All The Trimmings

The above picture is the loft where my bed is now located. I have thrown a futon mattress up there until I come up with the funds to get a memory foam mattress.

I am using a standard ladder right now to get into the loft. Abel is bringing by my newly finished ladder today. I am ecstatic about that, as it will take up considerably less room than the normal ladder I have right now.


Kitchen table that folds down. Has my purse on it in this picture. The window next to it overlooks shrubbery and a field below.

A picture of the bathroom, where Riley was taking a nap at the time. This toilet is a composting toilet...which consists of a bucket. There are holes on either side of the toilet. One is for storage of toilet paper. The other is to hold sawdust or peat moss.


This is a picture of my kitchen. The faucet is going in today, we were having a time finding a one hole faucet. However, Abel did salvage a one hole Kohler faucet locally. Which is rad I am pretty happy I will have running water later today, once I hook up myself to the hose. This window looks into some Alder trees. It's pretty neat, makes me feel like I am in a tree house.


This last picture is me looking down from my loft into my circular window. This window looks out to some alder trees and my car. Further back is a rather rough trail to the main house.

Little House, How I Love Thee!

I have been in my little house a few days. To say that I am in love with my house is a vast understatement! I seriously LOVE my little house. I adore it!

The location is pretty spectacular as well. I have my own little corner of the world over here. I can hear the birds singing, and wind blowing through the trees, and other than the occasional airplane I do not hear a whole lot else. [Unless you count the 20 huskamutes/malamutes from the dog rescue that howl when someone is at the gate]

Riley is feeling right at home too. Though I think he is a bit upset he cannot climb the ladder upstairs on his own. He whined at me the other day and was trying to climb it. However, he is not a graceful creature and did not get too far. [Riley blames his lack of opposable thumbs.]

Since I moved in, I have slowly been bringing stuff in from the old house. I do not have a closet, so the shower space has become storage, but surprisingly, I am less attached to my stuff than I thought. So it has stayed fairly uncluttered in here.

There are three windows and two doors that open on the bottom half of the Fortune Cookie. The weather has been phenomenal this last week, so I have been able to leave them open most of the time. This makes for a really well lit and open space.

My best friend Kim came over for a couple days to hang out. She stayed the night and had her air mattress with her. As I do not have any furniture in here yet, she knew she could set it up without issue. Upon setting it up, we realized that it took over the entire 'living' room.

It has been fun just getting settled in. I have been having a blast.

The Fortune Cookie Has Landed

So the Fortune Cookie arrived today. It was a long day, doing last minute prep to make sure everything was in order for the arrival. I feel incredibly grateful I have such great friends that were willing to help, not to mention excited and supportive for me today.

During all of the commotion, I somehow forgot to buy pier blocks to put under the corner jacks. So I made a last minute run to Home Depot before they closed this evening.

So it was after dark when The Fortune Cookie was leveled. I then hauled myself, my dog and most of my sleeping gear into the vardo (again, with help).

After saying some final good nights to my helpers, I made the bed. I carried Riley to the top of the ladder and deposited him into bed. Now it is time for my sleepy self to follow his lead and pass out. It has been a good day. I'm home.

Look Newly!

So things are moving at a rapid pace. The Fortune Cookie is going to be delivered here on August 24th! In the interim, I feel as though I am waiting for my life to begin. I keep catching myself sort of holding my breath.

I am excited about starting up with a CSA again and composting. I catch myself contemplating my budget and planning ahead. I am moving into a housing situation where we act as a community and everything is wonderful.

Well, I was excited about all of these wonderful things... until I stumbled across a blog post by Sally Hope that hit me close to home.

"I want to tell you something. I know you have a dream. An idea of something you’ve always wanted and never thought you could have. I know it lives in your heart, not your head. And I know that it’s been in there for a VERY long time. I’m here to give you permission. You can HAVE it. You CAN do it. NOTHING is impossible. But you must, make a promise to yourself that you will go out and try to get it. And don’t leave any room for fear to take over. Stand strong in your desire. See it clearly in your head. DECIDE it is going to happen. And then leave the house. And close the door. So that you may open another one. Also. I love you."

I have a friend I was estranged from for quite some time, we are slowly working towards strengthening our friendship again. She has known me since I was 12. We did not get to hang out around my birthday, so at a function we both attended this weekend she chases me down with my birthday present.

This present was really quite epic. I have wanted to travel most of my life. Furthermore, I have wanted to road trip extensively since I was quite young. She found a sketch I did when I was 13, give or take, of the interior of a converted school bus I had designed to be an RV. Now, nothing is accurately to scale on this drawing. It is comical, but that floored me. I have spent at least half of my life dreaming of being on the road. I even have framed and beautifully matted proof of this now.

Needless to say, it is high time I get my ass in gear. To make this feasible, I realize I am partially back to square one. I need a good tow rig and a way to make money on the road. I would love to think that my awesome blogging skills would pay my way, but that is not happening quite yet. [insert exaggerated wink here]

So, I am off to brainstorm again.

To All the Books I've Loved Before...

So, I did it! I went to Half Price Books and dropped off my book collection, over half my DVD collection and my CD collection. The price they gave me for this collection... a whopping $85.60! These were all worth $85.60?!?!?! I had the urge to take them all back, as if to defend my collection like it was insulted or something. I did not, I walked away slowly.

Now, after handing over this collection... they handed me a receipt to collect my cash at the front desk. I think this is one of the few instances that I actually felt my heart murmur. I broke into a bit of a cold sweat. I was mumbling something when I got to the front register. John, the cashier looks at me and smiles. I stared at him blankly for a moment, then said, "I just gave away all of my books." He looks at me sympathetically with an edge of kind humor, "it's okay, just breathe." "I'm trying."

I seriously sat in my car in shock for about 10 minutes in the parking lot. I could not decide if I wanted to cry, cry or call a sponsor. But, after it all sunk in... I felt relieved... like a HUGE burden had been lifted off of my back. I smiled and congratulated myself and drove away.

I realized later that in my haste to haul everything into my car and to Half Price Books (before I talked myself out of it) that I forgot a bag of books. I am pretty irritated at myself for this. Since then, I have found additional books kicking around my house and garage. I have SO many books! Blarg!!!

So it appears I will be making another trip to Half Price Books. I was pleased to find out that they pay money for old game systems. That means I can offload my Super Nintendo, my GameCube and games for a bit of moola too.

All in all, I feel accomplished. I did something I did not think I could do. Facing my fears, one step at a time.