided to insulate the wheel wells. Turns out there was a bit of a draft coming from under the crates. We only noticed it once the weather got a bit colder.

When we built the house we knew there would be things we would want to change, so it was really straightforward and only took a few hours.

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I hope it makes a big difference. Otherwise it would have been a waste of tape and insulation!

Along with the insulating of the wheel wells, we also decided to finally get our record player out of storage and install it on the wall so we could use it whenever. It was a job for patty cakes!

I had found a perfect green suitcase (for 5 bucks from the EcoStore) and it worked a charm! See below:

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Thanks for reading!

We will be in the states soon, drop us a line if you want to say hi!

Cheers!

Pat and Cori

First Night Stay at the Tiny House!

Hello Again! Friday night was the very first night we slept over at the tiny house. We arrived at about 9:30pm and found the house to be warm and when we turned on all the lights, very well lit. The pillows and kitchenware were quickly put away and we had a nice quiet evening with a glass of wine and a good book. We were very comfortable, warm and everything we needed to relax for the evening was easy to access and use. We slept very well and the hot shower in the morning was amazing. We were both able to cook and be in the kitchen area at the same time without running into each other and the eggs and hashbrowns were delish! It was a great night and we were sad to go the next day. We did make a short list of item to improve but over all we did a great job of planning and anticipating our needs.

Tiny House Quick Video..."what weird birds? ohya"

Composting Toilet

Hello! We finally got around to making our toilet, it took a while to find the right raw materials, but Pat scored a sweet crate that we painted, cut a hole in the top, and mounted hinges. The toilet seat is a special slow close seat (you can afford to upgrade your seat when you're pooping a bucket.) We need to work on sourcing a regular source of sawdust, but we still have some time. 

Sorry we don't have more pictures. I wasn't around to document and supervise Pat.

Thanks!

-Pat and Cori (mostly cori)

Tiny House Slideshow- Exterior

Mounting the Solar Panels

Hi Everyone, This weekend at the Tiny House we mounted our solar panels to the roof. I had help from a good friend from work and it went really smoothly. We installed two 265 watt solar panels and two 12 volt 325 amp hour batteries to create a 24 volt system. Our goal from the beginning of our build was to be free of electric bills. We are now generating our own electricity and it is amazing to see the whole thing finally come together.

Thanks for reading! Next up- water, deck and a toilet.

-Pat and Cori

Finishing the Bed and more

Hello everyone, Today I worked on finishing the pull out bed. I found a old door in the rubbish and cut out a good section to use as the front. I also pulled up all the protective floor covering to expose all the beautiful flooring that has been under cover for a long time now. I also added a bunch of other updated photos. Hope you enjoy!!

Pull out bed and other things

Hi, Today Cori and I worked on our under floor pull out bed and I welded four little tabs on the kitchen sink to support a cutting board to give us some more counter space. We also finished off a few other little things. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is for pillow storage at the head of the bed.

Now here's a video of Cori.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGvXMo4i2sA&w=420&h=315]

We installed some bathroom shelves using old apple crates.

Trim for the bathroom window.

As Pat would say "Sweet."

-Cori and Pat

Trimmyity Trim Trim! (and a door)

Hello blog followers, We got a lot accomplished at the tiny house today. The trim around the entrance door and kitchen windows is complete. We were able to use the rimu we got for free from some friends. We cut all the pieces to size and stained them before brad nailing them into place. We also installed a barn style door to the entrance of the bathroom only using some recycled materials we had laying around. I love it when things come together!

Now watch as Pat explains his recycling magic! 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxjD0k7ICXo&w=420&h=315]

It Moves!

Hello everyone, Today at the tiny house we did a bunch of little things including trim, kitchen lighting, vinyl in the cabinets, and some decorating. We also lowered the trailer off the four blocks its been resting on for over 7 months. We hooked the trailer up to our truck to test the lights and towing capabilities. After filling all four tires on the trailer with air we shifted the tiny house with no worries. Success! Watch the drama unfold!

Below is the first long distance photo that we have been able to take without a fence in the way!

Nice view!

Pat getting ready to try it out!

Finally got the kitchen lighting up.

I found these in a store in Wellington, three for $12! It took us a while to decide where to put them.

If you look closely you will see the vinyl that we glued to the shelves of the kitchen cabinets. It makes it look so much better!

This thing is really coming together huh?

FINALLY some trim!

I am embarrassed to say that this took me a good 30 min to do!

So it doesn't going flying open while we transport our house!

We also have a few videos if you are interested!

Inside a Moving Tiny House!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vf6ZXasg_8&w=420&h=315]

Towing the Tiny House

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kK_c4IvfcU&w=420&h=315]

https://youtu.be/XsTZm70acEc

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsTZm70acEc&w=420&h=315]

Painting & Trim

Hello bloggers, It certainly is spring. This is the second weekend we have been rained out, making things at the tiny house difficult. We have still managed to get things done though.

We painted our lockers, storage cabinet, and kitchen cabinets. I also have been hooking up some of the electrical outlets and switches as I go along.  We did the trim above the kitchen all out of recycled timber. At this stage it is really difficult to use recycled materials to do the finishing work because their imperfections make it difficult to be satisfied with the result. This is new territory for the both of us and we keep losing our patience. Building a tiny house is hard work but we had a unexpected visitor today which boosted our morale.

And that's All Folks!

It doesn't seem like much but it is coming along. We did some more major clean up because our tiny house is going to be a part of Eco Week! A sustainable themed week long series of events hosted by the University of Canterbury. Following Eco Week we will be moving our tiny house to our newly rented lot in Christchurch. Everything is happening so soon! Stay tuned for more ;)

Pat and Cori

Kitchen cook top

Hello blog followers, Today we installed our kitchen cook top (gas hob) into our counter. We decided we wanted to save on counter space and install a 2 burner cook top instead of your typical 4 burner. The brand is Parmco and is a very good quality cook top.

Bathroom and other things

Hello Everyone, This weekend we worked on our bathroom. We finished installing the rest of our shower unit and added some cool retro checkered design around the top edge. We also finished adding plywood to the inside walls so we have something to attach our bathroom wall cladding.

We had a very nice guy from a company called custom crating build us our bench seat/ storage that will be our main seating bench in the tiny house. The top will be removable so that we can store blankets and things inside. I really had to modify it to fit around the wheel wells but it fit good. I also built a very sweet cabinet out of old crates that was going to be smashed up and thrown away.

Here's the cabinet i am making!

The cabinet and the lockers are not attached yet because they both need to be modified a bit more. See you next time!