Hello Hive, I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to tackle this new week.
With @altheana, we spent our very first night in our tiny house! Of course, it's not ready yet (far from it). But all in good time.
One day, I read that living as if you already have what you aspire to can make it happen faster. It's a bit like visualization for those who know it.
So, we thought that by immersing ourselves 100% in our tiny house, the work would progress faster. This happened to us with our converted van: by living in it for a few weeks, we knew exactly what to do to improve it.
On Friday, we were still in Normandy, at our parents' house, who are currently on vacation elsewhere in France. So, we are house-sitting.
We had planned to leave for our land, located in another region of France, on Friday morning. A friend was supposed to join us on Saturday morning to visit the land and help us with our work.
In the end, @altheana and I had a lot of freelance work on Friday morning.
I also wasted a bit of time playing Pixels 😉
So, by noon, we were just starting to load our van with all the things we were going to take. Little by little, we are moving out of our parents' house. At our age, it's time to spread our wings.
We have an unusual path. After our studies, we directly bought our van. One day on the road, one day at our parents' house. We never really detached from this home.
At 4 PM on Friday, we started the engine and hit the road for about 4 hours.
Arriving at 8 PM, we had to unload all the contents of our van to bring them down to our tiny house. To access the land, you have to take a footpath where only a 4x4 or a tractor can pass.
We asked my aunt, who lives just above, if we could use her tractor, especially to bring down the sofa bed we bought last Monday from a private seller.
With some difficulty, we managed to get the sofa onto the tractor and bring it down. There's a stream to cross before reaching our place, and since the tractor didn't have the right wheels to cross it, we had to carry it by hand.
Once the sofa was in place, we had planned to eat at our place for the very first time. But my aunt had done some shopping and also had beer. We couldn't refuse her offer, especially after the help she gave us.
After this meal, we went down to our land, in the countryside. There is no big city nearby, so no light pollution. It's dark, and we are on the edge of a forest.
At night, the place is much less charming. We hadn't seen it in this light before. From that evening, exhausted by the road and the end of the week, I only took these few photos:
I really can't wait to see what it will look like once we're really settled in and have done some work outside. For now, it's not the priority.
On Saturday morning, we woke up quite reluctantly. We slept well but went to bed around 2 AM. We didn't want to be late to pick up our friend at the station, so we got up early.
... Well, at 9 AM anyway 😉
This first night in our future tiny house went well. There's no insulation yet, and there are a lot of air leaks, so the inside temperature is the same as the outside temperature (12°C at night).
Arriving at the station, our friend (P) was already there. We put his bag in the car and went shopping.
- First, at a hardware store to buy supplies to clean tanks (baking soda), a small string of lights, extra-strong glue, sawhorses, and a doormat.
- Then, at a grocery store to buy supplies for a barbecue.
Back at home, my aunt, always so kind, had bought a chicken from a nearby farm. We ate with her, and P got to see all the animals (horses, dogs, ponies, and goats). He was thrilled!
Finally, we could show him our land. First, we had to carry some things down. Mainly the barbecue, which was still at my aunt's, and then all the other things we bought.
Once the introduction was over, the afternoon project was to build a makeshift workbench for the kitchen. We didn't have a precise plan, just some scrap wood, an old sink we recovered, and sawhorses.
The idea was to have a functional workbench to cook without getting in each other's way. Once you can cook and sleep in a place, you already feel much better!
P started by sweeping the floor.
Then we marked out our measurements on the scrap wood we had available.
I taught P how to use a jigsaw. Well, it's not that complicated, and I think he could have managed without me.
Quickly, we started to have a semblance of a workbench. We still had to embed the sink we recovered from the old layout of this cabin (done by a previous owner).
And here is the workbench that will accompany us for the next few months! Of course, it's not final, but until we have defined exactly what we want and have a plan, this one will stay in place.
With a recovery pipe, @altheana even invented a water collection system. The pipe goes through the wall and pours into a 20-liter tank outside.
The bucket you see is there to prevent leaks.
Then we set up a corner to enjoy the evening and lit the barbecue.
After eating, we enjoyed the warmth of a few logs and some music.
The next morning (Sunday), P wanted to wash in the stream with his 100% natural soap. The water temperature must have been around 5°C at most. Being a hiking enthusiast, he is used to wild showers.
Intrigued, I first watched him, then I imitated him.
Afterwards, we washed our dishes in the stream. For now, without a water system with filters and pumps, we have no other choice.
I am French, and the English translation was done with DeepL. As for the photos, they were taken with my phone.