My Road so far
It’s been three weeks since I was laid off due to the corona virus pandemic. And began my voluntary self-quarantine in an effort to both minimize my own risk and my risk to others. For me the isolation is not difficult to enjoy. Truly the only thing I’ve been missing is my dachshund Reese. (And maybe family too.) I left her with my parents during the Christmas holidays and I haven’t been able to get her back just yet. The last three weeks have been wonderful for a mostly introvert with a beautiful tiny house and some savings in the bank. I even applied for EI along with what feels like literally everyone else, which I have never done before. That and with all the extra hand washing my hands are one big eczema patch. So it’s not all fun and vacation this coronavirus self-isolation.
However, I thought I would get back into writing and I found a half completed draft on here. I started writing this draft post only 9 months in to my self imposed “homeless” time, which lasted for 15 months while my custom tiny house was being built on Vancouver Island. My first story “Making a clean sweep in life” was published just a few weeks before I put everything I owned into my SUV and started to get out of my funk. Of course little did I know this “homeless” period would last a lot longer than I imagined at the time.
“as of the end of this month — September 2018 — I will be homeless. The THOW won’t be ready for me until early 2019”.
I finally received my THOW, which is called Tiny Calliope House in late December 2019. Only a few days before the Christmas shutdown. Meaning I left it, and almost everything I own, minus my clothes, in the new town I had moved to for a new job… And came back to my tiny house almost two weeks later to frozen pop exploded everywhere and the total nightmare of setting up a tiny house in the winter.
Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Actually the power situation has been rather solid — crossing my fingers. The water froze — did you know you’re supposed to keep the water trickling a little in the winter? Now I am a pro at that, I can hardly even hear it anymore. Another small issue was for CSA certification reasons my builder didn’t install a toilet. I was insistent on an incinerating toilet, which the CSA people haven’t decided to allow in this country yet. I’ve beaten a track between my tiny and the RV place’s facilities over the last couple of months. I’m very close to having a working incinerating toilet inside my unit, but the process has been ridiculously drawn out for various reasons that I am trying to ignore to keep my optimism alive.
The shower and instant hot water heater have been a trial as well. The shower has an off or on setting so you have to pull off the handle and set the water temp with a hex key, which is fine once you set it to the hottest setting it will go. The first week or so after my pipes unfroze was full of uncertainty and cold showers. I finally got my head on straight and it was super simple to adjust. Of course the water heater has a malfunctioning value and has been leaking a little this whole time and it’s finally decided that enough is enough please fix me. So I’m back to boiling pots of water for washing dishes and whore baths. Basically I’m bathing like its 1820, or 1920; at least I have my shower area to use my pot of hot water and washcloth in. My hair however — oh my I’m not even going to mention my hair. There was a time back in the cold frozen pipes winter that I got a gym membership just to use the showers. Of course because of the Covid-19 pandemic the gym closed the same day I got laid off, but they’re still charging me monthly.
When I first came back from vacation January 2020, and moved into my tiny full time I was still trying to deal with 2–20lb propane tanks. They only lasted a few days — at best — so I tried a few things including getting these great power blankets that heated the tanks. But the real solve was getting a larger tank from Superior propane. So much better! Running out of propane at 3 in the morning, when it’s minus whatever is NOT fun! At least the water heater beeps to complain that it can’t run its freeze protection routine otherwise you might not realize until you woke up to a frozen home. And for a while things were good, waiting on the toilet to arrive but solid.
Running out of propane at 3 in the morning, when it’s minus whatever is NOT fun!
The first thing I needed to do was get the tiny skirted and of course I finally got it done the weekend that we got a lot of snow and temperatures dropped to minus 20 C. Pretty sure that’s why the water stoped running for a week. I am so very lucky to have some really great neighbours living in this RV park and one of them basically did the skirting for me — I helped a little. Everyone definitely keeps to themselves, but everyones very friendly as well. And the staff here are also very friendly. Apparently I could charge admission for tours of my house since it’s gotten a lot of interest evidently.
Pretty sure that’s why the water stoped running for a week.
When I was planning things and dreaming it was all just Pinterest and Instagram based you know. It’s not like our family was one that had an RV, we went to Hawaii and Disney World instead. So when I started this journey I had no idea what RV parks were like at all. Evidenced by my quote here from my “Making a clean sweep in life” start to this story.
“Of course I don’t really want a permanent pad in some RV park nightmare either.”
And then… the furnace decided to crap out on me. It took three plumber appointments all involving some sort of fix or suggestion before we collectively decided to call it a lemon and get a full replacement/warranty situation going. The new furnace is installed and runs perfectly, which is a serious weight off of my shoulders. And it may be April already, but it’s still snow some days. Hopefully the water heater won’t go a similar route… Since of course the warranty is never going to materialize since apparently you have to call the manufacturer immediately and run the whole thing through them anytime you have anything go wrong with your only heat source. So practical… what a racket!
Meanwhile the tiny house is a total dream, seriously I am loving every part of it. And it certainly makes self-isolation easy since it’s just me in this 202 sqft house. I’m especially loving the smart home tech that we added. I’m able to control all the lights, music, locks, and smoke alarm from the my home app on my iPhone. It’s 202 sqft, but I laid it out so that I don’t have one of those crazy lofts where you can’t sit up in your own bed (without bashing your head). And I even managed to get a second bed that’s in the main room. I have a dinning table that I think I could seat 6 squishy and 4 comfortably. I even have my own washing machine (it’s a combo washer dryer unit) and a dishwasher so it’s not like I’m roughing it.
Let’s go back to my nomadic time between renting a condo in UBC to living tiny in the Kootenay’s. This is the draft — unedited:
Part one of my nomadic story/ The road so far.
It’s been 9 months since I basically moved into my GMC Acadia SUV, and I’m still loving the freedom.
I’ve de-cluttered my life down to a point where it only takes me 4 trips back and forth to the truck to get everything that I use daily/weekly. I pared down my wardrobe so that it fits into two carry on sized suitcases. I’ve still got way too many pairs of high heels, but at least they all fit into one medium sized plastic bucket. I managed to pair down my wardrobe to the point that when I packed for my epic and wonderful round trip cruise around Hawaii all I did was leave behind my socks and heavy sweaters. I wasn’t even thinking of the fancy nights when I packed, but since I brought practically everything I owned I had two dresses and two skirts plus my nice jewellery. Three weeks on the cruise was really great!
I bought a Coleman cooler/fridge that plugs into the car and has an adapter for plugging it into a regular outlet inside the house as well. It has been so nice to be able to travel with all my regular food, and condiments, plus having a place to keep Reese’s food cold — she eats raw dog food. And I have an insulated Costco bag filled with pantry staples like oils, vinegars and spices. I’ve added a few things to my must have items over the last nine months as I travel from Airbnb to Airbnb, to my sisters, to my grandparents, to my parents then rinse and repeat. This way I’m at home no matter where I hang my metaphorical hat.
I bought a duffle for my bedding and it’s perfect! It makes it really easy to make the bed and then put it all away again. (Especially staying at Gram’s on her pull down single bed in the other room, she would have a conniption if I left the bed out during the day.) And my Apple TV and time capsule travel so well, makes even my TV watching experience as if I were at home since I can simply plug my Apple TV into any TV with a HDMI cable.
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Back in the tiny during the pandemic…
I really enjoyed my 15 months of working remotely and traveling around #exploreBC with my dachshund Reese. Towards the end of the year I stumbled upon a job in the East Kootenays and decided to apply. It wasn’t a remote job though so my plan to was to move out of the Lower Mainland and into the Kootenays. It took a few months to get everything arranged, but I’ve been here since mid November and I really enjoy the area it’s much more laid back than the Lower Mainland. It’s pretty far away from my family, which has them all up in arms during the quarantine. I’m getting daily requests to just come home already — especially before a lockdown comes into effect and makes that impossible.
The whole purpose of this article series and the move out of my Vancouver condo and subsequently out of the Lower Mainland was to figure out how to get rid of the heavy anxiety and the inability to leave the house. Whelp I think I figured it out somehow because I don’t remember the last time I felt so good. To tell you the truth I’m not even sure what helped the most. For the last three months I have been working a similar job to what I was when this all started — in a smaller company and smaller town. And I loved everyday — not stressed at all. I didn’t have any mornings where I wanted to call in sick and hide. Not that I have EVER let myself do that — even if I wanted to desperately.
I haven’t really changed much of my routines since I unpacked my things into tiny Calliope house in January. My pantry Costco bag was emptied into my upper kitchen cabinet and of course I have a full size fridge/freezer that I don’t have to periodically unthaw. I spent most of my time staying in places that I could cook for myself and not eat out so truly not much has changed other than staying in one location for four almost five months.
I haven’t actually gotten to unpack my wardrobe since tiny Calliope house doesn’t really have a closet or curtains at this point in time. I suppose what I have is a capsule wardrobe since it’s pretty minimal and it all matches and goes together making for even more outfits. I think people have the wrong idea about capsule wardrobes especially the people with 100 plus t-shirts. For anyone who’s stood in front of their exploding closet and thought I have nothing to wear — consider a capsule wardrobe. The idea is that everything is new, not stained, and can be worn in multiple combinations to create different “outfits”. Studies have been done that suggest that no one even notices what people wear anyways so it’s in your best interest to cultivate a wardrobe that makes getting dressed less stressful.
I had a walk in closet in my condo and I had clothes in there that I’d had for 20 years, plus more that 40 pairs of heels. And I definitely had moments of dismay looking through it to find something to wear. In fact I usually only wore the same couple of things and everything else just hung there getting dusty and mildewy. It took me a long time to winnow it down to the size it is now — fits into two carry-on-size suitcases. The process was agonizing and I still have a leather jacket that doesn’t fit that I haven’t parted with yet. That and way too many high heels for someone who doesn’t get a chance to wear them anymore.
…put your mask on first before helping others.
I think it might be expectations that cause my anxiety. I think that maybe its promising to do something and then losing the drive to get things done and feeling bad if I bail or forcing myself to do something that I’ve promised just because I’ve promised. I’m either an obliger or an upholder. Apparently my dominant trait is upholder, which makes sense I guess. It’s stressful feeling like you have to meet everyones expectations and sometimes there’s nothing left for yourself. I’ve always felt that I was very good at taking care of myself — you know the airplane seat card instructions — put your mask on first before helping others. But I guess maybe I just got burnt out.
I suppose I will just have to see how things go further down the road. I will be on the look out for another print job in a probably another small town, but until then I will be moving back to the Lower Mainland to be closer to family during this crazy time. However I’m staying put until I get the toilet installed and hot water heater fixed.
You can follow me on instagram or twitter @susanfellenz for videos of #tinycalliopehouse
P.S. The incinerating toilet has been finally installed and it’s now my new interesting learning thing in this wonderful journey that I’m on.
