Tiny Steps.

Last summer (as some of you may remember) I wrote a post gushing about tiny houses. I am still totally sold on this idea, and the New Years' resolution I didn't tell you about was to research it further: investigate options for tiny-house living, develop skills and resources to make it happen, and figure out how to prepare for the transition.

This is a progress report.

How Tiny? The fine folks at Tumbleweed have finally posted images of my favorite model: the Fencl. At 130 square feet, it is the most spacious of the trailer-based options. I have yet to actually set foot in a tiny home, but the layout of this one seems both practical and comfortable.

Where To Put It? Even though it doesn't look like something you'd take camping, a house on wheels like this one is classed as an RV pretty much anywhere in the United States. I have learned that it is illegal to live in an RV in the city of Portland (outside of a trailer park) for any significant length of time. On the one hand, this is daunting; I like to do things the legal way, and I'm certainly not interested in exiling myself from my favorite city on the planet. On the other hand, this law is enforced only when neighbors complain, which rarely happens, so it would be easy to, um, ignore it. Which I am not above doing, especially not in the case of a law that seems to be doing more harm than good at a time when housing costs are soaring out of control. But if you have previously made noises about possibly letting me rent a corner of your property, this is something you should be aware of.

(Technically, trailer parks are also an option, but one I find it hard to get excited about, for reasons that may be obvious if you've ever spent any time in a trailer park. Besides, they're expensive, and pretty much all located east of 205, which is really not where I want to be.)

To Green or Not to Green? I recently took a class via PCC about water management options. Most of what I ended up learning about, while interesting, was not at all relevant to tiny house construction. However, in the process I did get a clearer idea of what might be readily applied to a small mobile dwelling (e.g, composting toilet) and what might be a little too tricky for me (rainwater catchment, graywater reuse).

Which End of the Nail Do I Hit, Again? While reading up on women who have built their own homes, I discovered that Habitat for Humanity has a volunteer program for women called Women Build. This sounds like a great way to gain some construction experience in a supportive environment. I located the H4H area schedule (which was hard to find, and you have to sign up to view it), and I'm monitoring the RSS feed faithfully. WB events fill up fast; so far I haven't been able to get into one that fits with my schedule. But I will. If spending a Saturday building a house appeals to you too, and you possess the requisite set of ovaries, let me know and I'll give you a call when something opens up.

How Will I Fit? I have a lot of stuff. I don't think I have as much stuff as the average American woman of my age, but I definitely have more stuff than I need, and a lot more than would fit into a tiny house. Some of this stuff will be easy to let go of when the time is right: utilitarian stuff that I haven't put a lot of thought or effort into acquiring. Other stuff is going to be trickier. I'm going to need some lead time to minimize the trauma.

I have about 600 books. I also have a library card (and I work in a library), so I really don't need to own anywhere near that many. I expect to eventually whittle the collection down a lean core of around 100 volumes, but this year my goal is just to cut it in half.

That's all. Just get rid of... 300 books.

Oh boy.

A goodly number of these books will go to PaperBackSwap, and LibraryThing's Member Giveaways program, and the nice ladies I swap clothing with once a month. But lately it has occurred to me that I'd be a fool to give all of them to strangers without letting my friends have first dibs.

One thing I've noticed about letting possessions go is, it's a lot easier if you know it's going to benefit someone else. So if you're into books, have a look at the contents of my shelves and let me know if I have any titles you wish you owned. You'll actually be helping me out. Some of them I'm not ready to part with, and if you request those I'll tell you as much. (Also, if I tagged the book "borrowed" or "@wpc" or "family treasure," I can't give it to you.) But others I'll be only too happy to place in your hands. Or mail to your hands, if necessary.