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by Tricia

As I mentioned before, my husband and I had some interesting conversations while we were clearing the clutter out of our heads during our camping trip. The first one was regarding the cabin itself.

Our cabin was about 10 x 10. I didn’t have a tape measure, so that is my best approximation. It was a very comfortable size for a room, although their layout was poorly done to maximize space (they had a really weird bunk bed where the top bunk and bottom bunk were at a 90 degree angle). We’ll just say that the cabin was bigger than some rooms in our current house and a little smaller than others (our living room is about 13 x 13).

As we discussed the size, I already started thinking about the layout. To me, that cabin size would make for a comfy kitchen. Add another cabin on the other side and I could see our living room. Add a few more cabins and you have two bedrooms. That puts us at 400 sq. feet. At two more cabins for a bathroom and perhaps a little more space in the living room and you have a 600 sq. foot home. I should note that any future home of ours would have a basement so there would be added storage area and some peace of mind during a tornado warning.

With being in that cabin, it gave us a great feel for what it would be like living in a smaller home. Both my husband and I liked it. Of course, we had to discuss the screened in outdoor living room/porch that we would also have, but that is not included in a home’s size 😛 Next up, I would love to visit a small home to really get an idea if we would like it or not. I do believe our current home (about 1,100 sq feet) is too large and poorly laid out.

Is a small home for everyone? Of course not. I don’t think everyone should do it. But for us, where we are in our lives, our ideals are becoming more concrete. It doesn’t involve a huge home with a white picket fence. Sure, they are very pretty and grand, but who are we kidding? There’s no way we’d want to clean a large home – and there’s no way I’d want to spend the money to furnish it! The key to making a small home work would be to have a great layout and smart furniture/appliances.

Of course, not much can be done until our finances are in better shape. But we can keep looking at houses/plans and we can start doing another important step into turning all of this into a reality. That’s discussion #2 which I’ll write about tomorrow 🙂

by Tricia

We did end up going camping over the weekend. I found a small cabin available on the Lake and snatched it up for Saturday night. We were thinking buying a tent, but the cabin ended up being cheaper right now once you factored in the tent cost and the site fee. There is also that fear of rain since I’ve slept in a leaky tent before. If we buy a tent, I want it to be a really nice one and that will cost quite a bit.

So we got a cabin. It was probably about 10ft x 10ft and had electricity complete with a small fridge and a hot plate. Because of that, we didn’t need any special food for our trip. Well, we did get some marshmallows for the fire. I thought the trip would run about $60 but it ended up being $83. $30 of that cost was from buying three of those fold up chairs. Now that we have some, we will be using them for going to the beach, fishing, parades and any future camping trips. Before we were just sitting on the sand, rocks or pavement. A bit of a luxury for our tushies, but we will use them and they fit with our whole downsizing/maximizing our space goal.

Now that the monetary consideration is out of the way – let me tell you…I needed that break from the “norm.” Everyone had a very nice time. Here are a few of the highlights:

1.) My son got to see his first flaming marshmallow. I tried to get him to take a bite of the charred remains but he wasn’t going near it.

2.) Our campfire was fueled by four containers of dead wood from our yard from the past few years. We were finally able to get rid of that. Yay!

3.) The only pair of shorts that fit me (the rest are too big now) bit the dust. They had a little hole near the pocket and it literally let rip. At the time, I was the only one at the cabin and I was starting the camp fire. When my husband and son came back from a water trip I asked my husband to get me a towel. “Why?” he asked. “You’ll see when I stand up,” I said. I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he saw it.

4.) We went for a hike and hit the jackpot. There were thimbleberries all over (they are sort of like raspberries but bigger and not as sweet). My son and I went crazy picking and eating. Yummy!

5.) My son’s pedal fell off his bike and we were about 3/4 mile from our cabin. Before I could even think too much on trying to fix it someone came up to us and asked if we needed a wrench. Kindness of strangers always puts a smile on my face.

And here was the one thing that happened that made me feel like we were in the right place at the right time (MB, you are going to like this one 🙂 ):

6.) My son was riding his bike around our cabin and I decided to walk out by him. I happened to notice something flying low on the lake. It didn’t take long for me to notice the white head and tail. I yelled to my son to get off his bike and run with me to get a closer view of the bald eagle that was probably looking for fish. We didn’t catch it actually diving for a fish, but I have never caught one flying low like that before. Usually I see them soaring high above or sitting on a rock or tree. It was a first for me and it was awesome. Too bad our camera battery died on Saturday night!

I am very happy we went camping, even though it was a short trip. All of us had fun and it was a change of pace that we needed. We had a special experience that we will remember for a long time and I’m probably going to hear about my shorts ripping for years to come 😛