hey i won the election! i won my life back!

[Derb]

Good on you Bob. You will love the downsizing of your workload. We are also downsizing to something around tiny-house size. 70 square metres down from around 200 square metres. Just built a 10 metre x 11 metre steel 3-bay shed with drive-through bay with 4 tonne  2-poster hoist which can lift up my 24 ft caravan high enough to walk around underneath. Got my "off-grid" capability with the generators and water-tanks and now looking at enough solar on the roof of the shed to run the joint without utility from the gate. Nowadays no need for hardwire comms from the gate. Mum is a bit pissed with the little house but she has a 9 metre x 7 metre carport and a small portion of the shed for hobbies and very little housework to do. At retirement age, many of our friends are de-cluttering their lives also and downsizing their homes but having a huge-ass shed for the toys etc. Allows us to get out in our buses/caravans/boats etc without the worry of a large high maintenance property.  Is very liberating really. We have a Hustler ride-upon mower which my son loves using so no worries with lawns and gardens. Bills are lower with very little heating required in a smaller well insulated home with small efficient wood fire. This becomes a consideration when you have a fixed income.  I am looking around for a water-cooled diesel Lister now to run on Waste-oil to take up the slack when foul weather inhibits the solar. Is quite an adventure. I recently asked a retired mate of mine what he did all day. Buggered if I know really, he said. But I know I never seem to have any spare time with all my hobbies. Sounds a bit like you Bob? Cheers, Derb.

[glort]

70 square metres down from around 200 square metres.

Dunno how you can do that especially with a 3 person household.
We recently renovated the kitchen and that is 70 SqM . I couldn't imagine living in a place that small.  My holiday house is about the same and that always feels cramped just with the crap we bring and if we have to fold out the lounge bed when out daughter is with us, it feels really cramped. I have been thinking of enclosing the carport and knocking out or opening a wall but we don't get there enough to justify it.

I don't think I could live in 70 Sqm myself but I admire people whom are tidy and organised enough that can.

I'll have to look up how big my house is. If the kitchen is 70, I'm thinking the rest of the place must be 4-500 all up.
Wish the shed was as big.

[LowGear]

70 sq meters is close to 9 sq feet  x 70 or 630 sq feet - right?

Be careful where you fart.  I live in 384 sq feet about four months a year (43 sq meters).  Not bad but it does get just a bit tight when my wife joins me. 

Getting rid of the crap?  Now that separates the lads from the gents.

[Derb]

25.4mm to the inch = 3.28 ft per metre = 10.76 square ft per square metre x 70 = 753 square foot roughly. With the 24 ft x 8 ft (internal) caravan which is practically a small flat plus the 2 bedroom cottage we will be fine.

The new shed is high enough to retrofit a mezzanine floor into on one bay so could convert to a bedroom if required or my "doghouse"  when I am knee-deep. As the council slowly forgets about us and the new 7 metre x 9 metre carport i can slowly close that in also for a pretty cool BBQ and party area. Quite a few mates of mine are going up that road now also. I just gotta get a "dumb Diesel" vehicle now which I can work on without a lap-top or other flash gear. Hardest part will be Mum getting comfortable and over her "space anxiety". A good size piece of one bay of the shed has reluctantly been offered to her for a hobby room .  It will be great. Cheers.

[sailawayrb]

I had some free time and decided to check in to see what was happening here.  Bob, some folks around here (southern Oregon) accomplish the Tiny House thing by setting a single wide mobile home under a pole barn.  Mobile homes can often be obtained at a good cost point and the pole barn protects the mobile home from the elements and provides under roof space to park cars, etc.  If I was looking to go Tiny and low cost, I think I would do the pole barn on my own land in a couple different locations (perhaps a Summer and Winter place) with electric/septic/water service such that I could just "occasionally park" an RV under it and avoid as much real estate tax as possible.  The RV would allow moving and traveling as necessary and desired.

For our retirement place, we ended up doing two ICF buildings, a 2400 sf home and a 1800 sf garage/shop/guest quarters.  Both buildings are single level with no stairs and wheel chair friendly.  Both buildings are passive solar cooled/heated and are well-sealed and well-insulated so as to be very high energy efficiency.  Certainly more initial cost than a Tiny House, but I figure a real house is a good way to diversify your investment money and have it appreciate at respectable annual rate that is tax free.  Our monthly heating cost for both buildings (which use hydronic radiant floor heating and small electric boilers) is about $40/month...and about half that if we fire the masonry heater every other day. Given the very high energy efficiency of the buildings and the large amount of interior thermal mass, the indoor temp never gets above 68F in the Summer and they don't require any AC.  This works here because we have a low humidity, diurnal climate (our Summer daily low temps are 40-60F below our daily high temps, which can even be 110F for a few days).  Detailed construction photos for both buildings may be found here:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/About-Us.html

Hope everyone is doing well and stay safe!

Bob

[mobile_bob]

Bob

nice to hear from you again, its been quite a while since i saw you last, iirc it was at George B's place when he got that huge chinese single diesel
got to be 10 years or better?

good to hear you are going well.

bob g

[LowGear]

Thanks for the photos.  It's really fun to put a face to a blog.  Nice waterfall feature. ;~)

[sailawayrb]

Bob, I think it was 2005 when I was last at George's place with you...so more like 15 years I think...  LowGear, I am glad your enjoyed the photos...and we love our "backyard"...perfect for social distancing...which we have been largely doing for about 5 years...

[mobile_bob]

wow Bob!  15 years?

my how time flies when your having fun? or not so much!



bob g

[sailawayrb]

Well, my last five years living in southern Oregon have been absolutely blissful.  However, my last five years at Boeing in Seattle area were absolutely hellish and this ultimately motivated me to leave and retire sooner than I likely would have otherwise...but I have zero regrets about having done that...  You can read all about that here if interested:

https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/The_End.pdf

In any event, time always moves on fast, and especially if you live in the moment as you well should.