Sunday, January 24, 2016

Crisis at 3AM!

A major snowstorm started Friday night. Amelia woke up early Saturday morning at about 3AM for a bottle. At that time Damien realized the door to our water heater had blown off in the wind. He figured it out when he went to use the bathroom (where the door is) and it was about 5 degrees in there. He had to go outside and try to do something to the opening until morning when he could try to fix it. It was super windy, cold and dark, but he managed to find the door and prop it up against the opening and secure it with a huge piece of wood. When he got back in we realized our pipes had froze and we didn't have any running water.  We decided to just forget about until morning when he could go out and try to fix it with whatever we had around the house and shed. 

There is literally a piece of paneling and the shower wall between us and the water heater and then this really junky door that should have been replaced right after we bought the trailer but it got put on the long list of other stuff we had to handle and didn't get done.  I don't have an updated photo of the door to give you an idea because we have about 3 feet of snow right now but in this photo you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. 


So early Saturday morning Damien got to work on trying to secure the door and getting our water back up and running. Going anywhere was completely out of the question so he had to use what we had around here to fix it. 

He came up with several squares of styrofoam that he duct taped together to make an extra barrier between the door and wall and then screwed up some plywood over the door.  When the snow clears up and we can go somewhere we are going to replace the door but for now it is working out great and the pipes thawed out in no time.

Unfortunately we had to tear up some paneling for this in what we refer to as the "tiny room". It's somewhat back together but we need new paneling so for now the old piece is tacked in. 



In the above photo you can get an idea of the styrofoam. 


This is where the pipes froze. 






Below is how the wall is looking now. Looks kind of pathetic but since there is no driving allowed it's going to have to do for now. 


I feel like we can't even get through one week without some mini-crisis around here. It's all part of the fun I guess. 

The good news is that Damien and I are getting ready to start work on the house again. We are making a good solid plan on paper to get work going on the house and hope to see some major changes to it within the next few months.  








Saturday, January 2, 2016

Let your past make you better, not bitter.

It's been more than a month since my last post! But for good reason! The last few weeks of my pregnancy I was way too lazy to do anything around the mobile home and then finally Amelia Rae decided to arrive just in time for Christmas on December 17th at 1:55 AM.


Work is now going to be resuming on both the trailer and our house.  Damien will be back to knocking down walls at the house and I'm going to continue to attempt to make this tiny house organized and cozy.  Today we are going shopping for a new front door because the one we have now is really drafty...not to mention ugly as can be. Fun things (like new curtains and more paint) are on hold right now because our furnace didn't come on (of course) so we need to have it looked it at on Monday. I think we both expected it not to turn on because, well, we've replaced just about everything else in this place so why would the furnace just turn on for us when we needed it? We're staying cozy in here with 2 heaters. It doesn't take much to heat up 500 sq.ft.  Damien is testing the thermostat today to double check that isn't bad. I'm crossing my fingers that is the problem but based on our experience with this place - it won't be that easy. 

This morning Abigail asked why we had to live in a trailer while "everyone else" lives in a "regular house". She wasn't being negative but was simply just curious. For a few minutes I was sad but then I reminded myself why we chose to do this. Living in such small quarters you have to remind yourself quite often why you are making this choice and remind yourself that things will be easier in the long run because of your choice. It doesn't matter how positive you are or how much you love your family,  it isn't always easy to live like this and some days are just plain hard.  We gave up a lot in hopes that it would pay off. Eventually it will, and until then we just need to try our best to stay positive, even on those rough days. 






SUBSCRIBE

Instagram