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Danielle P. wrote

The ceiling and floor are looking wonderful! You're doing a great job with Mirtle.
I hope you won't experience any more mishaps.

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Hilogene in Az wrote

Thanks for the update! I laughed at loud at your photo of your dogs exhausted from their adventure. A picture is worth a thousand words indeed. Congratulations on your huge progress. I have never put in floors or redone walls and ceilings, that is a huge amount of work and looks really well done. I can understand how good it must feel to look around and know that you two did the work.

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Grandma Donna wrote

Thank you Hilogene and Danielle, we will be so happy when this work is done, I know nothing is every really finished but the hard part of this work making it comfortable. Donna

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Darlene from Ohio wrote

Hello Donna,

Thank you for always being "real" and telling us the good and bad and ugly. I did smile at your night time bathroom fiasco. Yes, we absolutely should try new things like that out before we need them in the middle of the night. I know you can laugh at it now, but the horror you were feeling at the time must have been awful. I wanted to say, too, that when you were writing about putting the ceiling up, you said to make sure you wear your "poise". That cracked me up, but I know it to be true, too.

I absolutely love how the walls and ceiling and floor has come out. Gorgeous! What a transformation. You must be thrilled with how far you two have come in making this workshop a home. The bed looks great there and would be a heck of a lot more comfortable than a cot. It does make for more shuffling, but worth it at night, I am sure.

It must be a relief to have most of the big stuff out of the way and some easier items to work on now. I am amazed at what you two have done and it shows me that if you put your mind to it and work hard, you can accomplish much. I do hope the soreness abates soon.

I took the dimensions of the camper we live in. I think I told you hubby and I live in a camper in my parent's side yard. We came out so I could care for Dad after his stroke. He passed a year later and now we are staying to care for my Mom. We have been here five years this past March and I am surprised at how fast time flies by. I am living in similar dimensions as your tiny house. The only difference is where you have a nice rectangle, mine is not. I have 11 1/2 feet wide for about 4 1/2 feet, then it goes down to 8 1/2 feet wide. That width is for 8 1/2 feet. Then it goes down to 31 inches wide hallway to the bathroom, which is 35 inches wide. Yeah, the bathroom is small and you can simply turn around carefully and that is it. I change my clothes where it is wider because the bathroom is so claustrophobic. The funny thing is I am the same length as you, 19 feet.

I am curious as to how you will handle living in these dimensions. Storage is my nightmare. I keep purging and letting go, but you do need to have some things. I try to simplify cooking as much as possible. But I like to use a crock pot and a few other things. They do take up space, tho. I removed the microwave to have more storage.

I think you will not have my problems as you won't be living there full time, but I bet we will share in some problems and irritations. But the view you will have at Myrtle's will be worth any of it. Enjoy every minute of it. And I can tell you that none of the problems matter compared to the peace and quiet of being out in the country.

Thanks for taking us along on your ride.

Darlene

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Donna wrote

Looks wonderful! Can't wait to see how cute everything is when you're finished. Your home photos are always so cozy. Since you've had a mishap with the urinal, I thought I would share what has worked for us while camping. We went to a camping store, REI, I believe and we bought something called a "Lug-A-Loo". It's a commode seat with lid, that fits over a utility bucket. So much nicer for ladies, especially in the middle of the night ;) I hope this might be helpful to you. Take care, Donna

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Donna M Wilson wrote

p.s. I just checked Amazon and the name is Luggable Loo and they are 45.00. They show other options from other companies as well.
Donna

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Grandma Donna wrote

Hi Darlene, it is good to hear from you. The width finished out is 9' 4 & 1/2 inches and 19' 1". We are already seeing that we will have to get real creative about storage. We will be putting up some shelves so that will help.
You are very right about it is worth it to have quiet. We have had to budget all of this and go with the walls and floor type with what we could afford and pay cash and not credit as we went. It is shocking how much each board costs today. I feel we have made it over the hump with the heavy building but there is still much stretching and kneeling to do when we start the baseboards and crown molding. Then I will feel we may have a chance to not be in so much pain. It is a adventure that is for sure. Our bathroom and bathing and night time toilet for now is going to be the old fashioned curved shower bar and a curtain. I will be showing it possibly in my next blog post. I am happy that you are enjoying watching the progress. Thank you for taking the time to comment. Donna

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Grandma Donna wrote

Donna Wilson, Thank you for the information, we actually purchased the seat part and have it on a bucket and have switched to this for now. It is much better. Charles has decided to build us one. :) Thank you for commenting.

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Victoria wrote

You all are making a lot of progress. I know when you are in the midst of a project like this it seems like it's taking forever, but you will be done before you know it. Then you can just relax (like the girls) and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

It's good to hear that your mishaps have only resulted in sore muscles and nothing really serious. Pulled muscles and bruises don't feel good for awhile but generally go away with time and can be mitigated to some extent with just aspirin.

Keep up the good work----it will be worth it in the long run.

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Becky Sue wrote

I love how the walls and floor look! Now that the bed and mirror are in there it looks like a real home. It is amazing how much you are getting done and how good it all looks. I'm sure you must be enjoying it. I hope you will get time soon to be able to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

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Gail wrote

Hello Donna, how lovely to see a new post from you. When we were young and only had an outside toilet, at night time we would use a potty. (chamber pot) in Australia we call outside toilets, thunder boxes or sunnies. My parents had a farm with an outside toilet many years ago and there was a water systern above the toilet. You pulled a chain a the water came down and flushed the toilet, however when you flushed there were big green frogs which hid under the toilet lip and they would hang on to that toilet lip for dear life to avoid being washed down into the toilet. A bit disconcerting at times. Especially when we had visitors.your little cottage sounds delightful to me and once it’s all finished it will be such a lovely place to spend some relaxing days. We are just about to head into summer although the weather her has been dreadful with the 3 eastern states receiving the most rain since the time when they started recording rainfall. We are high we’re we live but lower areas and town near our river systems have so much flooding. Thousands of homes and farm have been inundated. So sad for them. Well now, have a lovely week and thank you again for your newsy post.
Blessings Gail

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Beth wrote

Dear Mrs. Donna, I have read your blog for a few years and dearly love it. We are an off grid family of 5 ( 3 children ages 6,8,11) and we have had similar experiences with the toilet. With cold weather we invested in an old chamber pot and the hubby built a box for it. It sits by the front door and we use that at night and it is the 6 year olds job to empty it first thing in the morning. This works well for us. Bathing has been quite an issue since we moved out here. We do sponge bathe as you have written but we also have invented an indoor shower by the wood stove. In summer we just shower outside After much trial and error hubby built a rectangular pvc frame that can be lowered from the ceiling. The two shower curtain are arranged in a rectangle 50 gallon plastic tote and we have a rechargeable shower pump we drop into a five gallon bucket we temper with warm water. This is working marvelously. Oh I must mention we live in a 16 by 24 wall tent so we have to get more creative at times. I long for the day we build our cabin and have real walls to hang things again. But there are always solutions. I love your peeing in the night story. We do have an outhouse as well but after a year we buried the hole and changed to a compost bucket which we empty on our orchard trees for a tree bog. The trees have thrived and there is very little odor in the outhouse now. We also use cloth no paper for the outhouse. We have done this even before we moved off grid.
Thank you for continuing this blog and I pray you and Charles finish the house and love it.

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Grandma Donna wrote

Victoria it does seem like it has taken us a long time, we realized as we passed the cotton pickers this week that it has been one year since we started the clean out of the old workshop.

Becky Sue, having the bed to sleep on has made much more comfortable and yes having comforts is starting to make it feel homey.

Gail, the toilet issues has been all over the place, it seems our age is the problem, trying to get something sturdy and the right height. Lol, balance seems to our problem. We do have a chamber pot and we made a raised platform to set that on and we have a under the bed chamber pot too which would work for grandchildren and teens and young adults. If we have had to use these through the years we may not have the balance and stiffness issues that we have today. It makes me think about all of these comfy things we have today, have we caused us to become stiff old folks? I got a laugh about your frog story, I got bumped in the but by one of those frogs at my Aunt's house, I did quite a bit of squeeling!

Thank you for your comments. Donna

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Grandma Donna wrote

Hi Beth, thank you for sharing your off grid living experiences about bathing and toileting. It sure is not as simple as we thought it to be and one because we still think young. :) It seems that you are working out some very good solutions. We have a tent your size so it gives me a mental picture of you challenges and your fun times. Our tent experiences is why we ended up doing this work on the old workshop and it is not the tent is is our age. You are creating memories and wonderful life experiences and your children will always remember their childhood adventures living in the then and hopefully living in the cabin. Please share anytime. Grandma Donna

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Sendee wrote

Oh how I enjoy your posts! Your stories are comforting and encouraging. Thank you for taking the time to share your life with us!

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Grandma Donna wrote

Thank you Sender, that helps me to keep on blogging.

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Patti wrote

I was so happy to see you on Instagram, and now I see you have comments as well. I am happy to catch up with your progress on Myrtle…your floor looks great! I am sorry to have laughed at your mishap story, but it sounds like something I would do! You only make mistakes like that once!

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Cindy wrote

Great post. Can’t wait for the finish product. Your urinal experience was funny (sorry). That would be my luck. What kind of knitting projects?

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Grandma Donna wrote

Cindy, I never found the time to knit on Saturday but I am making new dishcloths and scrubbies. I have a couple of new patterns I want to try and also Charles and I need some warm winter caps I hope to knit. :) Donna

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Grandma Donna wrote

Pattie, I am happy you found me on Instagram. I am still learning how to use it but I am figuring it out. That is okay, you can laugh, we have had a few laughs about it too. Donna

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Teresa Pittman wrote

You need this:
https://tinyurl.com/ms44eycj

I've used this one car camping. I like the beadboard ceiling. I may need to do that here. And I need trim pretty much everywhere.

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Grandma Donna wrote

Thank you Teri, that one looks like it would be helpful traveling.

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Lissa wrote

"It was the best of times. it was the worst of times"...Sounds like it! What a job your have undertaken and I can imagine how much excitement you will have when it's all finished. Men certainly have urinating easy don't they!! I've been back to the beginning of your blog and enjoy those posts again. I often long to hear my grandparents and father laughing on the front porch of the family home in Pittsburgh. You mentioned that you married young? May I ask, how young? Did a young Charles moving the hay catch your eye from the start? hahaha.

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Grandma Donna wrote

Lissa, my grandmother eloped on a mule as a young teen. Like Grandmother, like Granddaughter, but we did not have a mule. :) I do have a picture of Charles carrying a bale of hay with a cowboy hat but that was not that long ago. :) Some things I do keep personal on this great big web.

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Stephenie wrote

It looks so beautiful! I am just amazed at all that you and Charles are doing. I love the floor, and your dogs look happy and relaxed. I hope you get it done soon and can relax and knit.

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Emma - Barradale Farm wrote

Oh I had a chuckle at your toilet dilemmas. We live off-grid and I can relate to them well. We now have a basic composting toilet in a small bathroom right outside our yurt door, and whilst it is not fancy, it is better than hiking outside in the rain which is what we di for the first year.

Your tiny is looking lovely, and it sounds very peaceful where you are. Being able to stay where you work is really helpful. It saves a lot of energy and time.

xx

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Grandma Donna wrote

Thank you Stephanie for your comment.

Emma, that helps my feelings from someone that has done this. Living long ago without running water and electricity was very different than today because they simply lived like this from once they were born. But the main thing is they had the tools and facilities. A good wood burning stove and outhouse. It was not that bad to them when that was all they knew. I was raised with running water and electricity but I had family that did not have it and visited family. Once we get things in place it will be more comfortable. :) I will check out your blog. :) Thank you, Donna

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Debbie (in PA) wrote

I have always enjoyed everything that you write, and your stories of your progress on Myrtle have been no exception. I always look forward to your updates, and the next entries in the diaries. Seems more real than the "real" world most of the time!

Thank you for continuing to share. It has been a real blessing to follow along and see what is possible to create when you put your mind to it!

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Rhonda Meiners wrote

Oh my goodness - you made me smile today! You're potty mishap sounds so like something that would happen to me! You and Charles are making so much progress on your tiny house. All that hard work will make you appreciate that space so much more when you can finally relax and enjoy it! I have said so many times that our new, modern ways are usually never as good as the old ways. I find myself doing more and more things the old way and enjoying life so much more! Looking forward to getting caught up on your posts again! I like to have them to look forward to! Hope to hear that you're slowing down, enjoying spending time in Myrtle, making memories with Maude, and knitting up a storm soon!

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Grandma Donna wrote

Rhonda Meinder, thank you for your comment. Oh how I look forward to when we get to this point that I can sit down in Myrtle and knit! What a lovely thought, thank you. :)

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Lisa wrote

Arnica gel from a drug store can be helpful with the bumps and bruises you two are getting during this work.
Love your blogs!
Lisa

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