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Tiny Living

ryan and hannah corson
Country Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

Home Sweet Home

 

 

Quick update on our housing situation:

We bought a home in Westcliffe!

 

 

And it has a finished house on it!

With heat, water, electricity, AND a functioning kitchen.

And 6.5 acres. Also a barn & a couple of chicken coops.

And fun neighbors that we love.

We also ordered 30 chickens, 10 ducks, a couple kittens & 3 goats.

It may have taken us a couple years to get to this point, from starting to build a tiny house in Golden CO, to moving to Westcliffe last year, moving back to Denver area for work, and moving back to Westcliffe in March of this year.

 

Tiny House

westcliffe colorado tiny house

Lots of folks ask us about our tiny house, so I wanted to talk about that a little bit here. It is currently on our neighbors land, waiting to be moved onto ours. We were initially told that the trailer was a better grade of metal than it actually is (thank you Craigslist) and we have been told by several knowledgeable folks that it needs to be put on a permanent foundation before we finish it/ASAP. SO: as of right now the plan is to move it onto our land and take it off the wheels & set it in its final resting place. There, we will either rent it out (nightly on Airbnb) or have it as a guest cabin for friends who come visit.

 

Our plans have changed so many times over the past two years. We’ve moved 15 times since we were married in April 2013.

But we’re hoping that this one really sticks.

In fact, to signify this commitment, we are expanding our family by 45 (before butchering most of them in the fall). We’ve got 30 chickens, 10 ducks, a couple kittens, and 3 goats headed to our little farm over the next month.

You better believe I’ll introduce to you them all and attempt to share our homesteading adventures over the next few months.

Welcome to our new adventure – we’re diving straight into this homesteading life!

(Photo cred for feature image: Susan Bonee)

westcliffe co
Country Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

Westcliffe CO: And Back Again

You people aren’t going to believe this. Some of you are going to think we are nuts.

And you’re definitely correct about that.

We’re moving back to Westcliffe – the land flowing with milk and honey.

Well not quite. At least about the honey part.

We’ve had quite the adventure over the past 2 years of marriage. We got married and started building a tiny house and lived it in for a few months, we moved to Westcliffe CO after dreaming about it for a couple years. We attempted to make it work (financially) in the small town – and figured out in order for us to get anywhere in life, we needed to make some substantial money first (otherwise, we’d end up living in cycles of poverty for quite awhile) – we moved to Brighton CO because Ryan got a job working in the oil fields in Northern Colorado.

Well, as you’ve all noticed gas prices are way down from what they used to be.

And while this is wonderful for lots of people, this has put his job at risk. In fact, he was pretty much guaranteed a lay off in the next few weeks/months. Since we are young and used to change, this hasn’t exactly shaken us too much. On the contrary – it feels like freedom to us in a lot of ways.

Most people know someone who works on the oil field, and you know that their work hours are unreal. Ryan has been averaging at 110 hours per week that he works (2 week on, 1 week off rotations).  There are 336 hours in 14 days. 220 hours he has been working, 116 (58 a week or 8 hours a day – which always ends up being closer to 6) hours are spent sleeping, eating, showering, traveling to and from work, and anything else that comes up in life: like spending time with your wife.

Needless to say, we’re kind of DONE with oil field lifestyle.

So while this bring a tad of uncertainty back into our life, being the oldest children that we are, we both find some excitement in that.

Which brings me to the title of this post:

We are moving back to Westcliffe!!!

westcliffe co

 

LOL

I’m sorry, I can’t help but laugh and roll my eyes at us. So its totally ok if you are too :)

Our goal in moving away to Brighton was to save some money so that we could *someday* move back, buy some land, and live simply. Well, this move back is certainly quicker than we thought it would be, but I suppose that’s life.

westcliffe co

We are in the process of purchasing a piece of land in a beautiful valley (a couple lots over from this picture), with amazing neighbors who are already well on their way to living the homesteading lifestyle that we’re interested in. On the land and what we will live in is an…. (get ready to laugh and roll your eyes again)….

UNFINISHED TRAILER!

LOL! (Maybe I should have named this blog post “Déjà vu“…) 

I couldn’t really believe it either when we started looking at this lovely piece of mess (sorry, no pics yet). I told Ry, “I’m really not sure I can do this again…”

I remembered last time we lived in a shed(tiny house), without electricity, without water, without a kitchen or bathroom… I mean, HELLO: I wrote an entire blog on it!! But before we saw the inside of this creature, we went through the things that were needed in order to make it livable:

  • Water
  • Electricity
  • Warmth
  • Functioning Kitchen & Bathroom

When we finally got into the tiny shack, we realized: it’s not as bad as we thought it was!!  While it definitely needs some TLC, and a couple of major changes (like digging a well), overall, we don’t feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. And that’s saying something.

Another question we’ve wrestled with: “can we/should we finish the tiny house?”  And this is something we are still wrestling with. Because at this point where we are at with it is still: unfinished. Is it better to put money into tiny house or another unfinished housing project?  Well, “what one requires less cash & stress?” is going to be the winning answer.

ryan and hannah corson tiny house

 

I haven’t found very many other tiny house people with a similar story to ours: except Casey and Jessica Friday (recently had their tiny house stolen). I empathize so much with this blog that Jessica recently wrote about why they won’t be living in their tiny house. While we do have several of the things that the Fridays no longer have at their disposal (land, lifestyle..etc), I totally get the basis of what she’s getting at here. The whole point of the tiny house movement is what? SIMPLICITY. So that’s our focus moving forward: do the simple thing.

So here’s to many more future blog posts about building chicken coops, milking goats, making cheese, and sharing life (and cows) with neighbors in our precious lil mountain town. Here’s to not many more moves, but an acknowledgement of “that’s where we are in life”.

Here’s to the kind of simple living that is sometimes more… complicated :)

 

 

 

(linking up with Leigh Kramer– because what I’m up to these days is moving and living the nomad’s life)

City Living, Country Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

Simple Living Part Five: Interview and Freebies with Shalom Mama (Nina Nelson)


In one of my previous posts, I mentioned several folks and their blogs that I enjoy following on my journey of experimenting with simple living. One of them was Nina Nelson with Shalom Mama. I got a hold of Nina last week and had a few questions that I wanted to ask this veteran of simple and natural living.

 

diy books

 

How did you get into natural living? What made you want to start living differently? Or has this always been a way of life for you?

“I actually grew up on an herb farm but didn’t get interested in natural living until my early twenties when my husband and I decided to get out of debt. We were determine to cut costs wherever we could so I started researching and kept coming across recipes and tips that suggested natural living would save money. I made a few things and was hooked. Since then, I’ve become the “family hippie” and have embraced a simple, natural lifestyle.”

 

What is your favorite recipe of something that makes your life easier?

Multi-Purpose-Herbal-Healing-Ointment

“Hmmmm, that’s a tough one. I’d have to choose two. First is my healing balm (recipe here). We use it all the time for all sorts of things. With four kids someone is always getting an owie of some sort (plus I’m super clumsy), so it comes to my rescue quite a bit. Also, my calming balm. This is a godsend at night when everyone needs to simmer down (myself included) and get some restful sleep. You can find the recipe in my free ebook, Simple Family Wellness.”

 

If you could summarize your passion in a few sentences, what would you say?

“I’m passionate about living a pure & simple life and helping other people do the same. To me that means getting rid of the excess in life so you can focus on what really matters, while living as naturally as possible.”

 

What does a “day in the life of Nina” look like?

Hmmm, a bit scattered. :) I’ve struggled for years to create a schedule that works for us, but what I finally realized is that I just can’t do that. I buck anything that feels constricting, so instead a loose routine works best. And we definitely leave plenty of room for interruptions (friends dropping in, invitations to hang out, etc.) because that’s why we simplified our lives in the first place. Also, my husband is very involved and has an odd schedule (he’s a paramedic that gets to respond from home every other shift) so he’s super helpful with what can sometimes feel like complete chaos.

So here’s what it usually looks like:

– Wakeup, read devotions, figure out my top 3 things to do for the day

– Breakfast and Cleanup

– Get kids started with school (we home school)

– Check email and do some admin stuff for my biz while they’re working independently

– Lunch prep & lunch

– My work time (kids will have quiet time, continue school they’ve not done yet, go play at our awesome neighbor’s house or hang out with my husband if he’s home.

– Tea time (very important for me to take some time in the day to rest)

– Dinner prep, dinner, clean up

– Hang out with the family

– At some point in the evening I’ll do yoga, depending on what we’re doing 

– Kid bed time (Woo hoo!!!)

– Watch Downton Abbey or something with my husband or play a game

– Bedtime”

 

What are some resources you would suggest for someone just starting out on a “natural” journey?

“First off, I’d say keep it as simple as possible. Choose one or two areas in your life you want to focus on and work on those for at least six weeks. So, for instance, you want to switch to a whole food diet, find a good resource and start implementing a few changes at a time. Once you’re comfortable with those, try some more. This is the best way to make a sustainable change that will last. 

For me, the most helpful resources were blogs, but I have some favorite books as well:

Blogs

Books

  • Your Real Food Journey by Trina Holden
  • Simple Natural Health (this one’s mine – I’m a little biased)
  • DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes by Heather of Mommypotamus

And here are my top 40 recipes for natural living.

 

You lived in a bus with 5 other people for a time: tell us about that and where are you now? 

living on a bus

I loved it and still long for it now. We had a lot more time to spend together, it was much easier to clean and my bath tub was amazing. :) However, now that we’re in a house again (we had to move closer to my husband’s work after he got a full-time job), I’m loving the opportunities we’ve had for hospitality.

Though my word of the year is sustainability, I easily could have chosen hospitality. Relationships have been an important part of our journey. And while I love the bus and living small, I feel so drawn to embrace the opportunity we have right now to easily welcome people into our space.

 

If people want to contact/follow you, where are you? 

I have a few favorite places I like to hang out. First is my blog, which you can find here. Aside from that, I’m on Facebook, Pinterest and my favorite, Instagram.

 

 

In case you happened to miss several of these listed about, here’s a list of FREEBIES on this lady’s site:

simple family wellness

Top-40-DIY-Projects-for-Natural-Living

create your own medicine cabinet

 

 

 

 

 

Also a few very affordable e-books

diy

Simple natural health

simple clean home

diy bundle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(or click here to buy them all in a bundle together)

 

Village wise woman

I’ll leave you with this excerpt from Nina’s free e-book Simple Family Wellness:

 …I’ve secretly always wanted to be the village wise woman.

That woman who nurtures and heals her family and teaches other women how to do the same. The woman who encourages others to learn and experiment but is always available as a resource. The woman who whips up a remedy or pours a cup of tea or lends a listening ear to the friend in need.

This world needs more wise women. More nurturers and healers spreading their love to their families and communities. All that love and wisdom, just spreading and spreading. And so, that is my mission. To call forth the family healers. To be an empowering resource. To listen and love. To create a community of wise women.”

 

 (This blog contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you)

All pictures are from Shalommama.com

ryan and hannah corson tiny house
City Living, Country Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

Tiny House Magazine Feature: Tiny Living, Big Community

Tiny House News

We are super exited to be featured this month in Kent Griswold and Andrew Odom‘s online creation of Tiny House Magazine!*

tiny house magazine celebrates two years

This month they are celebrating their 2 year anniversary! Congrats guys!!

The article tells much of Ryan and I’s story: from meeting, to engagement, to wedding, to tiny house building, to current.

There is a focus on our wedding and how it literally took our entire community to pull it off (there are several folks mentioned – not by name – in the article, so if you were involved in helping with our wedding, you might just be in there…) We like to think of it as our “barn raising” wedding.

Also a snazzy infographic (created by yours truly) depicting the average costs of weddings in the U.S. this year based on a study by Statistic Brain.

Here’s a sneak peak of the article:

I had never heard of a Tiny House until I met my husband in 2012. I met him in a coffee shop that I was working at in Golden, Colorado. He was living in Houston at the time and was just visiting family, who was traveling through the area. We had a lot in common; We’re both oldest children, both fairly stubborn, both enjoy learning, and we both wanted to live a life that was different than the average person.

 

To read the rest, click here or on the picture above to purchase this month’s edition of Tiny House Magazine! Get 25% off if you use the code 25FOR5 from now until December 23rd. (If you click on the link, scroll down until you see the 24th Edition- $3.99, with 25% off with coupon code)

Included are other stories and pictures of tiny house and sustainable living enthusiasts. If you like reading about things like grown men making homes in dumpsters, or families living in hobbit holes, or if you just enjoy learning about how to live a more sustainable life – you need to check out this magazine.

 

Other News

Another 2 year anniversary is quickly approaching – our wedding anniversary! I mean, we’re still like 4 months away, but whatever :)

 

ryan and hannah corson tiny house

This month I’ll remember my babe’s sweet proposal on Christmas day

 

ryan and hannah corson

cute baby tree and gorgeous big girl ring

 

It was awesome. Like for real. Totally didn’t see it coming. He’s so creative too: he wrapped up every candle, then as I unwrapped it he lit them all, and placed them  around the room so that by the time I got to the last present we were sitting in a cozy, mountain, candleland. (#soromantic) He just rolls his eyes (like a good husband does) while I bring out the tissues while looking through every.single.wedding.picture. I can’t help it. #iloveus

 

As well as having fun memories from last Christmas when my family came to visit us and we packed 10 people in a two bedroom one bath lil rental, went sledding, and frolicked in the Sangre de Cristo mountains for the holiday. This Christmas will be quite different from my family’s normal traditions as my dad is recovering from a scare with severe acute pancreatitis. I may write more about this experience in the future, we’ll see. For now, we’re all just really thankful that my Dad is alive and on the mend.

groth family

My family, minus Ryan… he was making my Christmas presents #spoiledrotten

 

So I’m not exactly sure what this year’s Christmas festivities will include, but at least we got the tree up :)

 

rustic christmas tree

 

Merry Christmas everyone! Don’t forget to grab your copy of the Tiny House Magazine, cozy up next to something warm (fire, candle, or coffee mug will do), and check out our article! :)

 

(*This post contains affiliate links)

tiny house in the snow
City Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

The Realities of Living in an Unfinished Tiny House

living in an unfinished tiny house

 

I (Hannah) have had several people recently ask me questions about living in an unfinished tiny home. I finally sat down and replied to someone with a really long email about the whole experience.

 

If you are considering moving into a tiny house that is not yet finished, perhaps you should read this. Or not. If someone had tried to tell me this information (oh wait… they probably did), I/we would not have listened. We wanted/want to live our own adventure – hard times and all.

Without further ado, a story about living in an unfinished tiny house as told in a reply to a question via email from Hannah’s perspective (Ryan may add his thoughts later on).

 

tiny house

 

Alli,

Good to hear from you! I’ve really enjoyed the Tiny House community on Instagram.

Ok. “What was it like to live in an unfinished tiny house?” This is gonna be long. Prepare yourself.

When we first moved in, we ONLY had the bedroom built. Like, just a 10X10 (or so, I don’t remember exact dimensions right now). Pics on website, on “Tiny House and Wedding Update” blog post or the “Our Tiny House” page. We eventually finished the entire exterior, but this was while we were living in it.

 

 

A tiny bit of back story: we got married in April 2013 and a week before we were married the housing situation we were planning on moving into together, fell through and we were forced to scramble last minute to find a place. We found a month-to-month rental place that was 240 sq feet (great practice for Tiny living). We knew that in July 2013 we either had to make a year commitment to the rental place, or find somewhere else to live.

tiny apartment

 

Around the beginning of June, we found a great deal on a gooseneck trailer that we bought. So our thought was to start building immediately and move into it at the end of July when our lease was up.Everything worked out: we found somewhere super close to where we both worked to start building. An amazingly sweet elderly woman had a few acres right in the middle of Golden CO (where we lived at the time) and allowed us to park the trailer (and all of the extra stuff that comes with it – turns out building materials take up a LOT of space) and start building.

 

unfinished tiny house

 

We did get the bedroom somewhat livable before moving in..meaning it was framed with plywood and some tarps to keep out the rain. VERY basic. We ran an extension cord out from her shed to charge cell phones, laptop, and power tools, and kept water bottles around and used her hose to refill. But we didn’t have room for a kitchen, it was just the bed. She allowed us to keep our clothes in her garage, so that became our closet. We didn’t have any food storage options, so we just went to the grocery store every morning for breakfast, fast food (ugh) for lunch and dinner. We’d come back to the tiny house after work and work on it in the evenings before bed. We showered at my office which was like 2 miles away and used the bathroom at a gas station close by.

tiny house closet, unfinished tiny house

The lady whose land we were living on eventually took pity on us (I believe her words were, “no one should have to live like this”) and invited us to use her kitchen and bathroom. So at that point we were basically living with her, without living in her house. She allowed us to use part of a fridge and freezer space, kitchen to cook meals each day, and bathroom to use and take showers in. This significantly improved our quality of life, as you can imagine.

The building process took us SO much longer than we anticipated. We moved in in July, and I was under the impression that we were going to have the whole tiny house down before winter.

 

tiny house in the snow

 

October hit and the temperature started dropping significantly, especially at night. Although we did make significant progress, we didn’t have electrical wiring or insulation done yet. Tragically, the elderly woman passed away very suddenly, and her family decided to put the house and land on the market. For 2-3 months around that time, we lived in friends basements, guest bedrooms, and cheap hotels around the Denver area. We decided to move to a tiny mountain town 4 hours south of Denver at Christmas, and moved the Tiny House down there as soon as the family sold the place.

moving a tiny house

 

 

Summary

Overall – yes, I can honestly say that I am slightly scarred from the experience of living in the tiny house before it was complete. There may have been other factors involved with that time period being difficult, like we were VERY much newlyweds, basically moving into a shed after being married for 3 months, living a “3rd world country experience” yet still trying to keep up with our “1st world” jobs and community. Or the fact that when we were dating and first married we had like $300 and had no idea what we were doing as far as building something this enormous – did I mention that our tiny house is HUGE? Like 250 sq feet. Needless to say, it made me feel fairly unstable and made both of us stressed out in general, not having somewhere to just CHILL and recoup. To be living in a construction zone, always having SO much to do: that list only gets longer and involves more money.

 

All that and I still say this: I really hope that this doesn’t scare you away from building a tiny house or even living in it unfinished.

 

I know that for who my husband and I are (we’re both firstborns) we needed to do this. If you are even considering building a tiny house, I feel like you will understand this somewhat. Even if it causes some scarring :) you can heal from it and learn a ton.

 

Where we are at now:

The tiny house is still down in the mountain town on some other friend’s land, in the unfinished state we left it in. It is PACKED full of building materials. We basically ran out of money and realized that we needed to spend a few years being a tad more strategic in planning our future. We moved back to the Denver area, took great jobs, and are living a fairly focused life just working and planning for the future. My husband works 7 days a week in the oil field and he has 1 week off every once in awhile so he is planning on going down there every so often to finish the house. We still have high hopes of finishing it, and we just realized that we had to be a bit more strategic if we wanted to remain sane :)

 

Advice (take it or leave it) for those considering living in an unfinished Tiny House:

 

Work on finishing the inside first. That’s what you’ll be living in. If the outside just has tyvek for awhile, and it looks like crap, but you have electricity, insulation, drywall and a bed and chair (:sigh:) and the inside can be a refuge for you, it will help you keep going when you feel overwhelmed.

 

– If you do move in without electricity and water, and its basically like a shed, simplify your lifestyle. And by that I mean cut out as many extra activities as possible. I don’t know if you work, or how much, or if you are super involved in your community, or hang out with friends a ton, or have your own business, etc… but the more of these “other activities” you can temporarily cut out during the time you are building and are forced to live a highly rudimentary lifestyle, the better. Almost like meditating or something, just make your focus the tiny house for a little bit. I think that if I would have been able to do this, I MAY have enjoyed the process a tad more. If I could have just woken up each morning, not had to think about how long it would take me to actually be ready for the day (grab clothes from garage, go to store get breakfast, drive to work take a shower, awkwardly have wet hair and toiletries at work…etc) but just wake up, enjoy living a slightly “pioneer-ish” lifestyle for a few months.

 

Have a back up plan. If/when the tiny house takes longer than you anticipate, have a backup plan in place so that its not this extreme pressure to complete the massive project before the first frost or something. We both didn’t handle that pressure very well, me more so than my husband. I think the unknown for me was almost unbearable. Not knowing how long I’d have to live like this was really difficult. If you set deadlines like, “if we don’t have the inside livable by November 1, we are moving into this apartment.” That way, when things get hard, you can just tell yourself, “Hey, I got 2 months of this and then we’re either going to be living in a functional tiny house, or this other housing situation.”

 

Passion vs. Practicality. I read an article in the paper  that talked about 10 ways passion could kill a new business. Basically, that emotions can block logically decision making. We just wanted to build this freaking house and at times this basically stopped us from creating a realistic timeline or putting a plan in place. So, for your overall health, be willing to set aside excitement for the finished product for like a few days, and maybe talk to some people in your life that you trust to help you come up with a practical plan for executing this fun project.

 

tiny house

 

Questions for those considering moving into a tiny house that is unfinished:

Where are you located?

– What’s your story? Are you married? Single? Do you have kids?

– Where do you work? What is that environment like?

– What is your background in construction? (for the record, mine was NOTHING when we started)

– What kind of budget that you are working with?

– Whats your timeline?

– How did you get involved with tiny houses?

– How have the people in your life responded to your dream of building this tiny monster? ;-)

Hope this helps somewhat, and I’m super pumped for you guys who are building or thinking about building!

If you are reading this and you are considering building a tiny house, or if you are considering moving into an unfinished tiny house, tell us your story! We would really enjoy connecting with you.

And if you’re ever in the Denver area, let us know. We’d love to have you over for tea :)

Simple Living, Tiny Living

Wedding & Tiny House Update

Hello & Happy Summer from the Corsons!

Yes, its true- we did get married! 4 months have passed, so we figured it was about time to update the blog…

 

Wedding Update

Now, I know you’re all wondering, “well, DID you have a ‘simple wedding??'” Especially all you brides out there a couple of months after your big day. I can just hear you, “ooohhhh yess… that funny girl who thought her wedding was going to be ‘simple’ and then she invited 400 people. HAH! She’s cute.”  Well, was it simple?…

Kind of.

We definitely did stay true to our original vision of keeping this wedding as simple as possible for the sake of focusing on the things we care about. We quickly found out that the things we really care about are people. We both loved looking around the room at the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and potluck reception and seeing how many different people were here to celebrate with us. We also realized that weddings, no matter how much you try to weed out stress- just ARE stressful.  Yes we kept things simple, yes we look back and love everything that happened, and yes we were super stressed the week of the wedding- trying to work out details or organizing people, spending time with people, and spending time with each other. It’s a huge week in the life of any human making a lifetime commitment like marriage to another. Add in other humans who you both love and want to spend time with and you’ve created something more complex than just having a few conversations with out of town guests. Also, we had the help of SO many people in actually pulling this thing off…could NOT have happened without these friends.

Our conclusion?  Weddings are stressful. And worth it to us because, with the help of friends, we were able to create space to celebrate and set aside time designated as a very important event with very important people. If you ACTUALLY want something simple and stress-free… we suggest you elope :)

 

Tiny House Update

There has been SO many changes in this area since the last blog post!

(1) We found a trailer

 

(2) We have been collecting materials

 

The motherload of Simpsons Strong Ties we got our cedar siding!! best car ever. This lil guys scares Hannah Oh, you know just grabbin some 2X4s on the way home... like it this car is a beast More supplies... Full car load: Insulation + Simson Strong Ties Treating the trailer with Corroseal Trailer before and after being treated with Corroseal Cinnamon roll insulation keeps our house cozy Craigslist @ 1am = amazing deals and crazzzzyy people

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) and building and designing… (let’s be honest, Ryan designs everything)

 

Tiny Housin it up on July Fourth shade is amazing the current look of our Tiny House! The designing process

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) AAAAAAND…… we moved in!!

cozzzyyyy

Gittir done yall

While it is SO exciting to get out of the renting cycle and to actually be living in what will soon be our completed home, this adventure has been so much different that I (Hannah) pictured. I have always really admired and looked up to pioneer families who rode in a wagon across months of unknown territory and adventure to their picturesque cottages and babbling brooks. Of course it was a hard life, but didn’t they realize that they were starting something new and that the challenges were totally worth it, even in that moment?

Whew.

Shoot dang those folks were amazing.

Now, don’t worry – I feel almost completely silly at comparing what we are doing to the pioneer families (except we don’t have running water or electricity). And I don’t exactly think that Tiny Houses are going to be the next “thing” (um hello, homeschool families like my own would have to have a train of these things) – of course I could be wrong ;-)  But here’s what I see the value for us right now:

we can do it.

Financially. Physically. Mentally (some days better than others).

It may take us longer than we initially expected, but we will finish. And have a HOME that is paid for and fully functional!

But honestly, living without things that I (still Hannah here) am used to having (like running water and electricity) has been so much harder than I thought it would be! I thought that I was ready to be camping out in a partially finished home, working long hours, learning as much as I can about construction…

Yup. I definitely admire those pioneers.

But I AM learning so much. I am thankful for a husband who is patient (most days) with me to teach me what he knows about construction and perseverance. I am thankful for Zella Cameron, the kind woman who is letting us build this monster in her front yard. I am also thankful for her bathroom and kitchen (which she recently offered to let us use until ours is complete). I am thankful for friends and family who have given their time and muscles to help us do a little bit at a time. I am thankful (most days :) ) for the ways that this project is challenging me. To do something I’ve never done and honestly, am really not good at. I’m thankful that we are building a home and will have no debt.

That’s pretty cool.

That’s about it for now… Thanks for reading! You can keep up with more current updates if you’re on Instagram, look up hannahcorson and follow her, she has updates more frequently there regarding the Tiny House construction! You can also keep up with us at gofundme.com/restoringsimple . Thanks!!