Our first few weeks in the house involved a lot of learning and adjusting. In this post we’ll talk about a few things we learned and experienced as we moved into the tiny house of our dreams.
Week 1:
The excitement was through the roof (so was stress) as our first home was delivered!! It was also funny to see other’s reactions when we would say that our first home was literally delivered by a truck. There were some setbacks the day of delivery, so our house was delivered in the evening. We had taken the day off, so the anticipation was almost too much to handle by the time dinner rolled around. When our house was delivered it looked ENOURMOUS, how in the world did this drive all the way from Oregon on the freeway? The house had to drive though thin gates down the driveway with barely enough clearance in the dark. It was a 2.5 hour process and we give our driver props but still wasn’t in exact placing for the pad we had prepared. We ended up renting a dingo to move the house further back once the ground had dried up a bit the week after delivery.
Our first night in our house was almost like we were camping in the van…because we had not set up the power or the plumbing set up. We had gotten the wrong power cord, and it was so dark and late by the time we got the house in place that we couldn’t go out and find the right cord. We used lanterns, peed outside, and cuddled closely with many blankets which is nothing new to us being that we often camp out of our van, and truck. We only slept in our house for two nights without power before we got our correct power cord shipped, as well as plumbing situated. Alec was able to figure out the plumbing on his own and thank goodness it didn’t turn into a sh*t show….literally.
One thing we learned that we didn’t expect was how much of a temperature difference there is between the downstairs and lofts. We’re talking about a 15-20-degree difference in temperature going down the stairs! We had our heater on 80 sometimes to try to feel warm downstairs. During our first week we bought slippers and fuzzy socks for these Washington winters- and we also warned guests to bring warm socks. The downside of cranking our heater was that the lofts were in turn too hot to sleep comfortably. Hot air rises VERY QUICKLY in a tiny home along with us having more windows than wall space. We dont have a ceiling fan in the house when we had it built because we figured we could add one later- turns out we needed one much sooner than we thought. Our solution to the issue was a tiny space heater from Home Depot to have in our flex space when we spend time downstairs. The space heater was a GAME CHANGER and allows us to be comfortable in all spaces of our house.
Cooking our first meal in the house was so much fun! We have all the normal appliances you’d find in a house, so it wasn’t a big shift, but I will admit our appliances are just a bit smaller than average. For example, you’ll only be cooking one pan at a time in the oven, but we also have an air fryer, so we utilize both options often. Our favorite thing in the kitchen is our huge farm sink which definitely comes in handy! Both of us usually cook meals together and split chores. We love that our sink and counter tops face away from each other because one person can prep on the main counter/ sink area while the other can begin cooking on the stovetop or oven.
Unexpected Challenges:
Cleaning the tiny house is a breeze in comparison to cleaning a larger home or even an apartment honestly! It only takes about 30 minutes to deep clean….but only takes 5 minutes to get dirty all over again. We always track a lot of dirt into the house every time we come inside, cough cough Lhotse…. Also can’t forget that the first week we moved in Lolo was halfway through blowing her coat, if you haven’t seen a dog blow their coat just google that- and imagine all those Lhotse tumbleweeds in 300 sq. ft of space. While she was blowing her coat we vacuumed a few times a day, but that’s all part of the deal of having a dog.
We were living in our parents’ house on the same property our house is located now, and they have the sweetest Bernese Mountain Dog names Murphy. Murphy and Lhotse are the best of friends, and I’m convinced she loves him more than anything else in the world. That being said they were spending all day everyday together so when we moved into the tiny house Lolo had about 2 weeks of adjusting not being around Murph in the evenings when we come home from work. Lhotse has grown very accustom to the house and even sleeps with us in bed now which she never did before. The only difficulty of having a larger dog in the house is that she can’t go down the stairs alone. We LOVE our staircase and the extra storage it gives us, but because of the layout of our house they are very compact. The stairs are very steep, so steep that Lhotse can climb up no problem, but Alec has to carry her down. Lolo is much happier sleeping upstairs with us so sweet Alec carries her down every morning, so we get all the puppy snuggles before bed and first thing in the morning.
We had a big challenge in organizing all of our things in the house. We spent about a month before we finally got settled in and comfortable. There’s such little space that you have to get creative where you store things. We have clothes in our main loft, kitchen and bathroom and that’s just how our space works best for us! We got rid of SO MUCH STUFF, mostly clothes. We still had too much for comfort, so we got rid of even more after moving in! Luckily, we are parked next to a shed on the property which hold most of our outdoor gear such as skis, snowboards, camping gear and work tools. When we do decide to move, we will have some decisions to make on what to keep and if we rent a storage unit or add onto our house exterior for board storage. Most of our stuff now in the house is essentials or necessary for us and our lifestyle (except I, Maddy, could get rid of more clothes, but I’m learning as I go). We have a lot of seasonal hobbies, so we like to store those things out of site after the season is over. Getting rid of non-essentials is really tough but also one of the most important in getting a tiny house. Once we finally got organized to our liking it was such much fun to start decorating the space and make it ours. One of our favorite touches is all our plants! We have about 50 plants scattered throughout the house making it a little jungle. Many people asked us before moving in how we would fit all the plants, but we firmly believe you make room for what is most important to you. Our plants bring us joy, light and we love caring for them all. No matter how much space you have I can’t stress enough to make it a reflection of YOU and what makes YOU happy!
Until next time,
Maddy & Alec
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