Monday, February 17, 2014

Unlikely Beginning

February 11, 2014

Subtitle:  One salvaged window and three tattered pieces of foam board

After years of contemplating the building of a tiny home of my own, and one disappointing false start, there was some doubt in my mind that I would ever see the dream through.  I moved to Portland a few weeks ago to live with new friends who are housing me and lending me space based on my proposal to build a tiny house in the backyard.  Expectations of follow-through are upon me!  I find this daunting, but also motivating and exciting.  Daunting, because this mobile cabin project poses many challenges; motivating and exciting, because I know I won't let myself and others down.  The stage is set for success despite the potential bumpy road.  

I approach this project as an experiment.  One does not necessarily know how best to design an experiment, nor do they know with certainty its outcome.  I'm on a steep learning curve with an independently supervised experiment.  Challenges will be encountered and overcome, errors will be made and learned from.  I remind myself that this fact is more than okay with me.  Risk is a catalyst for growth, both of which are necessary ingredients for a well-lived life.

So far there has been a lot of thinking, drawing, talking, and reading, but nothing really tangible to signal to myself and others that this project is anything other than a pipe dream.  I've been agonizing over the selection of a trailer and still have not ordered one.  A trailer is the all-important foundation.  To have a trailer lined up would be a concrete step in converting dream to reality.  But today that step was achieved not by the purchase of a trailer, but by the acquisition of one salvaged window and 3 beat-up sheets of rigid foam insulation...

That my project begins with these 4 tangible items seems laughable.  But holding my window and imagining looking out through it from a shelter that I personally constructed is exciting and galvanizing.  Today I understood that this project will at last become a reality.  

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