The Adventure Continues

Say hello to our new home:

Ta-da!! It's a 1968 Eagle bus. Once belonging to the one and only Chubby Checker. Yep. High rollin'

Anyway.
We bought this bus from a family in South Carolina who are missionaries in Brazil. The couple and their 4 kids (which they raised on this bus!) move back and forth between the States and Brazil. We hung out with them twice in the process of buying this bus, and I miss them as if I really knew them beforehand. They were just the sweetest family, and I'm so thankful we bought their bus. What God has done in their lives is something special, and I'm grateful we got the chance to be a small piece of their story.

So we will be moving into this soon. We are currently in the process of buying 10 acres of land, which the tiny home will go on in the future. However, progress on the tiny home is very slow, so we came across the bus and decided it was a great opportunity to live in it as a transition to the tiny house. So if/when we get the land, we'll park the bus there and treat it like a house.

Speaking of which, here's proof that we're still working on the tiny house. We finished sanding and finishing the cedar boards for our loft and installed them. So now we can get up in both lofts and get a feel for how it will all come together.

So it feels good to have that done. We are currently paused on the house for a few reasons, mostly revolving around our business. We are getting ready to move our shop from one side of the building we're in to the other. This means that we're just super busy with everything and haven't had time to build. But the other reason we've paused is because the big bay door where we are now is too short to get the house out with the roof on it. Oops! But the good news is that the other side of the building is two feet taller.

So that means once we're mostly settled at the shop, we'll move the house out of one side and drive it around to the other side and continue working on it indoors until the roof, windows, waterproofing and siding are on. Then we'll move it outside and finish it outdoors. So that's exciting! It just happened that our moving date for the business coincided with our need for a taller space for the house.

And that's about it. Just a small update.
Our lives have been supermegaohmygosh crazy lately, and May was one of the busiest months I've ever had. Lots of changes and lots of growth, and it's all been really great. I'm thankful for this season that God has us in, because there are a lot of exciting adventures that are just getting started.

Hopefully I'll be back with an update soon :)

Tiny Living, Desire Mapping, and Social Media Breaks

Okay!
Lots of things happening around here.

We are making progress on the tiny home!! Here, enjoy some pictures:

I got some new things this week. My own set of headphones and a speed square!

We've done a ton of work on the walls while they're laying on top of the trailer because we're limited on space.

 

We use an enclosed trailer we have to carry wood and supplies. This week, instead of carrying huge pieces of plywood 100 yards, we decided to cut them in the trailer. At night. In the dark.

...it worked.

The house! Still some outer sheathing to finish, but all the walls are up.

Again, from the inside. I took this picture standing in the little space at the front of the house where a bench/desk will be. So you're seeing from the very front of the house to the very back.

So all of our walls are up!! It's hard to get a full picture of the house from inside the shop, but trust me, they're all up. 

Recently, we realized that we measured the door to the shop incorrectly (womp womp), so we'll have to move the house outside and finish building outdoors. Not the biggest mistake ever, but I'm a little sad to give up the shelter of the shop. 

We've been a lot better lately about diligence and making time to work on the house, and I'm so proud of Robert for doing this. I watch him put all this together and think about all the measurements and numbers running through his head and how smart he is. It's just amazing.

+ + +

photo: Lauren Dubinsky

I've become a bit of a Pinterest junkie lately. Mostly fueled by my love of Danielle LaPorte and how she's opened my eyes to a lot of new and exciting things.

To be honest, I spend a lot of time in negative mental space. I get eaten up with negativity, worry, frustration, anger, selfishness, etc. I'm human, after all. But the more time I let my mind wander in that direction, the further away my dreams seem. And the days add up to become weeks, months, and years, and sometimes I just sit back and wonder how I've already wasted so much time when I'm only 25.

What I'm learning is that when it comes down to it, the decisions we make on a daily basis are more geared towards how we want to feel rather than what we want to do or become. So I may want to write a short story, but it's because I desire feeling creative and intelligent. I may want to sing my heart out on stage, but it's because I desire feeling inspired and brave. I may want to reach out and have a conversation with someone, but it's because my desire is to be generous with my time and my heart. I may want to wake up a little early and put makeup on or use the prettiest perfume I own, but it's because I desire feeling lovely and soft.

When I search my own heart and really pay attention to the things that make me come alive, I can make choices every day that will give me those feelings. And the more I feel the way I want, I think the more my dreams and vision for my life will come true sooner than I'll even realize.

photo: Lauren Dubinsky

At the root of things, I want the joy and peace I know God wants me to have. And seeking to feel lovely, inspired, brave, and generous (and all the sub-feelings that come along with those) is a stepping stone on that path.

If you haven't heard of or read the Desire Map, I recommend it highly.

+ + +

A couple of months ago I posted a blog stating why I love being a part of my church and why my husband and I have chosen to remain planted there for 7+ years. Since then, more and more news articles and blogs have come out claiming all sorts of things about our church. Because I have friends on both sides of the Jesus-loving spectrum (evangelical megachurch attenders and those who have seen the depths of hurt in fundamentalism and seek to discount anything that smells remotely like it), my twitter and facebook have been a jumble of love and hate, enough to give me whiplash. 

I'm a social media junkie. A child of the internet age. I can type faster than my parents and grandparents combined, and I'll gladly soak up news and popculture through my handy dandy iphone all day long. 

And that's become a problem.

With all of the "controversy" and just the ability people have to spread opinions and thoughts faster than ever, my brain has been overwhelmed by all that I'm reading. So I've been on a social media fast. The plan is to stay off for two weeks (I'm halfway through now), but I think I may go longer.

In an effort to not miss it, whenever I think "Oh, I want to tweet that," I've been praying instead. I'm trying to curb my desire to over-share with the world and remember to tell God about what's going on in my heart, even when He already knows.

It's been a lesson in privacy, soul-searching, authenticity, and growing my relationship with Jesus, and it's been really refreshing.

+ + +

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with me through basically three blog posts in one!

THU (Tiny House Update) Wall Framing

I'm totally just going to pretend like we didn't take a 3 month hiatus on building our house :)
Totally.

So we took a break! Turns out life gets in the way of life sometimes. But we're back at it and building again.

As of right now, we have our sub-flooring completed. Screwed into the trailer and everything! So the last update involved us putting the flashing under the trailer and taping it all down.
After that, we cut out styrofoam insulation (scroll through my instagram: kasummers to find what I think is a really funny video about styrofoam), put some spray foam insulation to make sure it was all secure, and put the plywood sub-flooring down. I'm hoping we'll have some more in-depth videos on our youtube account coming up. In reality, if you're looking to see basic progress, this is the spot. If you're building your own tiny home, our youtube is the place to be (tinyhouselife), though we need to catch up on our videos.

This week we started framing our walls. They look a little bit like this:

The first collection of pictures is one of our incomplete side walls, the giant saw I learned to use this week, me and my tool belt taking selfies with the convenient space heater, and our incomplete rear wall.

To be fair, Rob is doing most of the work, as will be the case throughout the whole thing. BUT I am great at cutting 2x4's and am helping the best I can. It took us pretty much an entire day (maybe 5-6 hours?) to complete the one side wall. It's all nailed together, we just need to cut the pieces that go across the middle that act as support and fire-stops (literally, in case of fire, it's a piece in the wall designed to slow the fire from spreading). 

I'm proud of Rob. He's putting together everything and getting all the measurements and making huge decisions, and I think he's doing a great job. I fully trust him, even though neither of us have done anything like this before. 

This week we'll continue framing the walls, add certain necessary strengthening hardware, and then put sheathing on the outside (I think) of the walls. Then, they'll go up! I'm really excited to stand on the trailer and be walled in, to really get a feel for the space.

We'll be updating soon!

My goal coming up is to blog about downsizing and our preparations for moving in (even though that's not anytime soon).

Also, we are on Pinterest overload right now. We both have been using it for house ideas, and while it's great, it also makes things a little more difficult. Mainly because it plants all these amazing ideas in our head that we then want to integrate into our house. But really, there's only so much space. So maybe it's time for a Pinterest break :)