An Upstairs with a View!

Well, we officially have an upstairs! That was a fun to actually get to walk up the stairs and look out where the windows will be during our meeting with our contractor yesterday.

Let me tell you. I thought this was going to be the fun part. I knew there would be a lot of decisions. Decisions I didn’t even realize I would need to think about it, but this is so much more than that.

I feel like so many of the ideas we had for this house were lost when working with Dunwoody fell through, and that’s disappointing.

Living in a tiny house, as we keep saying, is all about having multi-functional, smartly-built spaces. Yet yesterday, we were so excited to see the upstairs that, until I was laying in bed trying not to stress, I didn’t even realize that there was no space under the stairs for the drawers we had reminded them about so recently.

I take part of the blame. We let our architect draw up fake interior plans (sort of) because we wanted the students to be able to have so much freedom to create ideas that we couldn’t find on google. We didn’t want their brains to automatically go in a certain direction. Yet when things fell apart, it didn’t occur to us that we needed to lock everything down on paper. That was our mistake. 

So now I am focusing on letting go on what might have been, and instead focusing on getting the house done so we can move in by the end of the year. It won’t be perfect. There might very well be a remodel in our future, but at this moment, I have to be okay with that, because we’re out of time (due to how long everything took) and money (because of how much we’ve already paid out of pocket) and patience (I just can’t repeat myself any more).

It’ll be a good house. It’ll be unique. One of a kind. The first of the tiny houses in Minneapolis’ tiniest neighborhood. But it won’t really be our dream house, but it’s as close as we're going to get right now.

 

Walls!

It's crazy to see things change every day.

Garage walls are up!

We have a meeting with our contractor next week to talk about where outlets should be place. So much to think about!

Fast and Furious

Well in a dramatic contrast to how this project has gone up until this point, work is full steam ahead. The lot looks different every time we see it! It actually looks like a house now!

This weekend we picked out ceiling fans and special ordered a sink (Brent says a little piece of his childhood died when we did that). Adulthood at its finest.

Tonight we meet with someone else about cabinets, and in the next couple weeks we'll meet with the contractor to place outlets and things.

It is seeming more real now - that's for sure!

And we're back!

We were on vacation September 1-11. Talk about slightly stressful timing. It ended up being 100% fine.

Thursday the 1st they laid they poured concrete.

However, then the weather quit cooperating. It was a very rainy week we were gone in Minneapolis when we were gone, and since the build team hadn't brought in all their equipment I think they opted out of playing in our mud lawn.

However, the lumber was delivered yesterday morning so if they didn't start framing yesterday, I'm sure they will today.

We're still talking to people trying to figure out all the interior stuff. I thought we had made a connection with someone to do some cabinet work with repurposed wood, but that didn't work out. However, we have a meeting next week, and I'm hopeful that will get us on the right track!

 In other news, Beltrami Neighborhood Council had the ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday for their new park pavilion. We were able to thank Vanessa from the Neighborhood Council and Jacob Frey, our City Council Member, for all their help in getting to this point. Napa also had her first trip to Beltrami Park. Pretty sure she's ready to move right in, though she'll miss all her squirrel friends in Loring Park.