Home

Years ago, tBoy and I realized that we have rather different perspectives on what home is.  For me it is the physical space where I sleep, eat, read, hang out...  It is where my things are: my books, bed, towels, clothes...  It is where I feel safe and comfortable.  It is my apartment, my house.  tBoy doesn't associate home with any particular place and he has no attachment to his physical dwelling.  He feels most at home in Nature, among the trees, under the stars.

Having said that though, I think that each of our notions of home has evolved since being together.  I have taken on a more zen, less attached approach to my stuff and I believe that tBoy has grown an appreciation for creating a cozy space to return to each day.  Building a tiny house together will allow me to let go of more stuff while tBoy will get the opportunity to connect with (and attached to) this home through the design and building process.

Before I met tBoy, I lived in an artist cooperative called Arts Habitat.  The hallways and common area made up the art gallery that was open to the public once a week.  It was also a venue for art shows which usually included live bands, food+drinks and of course ART (lots of it)!  Each artist live/work space was both home and studio.  There were visual artists, musicians, photographers, film makers, dancers etc.  It was a community and I could always knock on someone's door to hang out, borrow eggs, find a dog sitter, get help to unclog my toilet!  Here is a peek inside my space at the time:

(Can you spot the chicks in some of the photos?  They were from a class I was teaching :)! )

Then I fell in love with tBoy during a summer trip on the Coast.  This was his studio at the time:

That studio is probably the same size as (or even a little bigger than?) the tiny home we want to build.  Instead of a fireplace, we now want a wood stove.  And we want a garden, but one that is in the forest (not facing the back alley!)

When tBoy convinced me to move to his city, we decided we needed more space.  So we moved right into urbanity - into a brand new 26th floor apartment in a hipster part of downtown.  It had all the modern appliances and even a view of the ocean and the mountains (on a rare sunny day).

Turns out we aren't hipster!  We prefer to wake up early and play in Nature and to go to bed before the party people even leave their house for a night out!  So we moved away from the main core and into a close-by neighbourhood known to be a bit multicultural, a bit artsy, a bit hippie.  We were excited to move into the big orange house (i love orange!)  We had a garden, a shed for all our gear, great neighbour/landlords (who reduced our rent during our tenancy - who do you know ever had that happen?!), a big green field for playing ball with tDog just behind the house and no more screaming drunk people.  We also had much more space in our home (which we wanted... at first).

But eventually, we felt that the 2 bedroom + den place was too big.  By most standards tBoy and I have very little stuff, yet it still felt like too much (admittedly, it was mostly mine!)  I had an intense desire to downsize... to shed my stuff... to be in a smaller, cozier space.  We started dreaming about the the Forest... the Ocean... the Mountains... and a cabin.  Two months later, we moved just over an hour away from the city... into a valley... surrounded by mountains... in the Rainforest... by the River... on a farm (with animals! - more on that later...) into this cabin:

This is home.  For now.  Until we build our very own home.  Soon.  What does 'home' mean to you?