Making Progress

It has been a bit since I last posted, but that is because I have been making HUGE amounts of progress on my tiny home. Recently I have begun drawing my plans to scale and modifying the blueprints to meet my needs. My kitchen is going to be amazing and I managed to fit in a staircase. Yes, you read correct, a staircase. Many of you may be trying to puzzle that one out and wondering just how I did so, but I am not going to share until I am done building and post photos because it is so brilliant and I don't want anyone to snag the plan and try to market it. It will just have to suffice when I say that storage will increase as well as the ability to get to the loft without having to be part monkey when I turn 70.

New Logo for the Rancho No Dinero Podcast

Coming soon to iTunes, Zune (XBox Live), and Stitcher Radio is the Rancho No Dinero Podcast. Listen as I  podcast about my  adventure of building a tiny house and establishing my sustainable homestead!! Stay tuned for more information and an RSS feed link.

Inspiration

" I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms..." .. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Beginning Thoughts on Plumbing

I have been considering options regarding plumbing for my tiny home. There are lots of options for running water lines from traditional Copper on to the more modern PEX. While researching the options, I came across this ingenious little item.  Known as the Clear J Trap, it is a semi-transparent (there are other options ranging from black to clear) J-Trap that opens at the bottom! How awesome is that?

DIY: Home Made Laundry Soap

I have this intense desire to nest and when it comes to my home, I am super-duper organized. I love to clean and I love to learn new tips and tricks. I believe in having  a home, not just a house with walls and a roof. One of the things I really enjoy doing is making things from scratch and getting back to basics. I am also a teacher, so I get screwed and live on poverty wages my income is limited. If I can save money, all the better!

Last night I made my entire year's worth of laundry soap. It is very easy, just a little time consuming as it is done in two steps. I learned this and modified the recipe from here. Think you might like to try? Here is how I did it...

Investing in Cast Iron Cookware

Lately I have been reading up about pots and pans. Odd, I know, but I need to get new pans and I found out some disturbing information about pans that have non-stick coatings and those made of aluminum. Evidently studies have shown that non-stick coatings convert to gasses and leach chemicals into food. I have long stayed away from aluminum because of its link to Alzheimer's and Dementia. So in my quest to find the perfect choice of cookware I discovered a blog that had a Junk Up Your Kitchen Challenge.

Loveable Loo - The Composting Toilet

There are many things that I think about as I plan and create my tiny homestead. One of the most common questions I get is plumbing related. I explain how I will have a gravity fed water system with a supplemental pump for water pressure, how we will harvest rainwater and use grey water to water the gardens, but the one question that is most popular is how my toilet facilities work.