Helping out a Friend I've never met: Kim Langston

Kim Langston's Tiny House:

Ms. Kim had almost finished her tiny house.

It was water tight and ready for the interior work to make it a home. 

BEFORE: 

And then the barn, which you can see in the picture here, caught fire and...





AFTER:

Currently, there is a fund raising campaign to help rebuild Kim's Tiny House.

You can learn all about Kim and her Tiny House,  @

 Tiny House, Big Heart

I've already donated and I'm hoping anyone can, will do so too.

There isn't any insurance for a Tiny House, we're going to have to rely on other members of the Tiny House community in these situations.

I've done what I can this month, payday is this Tuesday so I'll be able to give a little more then. 

MSATOZ

Birthday Presents

I went out to Home Depot and bought a Ryobi miter saw; a Black and Decker folding stand, and a Diablo medium cutting blade, good for ripping 2x4's.

I'm going to spend the weekend reading the owners manual and figuring out where not to put my hands, as I have kinda gotten use to having fingers.  Pictures soon.

See what happens when I get a four day weekend?

Friday: Black and Decker Workbench put together.

Nothing is going on...

Ok, I got an A in my welding class. :)

And was already to sign up for the next one, when two things happened simultaneously:

First: The next class for the welding sequence did not 'make' i.e. have enough people sign up for the class to be listed, hence it was cancelled.  So, I considered signing up for the class held at our branch an hour away...

When

Second: I lost two employees in the same week.  Half my staff! The first got very ill and we are all keeping this person in our thoughts and prayers, with a hope to have them back at work on March 18th after spring break. The Second person just earned a Masters in Library Science and quickly found a job paying WAY more then here, so that's employee #two out the door. 

Result: A six day work week with hours ranging between 50 to 60 hours; I haven't been able to work on anything but paying bills and keeping the house half clean.

Good news: The new person starts tomorrow!

The bad news, I'm still on the long shifts until I have the new person trained up, sometime in April.

Shivering in the Cold

I am currently in a rent house.

It’s a nice rent house and I have a great landlord.

But I am shivering.

The house is a 1930’s cottage: With little or no insulation in the floors, walls or ceiling/attic space. 

This is one area I am now firmly convinced that I will be spending enough money on so that I will have a warm in the winter and cool in the summer vardo. 

Spray Foam will be in my future!

With good windows too.

Happy New Year everyone!

One welding class done

Just a quick update to let you know, I finished my welding class with an 'A'

My instructor suggests I take TIG welding next term.

Then the Prefabrication. and Layout class. But seeing how I really need to start working on my PhD.

I"m not sure I'm going to have time.  

I want one.

So I have been sick for the last week and getting nothing done on anything really.

Trolling through clips of Pennsic I find the following cottage on wheels

Now this is truly beautiful. I wouldn't mind something like this.

Welding Class going well. Random Thoughts...

I have been to three of my welding classes, there will be 14 more to go.

Our first test on material in the book is this next Friday. That's a week earlier than what was in the syllabus because we are moving along so well. My instructor (the welding guy from previous posts) seem to think that I'm doing well on the practical portions of the class at least. I think, that he thinks that he's going to turn me into a welder. If I do, it won't be stick welding, my arms are to short.

So I'm doing some sewing and working on a build list this weekend; I'm online to make an update post here, but first I checked my email on yahoo. There on yahoo is this article on living only on social security in a person's old age.  (And I know that it is being published at a time to scare or shock people so close to the U.S. elections Or blame President Obama or the republican nominee, I didn't look that hard to figure it out.)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tightwire-act-living-only-social-154206642.html

That's not the point: What I got out of it was...

This article is describing my mother and many more like her.
And I started to wonder is this what is in my future too?
I too am living paycheck to paycheck, having only just paid off my student loans, and am working hard to pay off the rest of my debts. I have a small emergency fund in the bank but Social Security and my Teacher Retirement Fund will be all I have when I retire.

So, should I be building a tiny house instead of vardo?
Or, should I make the vardo as large as I can because I may need to live in it one day.
If I make a tiny house I could make it look like a Danish Half Timber affair.

I'm just going to work on the welding class and the base before having to make more important decisions.

Sigh.