So far, so good!

...but still no pictures.
And life has been quite good. Snug as two bugs in one rug! Can't get any more snug than that! As a matter of fact, we are so damned snug that we have to crack a window open so the fireplace actually sends the woodsmoke up the chimney!
Yes, we made this important discovery one evening when the house started to fill up with smoke. I opened a window to help clear the smoke out, noticed it cease and desist, closed the window. More smoke piled into the house! Opened the window again, kept it open. Jim wondered how this could be. He figured it out. You see, the composting toilet has a pipe that goes above the roof line to ventilate its contents and evaporate the wee-wee. (hee-hee!) It works by taking air out of the house and moving it up the pipe on a hot-air-rises principle, same as the wood stove. But the toilet won! And literally sucked the wood stove's air right out! Now that's a well insulated, closed-up house!!! And one helluva breezy loo!
It has been fun transferring our knowledge of boat-living to mini-house-living. We are just beginning the process of planning and building the furniture, and hope to come up with some good designs to maximize storage space by building in-place stuff. Eventually, we will have rain-water collecting tanks built into the dining-nook settees and another under the bed. Also into the dining nook will be storage for preserves and all the beer Jim is making. And the wine we made at the local brew-on-premises place. And, by the way, the kitchen has been built, only need the cupboard doors now. Jim made it from some pretty nice vee-groove strips and the leftover maple from the laminated maple counter-top. I am the most spoiled kitchen-wench ever! Everything is handy, and very beautiful!
The comment made by most of our visitors regards the ceiling height. Before some have visited, they exclaim that they could never live in a 450 square foot home, but after they have been inside for a few minutes, they notice the cathedral ceiling in the main living area and the 9'3" ceiling everywhere else. You don't feel crowded with a lid like that!
After all the hard-core construction of the house, we are ready to take a break and work in the garden. (Some break!) We will be screening the small rocks from our soil and build up some raised beds for a vegetable garden. It'll take another year before our kitchen-compost pile is ready for spreading, even another for the toilet-compost for the flower beds and places where we want to plant trees, berry bushes and stuff. So in the meantime, I guess we'll plant what will grow in this heavy, sticky soil. Some of it is poorly drained, so we'll do what we can until the beautiful compost is ready.
So that's the plan! Having all this land available has Jim's imagination going. He is currently reading about bee keeping, maple-syrup-making, candle making and weaving. Wish the library had how-to books more current than 1986. The basic info is all there, but just a little dated.
We have become somewhat involved in our community. Jim has joined the PECurling Club, where he has volunteered to help make the ice. They are painting it today whilst I loaf about in the library, writing to you. I got a small job at the local cafe, I'll be serving tables two days a week. Might join the ShoutSister choir in January. Looking forward to becoming aqainted with my guitar on the nights Jim is out curling. There is a lucious-looking double-bass for sale at the local music store...aak!
Looking forward to showing you some pix when my laptop is back from getting repaired!
FYI, it is 0 dregrees outside, overcast with wind gusting up to 50 km, and a comfy 20 iside. No sun today, just the wood stove going. Oh, look! A tiny bit of snow! And still enough solar power to run the house lights and maybe a couple of cuts on the chop-saw.

We're In!

My laptop is still fried, so no pikkies for you, so sorry!
But we have moved in! Yay! The board & batten siding is still missing its battens, but is painted a lovely soft yellow, trimmed in a rich blueberry. The wrap-around deck adds a hint of that "pressure-treated" green, which comes from a copper compound added to the mix. The GalvAlume roof is complete, although the tail of Hurricane Ike tried to swipe it when it was half-done. The drywall is taped and primed, ready for paint. The woodstove had it's inaugeral fire-up, works quite well. The passive solar gain is a thing of great beauty!!! All we really hafta do now is move the composting toilet inside. So I bought some lovely paint to get the loo ready, the same cream colour as Chelonidae's interior tongue&groove. Looks great with the spruce beam cieling.
And the flies are a real riot! No, really! Each fly-strip we put up comes back down with a feast for a family of bats, a pond of frogs and a pot of Venus Fly-Trap!
Pictures and an essay on Living Small as soon as I get some paint on the walls!
Cheers,
Mich

The Folks Came out for a What's See

...and here is what they saw!
Beloware featured the Lovely Linda and Daring & Dashing John, trying to decide whether to dive or just jump in...to the greywater field! That's OK, Mom, we still love you!
But they did get to witness the roof strapping going on, and John got to partake in some very manly shovelling of sand. Sure made my stint at the shovel easier!
We are moving along at a great rate, the house is so small that nothing takes a lot of time. For example, the Tyvec went on in less that 45inutes. Board siding took three short days. Roof framing went up in one day. Windows took maybe two hours. Long live the Mini house!

Mind you, we have been working so hard, dodging rain showers and thunder storms, that we have been doing little else. Except yesterday. We attended one of the most beautiful weddings we've been to. Congratulations April & Ryan, good health and a hundred children!

Check out THIS rack!

Yes, we've got the wall framing 75% up and are ready for...for...what? More rain? No! If we get more rain, Paul might never get his back-hoe back! ...wait a minute...
Anyway, isn't this the cutest wee house-y you've ever seen? I certainly think so! And besides, we have spent a pitance on building materials and effort! Long live the Mini House! Long live the Reduce Principle! Smaller really is the way of the future! Save money, fuel, hydro and the environment.
But a word about all this rain. Yucky! Apparently, The County is usually a dust-bowl by this time of year. A complete draought. Zero rainfall. Get the picture? No Rain? Pretty simple. Well, this summer, there has been over six inches. This may not seem like much, but let me put this in perspective for you: the term "inch " refers to the amunt of rainfal needed to cover the whole region with rain. Six inches is so off the map for rainfall that the soil can't drain it away fast enough and our fields are about 10% under water. Thats about three acres. That a $#!load of rain! Refer to the pictures if left in any doubt. And pray for some clear weather so Paul can get his back-hoe out!

We've been framed!