Or being a “picker”

Tiny House Shop

This last weekend, Memorial Day, 2012, my time was used for going through the rented storage area of my pole barn building.  Half of one side had been rented to a friend who collected and sold antiques for many years. Due to health concerns, she has had to liquidate “stuff” and the storage area at my place is the final piece of the liquidation of those items. It had been years since she had been in there, as her health has taken a turn for the worse. So, we talked and rather than throw all the “stuff” into a dumpster, it is agreed to sell the antiques for rents unpaid.  There has to be some value to some of the items, we both thought. And I would not consider myself living very sustainably if the “stuff” was just tossed out.

I watched “Storage Wars” on Sunday night, and can relate to the show of guessing what is there, and the value of some of the items. Is there someone’s long forgotten treasure hidden in a drawer, box, or behind the doors. Wheel of Fortune flashed through my mind at this very moment. A piece of furniture, a Tiffany stain glass window, a priceless toy? I have little idea, as I place little value on “stuff.”

Thus my search starts; of moving pieces of old furniture, coca cola coolers, Swiss chalet music jewelry boxes, a box of paper wrapped plates of 1950 era Coca Cola girl with serving menu serving trays, an Acme Size A adjustable dressing form, a Scandalli Accordion L769/46. What is this stuff worth?  Snapping pictures, taking notes, researching items, the time into the project and the list of items grows ever longer.

While other people are out at the cabins for the weekend; or at the parks; or visiting aged parents; or sightseeing, I am working! What up with this picture? Then moving a box, an old wooden vegetable slicer is spotted and brings up a memory of the time of running across the field playing, my foot steps on a long forgotten nail in a board laying like a trap in the tall grass! It goes all the way through the foot, and screaming in pain I hop to the house with the rusted nail and board still attached to me. My dad pulls the embedded nail and blood shoots forth! Dad helps me into the car and rushes me to the local clinic where they swab the foot, clean the puncture, bandage it up, and give me a booster shot. The final instructions to dad were to make sure my food stays elevated, and not walk on it for a week.

Hey, I have a week off from chores, to READ!

Mom has other plans! “Everyone has work to do, and there will be no taking it easy; I have plans for you!” She has dad harvest the cabbages, and other garden vegetables and brings out the slicer and a 15 gallon crock pot. While sitting with my foot elevated, I am kept busy making sour kraut and relishes. I am informed “When you can walk, you will go back to doing your chores.” At that moment, the chores are sounding a whole lot easier!

So, that is where my keeping busy was programmed into me.

That was eighth grade, as during that summer, I grew from 5′-5″ weighing in at 121 lbs to 6′-1″ weighing in at 164 lbs. I remember, because the weight I wrestled in school also changed that fall. Mom also had hit the spring sales and that fall while trying on the new pants, she saw they are 6″ too short.

All this stuff has value, and the stories it brings up from the past – adds a value to that “stuff.” And how much is that value. As I watch “Storage Wars” they place value on some of the items, as I have done. And yet that means very little, as the real value is determined by the person that buys stuff for their collections. For me, the “stuff” trapping of life means very little, just like living in a big house means very little. On the other hand, I do love a good story and live for experiences.  And is that what makes “storage wars” interesting as it allows telling of stories, for we are a story telling species. From “War and Peace” to Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” to “The Avengers” to “The Notebook”, we all love a good story that touches our heart cords. I wonder, “will any of this “stuff’ trigger some memory for potential buyers to purchase some of it? Time will tell…..”

Or as Thoreau is quoted as saying, “how much life are you willing to exchange for it” is the real value of “stuff.”

This brings up an interesting observation;

IF you need stuff to remind you of experiences, you probably could not live in a tiny house;

IF you want a large family, you probably could not live in a tiny house;

IF need to keep up to the Jones, you probably could not live in a tiny house;

IF you need to entertain a lot of friends and business associates, you probably could not live in a tiny house;

IF your goals are living in a large sprawling mansion, you probably could not live in a tiny house.

To See a List of Stuff follow this “Stuff” link

Tiny house steel framed

Jim was asked a question yesterday; “Is steel lighter than wood, and how much lighter?

Jim’s Answer; The steel frame of a tiny house is 30% lighter than a comparable wood frame, yet steel has more strength than wood. Wood tensile strength is rated at 40, while steel tensile strength is rated at 400 and higher, making steel 10x stronger than wood.

Steel homes are usually screwed and bolted together, while wood homes are nailed and stapled together. A screws advantage is it does not loosen over time, while a nail will. At Tiny Green Cabins, besides screwing our steel framed tiny houses together, we also weld the connections for added tensile strengths and resistance to loosening from road vibrations while in transit.

The start of an idea?

My grandmother and her gentleman friend toured the country, visiting family, friends, and interesting touristy type places. They traveled in simple style and planned their trips, the food to take, the clothes to wear, and their budgets. They were very frugal, and some thought they were quite different. When they traveled to far places, they did not stay in other families or friends homes, nor did they stay in hotels, lodges, resorts, camping trailers, or tents.

Instead they stayed in the black sedan in the background. Grandmother slept in the back seat, and her friend slept in front seat. The food was in coolers in the trunk along with a suitcase for clothing. For more storage they made a platform with a lift top so it doubled as a bed and storage area in the back seat. The storage was in the foot area between the back and front seat.

They crammed a lot of stuff, miles, life, and memories into that sedan. They had what they needed and nothing more. It was a simple life for them in their later years that they chose.

They chose only to travel with the basic necessities. The only time they stayed in the car was for sleeping at night, or driving to a new place. Otherwise, the rest of the time visiting; was used for visiting. They did not need to drive to place for lodging and so that saved them time and money.

Tiny Green Cabin Park Model

They had exchanged the motels, hotels and resorts for life experiences. They sound like the forerunners of tiny house folks.

They also planted a seed in me that I could live small, and without all the trappings of what society says I need and by example that I could acquire some great life experiences.

Pictured are; Upper Right Plymouth Rock National Park, tiniest US Park

The next picture is Henning, my grandmothers friend, my sister, and myself. I was 11.

The 3rd picture is a park model rendering by Tiny Green Cabins.

White Bear Lake builder of tiny homes provides a truly different option

Ice houses are a favorite winter retreat in Minnesota, but could you call something that small your home?

From his blue, steel framed workshop in White Bear Lake, Jim Wilkins has built six homes for people across the country who are comfortable with less – much less.

Wildflower Tiny House

In 400 square feet or less, Wilkins’ Tiny Green Cabins have a living room, kitchen, bathroom, loft bedroom and porch on the frame of the trailer able to be pulled behind a pickup trunk. With wood siding and traditional windows and doors, these structures are far more homey than Spartan ice shacks on a windswept lake.

Wilkins business was featured in a short documentary on sustainable shelters from the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural History. The documentary correlated the size of the home to energy use and pollution emissions. The Bell Museum presented Tiny Green Cabins as a way to shrink your carbon footprint – or foundation.

Wilkins, 62, is the only builder of tiny houses in Minnesota and his customers range from Texas to Massachusetts with just as a wide a range to live in them. A North Dakota teacher bought one to get away from house payments, a Colorado mathematician purchased one to use as a writing retreat, a Wisconsin recluse sensitive to chemicals has one because Wilkins uses natural materials.

Wilkins built his first tiny house in 2008 when he was mired in a divorce and struggling to make house payments with an underwater mortgage for his ranch style home in White Bear Lake.

“That’s why I started building tiny houses; I thought I was going to be living in one.” Wilkins said.

A visitor to the website tried to call out Wilkins, presuming he was building them without having lived in one himself..

Well, the barrel-chested 6-foot tall man not only lived in one for a year but he called the experience “magical”

“When you climb in, it would be like climbing in a tree trunk to sleep like a troll or an elf,” he said. “It made life real simple because you are reduced down to the bare essentials.”

When the divorce was complete and the mortgage was worked out, Wilkins said moving back into his old house felt strange.

“You get so accustomed to it being small that you get lost when you go back,” he said. “You realize how much space in a house that a person doesn’t use.”

Regulations pose a challenge for buyers of tiny homes. The homes can’t be wider than 8′-6″ without a road escort and must be less than 13′-6″ high to clear bridges. Also the International Code Council states that no habitable rooms can be less than 70 square feet and city ordinances on minimum requirements for home sizes vary.

“A lot of people build them and license them as an RV” Wilkins said, “and when they park them they change them into a seasonal home.”

Andy Greder is a free lance writer based in St Paul, MN

As Printed in Spaces Spring Summer Resource Guide