Living Small : Tiny Houses in Vermont

If there ever was anyone with practical knowledge on how to build a tiny house and has been doing so for quite a while, Peter King is the guy to speak to.

The best quote in the entire clip : “Don’t borrow your life away”. Considering the film was made in 2008, right when the full effects of the credit crunch and collapsing housing market took hold, it’s very apt and quite prescient.

I found the statue of the Buddha on the property very appropriate as well since simple living is very much inline with Buddhist philosophy and Mr. King has taken a lot of it to heart.

Living in a tiny house

Living large (in a tiny house)

Dee Williams lives in a solar and propane powered house in a friend’s back yard and pays no rent or mortgage. Now that’s what I call living! For someone who’s worked as an investigator for the Washington State Department of Ecology, she has really toned down on excess by focusing on only what she really needs. Puts a whole new perspective on living large.

The 89 Square Foot house tour

This man decided to give up living in an enormous house that was actually taking up more money to just heat and instead built his own little cabin on wheels. The trailer build gets around local building codes, as he points out, contain provisions put in place by the housing and insurance industry lobby.

Forgeahead

Is a small company by Jenine Alexander and Amy Hutto that builds tiny houses on trailers. It originally started with Jenine wanting to build a tiny house of her own, which she did on a trailer. You may notice a lot of tiny houses are on trailers for mobility and to get around those pesky redundant codes.

This is Jenine’s house:

A Forgeahead product on display. Turns out, people still react negatively to this even though they’re not harming anyone:

More on the same tiny house. What’s amazing is that each one is absolutely unique (depending on where the materials and supplies came from):

Living small

Larger houses contribute more to greenhouse emissions and polution. This is a short video shows how building small can be more energy efficient and still functional

My underwear is 15 years old

I consider that to be quite an accomplishment. And, socks about 10 years old. Hey if they still fit…

Obviously not all of my underwear is that old, but it makes me really wonder how much of what we buy really gets used to the fullest. Is the word “timeless” just a marketing scam? Because few things that still work or function well still appear to be acceptable these days.

Do I really need to raid Old Navy to be socially acceptable?

I’m one of those people who still keep t-shirts from the mid 90’s; when the music wasn’t terrible, but the cars sure were. I look scruffy, I wear cheap hats or caps and my favorite hoodie has stains and a hole.

Why do I have to get this or have to get that? Why can’t I just be comfortable in my own skin? Or am I just getting old and cranky? Which brings me to my new peeve about work…

Welcome to NYC where nobody gives a $#@%!

People like to take their sweet time on the train, when they think you’re a bum. Dagnamit, I’m not a bum! I just look like one. But if someone is wearing an expensive suit with a coat and carry a briefcase, they get to get up and move to the door even before the train stops.

So my attire isn’t, shall we say, very sophisticated compared to most other people on the train. Granted, I have far fewer zeroes in my paycheck compared to others working South of 42^nd street, but I guess I could improve in my appearance a bit.

Although, I wonder what makes them think my time isn’t as important as theirs. For all they know, I could be working to cure the credit crunch.

Yeah, you’re right… that’s a stretch.

Dear Santa… For Christmas this year, I’d like you to kill technology

… And, I’d like a pony. So I don’t have to move to the mountains and become a hermit or remain here and attempt to throw my TV out the window and risk hitting an infant in a baby carriage.

As you most of you would realize, moving can be a pain. And packing enough toilet paper (or old news papers, corn cobs, sponges etc…) can be a hassle on a long trip, especially without a pony. I’d like to avoid the whole mess of it all and not have to worry about what other infuriating subject I will come across on the Internet. E.G. Writing here is just another chore. I could just as well use paper to write all of this, but then it’s difficult to erase repeatedly and preserve an expletive free page. And I don’t have to write about it, if I don’t see it.

Honestly, does anyone even remember what Christmas was about? No pun intended : Thank God for the Amish.  Say what you will about those people, but at least they practice what they preach (for the most part). They’re possibly just one part of a very small number of people who call themselves “Christians”, that truly understood the message of Christ. As so plainly illustrated by the aftermath of the recent school shooting tragedy.

Forgiveness, Mercy, Tolerance, Non-violence… These people have manged to restore some of my lost faith in humanity. And above all else, they are proof that you can sustain a civilization (perhaps not to that extreme) without superfluous technology. As I have tried to make clear before. The machines serve us, we do not serve them. It’s time to stop making technology an ends and instead return it to its proper place as a means to increase your quality of life. If it serves no useful purpose, get rid of it. Or better yet, give it away to someone who truly needs it.

Nothing you own or think you own, in this world, is permanent. So stop trying to fill whatever void you have in your soul with a sieve that is technology.

I’m not of the Christian faith, but this time of the year, true Christians (and you know who you are) make me proud!