Okay, this month has been crazy. I'm sure I'm not alone right now in my last-minute gift buying flurry. Right? For those of you who have all of your gifts purchased and wrapped up all pretty under the tree, I bow to you!

For those of you who are with me in the last minute scramble to get something thoughtful and meaningful, I'll let you in on my three tips for last minute gift buying:

1. Gift certificates. These can be meaningful and personal, if you do it right. I'm all about experiences over things (especially now that we're in a tiny house!) so I know that I for one would be pumped to receive a gift certificate to a good restaurant, a favorite coffeehouse, a spa or yoga studio nearby, or any fun local experience. If you don't have time to grab it before you gift it, spruce up a card with a picture/description of what you're gifting and tell them "it's in the mail!" - everyone's happy.

2. A subscription of some sort. This was my method last year! These days you can get a monthly subscription to just about anything - meals, beauty products, stationery, bacon, beer, music - you name it.

3. And finally, hello Amazon 2-day shipping! Now, I'm a strong advocate of buying local and enjoying the shopping experience and I think/hope that most of us try that first, but if you're getting down to the wire here and have a few things to do over the next couple of days besides stand in lines and hunt for parking spaces, here are some ideas of what you can buy from the comfort of your home.

(by the way, this post is not sponsored by Amazon in any way, I just love Amazon Prime that much.)

1. corkcicle hot and cold canteen 2. Winston Churchill coffee table book 3. leatherman multitool 4. classy shoes 5. fun party game 6. moscow mule mugs 7. outback hat 8. humans of new york stories 9. assorted gourmet chocolate bars 10. camp hammock 11. handsome valet and charging station

1. le creuset dutch oven 2. sugar lip treatment 3. Scotch and Soda Sweatshirt 4. diptyque candle 5. concert ukulele 6. big magic 7. fancy shampoo 8. grown-up coloring book 9. prismacolor art markers 10. a house plant 11. aroma diffuser

By the way, every time you shop on Amazon you can support a nonprofit of your choice. Just go to smile.amazon.com and select which school or charity of your choice will receive a percentage of your purchase.

Now, 2-day shipping will only get you so far.... we better get shopping!

Tiny House Interiors

Welcome to our home!  We haven’t had time to breathe lately let alone take lovely photos so I’m incredibly grateful that Wind River captured these great snapshots before the house left Tennessee. I love seeing it as a blank slate. In case you’re curious, right now the house is a little less blank-slate, a little more explosion-of-boxes. But we’re getting there ;).

So, our house. What do you think? So far, we couldn’t be happier with the layout and design.  Wind River did an amazing job making our dreams come true!

Floor Plan

To find our perfect layout, we did loads of research and looked at as many tiny house plans and photos as possible. A few favorites (such as this and this) stuck out to us and helped us narrow down a few priorities:

1. Open layout main room

We preferred the idea of having one big room (the term “big” being used loosely here…) that would be a joint living/eating/everything area, rather than multiple smaller areas.

2. Un-lofted bedroom

Though lofted beds are adorable and very common in tiny homes due to their space saving abilities (and for some of the smallest homes, just plain necessary), we realized quickly that we’d much prefer a more “normal” feeling bed area. Jim is 6’4” and didn’t want to be crashing his head on the ceiling, I didn’t like the idea of getting dressed in a horizontal position (or downstairs), and neither of us thought it would be fun climbing up and down a ladder that often. 

3. Access to outdoor space

One of the main reasons we think we'll be able to handle tiny house living is because we're fortunate enough to live in an area with glorious weather. We knew that to keep us from feeling cramped indoors we wanted many windows, big doors that would open to a usable outdoor space, and a wide window with a bar for us to spend time at enjoying the view.

With these priorities in mind our builders sketched out a layout for us, and after a couple of back-and-forths we had the perfect plan.

Design

Thank you Pinterest! As we all know, Pinterest is a magical way to gather photos and favorites, so we put together a board to help collect our favorite images. In some areas we were specific with our desires (i.e. I wanted white walls, dark floors and a bar in front of a wide window, Jim wanted copper pipes in the bathroom) and in some we were able to lean on the aesthetic of our builders which we trusted completely (we love the shingle detail on a small part of the exterior and the porthole type window they came up with!).  

Materials

We were hoping for natural, recycled, local, enduring. Wind River made it clear up front that they care deeply about using the best materials possible, so we trusted them completely with sourcing every piece.

On Wednesday we spent our first night in the home, and as we walked up to it I looked up at the sky and saw a huge shooting star. I think it means good luck :).

Tiny Home Rolling Down The Road

It's finally happening!

After months and months of planning, prepping, communicating, designing, shopping, and waiting... Our little tiny house has landed on the property. Yeee!

These photos of the house are from before it left Tennessee - I'll have some new ones to share soon, now that it's finally here with us.

This weekend is all about getting settled. We need to get the solar energy set up, level the house, get the gray water system worked out, move our stuff in (then inevitably, move things out that don't end up fitting), plant some trees to accept the gray water, build steps so we can get into the house, get our fridge and compost toilet, create some fancy storage systems, etc. etc.  I'm a ball of excitement and nerves over here.

I'm looking forward to sharing more info about our home. Do you have questions about our tiny house process?

(photos courtesy of Wind River Tiny Homes)

The beginning of a Teeny Tiny House...

I have an announcement to make. Jimmy and I are having a new HOME built for us, as we speak.

A teeny....tiny....home :).

I can't wait to share more about the house, the process, the design, where we'll be putting it, and the move-in process (scheduled for later this month!). More photos will be coming, of course. And I'm also excited to venture into this world of tiny-living. 

On a separate but related note, lately I've been thinking that I need to freshen things up here on the blog. I'm ready for a bit of a change. I hope you bear with me as I give some new things a try. Keep your eye out :).