Living Off Grid in the Tiny House

Spring has finally arrived and working outside is a more pleasant option.  My husband is finishing up the siding on the tiny house.  I will go back with waterproofing sealant once he is finished so the colors will match.

We have found a great deal on barrels and are using them anywhere we can.  Pictured above we are doing rain collection for use in watering the pigs, guinea pigs, chickens, and plants, washing buckets, or anything else that doesn't need pure filtered water.  One day of rain easily fills our barrel.

Spigot with running water. Set upon blocks so we could fit a 5 gallon bucket underneath it.  

Cut a hole in the top to push through bendable guttering

Gutter from house

He figured out how to attach his fishing pole
on the front of his bike with a bungee cord.

Once the snow melts and the temperatures warm up my son starts fishing and we are outside most of the day. If you want to live in a tiny house you need to like being outside. It is a very small space and boredom or cabin fever can set in after a few days, depending upon your personality. I have noticed that my son has done more tinkering, building, and using his active mind in lots of creative outlets.  Here is an example: He made birthday candles for our homemade cake, with twigs, hot glue, and wick. He can make anything with hot glue! He also makes blow guns and the darts that he sells for a very good deal of $5 each with 5 darts. If interested they are great at shooting at balloons, trees, and target practicing. 

 We love getting out and exploring whether walking, bike riding, skiing, ice skating, going to the beach or mountains etc. 

First catch of the year. He cleans it and I'll cook it.

Pond at the end of our road

Exploring Rye, NH

Caught a glimpse of an awesome rainbow for Mother's Day at Rye, NH

We are still using solar and happy for the longer days of spring and summer!! We are definitely going to need to look into more batteries to keep us going. Our refrigerator, although it is small, tends to bring our batteries down throughout the night and now that we have pigs we use electric fencing, which I will discuss later.  We are also looking into using wind generation, especially for the fall and winter when the days are much shorter and we get lots of wind. We are very thankful for our generator.  It has been a great back up because the oven (it's gas but uses electric for temperature stability and ignition), water pump, gas dryer ignition, and washing machine take more power than we are storing at this time.  When we run the generator I bump the temp up in the fridge so it gets really cold and uses less solar power later.

When the days are nice instead of the dryer I hang out the clothes.

Has off grid living been easy...no but it is doable. It is definitely not like camping for the weekend. We enjoy it and it can be challenging but it is worth it.

Living in A Tiny House: Kitchen and Bathroom

Around the middle of January we decided to move into the tiny house! In this blog post I will describe the kitchen, bathroom, and other projects. Since we are still in "construction" mode and living here you will see various areas not finished.  We don't have trim around the windows, stairs to our loft, washing machine installed, and other finishing details.  

Living in a tiny house has been very doable.  We still have stuff to get rid of that is stored in a portable shed and under our deck.  We have come a LONG way since our last big move.  There have been many, many trailer loads of stuff donated to thrift stores, honestly, we could of probably opened our own store!  Overall, it's been good for all of us.  My son has become more aware of cleaning his loft area because if he doesn't he can't move around in his area.  Clean up is much faster and easier and not overwhelming.  We have learned how to store things in any small space, how to use hooks, and repurpose previous furniture pieces.

Stove, exhaust fan, and cabinet above

Below are pictures of the kitchen on the sink and stove side.  We put up curtains which help give it that "home" feel. This is during my washing dishes and clean up to show how that works for us in our tiny house. I use our kitchen multiple times during the day so finding ways to store most of my kitchen things was crucial for me.  I cook most of our meals and this was an area I was concerned about on where to store food, cookware, dishes, multitude of spices, and everything that comes with a useful kitchen.

During clean up

Storage for garbage bags, our Shaklee cleaners,
 temporary spot for toothbrushes, and fruit/vegetable storage

Storage for cutting boards,
empty spot for dish drainer, and lid storage for pots

After clean up...Ahhh much better.
Pots are hanging on hooks in the loft beams.

Cabinet Above Stove for glasses and dishes.
Stock pots stored on top of this cabinet.

Cabinet Above Stove

Pull out garbage cans. 

Cabinet for my numerous spices. *Construction tools on top of it currently*

Now we are on the other side of the kitchen.  Here I made a pantry from a previous used bookshelf. On the bottom we installed a piece of plywood and then attached single directional coasters/wheels. On the side we attached a handle to easily pull the pantry in and out of its space.  The dry sink holds a basket of tea, blender, and my KitchenAid mixer. The drawers currently hold silverware, potholder and currently manuals for things we need on hand. The cabinets below store canned goods and such.

Pantry pulled out for access to food. We installed LED rope lights for our kitchen lights.
 *Excuse the current laundry pile in the bathroom.

Pull handle for the pantry

Wheels attached to bottom of moveable pantry

Hooks for coffee cups, sifter, and a tea pot.

Drawer for silverware

 Bottom pull drawer to store cookie sheets, muffin pan, and casserole dish.

Since we are on solar power I had to figure out how to replace the coffee maker, crock pot, and food processor.  We donated the electric coffee maker and replaced it with a french press. I never used a french press before and expected it to be complicated because its name sounded complicated.  It's super easy! Boil some water, put the coffee in the glass container, add the boiled water, put lid with press on at the top, let the coffee steep then press the filter. Now you have a cup of yummy coffee.  I have never used a pressure cooker either so this was a new experience.  Throughout my life I always heard about those tragic experiences of glass and green beans blown to the ceiling so I was a little apprehensive.  After lots of research I found that they are now made with safety valves and are super easy to use.  I ordered this one from Amazon and it's a stainless steel version.  I love the pressure cooker! I had no idea what I was missing out on.  Food cooks super fast.  In 30 minutes I can have a whole chicken ready for the table. They also help keep all the important nutrients in your liquids.  Finally, I found this little Tupperware hand processor at our local Salvation Army thrift store. I was able to get it brand new in the box for $3.00!! I make my fresh salsa, shredded chicken, chopped onions, etc in this little product. It has worked great thus far and is easy to clean and store away.

Storage for kitchen utensils, batteries, flashlights, vitamins, glue, pencils, tape, etc.

Labeling helps others to put things back in their spot. 

Short 3 drawer organizer for kitchen supplies. This drawer holds measuring cups/spoons.

Spatulas, whisks, etc.

Various kitchen supplies

Moving on to the bathroom.  In the bathroom we installed a nightstand to become the sink vanity.  This has worked out well and we want to continue adding more cabinets, shelving, and a mirrored vanity.  We have a composting toilet so we took some spare siding to make the box to hold the toilet. This spring/summer I plan on painting this to make it waterproof.  The tub has worked out well and eventually we are going to build a wrap around curtain so currently its only a bath. 

Potty, vanity, and corner sink

Exhaust fan at top

Currently the window holds our shampoos. I have an idea to find a wire organizer to hang
on the tub so it will be easier to open the window this spring/summer. 

View from kitchen to bathroom.

I hope you enjoyed this post. It has been awhile since my last one but we have been busy surviving a New Hampshire winter and are looking forward to spring and summer to wrap up building and adding some farm animals to our property.