ADU, Travel, Community
Lina Menard
Maui, Hawaii

After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.

Maui, Hawaii
Tiny House, Travel, Planning
Lina Menard
Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla

A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.

Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla
Minimalism, Workshop
Lina Menard
Downsizing Tune Up

As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…

Downsizing Tune Up

Cully Grove

,

Tiny House on BIG Tour

,

tiny house on BIG Tour Each year Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability hosts the Build it Green Tour, which has been nicknamed the BIG Tour. This year Cully Grove is going to be featured and since the tiny house is here, too, Eli has offered to include it as part of the tour. I’ll be able to show off all my hard work and talk tiny houses with everyone who stops by.

The tiny house has come a long way since I showed the house off at during my Yestermorrow practicum presentation a month ago. I’ll be wrapping up my work on the tiny house in the next week, so showing it at the BIG tour will be my capstone for my summer’s work.

The house isn’t quite done yet. In the next couple days the exterior will be painted and the interior will be clear coated. The kitchen cabinet has been ordered and will be installed soon. Eli is going to have a metalworker named Richard whom he’s worked with before make decorations to cover up the metal hanging brackets that support the loft joists. Eli’s also going to have Rocky tile the countertop. The sink will need to be installed, too. And of course, the finish plumbing and electrical work still needs to be done. But we’re getting to the point that there’s not much more I can do.

I certainly still have plenty to learn, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. Over the course of the summer I learned some tangible hard skills: siding, air sealing, creating an electrical layout, running wire, insulating, paneling, trim work, roofing, shingling. I also learned soft skills related to working solo and planning ahead. I feel really lucky to have had my Summer Dream Job. I found that I love woodworking and especially finish work like window trim. The moment I figured out how to rabbet out a piece of trim on my own was a highlight of the summer. I’m grateful to Orange Splot, LLC for a full year of internship and apprenticeship and I’m glad I get to share the tiny house with others on Saturday, September 21.

Please come check it out if you’re able!

,

"Look, it's a Tall Bike! Look, it's a Tiny House!"

,

Sunday Parkways riders If I wasn't already madly in love with Portland, Sunday Parkways would have won me over. Once a month from May to September Portland shuts down auto traffic on several roads, opening them up to bicyclists and pedestrians. Over 20,000 people cruised along the route in NE Portland yesterday. There were tall bikes, long bikes, and short bikes. There were streamers,  teddy bears, and unicorn helmets. There were bells and whistles, boom boxes and banjos. And everywhere there were smiles and waves. I especially loved seeing a man ride his X-tracycle with his sweetheart on the back playing a guitar. Their baby was in the seat between them.

Cully Grove donut stand

Part of the afternoon I was helping with the fresh donut stand at Cully Grove with Orange Splot. Making donuts with Eli and Noelle's three year old was such fun! I'm not sure whether she or I got a bigger kick out of it "snowing" flour onto the table (and floor). Every time she'd scamper down from her chair to peek out the window she'd say "ooh! It's a party!" and she'd report the bikes she saw go past.

Cully Grove groundbreaking

The groundbreaking ceremony itself was very pleasant with most of the future Cully Grove residents present. The festivities included writing letters and placing them in a time capsule, digging up little jars of dirt so that the families can have a little bit of Cully Grove with them at home while their future homes are being constructed, and, of course, champagne toasts.

I hadn't realized that my tiny house was going to be on the route, so it was pretty cool to see the swarms go past. After the groundbreaking I headed home again and found that there were still oodles of people biking by. I stood on my porch and a man on a tall bike hollered out "Look! It's a tiny house!" I replied "Look! It's a tall bike!" and he grinned. It seemed a quintessentially Portland swapping of novelty. So I decided to host an impromptu open house. For the next hour whenever someone noticed my house I invited them in and showed them around, answering their questions about everything from my RV shower to how often I grocery shop.

toast to Cully Grove (a new old-fashioned community)

One woman turned to her nine year old son and said "It seems she has everything she needs as just one person. Can you think of anything she doesn't have?" He took a look around and said "Yup, no TV!" I told him he was right. "What in the world do you suppose I do instead?" I asked. He grinned and asked, "Do you like to read?" I assured him I do and I showed him my wee library and my Kindle.

It was such a delightful day and it got me thinking a lot about the relationship between community and streets. This evening PSU's Urban Planning Club hosted Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogeta, Columbia. He, too, talked about cycling, community, democracy, and transit. He talked about bus rapid transit and how a transportation network can be transformed overnight by restricting travel lanes to buses. It's given me lots to consider. My favorite new idea is to make all of our diagonal streets active transportation streets. Let's give the cyclists, buses, pedestrians a shortcut and make cars go the long way!