STAGE 1 -The Frame
The first couple of months were just a little bit crazy. Learning to live on an acreage, you start seeing nature through a different lens. I love to problem solve and living out here has introduced me to a whole new way of doing things.
This is January 2024, and the next step was to start the tiny house build and learn to live off the grid… it’s a good thing that I love a challenge!
This is the day that my site buzzed with a unique vibrancy—the Tiny House structure had finally arrived!
Nothing compared to the thrill of watching her be towed into the paddock. Eagerly, I survey the steadily assembled skeleton that would become my dream home. Of course, beneath the flurry of excitement lurked a tremor of anxiety.
It was a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. The basic structure was there but of course just a shell. Tangible and a tad terrifying. Every beam, every panel echoed back the Monday desk sketches to Friday night material hunts—the path I had trodden to reach this moment.
Unnerving? Yes. Daunting? Absolutely. But the promise of the sustainable and low-cost home I had envisioned far outweighed the palpable tension I felt. The adventure shifted gear that, and was all-in, ready to wield my tools and my courage in equal measure.
Why am I sharing my story?
I’m a single, childless, relatively well paid academic but yet I am still finding myself caught up in this housing crisis. I, like many of you, have been through the whole rental process of going and seeing places that have extortionate rents attached to them and being wholly disappointed with the state of the place. This is not an uncommon situation and we’re seeing more and more of these stories popping up in our newsfeeds. It’s a shocking state of affairs, and those most caught up in this situation are women. Whether they are like me and on their own, whether they are trying to leave a situation that they no longer want to be in and don’t have the financial backing to live independently, or whether they have a family and they all want to downsize and start living tiny to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
This is a significant challenge. I’m building a house at the end of the day, regardless of how tiny it is, it still has all the main components of a standard home. There is A LOT of decision making required, a lot of personal challenges like coming to terms with my level of (in)flexibility. Nevertheless, I am documenting the entire process to share both the ups and the downs, and to help others appreciate how easy it can be at times, and how difficult it can be at other times.
