Tiny + 24

I turned 24 yesterday. 10 of my closest gals (missed many of you) surrounded me at a table made of plywood that sat upon 2 saw horses, situated outside of our tiny house, Cleo.

I'm reminded of the great joy it is to be uplifted and loved by powerful women who know me. Truly KNOW me. Know my strengths and weaknesses, what makes me sad and what brings me pure elation, the ins and outs of life and my love of ice cream. Amanda asked me what I was most proud of over the last year, and after a moment of thought, it came down to this: I didn't settle in the mundane but reached toward the sublime elements of life- even when it was difficult. That's all due to the encouragement and love I've received from every single person in my life. Whether it was pushing through the final quarter of college, figuring out my next "career" move, or starting to construct the tiny home. I am immeasurably blessed with people who cheer me on!

My birthday initially began with watching the sunrise with Zack and grabbing a cup of coffee at Oly Coffee- one of our first dates and my favorite way to begin a day with him. We made our way out to the tiny home, pumped on excitement and anticipation for all that we could accomplish.

We started by laying down the ice + water shield upon the plywood roof. The ice and water shield act as a special membrane to keep moisture out of the house. Typical homes have i + w shield but sometimes it does not cover the whole roof. However, the stuff we have is 1. heavy duty 2. covers the whole roof. 3. made for using under metal roofing. Hopefully, someday, the tiny house will be in a mountain climate and will endure lots of rain and snowfall. With this desire in the forefront, we will be covered! literally and figuratively.

After laying down the I + W shield, we began installing the windows! WINDOWS!!!!!!! they look so. dang. good. We got all 11 windows in place, fastened, and with water proof flashing on the exterior perimeter. The door comes at the end of the month and then we'll technically be dried in!

Next steps:

- Order metal roofing // we picked a color of metal this week. We are going with a charcoal gray.

- Figure out which siding we want // we are doing 2/3 metal siding (cheap and light) + 1/3 pine wood siding.

- Pick trim colors + door color. // We went and looked at trim colors but there are a massive amount of choices. Who knew there were 289 different shades of white/cream? We will pain the perimeter of the door with an accent color.

- Instal roofing! yippee!

So far, we have spent about 11 days on the tiny home, roughly 70-80 hours of work. I am so thrilled, satisfied, and pumped with how much progress we have made! Again, having the help and assistance from Zack has been integral to the success of the house. I am super lucky that he has agreed to partner with me on this build and come alongside this dream of mine.