Our First Week in an Airstream

Whew, what a week it's been! Moving is always a bit of a process, but this move was a whole different kind! The stress and craziness of racing to finish our silver home in time to haul it up the hill (will it make it??) and then trying to downsize all of our stuff to fit in a much smaller home (will it all fit??) -- has made for a pretty overwhelming week. But this morning we seem a little more settled after J made his amazing waffles for breakfast and I brewed our favorite Lucille's tea. I'm hanging out on our newly-finished lounger/sofa, and the puppies are conked out from a large afternoon at the beach yesterday. Finally a moment to take a deep breath and see exactly how I ended up here...

Last week J busted a move and whipped us up a sofa in a couple of evenings before we moved the trailer. It makes a world of difference to have a comfy place to crash and to store a lot of stuff underneath. The sofa looks pretty smart with my mom's fancy cushions she sewed!

Finishing up the platform

Rubbin' counter tops is serious business! I finished off our beach wood counter tops with this awesome beeswax/mineral oil rub that also made my hands feel great. 

A few hours before we moved the trailer we realized we still had to get our mattress onto the bed frame. I did think about this way back when we were designing the trailer and in theory, I knew it should work...

Ta da! It went in without a hitch!

The trailer, however, required a hitch. We owe our friend Jim Lawrence and his big red truck BIG time for hooking up Blue Moon and taking her across the island and up the mountain to our new home. We knew the van couldn't make the climb and we needed someone with some towing experience. The haul was something of a stress factor for both me and J. We had many a sleepless nights about the complexities of getting Blue up the one mile of steep dirt/gravel road to her new home. Jim, however, knew the road and said it would be no problem. So J greased the bearings, put some air in the tires, and I "buttoned down the hatches" so to speak, and off we went.

And it was no problem! Although I was terrified driving behind her in our van as Blue went flying over every bump in the road, Jim reported that she hauled beautifully. 

And it was a beautiful sight to see her on the road. We left the bay on the first really hot day of summer, and I have never seen so many people swimming in it! It was beautiful weather for moving and we couldn't have asked for a better day.

Here's Jim in our Airstream at the new place. Jim owns property near our old house at the bay and all winter he's been driving by our trailer checking on our progress. We met him and his wife while sailing on the Schooner Adventuress, and he's been very encouraging of our project. His book, Calloused Hands, Hungry Heart helped inspire us to make this change and live small and embrace the island as our home, so we were honored to have him take part in the move. We took all the drawers and everything out of the Airstream for the move since we knew there'd be a lot of bumping around. We were glad we did, and nothing broke. The only incidents were a slightly bent bumper and one of the skylight ceiling caps flew off during the drive. Since I was driving behind, I made a mental note of which field it landed in and went hunting for it later. 

Holy smokes, where will all of our stuff go?!?! Let's just say we are really downsizing our life now. We had done a lot of purging, gifting, and thrift store runs before the move, but ironically, the biggest one happened after the move. It only took a few days to realize that we just aren't going to use that many dishes living in the Airstream, and that I really don't need my bottle collection. Ok, well I kept my favorite bottles :)

Visitors!

A surprising number of people have already visited us up on our mountain and everyone is inspired, including ourselves! Such supportive and amazing friends and family we have! Megan and Michael (above, with J) are also living tiny this summer in small cabins that don't have running water or bathrooms, so this is old hat for them!

Happiness is...friends in our Airstream...and party lights shaped like travel trailers (thanks Michael!)

First morning tea. Our first night of sleep was a little rough - probably for a variety of reasons. But since then, we have been sleeping like logs. Our LED lights only recently arrived, so none of our lights are installed yet. We are still using the multi-colored floor lamp I have had since living in the dorms at college.

Still unpacking and organizing. The dogs seem happy wherever we are, which is such a good lesson for us as we simplify our lives. If only we were as free of our possessions as they are...

Stay tuned for more tiny living shenanigans and adventures, including solar showers, the composting toilet report, and more. Thanks again for reading and for all of the encouragement this last week!