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She Built a Tiny House and Found Financial Freedom & Community - YouTube
Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey
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hey guys we're back in Portland Oregon
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at simply home community this time we're
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going to take you on a tour of Karen's
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tiny house serenity
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you
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hey disability thank you
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tell me about the size of your tiny
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house so she's 20 feet by 8 I like you
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know the standard width I always knew I
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wanted to do a 20 by 8 although now that
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I lived in her for a while I probably
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could have gone a little smaller on one
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person I never planned to build this for
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me and someone else to live in and
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frankly you know I've got a little
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ballroom here all right yeah you got
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plenty of space it feels like because
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you actually built out over the wheel
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wells right I did yep I moved to
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Portland to go to medical school
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and I sold my house in North Carolina
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and I had about $50,000 from the sale of
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my house and I knew I wanted to put that
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toward house someday and then when it
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got time to put that down at the down
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payment I was like you know $50,000 on
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the house is nothing in Portland my
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mortgage would've been out the roof and
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I just decided that wasn't the route for
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me and started thinking what will I do
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will I leave Portland I really didn't
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want to leave and then one day you know
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here's the famous story that everybody
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says I turned on the television and they
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are tore open my computer and there was
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Jay Shafer Yahoo interview and I was
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like that's it that's what I want to do
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so I started in September of 2012 and I
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fin it I called it finished in September
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of 2013 no tiny house has ever really
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finished yeah and mine certainly isn't
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there's lots of things that I still
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haven't done so I just can't quite
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figure out what I want to do with them
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this is my my living room I really
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wanted it to be as comfortable as
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possible I've seen and been in tiny
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houses that have a little bench with a
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window and I find them really
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uncomfortable
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I bought this couch probably a year
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before I started building it was for the
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fence --all design yeah so the hope that
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my door was going to be here this was
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going to be that little bump out and I
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measured my cut octagon don't you sure
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you're sure it's the right fit yes it'll
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fit and I didn't build that design um
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but I knew I wanted something really
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comfortable and I also knew I wanted
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something that I could have a guest on
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so this is a futon I keep my spare
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pillow over here and so it folds out and
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that pillow goes on the end
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to bed this is something I made one
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evening when I was feeling I don't know
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creative I had some batting I'd made
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some pillows and I had some extra and I
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made this little support here lightning
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bolt shaped and so I stuck a little land
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light up under there like one of those
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little flickering candle liquor candle
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yeah and so at night when I go to bed
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it's up there and it just flickers away
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it looks like a little lightning cloud I
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love it this one no I got at the
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rebuilding Center for twelve dollars it
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was one of those amazing finds I had a
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tiny little window planned for there and
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found it and just took it home and cut
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all of my framing out and put a new
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window framing and that was when I
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started thinking wow I kind of been
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figuring this out you can design as you
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go yeah great allows your closet is my
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closet yep I don't I've never been much
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of a clothes person really so this is
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more than enough space for me I have all
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my season but our season is in there and
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I store the other season up on top of in
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the loft so it works really well for me
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most people come in especially women
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come in here and go what how do you
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possibly have all your clothes in there
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for me everybody seems to love my stairs
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it was the last thing I built so I felt
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like by the time I built in my new what
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much more about what I was doing the
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thing I love most about them is that
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they are not solid so I get a lot of
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light through and I don't have a lot of
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tchotchkes but the ones that I do have I
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love a lot and I want to be able to look
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at them so I see them every day when I
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get up and when I go to bed I was
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running out of money by the time I got
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to the kitchen for big things like
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cabinets I knew I didn't want to build
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cabinets because so much work so I
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couldn't find what I loved that I could
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afford so I went to Ikea and got the
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cheapest cabinets I could find with the
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intention of eventually replacing them
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and you know they served the function
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they're not very attractive but they
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hold everything I need and I actually
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have more space than I need worked out
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to have my little stove underneath is
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that a toaster oven or it is yet a
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little little tub convection oven mm-hmm
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and it cooks almost everything being in
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the community
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have the big kitchen if I want to cook
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something big but I almost always cook
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down here I don't have a lot of stuff
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frankly I really pared down to just
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exactly what I needed as you can see I
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have one hook too many because I broke a
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cup here is my shower to be it is
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totally plumbed and the only thing it
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hasn't been done is the drain hasn't
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been put through I have a shower at my
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clinic which is about a mile and a half
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down the road there's a shower in the
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big house
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I just don't I've never felt like I
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really needed it and then my loo is mine
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and jujubee's we split it purple her
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litter box is on the left and my litter
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box is on the right I must say it's a
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beautiful loo here's my work my dining
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room table and my big house really yeah
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like I really like that table how can I
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use it so I built that thing I did a 10
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12 pitch on my roof so that I could have
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slightly more room in my loft gives me
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about a 6 8 inch knee wall on the side
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and as you can see you know and I'm
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sitting here in the middle I have quite
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a bit of room that I can sit up here I
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never feel like I'm crowded out up here
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I think you have more skylights than any
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other tiny house we've seen 3 yeah
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3 2 3 skylights is too many right yes
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first of all they're really hard to put
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in and putting the flashing around him
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was I thought I was going to die it was
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such a pain and I cut myself so many
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done and secondly I put two of them on
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my south roof which was just the
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opposite of what I wanted to do I don't
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know how I got so confused I wanted to
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put this one on this side on my north
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side and if I'd had just one on that
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side it would been okay but to the Sun
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pours in in the summertime and it gets
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hot that's probably the only mistake
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that I really regret the rest of them
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I'm like well whatever I can live with
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it but this one I wish I could do over I
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have to round to half domed windows that
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face out so the domes like go out into
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the outside they look like
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libels oh cool they're called pet peeks
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I'm gonna say I bet your cat loves bash
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she does yeah she's every morning when I
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wake up she's lying and they're looking
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at the birds and they're not at all
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designed to be in a house they're meant
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to go in a fence at dog level so dogs
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can look out of the fence and see what's
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going on outside but I knew I wanted
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little round porthole like windows and
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and porthole windows are incredibly
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expensive like thousands of dollars so I
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found needs which were you know like I
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don't know I think I paid $100 for both
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of them probably less and put them in it
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took a lot of reverse engineering to
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make it all work with insulation and
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they're totally not at all
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insulating I mean it's a thin sheet of
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plastic right but I don't care I love
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them yes hey that's the beauty of
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building your own houses bend the rules
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Yeah right so I noticed that it's a
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different color than the last time yes
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yeah that was them you know I had a so
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funny
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that's who can love I had a radio
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interview way back when I was just
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starting my kitchen wasn't even close to
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finish and the girl the very first thing
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that they had me saying was yes I'm
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gonna paint my house periwinkle and that
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was three years ago you can see that on
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the gable wall there that golden yellow
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that was the first color when I lived
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down the street because it matched the
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house there and then when we moved here
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I painted it yellow because it's the
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same yellow as the big house and I
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didn't want to do that either time you
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suggested to me but both of the people
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where I live now
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like whatever we're not blending yeah
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and so I finally get the painter
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periwinkle you name the house serenity
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you tell me a little bit about why you
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named it that way I'd be happy to I'm
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completely addicted to Firefly it's a
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television series put on by Joss Whedon
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and the starship in that film in this
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show is called serenity and I love the
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dual meaning of it because it does I'm
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totally a geek from the get-go and it
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was raised on Star Trek but it's also of
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course the concept that I'm coming home
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to serenity it's like it couldn't be any
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more perfect when I first started to
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build I was going through a really
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really rough time in my life I'm feeling
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completely not empowered by what the
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circumstances that I was in and feeling
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like a pretty much a failure in relation
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to my medicine that I was learning and
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my partner who's very very sick it was
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just a really debilitating debilitating
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time for me
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and as I was building I was consciously
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trying to reimpose act of building my
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house and being creating exactly the
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space I wanted for myself so it really
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is I mean the space is exactly the way I
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want it in every way I think I can't
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know there's a little trim I still have
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to do but other than that it's perfect
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you know I know that when I'm at home I
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can feel completely at ease and in
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myself my bills are minut living here in
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this community where we created this in
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such a way that none of us would be
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financially burdened and it's been a
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such a wonderful experience and in that
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way - my favorite part of living here
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really is that I have my doors open
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almost all the time my role in the
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community is taking care of the garden
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with me for the most part which for me
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is all of the outdoors and you know
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so I totally consider this part of my
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house yeah definitely what a beautiful
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garden it is yes we actually have a full
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tour of simply home community and we
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have another tour with Linna another
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tiny house here on the property so if
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you're interested in learning more about
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this tiny home community there's plenty
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of resources and thank you so much for
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taking us through it it was beautiful to
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see serenity thank you and maybe next
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time when we come in another six months
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she'll be rainbow or could make yeah
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you
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