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

Tiny House

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A Minimalist Move

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A Minimalist Move

Isha and I are Creating a New Tiny Cohousing Community and once we got the keys to the new house we began our minimalist move... In the weeks leading up to our move Isha and I both went through our Stuff again. I'd been teaching another round of my Downsizing E-Course, which meant that my collection of stuff was pretty well honed. It took me less than 2 hours to pack the contents of The Lucky Penny! But since Isha and I both had our own households worth of stuff and we moved in together for the first time (after a year and a half of living in his and hers tiny houses). there was some decision making about which things to keep and which to pass on. 

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Tiny House 101 in Austin

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Tiny House 101 in Austin

Saturday we greeted our workshop participants at our awesome venue, Soma Vida. Participants flew from Connecticut and drove from as far as Tulsa, Oklahoma to join us for this workshop. We shared inspirations, considerations, and information and as we helped them identify the big decisions when going small and explore some design ideas for their wee homes.

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Creating a New Tiny Cohousing Community

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Creating a New Tiny Cohousing Community

A week ago today my fiance Isha and I got the keys to our new home and we're eager to tell you all about it! We had this vision in mind but we didn't expect that we'd manifest it so quickly! A couple months ago Isha spotted a property that seemed to meet our criteria. It was a beautifully renovated 1920s home with the possibility of creating a functional ADU, a fenced yard with garden beds, and we already knew some of the neighbors. So we checked it out, decided it would be an awesome fit, and placed an offer. Everything came together so quickly we were afraid to jinx it. Indeed at a few points we didn't think it was going to work out, so we were keeping it on the down-low. But it did work out in the end. 

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The Lost Months: September & October 2016

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The Lost Months: September & October 2016

It's high time for a catch up! The month of September was a fun one because we wrapped up the O'Keefe Tiny House Build Blitz and I spoke about tiny house design at Tiny House Fest Vermont... I kicked off October with a trip to Ojai to teach at Tiny House 101 workshop with Lee Pera and Vina Lustado through the Tiny House Collaborative... and so much more!

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Days 5 & 6

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Days 5 & 6

Friday was Day 5 of the Build Blitz for Erin Maile & Kevin O'Keefe's tiny house on wheels... By lunchtime the roof panels were up and we spent Friday afternoon working on a number of touch up tasks... Since the house wasn't quite yet ready for her maiden voyage, we decided we'd better do some more work on Saturday to get her prepped. 

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Days 3 & 4

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Days 3 & 4

The Green Mountain Panel crew came out en masse to help us get the first wall panel up. We tipped up one of our slanted end walls and then its adjoining panel on the corner. Once we had a corner in place we were able to work our way around the building in both directions. With a crew that big it went pretty quickly. 

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Day 2

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Day 2

Yesterday we kicked off our second build morning by finalizing the detailing of our trailer and floor system so that the two were ready to be joined. Maile sealed the edge between the pressure treated undercarriage and the trailer with a sealant and Kevin and Peter installed lifting plates and put rigid foam around the perimeter of the floor system. Then we were ready for the real excitement to begin... Harold then brought the boom truck around and picked up the floor panel with an aluminum bar and three neverending loops. He hoisted the panel over to the trailer and set it into place.

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Day 1

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O'Keefe Build Blitz: Day 1

Yesterday was Day 1 of the tiny house build and despite a few setback (there are always setbacks!) we made good progress. We started out the day by leveling the trailer (so fun to do that with John's awesome laser level!) and checking the trailer for square. (Wright Trailers did a great job on this trailer!) We did some tool orientation and safety so we could ensure that we're all on the same page and ready to roll. Then we measured and cut our pressure treated plywood as the undercarriage...

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T42 Built-Ins

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T42 Built-Ins

We've snuck in a few extra build days for our tiny house T42, working on built-ins, including a set of alternating tread stairs, an entry step with shoe cubbies, a closet that doubles as a walkway for our bedroom, and a riser for the bathroom floor. It's so fun to see our house take shape again! 

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Tiny House Jamboree 2016

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Tiny House Jamboree 2016

After attending Tiny House Jamboree last year, you can be sure I wasn't about to miss the second annual Tiny House Jamboree, which was hosted in Colorado Springs last weekend by Darin Zaruba and his awesome team from EcoCabins! It flew by in a flurry of hugs, high fives, and making connections with tiny house enthusiasts from all across the country and around the world.