Blue Moon Gets a Closet

Daffodils are blooming, the temps are warming and...we're back to full-time Airstreaming! Although we both had mixed feelings about moving back into Blue Moon that ranged from "yay tiny living!" to "we're 30 and still don't know wtf we're we doing with our lives,"  - but after a few weeks of getting settled in, we're all smiles again. Last fall we tried to by a "real" house - a fixer-upper - and it didn't work out, so in our minds we thought we'd find another house to buy before this spring, but island real estate ain't cheap, so the months passed and we found ourselves heading back up to our mountain-top Airstream abode again. We decided to embrace this tiny aluminum home we own for now, and we jumped in to projects!

We're addicted to creating more storage solutions since we built the medicine cabinet (click to read about it) a few months ago. We've been debating what to do with the empty space where our composting toilet was originally installed (we sold our Nature's Head composting toilet to some other Airstream-ers after deciding we would just use the shower/bathroom/laundry facilities located on the property we're parked on.) I'll humor you with these throw-back photos from our renovation days:

We kept a space heater there for a time as well as our towels. But, the space has mostly ended up being a catch-all for crap. 

So I drew up some plans for a closet to put in as a replacement!

J had recently been working on boats in the Port Townsend shipyard for work and watched a modified tick-sticking technique that the shipwrights use to template the curves of boat hulls when they have to cut new planks. We find ourselves taking inspiration from boats a lot when we work on our Land Yacht. So, to make the template for the closet walls, we got a handy-dandy hot glue gun (dries instantly!) and stuck those little bits of wood onto a squared-up frame.

Onto the plywood it goes for connecting the dots and jig-sawing.

                         

 

sand and poly, repeat.

Putting it all together! We ended up making the closet quite a bit wider than my original drawing, and we love it!


Pretty snazzy stuff :-)

    
I really like how J detailed the clothing rod fixture with hemlock.

    

We finished the whole thing off with a linen curtain and a new dome light over the medicine cabinet to keep things bright. I think now that we're 30, hanging our clothes on hangers is really an adult-like thing to do, so at least we're taking steps in the right direction toward growing up, hehe. 

The other side of the closet does double-duty with hooks and towel rack. My initial design was a skinnier closet that didn't cover any of the window, but when we put the panels up, it just made sense to make it wider. We LOVE the extra space, and neither of us mind the partial window block. It's still an operable window since the crank is on the right side.

We also dug our hometown New Belgium Brewing Accumulation White IPA tacker out of storage and finally riveted into it's permanent home behind our sink :-) 

Happy Spring from our tiny home to yours!

Airstream Medicine Cabinet

We're not living in Blue Moon this winter - a friend had an extra bedroom for rent so we opted for a little bit more space and indoor showers for some time! But, it was a beautiful January weekend, and we couldn't help but head up to the Airstream to work on projects, as we will be moving back to full-time Airstream-ing in a few months. When I initially designed our Airstream remodel, I was adamant about NO upper cabinets - nothing to block the light in such a small space. The original floor-to-ceiling 1960s dark paneling we ripped out of Blue Moon sort of sent me running in the other direction. I knew that meant we would be sacrificing a lot of potential storage that could be up on the walls. So, after a few years of having this mirror leaning up against the wall with toothbrushes and wine glasses stashed behind it, I finally caved and drew up a little design for a medicine cabinet to be mounted to the curved wall, and put it on J's honey-do list.

Above is the setup we've had for awhile now, with a mirror just leaning against the wall.

My design - to include hanging wine glass storage of course!

Essential to all Airstream construction is templating for those pesky curved walls; bring in the cardboard.

J built the cabinet out of pine. He's chiseling out a pocket to inset the door hinges.

The most important part: making sure the wine glasses will fit! We got some inexpensive hanging wine glass wood-moldings and cut them to fit under the cabinet.

Up it goes - riveted to the wall with brackets

Pretty nice! We're gaining countertop space as well as another cabinet!

The mirror features aspen trees painted and carved onto the frame -- it was handmade by a friend in Colorado

Projects like these on a sunny January day make us excited to move back to Blue Moon :-)

Our First House

Another summer of Island Airstream Living has come to a close! Fall is here, bringing with it full harvests, beautiful colors, that amber light that I can't get enough of, and the warmth of campfires now that the dry season's burn ban is gone. I never thought that J and I would call our little Blue Moon home for two and a half years, but home it's been.

In the last few years I have heard so much buzz regarding the tiny house movement and downsizing. I've enjoyed meeting others who are living small and supporting our friends who made the leap also. No, all of our stuff doesn't fit in our Airstream; we have a shed with all of our camping stuff, bicycles, and some collected artwork for the non-curved walls of a "someday" home. But we're comfortable with our amount of Stuff, and I've realized that quantifying what we own and collect is only a very small part of Tiny Living. For me and many others I know, Tiny Living is about getting more time outside because your house is small, achieving financial freedom because you own your own affordable home, and getting to spend more energy/money/time on good food and visiting the people and places that mean the most to you. I love run-on sentences.

That doesn't mean I don't drool over gorgeous architecture, great design, and fancy furniture. In fact, I value those things even more because of their power to create excellent living spaces for people. Living small has made me realize that everything has a value - most importantly, my time. Big spaces often require bigger incomes to sustain them, requiring more hours at work, more hours cleaning and more more more. Tiny living is all of those things, but on a smaller scale. No, Tiny Living isn't free, but it does cost less to heat a small home, to clean and maintain a small home, and buy or build a small home. Living in an Airstream or a cute cabin on wheels isn't everyone's solution to time or money problems, but shrinking your footprint can be a great place to start if you are feeling like life has you spread too thin.

Looking back, moving into the Airstream was J and I admitting that we weren't making it financially. We had some debt to deal with, and island rent isn't cheap. We needed to see a light at the end of the tunnel, so we put the word out to craigslist, and Blue Moon found us. The costs of remodeling the Airstream paid for themselves in one summer of living in it, and more importantly, we felt the financial strain ease off immediately.

The colder weather is coming, and we feel lucky to have options for winter housing if we need them, but for now, here's to you Blue Moon, for being our First House.