After a frustrating few months where we were pottering about waiting for Mainpower to connect us to the grid, we finally got power onto the block of land we purchased… what felt like forever ago! Over that time, we tried not to be too discouraged or frustrated, remembering instead to be grateful that we still got to live in our tiny house, and owned the piece of land which we could get started on developing to our liking.

One of the major things which Tom and my Dad, Stewie, achieved during our wait was putting in a track up to our house site. Since owning the land, we had experienced how wet it gets during a period of decent rain, and realized that a track was necessary to avoid our vehicles getting stuck. The two of them put in the track themselves, hiring an excavator and compactor to lay the track before covering it with gravel.

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We have also been working on our vege garden over the past few months, planting a variety of edibles, with some mixed results. A few of our crops seem to be doing really well, with the broad beans, spinach and garlic flourishing! Our fruits are also looking promising, with the strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and citrus trees all coming into flower. Our paddocks are currently filled with daisies and dandelions, which will hopefully attract lots of bees for pollination purposes.

Moving time came about rather suddenly – we got power on to our site on one Thursday and Tom decided we would move on the Friday. I also happened to be getting a small procedure done on my foot on that Friday which meant I was out of action – sitting in the chair pointing at things to be done ended up being the majority of my role! In order to prepare the house for moving, we had to lose as much weight as possible, which included taking out the fridge, wine barrel sink and, basically, anything that wasn’t nailed down! The plumbing also had to be disconnected, and, luckily, our power was able to be disconnected with the pulling of a single plug. When we came to actually move the house, it still looked to be sitting very heavily on its wheels. Tom pumped them up to maximum using an air compressor, and we decided we would try and go for the move – the night was uncommonly still for springtime and we wanted to make the most of the lull between the usual howling Northwest winds. We hooked the house up to Trev the Tractor, and very cautiously started out down the road. We started the move at 3am, and had about 2 hours to make it to our new residence before it became daylight and the morning traffic begun. We were quite anxious when it took 45 minutes to get to the end of the road – with most of the journey left to go! Luckily, when we moved out onto the main tar seal road, Tom was able to pick up a bit of speed (which is a very relative comment – an increase of around 5km/hr to about 30km/hr maximum). With his carefully moderated driving (fast enough to get there, slow and careful enough to risk not popping a tyre), we eventually made it. It was one of the more fraught journeys of my life, with the potential hazards of gravel, potholes, loose tree branches, overhead powerlines and branches, a carload of teenagers that wanted to play chicken and a ute which refused to slow down when we were attempting to negotiate a corner! It was a massive relief to make it onto our own property – we pulled just inside the driveway and got a few hours rest before attempting to move the house into position. This also proved surprisingly simple – the house went up the newly-built track just fine, and into position with a minimum of drama (although I did hear Tom yell “I can’t see a bloody thing!” at one point – not the most reassuring of comments). But at least our patience was rewarded – the house was in position! Having checked inside, we also reassured ourselves that it was intact – the move hadn’t caused any damage at all, which was an outcome of great relief to us. The rest of the week was dedicated to unpacking and – in Tom’s case – getting our water and greywater re-connected. Eventually, we were settled comfortably, and have since been able to focus on moving forward with our projects in the works.

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One such project is completing the reed bed greywater system. Tom has been hard at work attaching baffles inside the plastic containers we purchased, to allow the water to flow slowly through each section of each container in series – to allow for thorough filtration of the water. We have added some of the leftover gravel from our driveway project, and the next step will be to source reeds to complete the filtering process.

We have also put up our climbing wall and finally have easy access to our lounge loft. This was made possible thanks to another generous donation from Joe, who provided us with the climbing holds. We were excited to complete this, and can’t wait to have people over to test it out!

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We had some exciting news after moving in to our tiny home. One of our female alpacas, Lily, gave birth to a baby boy (cria)! We had only been living there a couple of days when it happened, and it was the perfect little surprise to make our first week in our new home extra special! We had no idea she was pregnant, and, I will admit to a little fat shaming – much in the same way as Fat Gus in the Squirrel Ninja Obstacle Course YouTube video (well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it). I was a little worried about the cria at first – having no vet or even human presence during the birth – we simply came home from work and there he was in the paddock. But, he proved to be a strong and healthy cria, and Lily an excellent mother. He is now a month old, christened Teddy, and stealing hearts in person and on my Instagram account. I was very relieved and happy that we were settled on our land just in time to watch him grow!

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Over the past few weeks, Tom and I have had yet another exercise in patience. Due to a backlog of work after Covid19, the power company has been unable to work on our connection thus far – so we are still living separately to our block of land. This has been quite a frustrating experience – as we don’t have a choice of power providers – there is only one in the area – we simply have to wait until they are available to come and finish our connection. However, we have had plenty else to think about in the meantime…

After the initial addition of three alpacas to our Farmily, we ended up adopting another three! Tom became aware on Facebook of a couple who no longer had sufficient pasture to keep theirs, so we offered to add them to our boys. We now have a total of six alpacas: Carl, Albus and Lewie who are the original three, and Squeak, Lily and Black Sass who are our newer arrivals. Adopting these amazing animals has been very entertaining and enjoyable for us so far. I have managed to teach a few of them how to hand-feed (the second lot of three did this on arrival, and, with some initial hesitation, I managed to convince Carl and Albus to give it a go too – Lewie remains yet to be persuaded).

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Another thing we have been doing is halter training – where we get the alpacas used to being put in a halter and (hopefully) taken on a short walk on a lead. This is good for familiarizing the animals to our touch, which becomes incredibly helpful when it comes to aspects such as shearing and routine health care. Some obviously responded better to this than others. The girls led the way with good behavior in the halters, and are easy to catch and halter once they are in the yards, yet much harder to initially herd in there. The boys are easier to herd, yet much more resistant to being put into the halters and led. Albus has already provided us with many hours of entertainment – whenever he is put into his halter, he simply lies down and refuses to move without being dragged. While the process of halter training may appear cruel to outside bystanders, we have already noticed a change in attitude with our alpacas – they are increasingly relaxed about being handled by us, especially if there’s a chance they might get a treat at the end!

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Tom also became an “alpaca pedicurist” recently. Shortly after their arrival, we noticed that the new three alpacas had “toenails” that were way too long. After consulting the internet, we learned that this can lead to serious problems with gait, and that if you let the toes get too long, the blood vessels and nerves can grow into the nails, causing extra pain and suffering when they are clipped. So, Tom decided to have a go with a series of garden tools and clippers we bought for the job. We decided to do all six at the same time, so hopefully the next time we have to do this job will be along with springtime shearing. This was also the first time we had put them in a halter, which was received with greater tolerance with some more than others! Albus in particular was very fiesty, and had to have his feet gently maneuvered out from under where he was sitting on them to be trimmed. Tom, however, did a really good, professional job, and we noticed a distinct gait improvement among the new alpacas in particular. Next on the list is a tooth trim for Albus and Lily, however I think we may have to get a professional in for that one…

Winter has brought its share of weather-related issues along with it, both farm and house-wise. The weather has been especially wet for the past few weeks, which has led to increased humidity inside the tiny house. This initially caused us quite a major condensation problem, with it actually dripping down from the ceiling at one point. Fortunately, with the installation of a couple of extraction fans, and the retrieval of our dehumidifier from storage, it quickly became much more manageable. We are confident that the installation of our log burner, which will happen when we move our house onto the land, the house will be a lot warmer and dryer overall (our little fan heater has been struggling a lot more to take the chill off over the winter months).

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The rain also caused an accumulation of water on our property, particularly in the swale, which is a depression in the land that lies on contour. Swales tend to slow and infiltrate water into the ground. We have one that runs through our property between the existing gateway and the barn and tiny house site. For us, this means that we will now need to think about putting in a proper driveway before we can move the tiny house on site – as Tom almost got stuck driving through the swale in his 4WD truck! We have also been busy clearing a site for the tiny house to sit on as well as leveling the floor in the barn – all of which we will have to be covered with gravel before we bring the tiny house in. As a result of these somewhat unexpected land development requirements, Tom and I have been putting some time into consideration of the overall layout of our block. We have had a lot of discussion around stock rotation, planting and placement of raceways throughout the property, and are on our way to designing a property that will (hopefully) promote biodiversity and harmony between us and our land.

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We also had Tom’s mum Jo and her partner Colin come down to pay us a visit and see the land. They stayed with us for a couple of weeks, and were joined by Tom’s brother Jack and his partner, Jule for some of the time too. It was lovely to have them around to help and provide ideas for our site. Jack was very helpful in getting us organized and doing research for the next stage of our project, and assisted with our liason with the power company too. Jo helped a lot with setting up our garden and shelter belt. She had brought some plants down with her, and we went to a couple of garden centers to find some new additions. We planted our boundary with some flaxes to provide a shelter belt from the dust and gravel from the road – being hardy and thick, they should do a good job of this. Jo and Colin also had a great idea with the row of tree stumps that run down the side of the property down from where the house will be. We initially thought we would get rid of these somehow – by pulling them out or burning them. However, Jo and Colin’s idea was to instead make them into a feature by planting in and around them. We found some plants that will hopefully spill out over the sides of the stumps and make them a beautiful feature once they are established. We also planted some colourful natives for added interest, as well as some raspberries, herbs and a heritage peach tree all given to us by Jo and Colin.

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So, although things have not gone wholly according to plan, Tom and I have had, as ever, plenty to think about and do over the last few weeks. Our projects, land and animals continue to be a source of stimulation and entertainment, and we are still excited as we move forward through each step of the way. We have been lucky enough to have visits with our families, which is something people in many parts of the world still cannot experience at the moment. And, of course, there is the prospect of our ever-widening Farmily to look forward to – watch this space!

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This week was super exciting for us… we added some new members to our farmily!

This was a very significant weekend for us – ever since we paid a visit to an alpaca farm last year, the floofums have been a must-have addition to our lives! An opportunity to acquire these three gorgeous boys came up and we wasted no time as soon as we were allowed to travel again in level 2 of Covid 19 restrictions. Tom and I headed down to Dunedin with our friends Michelle and Blair (who are also massive alpaca fans) and a horse trailer to collect them. They came from down the road from Tom’s brother’s place – from a kindhearted couple who were willing to let us have them as they were surplus to requirements. There seemed to be plenty of people out embracing freedom after the lockdown, and we had great weather for the whole weekend. They were surprisingly easy to load into the trailer – as soon as Tom managed to maneuver one in, the others followed. We were a bit worried about having them in the trailer for such a long trip (about 5 hours), but they seemed to be quite happy. A few of the carrot sticks we gave them to munch on disappeared, so they can’t have been too upset! We did have one awkward moment where we parked up to grab some food and were immediately surrounded by a group of classic car enthusiasts who revved their engines very loudly and made getting out of the car park impossible! Luckily the floofs didn’t seem too distressed and the cars didn’t hang around for too long!

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It was pretty dark when we got them to their new home, but they soon hopped out of the trailer and were happily exploring and munching grass soon enough!

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The next morning, I popped in to check on them. Although there had been a severe frost and I was freezing, they seemed happily oblivious, wandering around and munching away.

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So, no house progress this week, but three wonderful new additions to our lives!

Now we just have to name them… suggestions welcome!

As New Zealand readjusts to life in level 3 of Covid-19 lockdown, we are well into establishing our land and preparing for the big move on with the tiny house. Tom has been working hard the last couple of weeks to get as much as possible prepared – so that when we get our power connection, we are ready to move straight on. This process has been helped along with a new addition to our farm family – Trev the Tractor. Trev has been working hard to get our grass mowed, and done a lot of dirt shifting to help us along with our projects.

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A major project that Tom has managed to complete is the moving of our water tank. After walking around the land and analysing it with a couple of phone applications, we concluded that the tank was placed not quite in the optimal spot (i.e. not on the highest point of the land). We then found the highest point, and Tom set about building a mound to put the water tank on. The higher the mound, the more fall we have to the rest of the property. This means there is less likelihood of us having to put in pumps, i.e. our water pressue comes from gravity rather than electricity. This is a bonus, as it means our power bill will be smaller, and, if we ever get a power cut, this won’t compromise our water pressure. We placed the tank in an area which is already fenced off, which will save us a bit of work with not having to do extra fencing. With where the tank was moved to, we will already have to split one of our paddocks in half and put another fence in to run the water line down (Tom is quite adamant that he doesn’t want to bury the water lines as they are too difficult to find again if they get a leak). This was not really an issue, as we wanted to have smaller paddocks to aid with our stock rotation anyway, so the fencing would have to be done anyway.

Tom managed to build a decent sized mound, and moved the tank on with the help of Trev. He then connected a water pipe from the boundary to start filling the tank, and another one over to our house site, with a tap on the end. The extra effort of building the mound and shifting the tank paid off, as the pressure over at our house site was great!

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Tom has also started the composting process at our new place, and has been pleased to see that it is warming already after just a few weeks of adding material and turning it over. We decided to keep our toilet compost heap separate from our general one, so we can use the general compost on veges and the compost from the toilet on our non-edible trees and plants.

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We also managed to start our garden over the weekend. One of the stands we get eggs from on the roadside also had strawberry plants for sale, and now that the shops have opened for online shopping, I managed to get some seeds to plant. We decided to experiment with our locations and techniques a bit. We have started two gardens in two different locations – on on the hill in front of the barn and one in a slightly more sheltered but potentially less sunny spot behind the barn. We split our strawberry plants in half and will wait and see which plants do better over the winter months and into spring. We are trying to get our gardens established using a “no dig” technique. This involved placing some of our food scraps straight down onto the grass, and covering them with wet cardboard. This will hopefully kill the grass underneath, and eventually when the cardboard rots down, will allow plants to put roots straight into the soil. Over the cardboard, we placed a bunch of pine needles as mulch. Luckily we already have lots of well-established pine trees on our property, so it was simply a matter of collecting a few wheelbarrow loads and transporting them to our garden site. A big consideration with creating a garden like this is keeping it well-watered – which will be much easier once our house is in place and we are living on-site! For now, one of us will have to be committed to popping in after work and watering. We created a small area which we have planted a few vegetable seeds in – it will be interesting to see if they germinate in a few weeks! We planted the seeds in top soil which we dug up ourselves rather than using potting mix, to try and get the most out of the resources we have on-hand. The soil seemed good and contained plenty of worms, so we will wait and see if it is sufficient to sustain our seeds.

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Tom has also been making progress on our reed-bed greywater system. He found some old water containers for sale which we purchased for $5 each. He then cut them in half with an angle grinder, ready to be filled with gravel and planted with reeds. This will filter our greywater hopefully to the point where it is almost drinking standard after filtration. Of course, we will be helping the process as much as possible by continuing to use eco-friendly products for our washing and cleaning.

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As for our tiny house, it has been rather forgotten about among all the other projects lately! Although we haven’t done any active work on it recently, it has been a haven for me in particular working through long days during level 4. It has been a joy to come back to a quiet little sanctuary at the end of hectic days. Although it is long from finished, we have everything we need. Now that autumn is here, we have been having colder days, and the sun-catching design of the north-facing double doors has been very evident. Although cold in the mornings, the house has always retained a lot of warmth from the sunny days by the time we get back home in the evenings. Although we are both starting to miss having things like a dishwasher and oven, the tiny house is also great for making us appreciate those little luxuries in life that we often take for granted.

So, as you all will be aware, we are now over two weeks into lockdown. For many, this will be a boring, tedious, and maybe scary time. Two weeks is a long time for limited social interaction and, maybe for some, lack of a sense of purpose. It is working though – as a country, New Zealand is banding together and we seem to be beating this virus. However, we definitely won’t be the only people counting down until its end. We need to get supplies to continue with our project, and develop our land to be able to move the house on. This week, Tom and I became proud owners of a 4 hectare block, which has been a long time coming! It’s really great that we were able to proceed with the purchase despite the lockdown, and we are stoked to be able to call it our own!

The next major step for us is moving the house onto the land – which will obviously require the lifting of the lockdown. We have contacted Mainpower to see how soon after this they will be able to put in a power connection – and Tom is looking into a temporary solar system as backup if this will take a long time (we are thinking there may be quite a backlog of work for them after this period). We also need to do some development on the land, including flattening an area for the house to go, which will require hiring of a digger, and running of water pipes (which apparently are not deemed “essential” enough to be gotten hold of during this time).

The house is coming along nicely (again, we are still managing to make constant improvements even without being able to get supplies). Tom built an amazing pantry, which we then painted together. This has been great in making our little kitchen a lot more tidy and organised. He is also working on the plumbing at the moment – hopefully before long we will have both hot and cold water to the kitchen sink. The sink has been a massive improvement to the kitchen space, and the bench setup in the kitchen seems to be working well so far. Tom has also put in a toilet door, which has obviously been a big improvement for privacy and comfort!

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Tom has been keeping me well-fed and entertained when I get home from work in the evenings – we have been going on many bike rides and walks together around the neighbourhood, and he has been cooking some delicious food! The pinnacle of this was when I got home to a sausage sizzle stand he had set up – clearly someone has been missing our weekly trips to the hardware shops! I am thinking of suggesting to Bunnings that they include $1 wine with their sausage sizzle stand… not sure how well it will go down but I’m thinking it’s an excellent suggestion.

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As far as having enough space goes, we have been absolutely fine in the tiny house! Having outside space helps a lot with maximising living space, but even on rainy days when we can’t go outside, there has been plenty of space for Tom and I to live comfortably without getting under each other’s feet. We are really looking forward to fulfilling our land development plans and getting our house situated on there in the (hopefully) near future.

As most of you are (hopefully) aware, this week, New Zealand has gone into lockdown. This means that Tom and I have not quite yet been able to finalise the purchase of our land, and, I doubt we’ll be going anywhere over the next month! However, we do get the ultimate test of whether our tiny house will provide enough space for the two of us to live comfortably! Tom will get a reprieve though – as I am a healthcare professional, I will still be going to work during the week. He is hoping to get lots done on the house over the next month, however, given that hardware stores are shut, this may be a bit tricky. And, of course, our circular saw blade went blunt on the very first day of lockdown, so the woodwork we are able to do may be limited!

We are a few days into lockdown at this stage, and, I must say, so far, so good! Thus far, 24 square meters is ample space for the two of us to live comfortably and spend extended periods of time together. Tom has done some work on getting our kitchen sink installed and functional, and it is a vast improvement on going outside for dishes etc – especially that we are now definitely into Autumn and it is getting a bit chillier. Having a pretty much fully functional kitchen installed also takes the pressure off us for finding and installing a permanent one – Tom has done a good job on a minimalist, yet fully functional space which also looks really cool. He did a triangular design for the bench space which gives it a nice aesthetic. We have also moved a bigger fridge into the house (an old one from our flatting days), which has a bit of freezer space for a few meals etc (Tom and I figured that even though I still go out to work, it is probably best to have some food available in the house in case one or both of us gets sick). However, we have been following the Government’s advice and shopping normally (the only, annoying difference being we had to buy bagged bread for the first time in about 2 years as all the panickers had bought up the flour and we couldn’t make our own as usual!). Tom did also rush out and buy some sawdust for our compsting toilet last-minute after we weren’t sure if our stash would get us through the month – that is the exent of our panic-buying experience!

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The weekend before lockdown, we had my parents and Joe up to help – which was really great at the time, and even better in hindsight! Having them there meant we got a whole bunch done – the walls are now completely lined and the ceiling fully insulated. This has made a really noticable difference to the warmth of the house, which will make life a lot more pleasant! After lockdown, we will continue our hunt for a suitably-sized fire to install for the colder months. It also means we have a whole other loft to use as hang-out or storage space. I am really excited to start designing and building this “chill-out” loft eventually – I think it gives our home a little extra space and character, and will be a really cool feature of the place when finished.

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The one thing we haven’t managed to install to be self-sufficient over the lockdown period is our washing machine. This means I will have to rely on other people, or the launderette for our washing. Luckily, I have had many offers of help from work colleagues, and Mum of course! It’s been quite eye-opening how easy it is to live without things that previously I would have classed as “essential” over the last few weeks – and a washing machine is definitely one of them! Before lockdown, we were able to just pop over to Mum’s once a week, and there is also a launderette a few minutes’ drive from us. Now that we’re in lockdown, it’s not entirely ideal not having a machine, but definitely something we can still work around.

Experiencing the panic and fevour of people during the past week or so has been eye-opening. It makes me glad of the choices we have made, and more determined than ever to increase our self-sufficiency once we are on our own land. The vegetable garden Tom and I have planned will no doubt be one of the first things to go in, and we will be increasing our focus on fresh, organic food with no plastic packaging. I am really glad we are living in a rural area for the lockdown, where we have a bit of space, and the ability to get our fresh air and exercise easily. Given that we are probably more reliant on outside space for living and working than maybe the average person, it is great that we will be able to continue as normal without compromising any 2m limits. I am also really glad that we have improved our “basic living” arrangments with the kitchen etc over the last few weeks – our space is functional and comfortable. The thing that has struck me heading into our viral crisis is how utterly panicked people are about the prospect of running out of food – even when there is simply no pre-packaged pasta on supermarket shelves, this can cause mass hysteria. It has been making me dwell on the millions of people worldwide for whom not having enough food is a daily struggle.

Another thing we are short on out here is internet – we have limited phone signal and connectivity to the outside world. While some may look at this with horror, it has meant we are a lot less exposed to news and social media feeds giving us updates every few minutes. I think this has been beneficial for my mental health so far – I receive vital information at work, and am able to come home and relax with a book and unwind properly rather than being subject to the constant media frenzy.

Having less than the average household really does make you grateful for the little things, too. Over the last few weeks, getting our gas hob and kitchen sink installed have been milestones of huge importance and excitement for us. Having something a bit different to focus on is good, and doing the work ourselves gives us immense satisfaction and enthusiasm. I am hoping we will be able to continue with some bits and pieces over the coming weeks, but, if not, we will simply have to be patient, and enjoy the privilege of being able to spend time in our lovely tiny house!

It has been a while since my last post (as some have been reminding me :D) and we have had some really exciting progress since then! I guess the two most exciting things to start with are

1. We have moved into our tiny house full time and
2. We have found a piece of land to purchase

So, understandably, we have been quite busy!

Moving into our house was a really exciting step for us. Even though it was less finished than I at least would have preferred, it is definitely set up enough for us to get along quite happily (and moving in means we can now focus more of our attention on improving the “livability” as we are there more often). We have been making great progress with our build, and the tranquility of living in the country, in our own small paradise has been wonderful.

We are also planning on shifting onto our own little piece of paradise – we are currently in the process of purchasing a piece of land. This is really exciting as it will allow us to expand our resources and experiment with permaculture and planting. This is an aspect of life that Tom and I have been wanting to get into for a while – having the means to grow our own vegetables, recycle our greywater and waste and generally have a bit of space to pursue projects is something that appeals to us both greatly.

The process of moving in was actually relatively stress-free – we’ve pretty much just thrown most of our worldly possessions into a storage container for now. This is quite freeing most of the time – living clutter free is refreshing and definitely necessary with the state the house is in now! We are hoping to start shifting stuff onto our permanent living site once we get there – given that it already has a barn, we should be able to utilize this and have a bit more space for things. At the moment, we are waiting for all of our paperwork to go through. Then, we can contact a power company about getting our power connected, and start thinking about the moving process. The purchasing process has been eye-opening for both of us – there have been a few points in the process where things have felt a little overwhelming, and, overall, the whole thing has moved a lot more slowly than we were expecting. Since the council have to issue the title to the land, I guess we should have been prepared for delays, but we were hoping it wouldn’t quite take as long as it has! Luckily, Karyn and Phil have been absolute champs about keeping us on their place while we get everything figured out, so that has been nice and hassle-free!

Carrying on with the building has somewhat taken a back seat for a while as we move through the purchasing process, however, we have been pottering on in the background. My Dad has been amazing, and has devoted at least one of his days every weekend to come up and help, often accompanied by my Mum. His expertise in woodworking and diligence with working hard on the place means that we are mostly insulated and lined now, which is certainly a lot further than we were expecting to be at this point! Tom has also installed a small, temporary kitchen, which has been working well – I don’t think bench space will be an issue when we convert it to our permanent setup. The next step is to install a sink into it – going outside to do dishes constantly is a bit of a drag, especially when it’s raining! Having the gas hob in the kitchen fully functioning is absolutely great though – we were previously having to do the cooking part of our meals in the caravan, which is rather full of extra building materials now, so to be able to move back inside the house for cooking has been great. Our little bookshelf that serves as our food storage holds way more than you might think, and all of our appliances are great for cooking with – the combination of slow cooker, air fryer and gas hob seems to be working really well! I will miss having an oven at some stage (probably if I want to bake something), but our small setup is doing just fine for now!

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We also now have a walkway beside the bed, which has made it a lot easier getting in and out of bed! The standing space beside the bed is also working really well – we are really glad we added this element into the design.

We are not sure how much more we will be able to achieve before moving the house onto our own land – we are keen not to do most of the major finishing work such as sanding, painting and cabinetry before we move the structure, in case we get some movement of the framing and plywood when it is in transport (which we are certain will be the case to some degree at least). The next major step for us will be finalising our land purchase, and moving on, which will include obtaining a power connection and maybe undertaking some earthworks to clear a site for the house to sit on. Once the house is situated in place, we will be able to start actually finishing some rooms, installing things like guttering, plumbing and wiring, and starting to think about aspects such as a kitchen and fire. For now, however, we are making good progess and enjoying day-to-day life in our tiny house so far!

After the Christmas break, we finally received our insulation! We used a company called Expol for this, who were able to give us seconds polystyrene cut to our specifications. The “seconds” aspect was barely noticeable – there were a few black dots in the pieces of polystyrene which I wouldn’t even have noticed had Tom not pointed them out. It took us three trips into town with the trailer to pick up the insulation – a job that took us a couple of Fridays when the company was open. We probably over-ordered and will end up with a ton left over – to be used for a future project or passed on to someone else building a tiny house, perhaps!

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We had a pretty efficient team of helpers when we started insulating! Dad came up to help again, and we had our friends Blair and Michelle who came out to see the house and give us a hand. We measured out the polystyrene to fit in between the studs, cut it to size with a hand saw, and fitted it into the gap, using a file to rasp bits off if it didn’t quite fit due to imperfections in the wood (which happened a lot). It turned out that punching the bits of polystyrene into the walls was quite therapeutic too! We managed to get the majority of the walls insulated in the first weekend with all of our helpers.

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The second weekend, we were doing some of the more fiddly bits in the sleeping loft and kitchen. My Mum and Dad came up for the day to help us, which was great! My Mum and Tom carried on with the insulation, while Dad started the lining, and I finally got around to spray painting the remaining window in the sleeping loft. After doing this, I joined in with the insulation crew. Dad did an amazing job of lining the bathroom with plywood, including putting in a cut out cupboard around the shelves I built a few weeks ago (and have still yet to complete fully). He cut and fitted the wood so precisely that I think it will be hard to tell there is a cupboard there at all when it’s done! Having this section of the house lined means that now Tom will be able to start the plumbing for the bathroom, and, eventually, the kitchen. Having hot running water in the house is the next big priority for us, so the work that we do over the next few weeks will probably be centered around this.

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This Christmas was pretty low-key for us (although this is generally the case). We had a nice day filled with great food and company. The consumerism of the Christmas season is always something that gets me down a bit, especially working in retail. However, this year I felt particularly blessed with our friends and company. Tom and I received some thoughtful tokens from our friends and family that really stuck to the concept of thoughtful, non-wasteful giving (mostly food – which of course always goes down well)! We spent a lot of time with our friends over the Christmas/ New Year period too which is always awesome – it was great to catch up with some people we don’t get to see very often, and, of course, celebrate with people we see all the time, too!

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The part that came afterwards was something I had been dreading: Boxing Day Sales. This is an event that normally I would stay well clear of – having managed to do all of my pre-Christmas shopping without setting foot in a mall or chain-store, I was not looking forward to having to brave the crowds for Boxing Day. However, all the appliances Tom and I have been looking at for our Tiny House had gone on sale. The sales themselves turned out to be okay – I waited until later in the day until going, when a lot of the hype had died down (I did witness one guy yelling at the poor sales person because the fridge he wanted was sold out – consumerism really does bring out the worst in people). The appliances themselves were ones we had chosen carefully – deciding to go brand-new was a first for us and not a decision we took lightly. However, having to fit everything in a compact space meant we were relatively limited for options. We also decided that the extended warranty we would get made it worth spending the extra money – a 10 year warranty on the fridge means we won’t be buying again for a long time!

The choice on appliances when we first started looking was utterly bewildering. The appliances we looked at all looked pretty much identical, but sat within huge price differences, and sported different technological “gimmicks” unique to their suppliers. We bought a fridge, dishdrawer, washing machine and oven. The fridge and dishdrawer were quite simple – we had certain height restrictions on the fridge, which led us to a compact Samsung model, and a single dishdrawer made sense with having limited kitchen space and only two of us. The washing machine was quite a challenge – I read endless reviews online, before deciding to go with a mid-line front-loading machine with a good warranty. The oven was also tricky – we had endless debates over it – did we actually need an oven; should we go gas or electric, could we be compact with it? We even bought an airfryer to try and do an experiment into what life without an oven would be like. Then we stumbled onto a seconds combination microwave and oven in a compact size at an outlet store. Having done some research online we decided that, although the technology is still developing for this particular appliance, the AEG one we decided to go with would be sufficient for our needs, while taking up only a small space. The combination of microwave and oven was an extra bonus – since space will be so limited for us, the extra cupboard space gained from combining the 2 appliances will be invaluable.

I was pretty stoked to get our appliance shopping done – this felt like another “big step” in our project, and having them all ready to fit will make life a lot easier when we start on the kitchen.

Our appliances choices – reviews pending until we fit them:

• Fisher and Paykel 60cm Single Dish Drawer (7 place settings) (DD60SAX9) stainless steel – purchased from Noel Leeming
• Samsung 255 Litre Fridge Freezer (SR255MLS) stainless steel – purchased from Noel Leeming
• Fisher and Paykel 7.5kg QuickSmart Front Load Washing Machine (WHJ7560J3) – purchased from Smith City
• AEG Combination Microwave Oven -purchased secondhand from Harvey Norman outlet store. Closest new product in stores currently would be AEG 45cm CombiQuick Combi Microwave Oven

We have also been doing bits and pieces on the house itself over the Christmas period. Unfortunately, we did not get our insulation in time to start over this time, but there has been plenty else for us to do! Dad and I have finished fitting the anti-rodent strips around the bottom of the house, and Dad did a wonderful job of cutting around the bottom so it is all flush and exact. We also fitted a piece of plywood in underneath the double doors (the only piece that wasn’t yet cladded). Tom also fitted some hooks to hook our double doors back, which was a great improvement on the bits of string we had been using – it really is the little things that make the difference, sometimes!

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We also went around the house and put an extra dwang in the interior, in order to fix the plywood more securely on the outside where the line of flashing goes around. The wood was starting to bulge out a bit at the flashing point, so having a dwang right round meant we had extra fixing points to pull the plywood back in and make it all nice and smooth. We also put extra screws into the windows and doors, which weren’t properly secured, only tacked into place.

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While Dad and I were busy with this, Tom was preparing the plywood to fit some walls and the second mezzanine floor. He planed and sanded some pieces, then painted one side and fitted this into place between the bathroom and lounge. This is the wall that will have our climbing wall on one side, and will be the back of cupboards in the bathroom on the other side. This wall was not entirely straight due to some bending in the wood – now the Oregon timber has dried, it has warped quite a lot and become super hard to nail and screw into! This meant we had to dwang the wall out to push it back into shape.

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Tom also began to prepare our second mezzanine floor for fitting. He planed, sanded, painted and fitted this into place. Then, Dad and I screwed it into place, and put some “No More Gaps” between the two pieces we fitted. We put a bead down the edge of the pieces, so it oozed out the bottom, and we could just smooth it off with our fingers. We will just be able to paint over this, and (hopefully), the gap between the two pieces of ply will disappear! I am really happy with the way the white turned out in the bathroom. The contrast between the wooden beams and the white of the ceiling paint looks great! We got free paint from the local tip in the town we work in – they have recently started an initiative where people can drop off their leftovers for others to take and use for free. We got two big tubs of white which were about half to three quarters full, which will save us a lot on our paint budget!

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Dad and I also did most of the insulation of the bathroom with the offcuts of Pink Batts we got earlier on. Because most of the walls in the bathroom had small spaces once the dwangs were in, we decided these would be easier to fill with Batts offcuts, leaving the bigger spaces to be done with the polystyrene insulation once we get it. A lot of the offcuts we have fit nicely into the small spaces, and this should make things a lot easier when we come in to fit the polystyrene.

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Another job we got started on was to fill in the gaps around the windows and doors with expanding foam. A note to other building rookies: make sure you masking tape down the sides of the windows/ doors before you start to use this – it expands a LOT, and immediately came out onto the metal frame when I tried to use it. A second note – when this happens, do not panic and try to wipe off said foam with your fingers. It is not like putty or even liquid nails which you can wipe off afterwards. It is gooey as all hell, and, if it’s hot, like it was when I was using it, gets hard fast. It took me a good 3 days to get it all off my fingers. But at least the metal door frame was spared. Another stupid thing I did with the expanding foam was to use it upright – it is designed to be tipped upside down and used that way (despite it saying this in really big letters on the can). Hot tip – you get way more out of the can and it comes out more nicely if you use it in the way it is designed to be used!

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So, although we didn’t get our insulation over the holiday period, we still got plenty done! It was actually kind of a good thing to get us to take our time on some of the finishing. For instance, if we had gone ahead and insulated without realizing we needed an extra internal dwang to fix the external plywood cladding around the flashing properly, we would have had to pull it all out again, or put up with the exterior looking messy.

On a quick note for 2020 – we are so happy and excited that our project is nearly done! This was such a huge part of our 2019, and to be almost at the end is super gratifying. Last January we were waiting on our trailer and timber to be ready so we could start our build – to have come so far in 12 months is such an amazing achievement! We definitely could not have done it without our friends and family – I say this time and time again throughout the course of writing this blog but – you know who you are, and thank you! Here’s to an amazing 2020 finishing and living sustainably in our own home!

One of our main jobs this weekend was to complete the flashing on the roof of the house, which meant we could finally take down the scaffolding. This will also ensure better water-tightness of the house (although we are yet to have any problems with this, touch wood). We sourced the flashing from ITM, who were really quick at getting it ready, providing same-day service. Joe and Tom then got stuck into fitting it into place.

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We also had my Dad join us for the weekend. I worked with him on cutting the plywood around the bottom of the house down so it’s equal all the way around, and then fitting some strips we found at Bunnings underneath in all the gaps in the cavity battens, so that no pesky rodents can get up into the walls.

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We’ve also been working on a couple of wee “side projects” – one being the wine barrels, obviously, and the other being a shelf built into the wall in the bathroom. This weekend, I used a water blaster to clean out the inside of the barrels – they are now pristine and are ready to have shelves fitted! The shelf in the bathroom will eventually be covered with a piece of ply, so it looks like part of the wall, which then swings open to reveal a shelf and mirror (because of our exposed plumbing, we won’t have room to fit a mirror above the sink).

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By the end of the weekend, Tom and Joe had the flashing fitted and were able to pull the scaffolding down. This was really exciting – this is the first time we were able to view the fully cladded house without the scaffolding around it.

Our next step will be to insulate and line the house. We decided to use polystyrene insulation, which Tom was able to source off a company as seconds. It will be crucial to fit this correctly in order to get the maximum amount of efficacy from it. We will then run the wiring and plumbing externally, to keep things as simple as possible. With Christmas coming up, we are hoping to get the materials for these things sourced before businesses shut down, so we can get a decent chunk of these jobs done over the Christmas period. We did some preparation for the lining over the weekend – fitting extra dwangs in around the mezzanines so that we have something to fix the plywood lining to.