The inside of the shed--video

I recently put up a couple of new videos on YouTube to show the progress with the shed...here's the one of the inside!  It seems to take a while to buffer...sorry!

A very cool tiny-house concept

From Kent Griswold's Tiny House Blog...a community of small houses sharing green spaces and amenities.  http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house/ross-chapin/ 

Here's another similar community:  http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/wyers-end/  Charming houses, with a lot of thought put into them--also Ross Chapin's designs, like the first link.

Building like this, several small houses on a multi-family lot, can help meet minimum square foot requirements of some town building codes.  I've heard of several places where this has been done...not sure I could have built my shed if it was intended to be inhabited (and of course it would have required plumbing, etc., if that had been the case.)

Simple Pleasures

Morning at the shed, reading, meditating, sketching...

I normally take a travel mug of coffee with me, but I'll admit it is soon gone.  A few mornings, I've taken an egg in my pocket--there's still enough water in the big copper pot to let me fill my little pan and put my farm-fresh egg on to boil.  I love the versatile hot plate...

If I've cleaned the egg well enough, I'll use the water to make a cup of tea to have with it...I keep a bit of sea salt in a terra cotta jar, and while I wait for the egg to cool enough to peel, sketch it in my journal then have a good hot breakfast on a cold morning.

The small plate with the spirals was made by a potter friend, 

and Joseph brought the pretty mug with him from Virginia.

Simple pleasures...

Learning as I go...

...the more I use the little shed, the more I learn about it--what works, what doesn't, what I love, what I need to tweak.

The windows are wonderful!  I love the views, and the feeder right outside the desk window.  I've been less than 2 feet from the wild birds there.  I love watching the seasons change...we WILL need to do something about storm windows, sort of, but I installed the last of the weather stripping this week, and it helped.

I knew the single layer of plywood wouldn't do for the floor, and it doesn't.  Still need to fix/replace the insulation, but it's going to need more than that.  The rug will help, for the winter...then, I'm not sure.  Since the shed is up on legs for its foundation (with the wind whistling underneath!), it really should have a LOT more insulation than one slim layer of Styrofoam. 

Live and learn...

We replaced the folding chair at the desk with one that's actually the right height to work for any length of time.  Since I shove it under the desk when not in use, it really doesn't take any more floor space, and the folding chair is still there for company!

I love the hot plate...very, very versatile.  I make tea and coffee, boil eggs, toast muffins....takes very little room but does a LOT.

I learned that I needed more light to do art, and we put in the studio light over the desk, which is terrific...

...and which reminded me that I really, really should have had more plug-ins installed.  Retrofitting isn't as easy as doing it in the first place, but it's gotta happen.  The cords are awkward, unhandy and unsightly...we need two plug-ins on that south wall (there's one, now, but I need one near the desk) and one on the west wall.  

And the jury is still out on the heating situation.  It's been down in the 20s, but it gets a LOT colder here.  Eventually, with two heaters, a down laprobe and a heating pad under my feet, I've been comfortable enough...

Just got the word on the little stove...

Before taking a chance on installing it in the shed--and it WOULD just be auxiliary, emergency, fun, luxury heat, since I'm not out there all the time to stoke it, and neither of us can cut enough wood for full time use--I called our insurance company.

No go.  Any woodstove in anything they insure has to have the UL approved label for safety.  I'd read that you could use these in outbuildings, barns, and such, and hoped my shed would qualify, but nope.  So I guess we're looking at a new one...eventually.  So far the electric heaters are working fine, without too much (any?) additional on our electric bill, so we'll see.

I DO like having the heat on a timer, so it warms up before I go out...the other day it was only 47 degrees, but that was a lot better than the 28 it was outside!  54 degrees this morning in the shed, but warmed quickly once I turned it up...

Guess this one will go back on Craigslist for someone who doesn't have to deal with insurance or plans to put it in a barn or workshop!