Chuckle

By: Tanille

Ok, not so much for the hubby. . . a few minutes ago I pulled into the driveway from a stressful, long day at work.  James was on his way to the gym and looked suspicious.  “What’s going on?” I inquire.  “Nothing, gotta go”.  Hmmm. “By the way, I tinted the windows today” he says.  I look at the travel trailer, the other vehicle.  Uh oh.

He means the house trailer.  Yep, there it is. Tinted windows.  Ok, so we don’t live in the ritziest neighborhood so I don’t want the trailer to look as good as it does inside – kind of a deterrent you know.  But this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.  I of course wrinkle my nose and immediately notice the bubbles and he stomps off to go work off his frustrations with me.

He did this, he says for “energy efficiency”.  This is the boy who leaves all of the lights on when he leaves the house and the cooler cranked down to 65 degrees.  I come home to a lit up house, music blaring  and frozen chihuahuas.  Oh, and our bill is still only around 35.00 in the summer.  Soooooo.  Why he decided to do this today, I’m not sure.  But I decide to accept the fact that I now have a home with tinted windows.  I mean people have much bigger problems than a tacky house right?

As I sit, finally getting a moment to myself, I glance up at the windows and this is what I see.

Poor guy.  He tried so hard to save the earth today and this is what he gets.  You know, it really didn’t look that bad.  I wish I could fix it, but I have a glass of wine and a post to finish 🙂

-Tanille Leal

Time To Hit the Road!

Posted by:  Tanille

Yep, we are headed out too.  No, not in this contraption, but wouldn’t that be fun!?    It’s that time of year to dust off our “trailer away from trailer” and get out of town!  See ya!

To see more pictures and read about the Toyota Roadtrip Mobile go to http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/a-home-on-wheels-the-toyota-ro-75559

– Tanille Leal

K.I.S.S.

Posted by Tanille

Hey!  Remember me?  Much thanks goes to Rebecca for keeping up our little blog and her great writing!  I have been a little. . .  ahem, OVERWHELMED.

How did this happen?  A couple of years ago we decided to simplify our lives.  What happened to that?  Well, some of it has been out of our control.  Life has dealt us some responsibilities that we didn’t see coming.  But have we forgotten the “simple rule”?

When we moved into our tiny home I was determined to not let one item in that I didn’t love, use, or find beautiful.  I stopped shopping at the big box stores and weeded out my wardrobe.  It felt great.

I find myself slowly receding back into old habits.  The Costco membership is alive and kicking.  Shopping has once again become my favorite pastime.  James has gone on a hobby binge and it shows in our yard.  Uh oh.  Time to regroup.

Just because you live in a small space doesn’t mean your life is simple.  It’s a mindset, an attitude, a way of life.   And I’ve lost it somewhere.  I truly believe that the more things you have, the more time they take.  Things break, need batteries, need repairs, etc.  So, it’s time to change the mindset and hopefully the yard and the sweet little trailer will benefit from the change.  And maybe I’ll have more time for posting ;-).

-Tanille Leal

Endings and Beginnings

Posted by: Tanille

This year, so far, has been about things falling apart and new beginnings.    A few weeks ago our one and only work van was totaled and we have been basically unemployed, scrambling to get back in business.   And about 2 weeks ago one of my dear friends, also my next-door-neighbor moved away.  Not just to the other side of town, but to China.

It’s been a struggle, it’s been heartbreaking.  But as I write our new work van is headed home.  From what I hear, it’s a whole lot better than the old one.  And we will be back in business by next week with fresh ideas and a new business plan- we’ve had some time to re-group.  And by next week we will be happy that all of this has happened to give us that fresh start that we so needed.

As for the new neighbor, I’m not sure yet who that will be.  It will never be the same and I feel a little sad every time I look over and see the empty trailer next door.  But it will be ok, maybe it will be a new friend or hopefully just someone who can tolerate my barking Chaos.:)

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you learn to appreciate them when they’re right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself…and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

Author: Marilyn Monroe

 

-Tanille Leal

Weekend Project Continued

Posted by:  Tanille

We are almost there folks.  The floor is heating up to 82 degrees and the tile is mostly in.  We worked last night until we realized we were out of tile.  We are pretty close to a lot of our neighbors, but still not quite close enough to knock on their door at midnight to use the bathroom.  So we packed an overnight bag and headed to a local hotel.   One great thing about living in Reno is that locals get amazing specials sometimes and the nice front desk lady must have seen the exhaustion on our faces because she hooked us up with a jacuzzi suite.

Nice.

Enough luxury.  Back to work.

– Tanille Leal

Weekend Project Fun!

Posted by:  Tanille

Ok, so not THAT fun, but the end-product will be amazing.  When we built the bathroom of our trailer we wired (with the help of an electrician  friend) the floor to have radiant heating.  We ran out of energy and funds at the time to complete this and ended up just putting in temporary vinyl flooring.  So, now we are ready.  We kissed our vinyl goodbye (more like a swift kick out the door) and are welcoming new tile and cozy toes 🙂

It’s taken some planning and deep thought – where better to collect your thoughts?

Will post more pics tomorrow of the progress:)

-Tanille Leal

Continued Inspiration

Posted by:  Tanille

I’m on a mission to re-inspire myself.  What made me want to live in a small space so badly?  Why did we give up the cookie-cutter lifestyle and move into a 360 square foot 1959 trailer?  What WAS I thinking?  These thoughts go through my head pretty often these days.

Fortunately, I have finally identified the problem.  I have lost my inspiration.  

Life has gotten pretty simple, despite constant chaos.  I tend to forget the huge amount of stress we used to be under, and how boring life was.  So I’m dedicated to finding that joy again.  That passion for living differently.

I recently read a post on TrailerChix.com about a blog I had visited years ago, called Bumfuzzle.com.  It was a huge inspiration for me.  It’s about a couple who decide to sail the world on a catamaran and not give in to the pull of  “normalcy”.  

My husband, James sees me reading this blog last night and says, “You want to live on a boat?”  (insert eye roll here)  It’s a pretty well-known fact among those in my life, that due to childhood trauma and an overactive imagination I am not a big fan of the water.   So no, that’s not exactly what I want.  But these people are just like us, only cooler.

The point is – it’s inspiring.  I don’t feel inspired by tract homes – no offense, that’s just me – or anything else that’s cookie-cutter and ordinary.  Anyone can do that.  But, very few choose to live a much cooler existence.  I want to be one of those people; wait, I AM one of those people.  As I’m reading through their blog I see that they eventually did get off the boat and traveled on land – now we’re talking.  

I know that this isn’t our final small space that we will live in, there will be others.  What form they will take remains to be seen.  But, happily, we are “those people”.  Thanks Bumfuzzle.com for the renewed inspiration!

-Tanille Leal

“The Long, Long Trailer”

Posted by:  Tanille

A must see for those who live in a trailer or have ever wanted to, or maybe those who just love classic movies.

By – Tanille

How to live the dream for FREE

Posted by:  Tanille

As most of you know, we got our trailer for FREE.  Did not pay one penny for it.  Well, until the remodeling started, but that’s a different story.  We, like most, didn’t even know this was possible.  And we also found Manny’s trailer for FREE.

The only way I have figured out to find one completely free is to drive around and hunt for it.  There are a gazillion trailer parks in the Reno area, and in most of them sits a now neglected, but future gem.  Some are for sale, and still very inexpensive  (I know of one right now if anyone is seriously looking).  But occasionally a trailer has been sitting for so long that the owner or manager of the park can’t wait to just get rid of it (I know of one of those too if anyone is looking).   They are losing money because they can’t rent the trailer in the condition that it is in, and they want the space for a nicer trailer that will make their park look better.

You can also look on craigslist under free items, or trailers or mobile homes.  In the classified section of the paper there are often trailers going up for auction.  This is similar to a foreclosure auction.  The owner of the trailer didn’t pay rent on their space and the park owner took over ownership.  The minimum that you can buy these for is $2500.00 – still a rockin’ deal for an itty bitty home.

Keep in mind, if you find a trailer that has to be moved this will cost you.  If it’s small enough, like ours, all that would be needed is a moving permit, which costs a whopping $5.00 in Nevada.   But if it’s larger you may have some red tape to go through and you may have to hire a “professional”.   For more info on cost and what is involved you should contact the Personal Property Division of the city in which you live. If you are trying to move one to a different state, this will be even more red tape.  Especially in California, they have all sorts of rules.

We searched for ours for about 2 months.  It takes a little while sometimes.  But like my dad always says, “There’s a new deal out there every day,” so don’t give up.

 

You too can live the trailer life dream.

-Tanille Leal

It’s Ongoing. . .

Posted by:  Tanille

Simplifying is quite a process.   I thought selling the majority of our belongings, and moving into a tiny trailer would accomplish it.  Life would be so much easier.  And yes, it was.  But some things take a while.  Let me explain.

Having a lot of things, toys, vehicles, etc also come with bills.  Those don’t magically go away, unfortunately.  Sometimes you are left with debt from that, and it takes a while to whittle that away.  For us, having our own business came with an office, office furniture, office supplies, tons of paperwork, and bills.  As most of you know from my earlier posts, I have gone paperless and eliminated our office.  That was a huge relief.  But what took the longest to sort and get rid of were the 15 years worth of paperwork for the business.  Why did I keep all of the paperwork from the business’s beginning?  Because I could, I had the room.  It was easier to store than deal with.  Last week I finally took the last four boxes of outdated papers to a shredding company and sixteen dollars later I am breathing a lot easier.

When we downsized we rented a storage unit for the stuff we couldn’t part with.  Some of it was family heirlooms, my wedding dress, our childhood stuff and of course the archives of our business.  For almost 2 1/2 years we have been paying 65.00 a month for decisions we couldn’t make.  Well, my friends, those decisions have been made and we have simplified once again. And let me tell you – it feels great.

– Tanille Leal