Morgan from Gerlock Towing hauled our new tiny house T42 on her maiden voyage home.
On Friday, Dec 30th we moved T42 to her new spot where we're Creating a New Tiny Cohousing Community. Most years I make the transition between one year and the next with some quiet days of contemplation, reflection, and intention setting. This year Isha and I did those things, too, but our days weren't exactly quiet. Instead, we had two tiny houses in motion, which meant figuring, patience, a decent amount of physical labor in cold temperatures, and a lot of deep breaths.
Isha, Lori, and I met up at the house early on Friday morning to load the rest of our tools and supplies into the truck and secure the exterior trim with a few more nice long stainless steel decking screws. When we wrapped that up, I got out the bottle of dandylion wine my friends Sarah and Corey made us, which we'd been saving for a special occasion. We decided this was definitely that special occasion. Then we did our blessing ceremony, which has become a tradition for us when we send a house on her maiden voyage. (You can also check out Lucky Penny's Maiden Voyage and Paper Boat House's Maiden Voyage.)
Isha and I officially named the house T42 (which came from Tiny for Two originally, but we do love, tea, too!) Then we each said a little blessing and drizzled a little dandylion wine over the tongue of the trailer (next best thing to breaking a bottle of champaign on the prow of the ship!) We each took a sip to seal the deal and then tucked the rest away for the after party. With our house christened, she was ready to hit the road.
Morgan from Gerlock Towing & Heavy Haul showed up a few minutes before 11AM to hitch up T42 and haul her home. At the same time, we got the call from United Rentals that the skid steer was on its way to our house, so Isha headed out to meet the delivery. We waved our goodbyes to Green Anchors and Lori and I followed the little house to our new property in the Cully neighborhood of Portland. (Lori took an awesome time lapse video of T42's Maiden Voyage, which we'll post as soon as she's able to finish it up - which may be a while since she's off to Guatamala for three weeks to do a yoga teacher training - as if she wasn't already awesome enough!)
It only took Morgan a little over an hour to get T42 safely delivered to our place.
Isha and I used our cell phones as walkie-talkies (with headsets 'cuz you know that's the modern way) and kept in touch throughout the move. Within an hour and fifteen minutes Morgan had T42 safely deposited in front of our house and we were giving impromptu tours to curious neighbors walking by.
So far, so good. We knew the next phase would likely be the tricky part, so we picked up some burrito fortification at our local and nibbled on our lunch in the new tiny house.
When Matt arrived we fed him a burrito, promised him adult drinks, and told him we were at his beck and call. Then the fun part began. And by fun, I mean it's good that my meditation that morning was all about faith and calm. Faith that Morgan and Matt would use their mad wizard skills to get our tiny house safely home. Knowing our house was in good hands, we were able to be relatively calm about the whole problem-solving business of turning our house nearly 360 degrees and then parallel parking her in the space between our fence and our shed.
This was mid-move, when T42 was being reoriented in our yard but before she was situated in her spot.
I'm so excited to show you the time lapse video of T42's Maiden Voyage so you can see for yourself the feat that Matt accomplished. He hooked the skid steer up to the little house and pulled her into the yard then began pivoting her around until he could get the right angle to back her tail end into place and shimmy her tongue into line. This involved about a 39 point turn, which meant dropping the tongue jack to the ground, unhooking the skid steer, reorienting the machine, reconnecting the skid steer, and lifting the jack. There may have been some come alongs, chains, infinity straps, and some frantic raking of wood chips involved as well. And did I mention lots of deep breaths?
But, Captain Matt accomplished his mission and in good time, too. My favorite moment was when the house was turned and positioned properly to be parked and this giant sunbeam shined on Matt and he grinned that fabulous impish "hell yeah" grin of his. Matt is an incredibly modest person, but when I first saw him driving equipment and told him "You're GOOD!" he replied "Yup." He is. He's really good.
We wrapped up before sunset, with plenty of time to give Lori and Isha skid steer lessons (my nerves were too shot by that point to even try it!) Then we opened up bottles of cider and toasted Matt and our new house. Isha and I breathed big sighs of relief and then went out to dinner at our favorite neighborhood restaurant to celebrate.
Sighs of relief and jubilant celebration. Our tiny house is home! Cheers!