Moving Considerations

So I started a new job on August 1st as a Project Manager for Green Home Design + Build in Hood River, OR! In the 8 years I lived in Portland, I fell in love with the Columbia River Gorge; cycling on the old highway and hiking in the forest amidst thundering waterfalls, native wildflowers and sweeping vistas. I knew that someday I would want to leave the city. For me, Portland had reached that tipping point with the overwhelming amount of people moving in, clogging the roads and dramatically increasing the cost of living. Rent is now double what it was 5 years ago and wages haven't kept up. Having sensed this population growth trend and realizing that I would never be able to afford a house in Portland is part of why I chose to build a tiny house on wheels two years ago. My plan was then to save up money to buy land in the Gorge and then move my house out there to live in until I built my dream strawbale home. The move timeline accelerated as an erratic work schedule instigated putting feelers out to the communities in the Gorge. Before I knew it, I was offered a job that not only pays well but also advances my career, where I am able to draw upon my varied work experiences to create new programs and manage construction projects.

Working in Hood River while my house is in Portland presents some challenges such as the fact that I chose not to commute everyday and instead camp out of my truck. I recently bought a canopy and plan to build out the back eventually once I figure out how I want to use the space. Camping out of it during the week has worked out quite well so far since I have found a mountain bike area where travelers are commonly sleeping in their vehicles. I have also slept near the waterfront event site which is another popular spot for people staying overnight. I found a yoga studio with a shower, cook meals on my camp stove and have access to a fridge and microwave at work. It has been relaxing to get out of town after work, set up camp and read a book in the evenings. Though it has also presented the challenge of not being able to spend time during the week preparing my house for the move next month. Weekends have been a whirlwind of preparing the house and managing the garden.

I found a space east of Mosier on a family's 10 acres with a view of Mt. Hood that is mostly ready to move into since it was intended to be their bigger house site but they chose not to build. That means a solid, leveled, graveled pad with water hose connections and septic clean-outs. A PVC pipe was already in place so they just had to run wire and make up a box for me to plug into. They were asking the highest amount of rent compared to the other spaces I had found but were also the most ready to host a tiny house. Other spaces had issues such as access, water quality and quantity, and winter road maintenance plans. Plus, I was hoping to stay on the Oregon side to avoid transferring things over to WA, not to mention better health insurance in OR.

The move is nearing and I'm both anxious and excited for my new life in the Gorge!

Life Outside

Living in a small space works really well in a mild climate where you can spend much of the time outside year round. I grew up in the Midwest, in and out of conditioned spaces during the hot and humid summers and freezing cold winters (though as a kid I loved playing in the snow). I have lived in the PNW for the past 8 years where I have enjoyed hiking in the rainy winter months and campfires year round.

Summertime brings abundance to the garden. In Portland, it's quite easy to grow all the fruits and veggies you can eat and then some! I have been managing a large garden these past 2 years and it has been enjoyable to see things grow and share in the abundance. Last summer I had a part time job so I had more time to water, weed and care for all of the plants. This summer I am working more as a solar installer and also find myself more exhausted at the end of a physical workday to spend much time gardening so it is more neglected than I like. However, things are still growing and producing abundant produce.

I had welded some steel structures for the garden this past winter so it has been fun to see them amidst all of the green as well as to see the one I designed actually function as a trellis for the green beans and cucumbers. This year I even grew a lemon cucumber plant, yum!

I planted more sweet corn in blocks closer together which was successful for better pollination.

The native wildflowers have really taken off this year too though I also experienced Lupine aphids...

More tall and beautiful sunflowers too!

Check out my flickr for more photos!

My Solar Story

This month I wrote a blog post for OSEIA: Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association. You can check it out here! It talks about how I got interested in solar and some thoughts about being a solar installer. Stay tuned for a garden update in the next post!

Living in a Tiny House Q&A

So this weekend marks the two year anniversary of physically starting my tiny house build! With the help of some friends, we built the floor box. If I had it to do over again, I would have framed an actual floor joist system and insulated it with Roxul (which I used for the wall and rafter cavities as well as for the exterior insulation wrap). I really love all of the qualities Roxul has to offer, sound dampening being number one.

Anyway, instead of doing a recap of the build process (since you can read about the different parts in other blog posts), I thought it would be fun to do a sort of Q&A and talk about what it's like to actually live in a tiny house. Please feel free to ask more questions in the comments section and I will respond as soon as I am able.

Here goes...

Q: How big is it?

A: It's about 150 sq.ft. (100 sq.ft. on the main floor and 50 sq.ft. in the loft). People often exclaim "It's so big!" when they first see it and are impressed with the spaciousness of the interior. I have toured several 16' tiny homes and they all felt very different due to layout and materials.

Q: Is it on wheels?

A: Yes, it's built on a 16' trailer.

Q: How long did it take you to build?

A: That's a complicated answer. I began dreaming and designing about a year before I started physically building. I had saved a chunk of money which I hoped to use to complete the shell and make it livable. I did that in about 6 months but the bulk of the shell building I completed in 3 months since I was just working at a job a few hours here and there and could put in 12 hour days building if I wanted. The second 3 months I began working 30 hours a week so I had much less time to build. After 6 months of building, I towed my house to it's current location and started living in it. I stopped building for a couple of months so I could save up more money to continue. I then installed the plumbing and finished the bathroom (3 months in), installed the electrical (9 months in) and solar (10 months in), completed the kitchen cabinet (11 months in), and finished the barn door and storage cabinets (17 months in). Finishing out my home has been a function of money, time and design. I could have completed projects sooner if I had the money and time but since I didn't have those things, I was able to spend more time thinking about and experimenting with different options while I lived in it. For instance, I had originally planned a daybed/storage box in the "great room" but then I decided to buy a full size digital piano and built my kitchen cabinet with a cantilevered countertop to accommodate the saddle style stool I love so much. Both of these things filled in the space of the planned daybed and my closet could only handle so much storage, so I built a couple of open boxes for my outdoor gear storage. I designed them to match the kitchen cabinet I made with a welded frame and red stained wood infill panels. Most of these components were not designed for frequent moving and it will be quite a task to secure everything for a move but it's not something I plan to do often. I am at a point now that I consider it done. As with any home, there is ongoing maintenance like replacing water heaters and refrigerators (which I may do and get electric/propane combos), changing door hardware and getting rid of things you no longer use. I have the components to add an exterior outlet but haven't had a need for that yet so will install when/if necessary. I may also swap out the wood supports for the solar awning with aluminum unistrut or rail or I may just disassemble and reassemble the system when I move.

Q: What's your favorite part about it?

A: My loft and the ladder. I'm really proud of the design/build of the steel cantilevers with the fir treads. I also really love my kitchen farm sink!

Q: How do you cook?

A: I have an induction cooktop that pulls out on the top shelf of my custom built cabinet. I also have an RV/boat stove with cooktop and oven that I like to use during the warmer months to keep my house cooler and because it's fun to cook and bake outside. In addition, I have access to my yardie's grill and I plan to buy my own because I really like how easy grilling is and the way the food tastes.

Q: How does your toilet work?

A: I have a simple bucket compost toilet with a Separett insert which divides #1 and #2. I currently just use it to pee in since we decided not to manage humanure on site. I have access to sewer connected toilets for #2.

Q: What's it like to shower in your house?

A: I don't because I am worried about the amount of moisture it would create and even with a bath fan I still see potential mold issues due to the tightness of my air barrier. We built an external structure on site that includes a shower and laundry facilities. It has been wonderful to shower this way even in the cold of winter (PNW style, relatively mild with occasional snow) and even uninsulated because the cedar really helps the space warm up quickly.

Q: What is your greywater system?

A: Both my house and the yard structure have a bucket system where water enters a stack of 2 buckets from near the top, is then filtered through sawdust (again cedar is really great, especially incense cedar) and window screen mesh through many small drilled holes into the bucket below. That bucket is attached to another one farther away with a 10' piece of ABS pipe and fittings to give a good seal. The final bucket is filled with rocks and also has drilled holes in the sides and bottom to disperse the water into the ground. The final bucket is completely buried and we haven't tried digging it up yet to see how that part is working. We have cleaned out the first bucket occasionally and decided it would be best to try to do that monthly so it isn't as gross. What we usually do is throw away the sawdust part (though I have composted it once) because otherwise it can really make the yard smell bad. We hose off the screen, bucket and cover and leave to air out in the sun for a day. Then, we put the bucket back in place, add the mesh and the sawdust. Other options could be to build a french drain and/or filter the water directly through soil to water flowers or veggies.

A few other things...

It's really awesome to have electricity that powers my whole house (after 9 months on an extension cord), some of it even powered by the sun.

Also, running water, and HOT running water!

Creating a place for everything and giving away things I no longer need or want.

On partly cloudy days when the sun comes out from behind a cloud and warms up the fir when I am lounging in my loft...and then the glow fades behind another cloud...I could do nothing but watch for hours, really magical.

Welding: Panels, Finishing & Installing

In my last post I talked about fabricating the steel frames for my barn door and gear storage boxes. This post will be about making the infill panels, finishing and installing them.

For the barn door, I designed the frame to fit the width of the reclaimed corrugated steel panel so I just had to cut it to the right length to fit inside the frame. I measured and marked the cut line and then used tin snips since I have experienced the most clean and accurate cuts with this method. It's also much quieter and produces no sparks like a cutoff wheel or circular saw. I learned that a plasma cutter would also work but it would produce fumes due to the galvanization. After I cut the panel, I set it in place inside the frame with the rusted side down so the back side, which would face my closet and bathroom, was face up. I cut four pieces of the 3/16" x 2" flat bar I found in the scrap section of The Steel Yard to serve as horizontal backing to hold the panel in place (without having to weld galvanized material to mild steel) and to prevent the center field from bowing. I tack welded one of the backing pieces to the bottom of the frame and one to the top after cutting out notches for the bolts that would secure the rolling hardware in place. I evenly spaced the other two pieces from the center of the frame and tacked them in place.

Once I brought the door home, I attached the rolling hardware with some bolts, washers, lock washers and nuts. Since I was installing solo, I had to figure out how to level and install the custom rail I made (the one that came with the kit just wasn't quite right: holes in wrong places and not long enough to span wall to wall) at the right height so there was a small gap between the door and floor and between the top of the hardware and ceiling. I came up with a clever idea to use a 1/4" thick wood "shim" to set the door on and maintain the bottom gap. Then, I slid the rail in place under the roller grooves with the help of smaller wood shims between the top of the door frame and the rail. I used a small drill bit to make a pilot hole through the rail hole into the door trim, wall and stud. Then I drilled with a larger bit that matched the size of the lag screws which came with the kit. I held in place the spacer between the rail and wall while I hand tightened the lag screw with an adjustable wrench until it was snug. I checked the rail for level and repeated this process two more times for the other stud in that same wall and for the stud in the wall that separates the bathroom and closet. I had to make an extra spacer out of wood for both of these locations so the rail would be parallel to the loft joists and back wall. Then I moved on to the perpendicular end tabs which I secured with shorter lag screws through the wallboard into the horizontal blocking I installed back in the framing stage of construction. With the rail in place, I removed the wood shims and set the door on the track. It is really great to have the door in place! One additional thing I may do in the future is add a clear acrylic lacquer coat to preserve the rust condition and maybe coat the frame black. For now I want to enjoy the raw quality of the frame with the welds exposed and not sanded down.

Now on to the gear storage boxes! After multiple conversations and much thought, I decided to match the infill panels to the red tinted panels of my custom kitchen cabinet. I purchased a sheet of maple veneer plywood from a woodworker friend of mine who helped me rip it down to the pieces from my cut list. 

After test fitting and lightly sanding, I began the water based dye process. I bought a 2oz. bottle of red TransTint and mixed it with distilled water according to instructions on the bottle. I poured the mixture into a spray gun and applied the coat to the first side of each piece. When it was dry, I flipped them over and coated the other side. I repeated the process four more times until the color closely matched my cabinet. Then on to the clear coat. I sprayed two coats of Miller Acriclear acrylic polyurethane varnish on both sides, lightly sanded to make the surface smooth and then sprayed the final coat. Once dry, I moved on to the assembly. During this process, I also can sprayed the steel frames with primer and black Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2x spray paint.

One of the shop guys next door had the great idea of "gluing" the panels to the frame with some kind of adhesive caulk so I wouldn't have to use any brackets and fasteners which would otherwise take away from the clean design aesthetic. Since the frame is the primary structure and I designed the panel layout to support itself, I did not need the extra strength of hardware. So I walked over to the hardware store and they recommended Loctite for its adhesion and flexibility. I bought the clear in case some would ooze out onto the finished surface (which it inevitably always does). I wiped down the frames to ensure clean surfaces then ran a bead of caulk inside the frame along the top and bottom so I could place the frame with the back side on the table while installing both of these pieces. 

With those in place, I caulked the back frame perimeter and pressed that piece in place. I caulked and added the two side pieces last and then repeated the process with the other frame. Before installing them in my house, I added small rubber half dome "feet" to each frame corner to prevent scratches between the frames and the floor. In my house, I simply stacked them on top of each other along the wall under my loft opposite the kitchen sink and then filled them with some of my outdoor gear that is not in the back of my closet.

I also made a beefy shoe rack in the class and some yard art with scraps since I wanted to try out the bender with flat bar and rod.

More photos on my flickr album!

Welding: Frames

In my last post, I mentioned that I was starting a new welding class. This time, after a friend's suggestion, I chose to take it at PNCA, a small art college in Portland with continuing education classes. I was hoping for something that was a mix of open studio and also a guided design process which I felt was lacking at the classes I took at a different place last year. The eight week class meets weekly for three hour sessions and then we have access to the space one other weeknight and on the weekend. The class size is ten, which I feel is too big when there is just one instructor, one helper and all of us working on very different projects. I think a class size of about five would be great for faster feedback and help and then time to work independently. The instructor, Chris Gander, is a long time teacher and metal sculpture artist so he is able to help us tackle whatever projects we can think of. What I have learned is that it is best to have a project in mind when taking a welding class because while you can learn to weld with scraps, it is more rewarding to go home with something useful. Also, the actual act of welding is just a small part of working with metal which includes cleaning, measuring, marking, cutting, grinding and finishing. MIG welds don't have to look pretty since you are likely to grind them down flush in order to finish. Even beginners can make strong welds relatively easily. Welding is a somewhat difficult thing to teach because everyone is going to weld at their own speed and style (pushing or pulling, angle, etc.) and hands on doing it is the best way to learn. Ok, now on to my projects.

I had two main projects in mind when I signed up for the class: my interior sliding barn door and a couple of storage cubes. I planned to weld frames for both projects. I then planned to use an extra piece of the reclaimed corrugated steel leftover from my siding to infill the door frame and wood to infill the storage cube frames. Chris advised me to use 1 1/2" x 1/8" think angle for all of my frames since it was the best combination of rigidity and weight. I went to The Steel Yard to buy all of my steel. They were generally quite helpful and usually gave me a student discount.

Once I had all of the materials back in the studio, I started by making the cuts from my plans with the metal chop saw and bandsaw. The chop saw is loud and makes a lot of sparks but it cuts much quicker than the band saw, though the band saw can be more accurate and also takes away less material. I made all of the 90 degree cuts on the chop saw and the 45 degree cuts on the bandsaw. Once I cut all of the pieces, I used an angle grinder with 120 grit sandpaper to sand off the burrs on the ends.

To assemble the frames, I used a couple of jigs that a friend helped me make to line up the corners and clamp into place. I tack welded the face frames together and then for the cubes, I tacked the cross pieces to one face and then tacked on the other face. I used squares as guides and a tape measure to check my diagonals for square. 

It's best to tack everything together before making the full welds so you can more easily make adjustments by breaking the tack with a cutoff wheel. The metal heats up around the welds and can warp the frame out of alignment so a good strategy is to weld a line on one spot and then move to the other side of the frame and weld a line there, moving around the frame until all spots are welded. Note, most of the time a single weld on a joint is sufficient but for aesthetics it can look better to weld the entire joint because when ground down and finished, that seam disappears.

Stay tuned for my next post about the infill panels, finishing and installing!

Publicity, Solar and Welding

Well the new year is going by fast and I can't believe it's the end of January already! Much has happened this month including some internet publicity about my house, solar installs at work and I start a new welding course tonight to finish up some house projects!

Last September, my house was featured on The Shelter Blog and this past week it was featured on Tiny House Swoon! My blog pageviews jumped to 1,694 that day! It feels great to see my work published online though I feel a little self-conscious since I haven't quite finished everything yet and the photos most recently posted are already out of date. People say it looks great as it is but I am excited to work on a few projects in the upcoming months so I can take photos I am proud to show off.

One of the projects is a sliding barn door that will alternately cover my closet and bathroom. I am going to attempt to incorporate some bicycle components and a piece of corrugated steel leftover from my siding project. Another project is creating a couple of gear storage boxes that will stack along the wheel well under my loft across from the kitchen sink. I am thinking that these boxes can be unstacked and placed side by side with some cushions on top to create a more comfortable sitting area on the main floor and maybe also an occasional bed. The last project is to create some kind of shoe storage container or rack by my front door.

Other than those welding projects, I really want to get some more light in my house under the loft and in the bathroom. I was using some IKEA battery powered motion sensor lights which are kind of fun but need new batteries quite frequently (I use rechargeables) and don't provide the brightest light. My charge controller has a port for a light load so I need to look into RV lighting and see what I can find.

I recently converted a solar panel pallet into a deck and some leftover framing lumber from structural upgrades into a table underneath my solar array. It looks pretty cool and I can't wait to hang out there on the sunny dry days!

Speaking of solar, this month at work we wrapped up a 30 kW solar system at a vineyard which was a unique (and very muddy) install. One of my co-workers moved to Spokane and another is shifting toward more audits and design so now I have more leadership responsibility which I am enjoying. This past week we started a new project where I was in charge of the layout and racking while my other co-worker who is an electrician mounted the inverter and ran the wiring. It felt really good when everything came together relatively easy!

Chevy Silverado: Adventure Truck & Tow My House Truck

As my trusty Subaru Impreza approached the 200,000 mile mark, I decided it was time to seriously start looking into trading it in for a truck. I had been thinking about getting a truck for a couple of years and looked into getting a Toyota Tacoma due to their reliability, good gas mileage and prevalence here despite their higher cost due to popularity (like Subaru's). I didn't really want or need a vehicle as a daily driver that could also tow my house around since it was not that difficult to find a truck to rent when I moved it last year.

However, the more I thought about my future plans of leaving the city and moving somewhere more rural, I realized it might be more difficult to find a rig to borrow to tow my home on a potentially more frequent basis since I haven't found that one place where I really want to live quite yet.

A little searching on the interwebs for typical makes and models of trucks used to tow tiny houses came up with the Ford F250 (the one I used to move mine last time), GMC Sierra 2500 and Dodge Ram 2500. People also recommended diesel over gas for greater power. All of these 6 liter, 3/4 ton beasts do poorly on gas mileage and if I wanted to use one daily for work, I would be shelling out a huge chunk of change compared to my car.

I discussed these options with my dad and brother who got more feedback from others. We agreed that a 6L engine was not ideal for gas mileage to drive everyday. My dad also thought I didn't really need a diesel engine and informed me that diesel fuel requires more attention in colder weather. He's a farmer so he knows these things :) He drives a Chevy Silverado 1500 5.3L and has used it to tow his 16' utility trailer around with about 6,000 lbs of weight on it. After doing a little bit of research, I found that a Silverado 1500 5.3L V8 has a towing capacity of 7,500 - 8,500 lbs (higher than other trucks at the 1500 level) and has the best MPG of similar trucks.

I had originally planned to save up enough money to be able to buy the truck outright, but the more pressing time frame urged me to call my credit union and see if I could get approved for a vehicle loan. Since I have been good with my credit so far, I was approved! My initial budget was $10,000-15,000 and with the loan terms, I needed to find something that was under 150,000 miles which I had planned on anyway. I checked in with some dealerships to see if they had anything I might be interested in but couldn't find anything older than a few years and under $20,000. So I started Craigslist searching which is how I found my Subaru four years ago. I looked for a couple of weeks, found some good leads, went on a couple of test drives but didn't find quite find the right one. I did learn from the test drives that I wanted a factory tow package versus one that had been added on after market because the factory can modify the transmission system so that when the truck is in tow mode, the transmission automatically reduces shift cycling which helps with transmission cooling, vehicle control and performance. I also learned the value a canopy or "cap" adds since the fiberglass ones cost $1,500 and up new. And, I realized that I'm not comfortable buying a used vehicle that has been in an accident, even though a minor one with a clean title.

Then, I get a message from my cousin's friend who works at a dealership in Hillsboro that they took in a "REALLY nice" 2009 Chevy Silverado 5.3L 4x4 extended cab short bed, 102,500 miles, $18,250 (KBB retail $21,250), factory tow package, black with black leather interior, Tahoe wheels, brand new tires. Was I interested? Yes, yes I was even though it stretched my budget a little.

I drove with a friend to check out the truck, a little nervous because I thought it might be the one and I couldn't believe I was about to commit to a vehicle worth at least five times my current one. What can I say? It was love at first sight! It really is a beautiful truck, well proportioned (though I might have preferred a regular length bed), drove smoothly and has all kinds of features my older vehicles never had like remote start, power seats, power folding mirrors and an instrument panel that tells me my MPG, tire pressure and oil level to name a few. I'm sure that those of you with newer vehicles are used to these kinds of features but they are a whole new world to me. So I said, yes, I'll take it, and after some time doing the paperwork, I was driving it home. Time to go on some adventures!

Garden Cleanup and Planning

Wow, what an awesome growing season it was this past year! It was my first year managing a large garden and thanks to the heat, dedicated watering and weeding, I grew much more produce than I could eat so I was able to share the abundance with friends. As I pulled the remaining tomato and winter squash plants in mid-November and planted cover crops of fava beans and clover, I began to think about what next year would bring. 

Fall Cleanup!

I had already decided that I wouldn't grow as much edible produce without another dedicated helper, but instead add more berry and wildflower plants. I also really enjoyed the presence of the volunteer giant sunflowers so I might plant a whole patch of different varieties and a row of them along the front fence for the neighborhood, privacy and skeletal winter enjoyment.

Early Summer Native Wildflowers and Veggies

I plan to increase the size of the sweet corn patch since even with the dry and hot summer, I don't think there were enough plants to cross-pollinate since the ears were underdeveloped. More winter squash (love the red kuri squash!), less summer squash. More root veggies: beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips and maybe even some potatoes this time. I want to do a better job at succession planting so everything isn't ready at about the same time. I also intend to intermix varieties like my yardie did (now that I can better identify seedlings) to help with natural pest management (namely the aphids) and to achieve a more organic garden aesthetic.

Late Summer :)

Using a map template my yardie created, I mapped out this past year's garden in pen and began planning for next year on another sheet in pencil. I have also been reading a book on gardening my mom gave me. So much to experiment with and learn!

2015 Garden

2016 Garden Planning

One Year Anniversary!

Halloween marked the one year anniversary of when I started the adventure of moving into my house! I invited friends over for a party the day before but due to a crazy wind and rainstorm I postponed until the following week which provided more accommodating weather for tours and sharing stories and s'mores by a fire :)

Last year, it started raining about two weeks before my move which was not an issue at my build site since I was building on asphalt and transportation was easy on the city streets. The difficult part was getting it into the yard on soft garden ground into it's place. You can read more about all of that here. After four days of moving and settling it on a sound foundation, I moved in!

Within a few weeks, I had a couple of friends in town spend the night so I put up some temporary shelving to get things off of the floor to clear a space for me to sleep while they slept up in my loft. Luckily they are also outdoors people and didn't mind the chaotic accommodations.

Since I had spent all of the money I saved to start the build, I took a little break from projects until January when I installed plumbing and finished out my bathroom. I used the compost toilet I found at the ReStore until I had an overflow issue and then needed to rebuild it. I used some inexpensive cedar fence boards to build a new box but it wasn't all that functional for various reasons so I continued to use the shop bathroom. In the last few weeks I finally rebuilt the toilet to a more functional and aesthetically pleasing design so I am excited to be able to use it now that the rainy season is back.

Speaking of rainy season, I am really grateful for the gutters and rain chain I added to help direct rain away from my house, not to mention how cool the recycled glass bottle chain funnels water to the ground. My polycarbonate awning is also welcomed in providing a more sheltered entry to my house. I needed to add some flashing above it to help prevent water from pooling up behind the siding and entering my house through capillary action via my door frame. I also built a covered bike and tool storage area with another shed roof on the trailer tongue. Moving my tools out of my house freed up a good amount of space since about half of my possessions are tools and outdoor gear!

I added rock holds to ease loft access, new "great room" shelving in the form of fruit crates, and a full size digital piano that I hope to loosen up my rusty fingers on more this winter and beyond.

In May we wired up my house for AC power but it wasn't until June that we ran power out to the yard shed where I could finally plug in and turn on my fridge and water heater. In August, I added a small battery based solar system that powers the electronics and lights in my loft and could power my great room light and outlets in the future if I want or need to be off grid. (I would need to swap out the water heater and fridge for RV/boat style propane appliances and figure out my cooking situation if I could cook outside on my RV range or grill year round.)

I learned how to weld in May and built a kitchen cabinet frame which was finished out with drawers and slides in September by a cabinet maker friend who works in the shop next door. I also built a small cabinet with one shelf for the left side of my sink (next to the bathroom wall) to fill in the gap which had been designed for a double basin sink before I found my awesome farm sink!

Outside, it's been a bountiful year in the garden (my first time as the primary gardener for a large space). I grew native wildflowers, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries,pees, green beans, beets, parsnips, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, chard, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, basil, corn and squash (so much squash...). Giant sunflower volunteers grew to over 10' tall! And of course there was much watering and weeding...the morning glory, thistles, dandelions, wild peas, wild onions, blackberries and quack grass really wanted to take over the yard but not this year...

I have changed jobs a few times from doing home performance audits, sales and project management to a summer outreach and canvassing position promoting the urban forest and now to solar installs! I continue to volunteer for my favorite non-profits: Friends of Trees, Portland Fruit Tree Project and Community Cycling Center. I also found time to play outside more this year, mainly in the form of hiking. Here's to the next year!

As always, you can check out my fickr for more photos!