I spent the last five-and-a-half years building an 8'x16' house on wheels. The project landed in my lap, suddenly, via casual proposal of my friend, John (my building-coach-to-be). It was one more of a string of serendipities that brought me to the the Island and seemingly set me up for this very moment (see Tiny Origins story for more details). Since I had never considered building anything before, I had no resources to allocate toward such an endeavor. I had received my internal marching orders and jumped in while still struggling to find financial footing for basic needs on the Isle with only the spare time between housecleaning and odd jobs. Sometimes the day jobs took up the spare time, or my client load would lighten, leaving time to build, but little money for materials. Did I mention I had no prior construction experience, don't yet own my own land and had to move four times over the course of the project? Excuses... excuses...

fun doing it?
"Sometimes," (with a smile) is my standard reply. I call it my labor of love and agony. Though I never gave in to failure, neither did I always know how I would succeed. So it was with a sense of triumph that I put the house up for sale last July (Plan A), alongside the road on some friends' organic farm (www.ravenspadefarm.com) and waited to see what would happen. It is now October. The house remains unsold, so... Plan B: Inhabit.

And so after the third time that Brad, one of my current hosts of the wee house, asked,
"Why don't you move in, yourself? You could live here." I stopped replying with,
"Because I want to pay off my car," (loan payments being against my religion). Instead, I entered into land rental negotiations with Brad and Camille.. The decision was confirmed on October 4. I'm moving by November 1 to the corner of Camille's garden (The Raven and the Spade), and I have to admit, I'm ending up with practically everything I've wished for since I relocated to Whidbey--community vegetable garden, a place to work with onsite mentors (Brad is a boatwright with the shop next to Camille's garden), my own house on the same property...
Let the downsizing begin!