One week in

Eric and I have officially lived in our tiny house, Gezellig, one week. While we love the house and are so excited to be in our very own home, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing this first week. In this post, I’ll share first impressions of how things are going in our first few days in the house. Warning: this post is not meant to be a complaint session, even though it might sound like it at times. I just want to share the reality of the situation for those who may be considering going tiny. Please bear with me!

It’s Not What They Show on TV. 
Life isn’t like the movies, right? This has certainly held true for the tiny house! While we are loving the home itself, the “settling” process has been trickier than they make it look on the TV shows. On Tiny House Nation, the house is all set up and good to go, decorated to the nines, and ready for move in. This was not reality for us! We expected to spend our first weekend with the house moving and settling in. Rather, we made many trips to the hardware and RV stores, searching for plumbing, electric and water parts. While the builder installed all the hookups and wiring, there were several adapters and pieces we needed to hook up to the site itself. Some things we had to order, so we weren’t able to move in the first weekend, as we only had electric and water figured out by Sunday!

Hurdles.
According to Eric, everything has gone wrong with the house. I say while there have been bumps in the road, it’s nothing we couldn’t easily overcome. I guess it began with the hookups. It took two days to get the electric and water sorted out, but Eric is now a fairly well-versed electrician and plumber! We had to order a part for the sewage, an adapter to attach to the house, but once we got that, the toilet and plumbing worked just fine! 

Leveling the house was interesting. We broke a jack in the process, and will need to get that repaired, but the good news is, the house is level. We’ve been using our barn-door (bathroom door) as our test subject. If the house is not level, the door will not stay open! Once we got the house level, we started hanging things on the walls. We’ve been keeping Amazon in business this week with all of the shelving and storage items we have purchased. You’d never know we were downsizing with the amount of stuff I bought on Amazon this week!

On Thursday night, we decided to run a load of laundry, our first in Gezellig! It took two to get it figured out, but we managed to level the washer, and get rid of the jig the washed was doing during our first load. It’s funny, because the washer shakes the house a bit when it’s running the spin cycle. It’s actually kind of soothing. 

Organization is key.
While we are starting to feel relatively settled, we are still very much in the process of getting organized. The storage loft looks like something exploded, but I am hoping to use this weekend to get things organized. Once we are organized, I will post some interior pictures – promise!

My car has born the brunt of the organization crisis. I’ve had two suitcases and two garbage bags full of shoes in my car all week. These items technically fit in the house, but livable/walking space is limited when they are inside, so we have kept them in the car to retain our sanity. Fortunately, even though we got a small storage unit (5x5 ft), we have been able to store more than we thought, which gives us more room to enjoy our home. 

Jigsaw Puzzle.
This week has felt like I’ve been assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle. We’ve had to find a new home in our home for daily use items, and come up with creative, space-maximizing storage solutions. I’ve purchased hooks and wine racks to hang coffee mugs and beer glasses from our kitchen shelves, wall-mounted grips for holding spices in the pantry, and a wall-mounted paper towel holder to get paper towels off the counter. We’re navigating the puzzle one thing at a time and figuring out the best way to organize and store all of our belongings. We’ve got a lot of built in storage too, with all the kitchen cabinets and the storage area in our couch. It’s all about figuring out how to use those nooks and crannies to you advantage and maximizing every inch of storage space.

Furry friends.
Snowman and Huskey have adapted well. We drove them over last Saturday (after most everything was moved in, or so we thought) and they took immediately to the stairs and cat walk. Snowman was a little slower to warm up (he's our scaredy cat), but they are now chasing each other and racing around the house. We've taken them outside a little bit on their leashes, so they have had a chance to explore and get some fresh air.

We are now known as, “the people with the tiny house.”
I kid you not, I walked into the dentist the other day and told them I needed to update my mailing address, and the receptionist said, “are you the one with the tiny house?” It’s funny how it always seems to come up, but I love talking about it and am so happy with our home, so it’s great to share! We’re looking forward to hosting friends and family at our housewarming party in June. We’ve got a lot to get organized before then!