I Updated My eBook!
I updated my eBook! If you already purchased it you’ve received an email to get the updated version, if you haven’t then you can purchase it HERE.
That was my goal by the end of the year… I am off by a couple days, better late than never though! Well, that and getting my eCourses online (big ole check on that one!)
Looking forward…
I am pretty sure there is not a single parent of little irrational people who would describe their lives as organized and tidy… I describe mine as complete chaos SO… resolutions… I don’t think those are a good idea this year, my goal is to get all of my family members to 2017 in one piece preferably and I am going to let that be enough for me :).
I do have some rough goals though, and some that I would love feedback on eventually (they will probably make some other appearances on this site soon). So, I am just going to put them out in space so there is a little sense of accountability.
- I plan to get my 5th and final eCourse online, as of now I have one about codes, construction, systems and design but I completely overlooked the entire financial side of the tiny house so I am putting together an eCourse on financials, how to save money for your build, ON your build, reclaiming, financing, insuring, things like that. I am planning to hopefully get this done this month but it may go to mid February, we shall see, a lot depends on James’s schedule, and balancing kiddos.
- Second, I will be working on the design of our shipping container house.
I am giving myself until April or so to get that worked out enough to hand off to James. James is the details guy, I am the general ideas guy, makes us a good team. The base plan is to use 2 40′ long, high-boy shipping containers and arrange them to an ~640 s.f. home where each of our kiddos has their own space, we have ours and since we both work from home, our own office space. There are a few other features to be included (like temporary expansion space so we can host some family events, with our BIG families), more on that in future posts though. - We have tentative plans to head to Chicago for a bit in March to hang with family. We have two trips to Colorado this summer, one for the SketchUp BaseCamp in June and one for
The Tiny House Jamboree in August (tickets JUST went on sale for that, it’s cheap, come join us!). - I am putting deeper considerations into my kiddos education, it’s early still but I am a planner. I never thought I would be a ‘home school’ type of person but right now we’re really exploring all of our options, home schooling, road schooling, unschooling, charter schools, international school, public school, they are all on the table (this is one I would really love to hear your first hand experience on, I will have other posts on this soon I am sure).
- The fall is when we should start talking to the city and trying to get our container house okayed, we have a few challenges facing us with that but I am hopeful we will be able to find a solution!
Lately James and I have both been noticing the tiny house feeling smaller. I attribute it to Denver and Hazel, Hazel is at a phase where she doesn’t want to share anything with Denver except the foods she doesn’t want (which he is great with) but it means that she is constantly running around telling him ‘no’ and it’s driving him (and me) mad, he just wants to please her but she’s a small irrational person (who will not be pleased)! Lately he has been hanging out with James at work and enjoying the break from her demands but I miss him at home! Hopefully this phase is over soon!
Other than that, we did pull Hazel out of daycare/’school’, we were catching way too many bugs and it was starting to effect Miles too, we figured we will at least wait until he is old enough to fight things off. Honestly though, I missed having her around, it was great to get some one on one time with Miles, we made it mostly to three months with a lot of one on one but now mom has to be shared by both (mwahahaha!!). It’s exhausting but fun also, now that the holidays are over I am excited to get back into some sort of routine!
Thanks for letting me hold myself accountable with this post! 😉 I hope you are doing very well and enjoying what is bound to be the best year yet!
On Hazel, just be glad she’s not focusing the No’s on you. But it’s also probably compensatory for the missing social contact in daycare. She has to boss someone! 🙂
For the Financials course, it would be good to start with a cost comparison. Before and after, so people have a real sense of what they’re getting into. It can be really cost effective, but only if you have a budget and plan. I know a case, for example, where they got a mortgage to help finance their custom tiny build and now pay over $1200 a month to park it near the city. Before they had a city apartment with a walking commute for less. They’re still happy about it, but that could be disastrous for another.
Looking forward to hearing about your container plans. Living in a port city, there are lots here. But most designs are for portable offices and such. And a luxurious travel home. But they’re also building stacked ones for a womens shelter and that’s put them on the cities radar.
Thanks for continuing to share your work.
love your updates! more pictures please!
With regard to schooling, I would try to adapt the attitude that my child is a learner and I, as the parent, am a facilitator/learner in the learning process. I started teaching in 1960 and have been involved in education ever since in Canada and China. Last year I completed courses from U of California on Virtual Instruction to bring me up-to-date on what I have been trying to do with computers and the internet in classrooms. I believe the future of learning is on-line, but we still need and require human interaction. Everything is easily available on-line. It is a matter of finding motivating programs and facilitating/monitoring your child’s progress through the maize. I believe ways of evaluating a person’s learning knowledge, skills and attitudes are developing, which will meet the requirements/needs of society and employers. Acceptable profiles of an individual’s knowledge, skills and attitudes will eventually take the place of report cards, certificates, diplomas and degrees from institutions.
Now, for the interaction of children with others in order to develop the critical relationship skills and attitudes necessary to live happily in a community, I would turn to a Tiny House community of 30 to 50 units with a large shared facility. A Cohousing Multi-Generational Community with a common facility that includes learning centers, as well as the normal play rooms, kitchen, dinning room, large function room, handyman work shop etc. that serve the need of the community.
You can probably tell that I am a dreamer. At one time I had a Balloon Ranch Resort in Southern Colorado, that had my relatives wondering if I was off-my-rocker. ADHD can be a blessing in disguise. Now I am working at becoming the next Alun Hill on Udemy so I can create the resources to start such a project here in Edmonton or for that matter – anywhere in the world that would allow for such a project.
That is kind of the stance I am taking. It’s funny before you have kids there are all these ideas that are ‘right and wrong’ but then once you have them you are forced to look a little deeper and once again (like living tiny) I am finding out my preconceived ideas are off the mark. I don’t feel good enough about me teaching them everything they need to know but I feel pretty comfortable about me being able to research and put them in the situations to learn what they need to, and I feel like I can do this better than a public school can. I have no beefs about my (public school) education other than I wasn’t challenged, at all.
I think you and I think a lot alike (we messaged on Udemy, right? Hard to tell if its the same Roger), I have been putting a lot of thought into some Udemy courses for folks just like me… and recruiting some experienced folks who’d want to do side work on Udemy. I think you’re on to very great things and I am very excited to see how it goes, I would love to be a test dummy ;-).
Yes, I am the same Roger that took your course on Udemy. It would be ideal if we both lived in the same area so we could work on a Tiny House Cohousing project that included a learning center in the plans.
At present I am still taking all the courses I can on education, cohousting, tiny housing, non-profits and delivering Udemy courses. Please stay in touch and I will let you know.
I was shocked to read the Tiny House article in the Globe and Mail today. It just makes me more anxious to express, to anyone who will listen, all the benefits of Tiny Houses which far out weigh those of the every increasing Mac Houses. One has to remember that the main supporters of the Globe and Mail are the Banks (whose main source of revenue is 30 year mortgages) and the the utilities, contractors etc. who promote larger and larger dwelling so the public consumes more and more. To downsize is the morally right thing to do.
You raise some great points, Roger. Friends of mine home-schooled their 2 kids. The first did well with it, but they had to get them very involved in extra-curricular stuff for the social. They put her into public high school as she wanted it, again for social. The second didn’t do as well with it and ended up in public school much sooner.
My kids where both public schooled and did fine. They really valued the friendships. I was bored too so my parents experimented with private school. I did better there academically but struggled more with the social competitiveness of that school.
Just keep in mind that your kids are their own selves and your best laid plans may not sync with what they blossom into.
I know nothing about tiny living but I’m with you on the toddler stage! My 2 year old is slightly older than Hazel (and our second will be slightly younger than Miles!) And he loves to boss the dog and cats…he likes to try to tell them where to sit or where to go or what to play with. They are very patient and he is learning to be kind… its rough being 2!
no kidding, right! We found a trick! Hazel LOVES dance party, she learned to ‘dance’ with Denver, she causes him no harm and he tolerates it because at least it isn’t a ‘no!’ ha, I need to get a video of it!
Thanks Macy for the updates. I enjoy the discussion. Learned so much from your online course and look forward to course number 5. All the best. Shoshana
that is SO nice to hear!! Thank you!