Changin' My Mind (another in the "You Know You're Taking Too Long" series)

You know you're taking too long to build your house... when the multiple years slipping by give you endless opportunities to re-think and alter plans.

Thankfully, even all these years later, I am still very happy with the floor plan I designed for the JayBee. When I designed the house, there were very few tiny-house designs to find. Now... just about every design possible has been done. I think my design holds up. It still feels like the most functional design for me. (Wouldn't it be horrible if I was trying to finish a house I now thought was fatally flawed?!)

This winter, though, I surprised myself by doing a complete about face with my energy plan for the JayBee. Many years ago, I wrote this post about my plan to use propane appliances for cooking, heat, and hot water--primarily because those things would still function just fine when the electric power went out, which it does with some regularity where I live. Last summer, I decided I needed to let go of my plan to bring my beloved range/heater into the JayBee. At 40,000 BTUs, it would have heat-blasted me right out of the house. (The skepticism of several propane installers sunk in at last, I guess.) I still was thinking, though, that I would use a propane range (just smaller) and a propane water heater. I planned to add a propane wall heater with a nice little fireplace-like window.

A few weekends ago, I changed my mind. After years of staying on the same steady track, everything just shifted. I decided I will not use any propane appliances in the JayBee. These things all finally coalesced in my mind:

• I didn't want propane appliances that use electronic ignition since that would render most of them useless when the power went out. But why would I want open pilot lights in my tiny house compromising the air quality?
• Every winter, getting routine propane deliveries is a challenge. While I generally don't have a problem getting my car up and down my icy driveway, the propane delivery trucks have a huge problem with all that ice. Did I really want to spend my future winters worrying about the timing of propane deliveries?
• Even though I have pre-purchased all kinds of fixtures and appliances for the JayBee and have been building with them in mind, I have not been able to commit to any of the propane appliances I have researched endlessly. Hmm... maybe there are good reasons for all that hesitance?
• The only propane wall heater I like is one that does not have a thermostat so really shouldn't be left running if I'm not home. Not reliable heat for the winter.
• The one system I have never started in the JayBee is the propane system. No pipes yet installed. No holes drilled. Why not simplify and save all those additional punctures to the building's envelope?
• The salesperson for the electric-radiant heat system I'm planning for under the floors of the JayBee pointed out that their system uses so little energy, it works well with solar panels.
• I had always planned to add solar panels at a future date. Maybe the future is here?

New plan: Everything in the JayBee that requires energy will be electric. Electric-radiant heat under the floors, supplemented with one or two electric wall heaters. Electric induction cooktop (cooks faster than anything else, and won't add heat to the space). Electric convection oven. Electric on-demand water heater. Simple. No fossil fuels. No open pilot lights.

I don't know that I can afford the solar panels this year, but the plan is to install ground-mounted panels on the south-facing hillside behind the JayBee. When I was at the Maine Flower Show a few days ago, I talked with a solar installer who told me that their grid-connected systems are usually installed with a battery backup system that automatically kicks on when the grid-supplied electric power goes out. Perfect.

Solar Energy Course

I am currently taking an online course called Solar Energy. By the end, I'm supposed to know enough to design a photovoltaic system for the JayBee.

The course syllabus estimates that the coursework will take roughly eight hours a week to complete. I have already spent more time than that, and I'm only halfway through the material for the first week! I also roped my son into helping me understand some of the practice questions. Maybe not strong harbingers of future success, but at least I am enjoying it so far.

Trade-Offs

Life is full of trade-offs. Roads taken--or not. Designing and building a house is no exception. In fact, it could be the poster child for trade-offs. The process involves a seemingly endless series of decisions and choices. Once one decision gets made, it narrows the options for future decisions. For example, once I decide to build a home on a trailer, a home that I intend to be roadworthy without a special permit, I have committed to build a home that is no more than 8.5 feet wide and will stand no more than 13.5 feet high off the ground. All other decisions have to work within those size constraints. (And not just building decisions. There are huge lifestyle choices constrained by that decision as well.) Same goes for cost. When I decide that my house cannot cost more than $X, all other decisions have to work within that financial constraint.

Is this a problem? I don't think so. I find it empowering. I am enjoying defining the way I live, and the ways I want to live, and how they relate to the space I live in. I enjoy reading all the stories that can be found online about how others have navigated this process for themselves. There are as many unique housing solutions/configurations as there are people on the planet. Or more, since our needs shift through time. The choices I am making today about my tiny home are certainly different from what they would have been during earlier phases of my life (when I was younger, when I was partnered, when I was childrearing, etc.).

I find myself shaking my head sometimes--when I read a story online in which someone shares some of the decisions they've made or some of the features they've incorporated into their tiny home in such a way as to make it sound like they have THE answer and all other tiny homes built differently are wrong. Ah, no. Your home may be beautiful and adorable. (Most of them are, aren't they? :-) Congratulations; you've found the answer for you (and maybe part of the answer for others with similar needs). I can guarantee you, though, that you haven't found the answer for everyone. That's just the nature of things.

So, here's the fine print for the whole rest of my blog: If, in my enthusiasm for some discovery or decision I've made about my home, my tone sounds at all like I think other ways of doing things are wrong, I sincerely apologize. That's not my intent at all. I'm merely leaping for joy at finding a workable solution for me--just me.

Here are some of the trade-off home decisions I've made already:
- I may be ready for my home to be constrained to 8.5 feet wide and 13.5 feet high, but I've purchased a longer-than-typical trailer. My home will be 26 feet long. Well, even longer than that because each end of my home will have a small bumpout as well. Given how I live, I just could not imagine my life working in less space than this.
- In order for my tiny home to work in my life, I need to: 1) downsize. I've been selling and giving things away on Craigslist and Uncle Henry's. This is turning out to be unexpectedly fun! I'll do a separate post about this soon. 2) figure out some storage solutions outside my tiny home. I'm a project person. Consequently, I have tools and materials to support my sewing, knitting, crocheting, drafting, and woodworking projects. I have no plans to divest myself of my tools, and I know they will not all fit in my tiny home. Thus, my need for outside storage.
- Table. Most tiny homes I've seen either devote significant space to a table or have a table that can be folded against a wall when not in use. If I was not living alone, I would need a table like that, too. What I've discovered living alone is that I only use a table when I have people visiting. Never in my life have I worked at a desk. I work in my lap. Even more so now, with my laptop computer. I don't eat at a table either--unless I have company. Since I do have people over to dinner on a regular basis, I do need to be able to turn my home's living area completely into a dining area on occasion. My tiny house will have a folding table and chairs that are slid into a narrow closet until needed. This round table is 28" in diameter, but I can expand it to 48" with an extender board that can be opened up on top of it.
- Bathroom sink. I went around and around about this. Seems a little redundant to have both a bathroom and a kitchen sink--within a few feet of one another. The thought of guests coming out of the bathroom and using my kitchen sink while I'm preparing dinner was enough for me to decide that my home would have a bathroom sink--although a tiny one.
- Bed on the first floor. I decided I want a queen-sized bed on the first floor of my tiny home--one that I don't have to set up every time I want to use it. I have to give up a lot of floor space to make this happen. I'm hoping all the underbed storage space and the possibility of using the bed for overflow living-room sitting space might make up for some of the downside.
- Shower vs. tub. I love baths. Given all my other priorities, however, I've let go of having a tub in my tiny home. Since making that decision, I've figured out that I can easily set up a tub outside for use during the warmer months. (See previous Bathroom Fixtures post.)
- Full-sized stove, oven, kitchen sink, and refrigerator. I love camping--truly. I know myself well enough to know, though, that I would not find it fun to face the challenges of camp cooking and cleanup every day. I would cope by rarely cooking anything. My stove/oven has the added benefit of having a 40,000 btu heater in its side--which will provide heat for my home. When I purchased a new refrigerator a year ago, my top priority was to find the most energy efficient model I could find. I thought I would get a smallish one. Imagine my surprise/disgust to discover that the smaller refrigerators use more energy than the really efficient larger ones. I did buy the most energy efficient model I found. It's of moderate--not huge--size. When I host a big event--a holiday gathering, for example--I supplement by using a cooler to store some things.
- Small living room. Given all the items/spaces I feel I need in my home, my living room will be quite small. Sometimes I see floor plans for a tiny home that makes me re-think my plans. "How come they have such a large living room?" I wonder. After I look closely and realize that that home has no storage space and no kitchen, etc., I end up thinking my plans are really a better fit for me.
- Little head room in loft. My home will have two lofts. The larger loft--over the kitchen and bathroom--will probably be only for storage since it won't have much headroom. The smaller loft--over the bed--will be a good spot for reading or for a guest to sleep. It will have a lot of headroom because, being over the bed, the joists for it will be much lower than the joists for the other loft.

And the decision-making about trade-offs continues...

Heat & Hot Water

I have been asked about the source of heat I will have for my JayBee. Here it is:

I know this kind of stove as a "gas on gas stove." My first experience with one was 30 years ago in an apartment in old mill housing in South Barre, Massachusetts. It is a propane stovetop and oven that also has a 40,000 btu heater in the left side of it. I remembered how great this heater was when, ten years later, I needed a stove for the house I had just purchased. After an extensive search, I finally found this one. The beauty of it is that it still has pilot lights (as opposed to electronic ignition) so, when I lose power in a snow or wind storm, I still have heat and I can still cook. This heater should have no problem keeping the JayBee warm.

These stoves are hard to find now, due to the fact that most things are no longer made with pilot lights. Speaking of which... When I needed to replace my hot water tank last summer, one of the reasons that I did not replace it with an on-demand unit (as I had assumed I would) was because current models of those units are now built with electronic ignitions. I like having hot water even when I lose power and I did not want to lose that. The older on-demand models that still have pilot lights did not qualify for the energy-efficiency rebates. Add on the expense of the on-demand units and the fact that they need a lot of ventilation space...I ended up buying a small propane regular hot water tank. The tank will be moved into the JayBee as my hot water tank there as well.