ADU, Travel, Community
Lina Menard
Maui, Hawaii

After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.

Maui, Hawaii
Tiny House, Travel, Planning
Lina Menard
Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla

A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.

Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla
Minimalism, Workshop
Lina Menard
Downsizing Tune Up

As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…

Downsizing Tune Up

UrbaNest

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Welcome, Shelter Wise!

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The following is a message from Shelter Wise (formerly UrbaNest), one of the companies with which I've partnered for tiny house design, building, and consulting. We're excited about our first joint tiny house build weekend of the season, Casa Pequena on April 19-21 as part of La Casa Verde in McMinnville, OR. Please check out all the great stuff Shelter Wise is up to and tell them Lina sent ya!
 

Shelter Wise in Bamboo

Greetings,

Business is good and we have many of you to thank for that!  We have been doing a lot of reflecting and are excited to announce our new make over.We have developed our business name into something that we feel fits us like a glove and really embodies all that we do: Shelter Wise.Our website has been updated with expanded information, photos and a blog --so check it out!  We are still offering the same unique services for your dwelling needs and we have been eagerly awaiting this new name to join us.
We are also excited to announce the newest member of our team, Ben Brower, and look forward to introducing you to him. He has a background in Sustainable Building Advising and Project/Operational Management. He will be assisting us in providing all of your Energy Efficiency and Tiny Home needs!

We are also excited to have a new place to do our creative work and we are so lucky to be able to share it with Mr. Sun Solar in NE Portland.  We will be hosting upcoming workshops there and hopefully learning more about solar collaboration; make an appointment and stop by sometime!
We are also over the moon excited to be partnering with Dee Williams and Joan Grimm of Portland Alternative Dwellings and Lina Menard of Niche Consulting on all things Tiny Homes.  Stay tuned for more on that.
Please make note of our new contact information below and don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or concerns.  And please pass this along to anyone else you think may be interested--we thank you in advance for spreading the word!If we currently have a contract with you we will follow up individually over the next week with an Amendment noting our name change.
Sincerely,
Derin, Andra & Ben
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Tiny House Workshop Weekend

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Lina-and-crowd It was a pleasure to be part of the Portland Alternative Dwellings Tiny House Workshop this weekend, along with Derin of UrbaNest, Brittany of Bayside Bungalow, and Chris and Melisssa Tack of Tiny Tack House. Tiny house enthusiasts from around Oregon and Washington joined us at the Historic Kenton Firehouse for the workshop. A few workshop participants even travelled internationally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada! Thanks for dedicating your weekend to tiny houses everyone. We're so glad you did!

Tiny-house-touring-and-chatting

The two-day workshop covered everything from framing and tie-downs for mobile structures to the “sticky wickets” of how wee structures are addressed by code. We were lucky to have so many experienced tiny house designers, builders, and dwellers present to share different approaches. Dee Williams led most of the workshop sessions and asked us to chime in throughout. I'm so glad we've been Partnering with PAD. In one session Derin used a life-size model to demonstrate his super energy-efficient building strategies. In another session Brittany shared information about her greywater system and humanure composting system. Chris and Melissa described their kitchen layout, appliance selection, and how the two of them share the small space they designed for themselves. I addressed regulatory considerations, moving a tiny house down the road, zoning and building, and creating tiny house community. On the second day we wrapped up with a visit to Pod 49 to tour a tiny house.

It was a treat to meet more tiny house enthusiasts and to learn about everyone’s ideas and hopes. It’s so fun to see the tiny house community grow!

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Building an UrbaNest

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Through coordinating the Pedalpalooza Accessory Dwelling Tour I met Derin and Andra who built an ADU in their basement. We’ve kept in touch about small spaces and I was excited to learn that Derin and Andra have recently decided to start an energy efficiency consulting and tiny house building company called UrbaNest NW. First step: build a tiny house. I’ve been missing building since I wrapped up the tiny house I built for Orange Splot through My Summer Dream Job. So on Saturday I went over to Derin’s place to help him frame up the walls. It was a perfect October day: high clouds, yellow and orange leaves floating down in the breezes and blusters, still warm but with a hint of crispness. Derin already had one of the short walls mostly finished when I arrived so I helped him with the window framing and the top plates. Then we moved on to one of the long walls.

I took over the chop station while Derin did the final figuring. Derin is meticulous and had everything organized and laid out, but it’s amazing how there are always little tweaks here and there that are necessary once you start building in real life. We were talking about this when we took a snack break in the late afternoon.

I told him I often think of rock climbing when I’m building. Designing is like climbing at an indoor rock gym. You can get pretty good at technical climbing indoors: balancing, strength, agility, spotting your next foothold, etc. All this knowledge transfers to climbing on real rock, but outside you have more factors to consider. You’re contending with slippery surfaces, critters in the cracks, loose rocks, temperature variations, etc. Building is more like climbing on real rock: you’re dealing with the actual pieces of wood that are going to become your wall structure and they all have their own personalities. It’s like they come to the building process willing but with caveats. This is, of course, one of the most frustrating aspects of building, but that character is what gives wood it’s beauty and makes it a pleasure with which to work.

Once we’d knocked out two walls it was tempting to keep going, but Derin wisely suggested that we do the rest of the cuts and lay out the wall so that he could put it all together in the morning when he was fresh. We set up a second chop station and got to work. The two long walls are nearly symmetrical so we were able to lay out the new frame on top of the first one. Thanks to Derin’s detail-orientedness, the two matched up perfectly, at least at the lay out stage! I wanted so badly to come back the next day and help get the other walls up, but my schoolwork demanded my attention. So Derin had a few other friends come help out and I had to just appreciate the photographic evidence of another hard day’s work.