We are on the journey of downsizing our lives,living debt free and following God where He leads. All while renovating our tiny house, running our business, cooking, cleaning, raising and homeschooling our large family in our tiny house. Everyday is different and interesting...and you get to read about it right here!
Last month officially marked three years of us living in our tiny cottage in the woods. The kitchen is almost finished. Waiting on hubby to finish up a few minor details. Then post for it will be going up. This time of year always makes me curious to go back and look at what it used to look like around here. Are you ready to be blown away?
Here is a before and after and a couple of during photos.
This is now our dining/living
This is now the kitchen/bath
Before we started to rebuild
Before and after
After the front porch was finished
I'm planning a room by room tour with before and after pics for everyone. There will also be videos, because some of the rooms are hard to take pictures of. A typical issue with really small houses. :)
Looking back I can't believe we lived here through most of the renovation...or that we did almost all of it ourselves. Many prayers went up during this process. This house was a God given blessing that required a lot of elbow grease and lots of literal blood, sweat and tears.
2. Oh the Anxiety!
Nothing strikes more fear in a homeschooling mom/bloggers heart than a computer technology fail! Our computer has been stricken with viruses twice this year. This is the second total wipe and start over. Praise the Lord for the invention of expansion storage to save all of the school stuff and blogging/vlogging media.
The patient seems to have survived. This post is being typed on it.
3. Pumpkin carving and the great pumpkin walk!
We went to a local pumpkin walk. They let kids come and carve pumpkins during the day, and then in the evening you get to walk through all the lighted pumpkins that are lined out through a field. The cool part to this is the fact that you get to walk through some Native American mounds that you typically have to walk around the perimeter. They had over 250 pumpkins carved and all aglow along the path. It was really neat to see. (I forgot my phone at home. No pictures.)
The funny part was hearing Anna shout "Pumpkins!!!" every 5 feet! That didn't get old after about 50 pumpkins. Nope, not at all.
We also carved pumpkins over the weekend. I did get to take pictures of that!
4. Cinnamon sweet potato bites
A new kid friendly post went up on the blog this week. Cinnamon sweet potato bites.
My kids love them. However, a friend told me she tried it but swapped out the sweet potato for butter nut squash. (Something I had also considered trying) Apparently it didn't going over too well. She said one of her children ran to spit it out. Guess I will be crossing that off of the 'recipes to try' list. Thanks for saving me the time S. :)
5. The season of excess has begun!
We all went out to run some errands over the weekend. We went into Menard's to pick up some items for the house and the office. Menard's is already all decked out for Christmas. Not that I am against getting a jump start on holiday shopping. (Some years I try to be finished by Thanksgiving.)I do have to say though that I will never stop being shocked by the excess and even the sheer size of the items that they sell for Christmas. What benefit will anyone ever have from a caterpillar that is over 6 feet long?
*Sigh* **Deep breaths**
My minimalism is showing.
They also had a HUGE gorilla that we thought for sure Anna would love. She is crazy for Curious George. Nope! She CRIED and wouldn't take her suspicious glare off of it until we left the aisle!
6. Odd but delicious
Last winter our friend Sarah fed us lunch. Sarah has this knack for taking a few simple ingredients and turning it into something absolutely amazing! We decided that we are never quite sure if it is the food or the company that makes the meal so great. Probably both!
She served us this delicious chicken noodle soup, but it had Ramen noodles(not the seasoning packet) in it. (Hers were the gluten free kind). She said she had them and just tossed them in.
Alex has mentioned this soup off and on since January. He has even asked for it to be on the monthly meal plan. I kind of put it off, just because it is simple and we basically always have the ingredients on hand. I think we had it once in the spring.
This week our co-op was cancelled due to so many people being sick. Well, it turned out to be a blessing. The oldest three came down with something. Cough and cold symptoms with a low grade temp. Nothing major.
It was the perfect day for a pot of soup! I tossed our typical chicken and noodle basics in the pot, but stopped just short of putting the typical egg noddles in. I grabbed some Ramen noodles and tossed those in instead.
It can seem like an odd combination, but it goes over big with the kids. Sarah probably has no idea what she started last winter.
I made 4Qrts of soup and there wasn't a drop left by mid afternoon! Alex is already asking me to make more.
7. Say Perpendicular!
The weather was so beautiful the last part of this week. It was really hard for some of usall of us to stay focused. We tried to power through and this is where we ended up... In fits of giggles over math terminology. We closed the books and went out to play shortly after I filmed this video. Obviously their brains were done for the day.
Well, February went fast! Or maybe it was painfully slow?! I'm not sure really. I spent half of it severely sleep deprived, with sick kids. Stomach viruses, Rotavirus, Cough/Cold Viruses, Severe asthma attacks, Ear Infection and an epic migraine...yep that was the month of February at the Tiny House!
I don't think I have EVER been so happy to see the calendar flip to a new Month!!!
Since I basically have not blogged for a month...figured I would do my best to catch everyone up. So you will get a brief over view of our lives...with pictures. (Wow, You are lucky! ;) )
I've sat and tried to figure out the best way to update everyone...and I am thinking it is best to do it by person. So, here you go....a updating glimpse into our tiny world.
Dustin... He managed to miss most of the sickness. Lucky Duck!
He finished up a car flip, worked on the dining room and fixed some totally awesome dinners while I was tending sick kiddos and rocking the baby. He drove to Indiana with his friend Michael to pick up a truck. From what I hear it was quite a trip. One that will go down in the lengthy book of adventures for them...and will be retold at many get togethers to come.
He also put together our new dining room table. Our dream and plan is for him to make most of the furniture for the tiny house. However, this house is a long term project and we can't go years without certain important pieces of furniture. Such as a table that we can all sit at to eat dinner. We were strolling through Kmart the other day and found this little beauty. We actually really like it. It has storage in the benches and we can all sit together. (We have lived here 18 months without being able to sit together. I know that isn't a big deal to some people, but it is to us.) It is made of real wood, and it was on clearance. Plus, it fits perfectly in the dining space nook area we had planned.
Also...do you see the paneling on the wall??
That is your little glimpse of the tiny house update. He has been
paneling, mudding, trimming and busting his tail on this room. Can not
wait to make a post about it very, very soon.
Since he wont stand still long enough to get picture of him..you get a picture of him holding Anna.
Alex... He got the least of the sickness.
He spent the better part of the month trudging through school (The worst torture of all.), staying up to date on youtube, Playing basketball, playing minecraft, and beating Assassins Creed 4 on the X box . He did get a nice surprise from his Dad. A new BB gun! He has had a blast with it ever since.
I also feel obligated to tell you about the fact that he now has something to lord over me for the rest of his entire life. He has been complaining off and on about having leg pain and cramps for a while...like 9 months. I put off taking him to the Dr...because he tends to be a bit over dramatic and kind of a whiner. (Said with much motherly love, of course.) So much so that we have a theme song for him now.
I finally get around to taking him to the Dr and turns out there really is something wrong with him. He is VERY flat footed. He has to do exercises and wear corrective Dr Scholl's inserts in his shoes. Nothing too life altering, but he will have to work on it so it will control the pain.
The second that the Dr said that there really was something wrong with him he turned to me with this look on his face and said..... "I told you there was something wrong with me!!!!!!"
Uh huh, never going to live that one down.
I am expecting my 'Mother Of The Year' award to arrive at any moment.
Emma...
She took the brunt of the sickness. She has not had a very good year in the health department. Poor kiddo.
Emma went to a gymnastics tournament and had a night away at her grandparents house. Gymnastics is one of her absolute favorite things to do. This was a serious bucket list moment for her. She had such a good time with her Grandma (and Grandpa, of course).
Sadly though, she spent most of February on the couch or in her bed. She was so sick...the poor child dropped 4 lbs in a week. After the stomach virus moved on she caught an upper respiratory crud and ended up on round the clock scheduled breathing treatments and steroids.
She is finally feeling better and back to practicing gymnastics moves, jumping on the trampoline and playing basketball with Alex.
Addison... She was the one to kick off our fun filled month of sickness. She started with the stomach bug and then ended up with the upper respiratory crud as well. She actually really scared me with the upper respiratory stuff. Her breathing was so tight one night that I thought she had croup. She did however spend the better part of the month GermXing and telling everyone else not to get her sick...despite the fact that she was patient zero. When she wasn't feeling yucky she was busy being well..Twirly....which is just how Addison is. She is sweet, fun loving and busy, busy, busy. She has been trying her absolute hardest at school lately. She finally got to the point in her reading program when she started reading actual stories..She is SO proud! She is also zooming through her math. She is so proud Addison has also been very crafty this month! She has been making from tents to zoo animals out of paper. She also decided two days ago that she had to have a boat made out of paper. She spent hours yesterday gluing paper together to make it. She eventually got frustrated and started asking me for help. Let me tell you right now...Lyndsay, is not a crafty craft person. I am just not once of those science experiment, decoupage project sort of homeschooling moms.Believe me, I have tried..but it is just not in me.
However, She asked and how do I say no...so off to Youtube I went. Youtube has saved me on more than one occasion. So we made a paper boat. She decorated it and has been happily sailing her paw patrol figures along the imaginary seas ever since.
I also have to share with you Addison's most recent little quark, if you will...the fact that she will only wear one sock. *shivers* It gives me chills just typing it. I asked her the other day why she had been only putting on one sock...she said "I did not put one sock on, I took one sock off.'
Her thought process amazes me sometimes.
I also caught her putting her boots on this past weekend without socks. I said "Don't forget socks.' She said "Don't worry, I have one on.' There is more to the conversation...but it ended with me sending her to find another sock. She went off in a huff, because how dare I require two socks of her. She then returned with one hot pink frozen themed ankle sock and a knee high gray hello kitty sock, with stripes.
She also is a firm believer that a skirt can and should go with absolutely every outfit. (Did you see the red sparkly shirt in the family picture above? Go ahead, scroll back up to Alex's portion, I'll wait.) Yep, she as her own style. I know she will outgrow it someday, so for now I grin and bear it and make sure she has clean underwear on.
Anna... Despite having what the Dr said had to be Rotavirus, respiratory crud and an ear infection...Miss Anna made some Big leap and bounds this month. She finally started liking fruit, is sitting up, sat in a high chair, drank from a sippy cup, found her feet and had (A family record breaking) 8 outfit changes in one day. (Thank you Rotavirus! I am seriously thankful for the Rotavirus vaccine. Anna had a rather mild case of it compared to the older kids, who had it without the vaccine.) She still managed to smile through it all. She makes us smile every day.
She has EPIC thighs!
Me....
Hmmm...what didIdo this month? Like I said above..most of it was a blur of sick kiddos and just plain ole craziness. I can tell you that I drank a LOT of coffee, started reading my Bible from Genesis (Again, one of these days I will get all the way through.), disinfected the house endlessly, prayed for these kiddos a lot, made up a totally awesome new garlic bread recipe, started working out again (12k+ steps a day with my fitbit), and drinking 100oz of water a day, shampooed the living room rug, dumped facebook off of my phone, left most of my social media sites and did my best to keep up with all of these people who call me Mom and this ever changing river we call the tiny house.
I have been having quite a few back issues since Anna was born. Back issues are not anything new, I just did a good job at ignoring them until after she came along. I used to use a Mody Wrap for my babies..but it was killer on my back! Plus, Anna is a "personal bubble" type of baby and Hated being that close to me. So, I ordered an ERGO! Love it! Didn't get to use it that much since ordering because it was just too cold..and we were too sick to really get out and about. I've used it more this month and it is a life saver. Can't wait to go to the zoo with it.
WEAR ALL THE BABIES!!!! <3 I'm also on a mission to lose the last of this pesky baby weight before Summer. (Because I'm too cheap to buy more Summer clothes.) I have kicked it into high gear. Using my Fitbit (Thank you husband, BEST Anniversary gift ever.) and tracking calories. I started out requiring myself to log 10k steps, and recently moved it up to 12k. With 30-60 moinutes of tracked activity, and an estimated calorie deficit of 500-1000. Yes, I am that determined. ;) I will make a post updating that as well. (I've lost almost four times the amount I have to lose now, in the past..so it is not like I am new to this. It's it just time to suck it up and get back to it.)
Ergo selfie at the Allergist; Dr visit with zero sleep; I liked my hair, and felt awesome for hitting 7500 steps before 10am. :)
How was Your February??
Here's to March! Hopefully it is Merciful on the Tiny House Homeschool Family!
Blessings!!!
~Lyndsay~
*** A couple random pictures that didn't have a place... Addison's decorated boat.
Emma reading with Anna.
Sometime in the midst of all the sickness we had a nice day and the kids had a pic lunch.
Remember just yesterday, when I was telling you about how cozy and relaxed of a day we were having?
Well...an hour after I posted that post...the main drain in our house backed completely up!
Yep, one minute I am sipping coffee and cuddling the baby after finishing up cleaning the house...the next thing I know, I am watching Dustin cut holes in my utility room floor. *shakes head*
When we got this house..the plumbing was a disaster.
That is why we gutted the entire house, including electric and plumbing, and started over. When we were doing the plumbing the main drain looked good. So, we hooked all of our new plumbing to it. Had the septic emptied and checked. Everything looked good. *Note to self. When the house is that bad, Always tear it all out and start over.*
Then we moved in. We would often hear a gurgling. Dustin looked into it. We kind of figured it was because we had not finished running the vents all the way out of the house yet. We had those finicky vent caps on temporarily. We finished running the vents.
The problem did not go away. It got worse, but kind of came and went. It just wasn't something that screamed 'Serious Problem'. Dustin is a busy man, and it wasn't at the top of his list.
Until, one day in August, when I was VERY pregnant, the entire thing backed up. The tub was full, both of the sinks, etc.
We called a plumber, because Dustin was stuck at work. They cleaned the main drain from the septic to the house. The 'Brilliant Genius' who update the plumbing,(and the rest of the house before we bought it.) thought it would be a good idea to put the main clean out UNDER the utility room floor. The plumbers were not very nice gentlemen and seemed to be in a hurry. They didn't bother to come in and check the drains or anything.
They did say that, judging from the amount of build up, it was probably mostly from the last residents. They also suggested that we dig it all up and replace the main drain. I was 36 weeks pregnant. There was no way we were taking that on at that moment in time.
$290 later and we could at least use the toilet again (Something this pregnant lady was thankful for. ;) )...and things did drain.
Oh, we had the septic emptied also, $125. I was so thankful for our emergency fund that day.
However, that gurgling never completely went away. It would come and go and Dustin did what he could.
We were trying to avoid tearing up the floor to get to the clean out. Finding the drain and making an access hatch was on the 'To Do' list...but not until we actually got to finishing the utility room. That room is currently last on the list of rooms to finish.
Then yesterday happened.
We attempted Drano at first, $15.
It did nothing.
Then he started tearing up the flooring. The stick down tiles that I got on clearance..because it was discontinued. *Facepalm*
Yep.
*Deep Sigh*
He had to cut five holes in the floor before he was able to find the clean out. Then he had to cut a bigger hole to get to the clean out.
**Deeper Sigh*
AND THEN...he had to go to Lowe's and get one of those BIG electric drain auger snakes, and some very thick and long orange gloves, $430
One very messy hour and $450 later...the drain was officially fixed.
The gurgling is gone. We are pretty sure that the plumbers didn't officially get the problem taken care of to begin with. We are also fairly certain that this was probably an on going issue with the past residents.
We then did what we always do when this old tiny house throws us for a loop. We laugh about the disaster, give each other a kiss, clean up the mess, praise God for our debt free house and emergency fund...and order pizza for dinner.
Needless to say, the chilli did not get made yesterday ;) ...and I had to clean the house again today..at least parts of it.
Dustin filled in the holes in the utility room floor. Thankfully we have a few of the tiles left. Looks like we will be putting something different in there when we get to finishing that room. ;) This crazy house has thrown us for more than one loop along the way. We love it..and we keep moving forward. Because...it's worth it.
The tiny house now.
On the bright dayside, the next time we have to clean out a drain...the auger will have paid for itself! ;) I don't know about you...but I'm always happy when something pays for itself. LOL I'm now making the chili, school is finished for the day and the washer is no longer draining into the bathtub...VICTORY! All is back to Warm and Cozy in the Tiny house. :)
I am sitting here thinking back on how we came to be living in this tiny house of ours.
The story starts about 11 months ago.
It was December 10th 2013. My husband and I have made some big changes in our lives the last few years. We had made the continuous choice to pray for God's will to be done in our lives. That had brought about a lot of changes both emotional and physical. Along these changes my husband had been lead to leave his position at his work and work full time from home. He had wanted to do it for so long. This time last year we were working from home, we were very busy. It was a good business and my husband was very popular...but he turned to me and said..'I'm not sure this is what God really wants for us.'
We had prayed endlessly before he left his position and we knew we had made the right decision when he left..but it turns out, that wasn't where God had planned for us to end up.
So, once again we prayed for guidance and the Lord's will. We got our answer a couple of months later. On December 10th...my husband came to me and said he had found a house and he felt God wanted us to buy it. We had looked at a couple other houses but it just wasn't the right fit. This house however..it was God sent. It was a disaster lol but never the less a God send.
I did not even see it before we put the money down to hold the property. My husband had come up to look at it(in 4 inches of snow) and instantly called to tell me to call the realtor and put a hold on it. I did.
He took me up a couple of days later. The house took my breath away..literally. It smelled and was a mess. But then again...must 100 year old foreclosures are. lol It had a garage (if you could call it that), out buildings, woods, county water, cable access, was away from town, but not too far out. Everything we had prayed for in a house.
But..the best part?? We paid for it with cash!
We did not do anything to the house until after the first of the year. We climbed into the van with all of the children (they helped every step of the way) one snowy January day..and set to work.
We decided that tearing out the drywall and carpet would give us a good look at what we had to work with.
As I sit here I am picturing flash backs. I had a dead mouse fall out of the ceiling on my head. We found roaches in the walls and it was so dirty and gross. The kitchen plumbing ran through the living room on top of the floor. You had to step over it to get into another part of the house.There was a huge hole and leaking in the roof around the chimney. The original part of the house was clearly built well..the additions and later 'improvements' were not built well. The people who lived here before had clearly not taken good care of the house or the buildings and grounds.
That was ok though..that is why we were here.
We decided later that day that part of the structure would have to come down due to it being poorly built. My husband is a stickler for things being down correctly and the way it was at the time, just was not going to work.
We filled 3 huge construction dumpsters, took off three additions and gutted the entire house back to studs.
Popped out part of the original roof and put in four dormers(we had 5 inches of snow and it was -7 that day), put on a new roof..rebuilt two of the additions, put in all new windows, door(s), insulations, plumbing, electric. basically we have built a brand new house inside the bones of a 100 year old house.
I just adore the hand crafted solid oak beams in the original structure. The history of the house just fascinates me. My husband loves to build and I am a descent helper...so we were almost made for this. :)
The house started out at 1400 square feet..it is now just a little under 1000 square feet. Probably closer to 980 square feet.
We love this house. It has taken us 11 months of blood sweat and tears..but it is finally livable. At least parts of it. We moved in the second week of September and live in a little less than half of the house at the moment. It is a bit cramped but it is home. Every week we get more accomplished and the house grows in comfort and space.
We made a purposeful decision to downsize when we were looking for a house. Part of asking God to show us His will involved the decision to be debt free and to downsize and live minimally. We are still working on some of these things... and Lord willing we will accomplish all of them in due time. This debt free tiny house was a huge step in right direction for our lives.
It you had told me a little over a year ago that our lives would be as different as they are today..I'm not sure I would have believed you. The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions and changes. It was painful at times but progress is never painless. It is painful and new and makes you feel vulnerable. It changes parts of you that you never expected. This past year my husband and I have growled at each other, worked together. We learned a lot more about each others strengths and weaknesses and have grown so much closer. When one of us reached the point of breaking, the other was strong enough to pick up the other and move forward. Our family has worked, rested, cried and rejoiced together on this new journey of our lives. The children worked so hard to lend a hand and have grown so much this year.
I am so proud of my family and what we have accomplish with our tiny home this year.
I will be adding pictures to this post as well as keeping up with the renovation with posts from this point forward.
I look forward to sharing our tiny house journey with you all. :)
