Most of you who read my blogs know that I am a strong proponent of living the green lifestyle. What most of you don't know, to a certain extent, is that I have been forced to live a green lifestyle by virtue of my own disabilities and their problems. For many years I worked at my career as a specialized accountant dealing with business startups and turnarounds. This career allowed me to live a wonderful lifestyle, raise three great sons and to help many people with their businesses. When I became unable to work in 2006 my lifestyle changed completely, I had to give up a beautiful large 3100 ft.² home on a mountaintop in North Georgia, I could no longer drive a nice new-car and had to literally watch my every expenditure to be able to make it on a day-to-day basis. Probably the worst thing of all was that I had to burden one of my sons take care of me. This not only made it difficult and a financial burden on my son but it took a great toll on me both emotionally and personally. I began for the first time in many years to learn how to cut corners, save money and became more appreciative of living a green life. When my son began to expand his family I had to find other resources in which to live, which brought me to Florida. Here in Florida I learned to live not only the green life but to live in a much smaller more efficient space. Through the good graces of my best friends, I live in a senior citizen's community, as many do here in Florida, in a manufactured home that they own. Even though the home measures 24 x 60(1440 ft.²) actually live in only about one half of that space or about 700 ft.²which enables me to conserve energy by heating cooling less space but also allows me a smaller, easier to maintain area in which to live. As a result of this I find that I have become a proponent of not only living in the green life but living a new trend of smaller spaces. As our earth's resources become more scarce and our available land becomes more expensive and harder to obtain, more and more of us will need to adjust our lives to living in smaller spaces which does not mean that we will be forced to live in one half of an aluminum box such as I do today.
• I read more about this trend to smaller spaces over this past weekend in an article on AOL:
http://home.aol.com/new_in_home/photogallerytall/_a/tumbleweed-tiny-house-company/20080930152809990001
• What I discovered was that where I thought I was living a necessity I was actually being trendy. The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has developed a niche market in designing and building small houses for everyday living, some as small as 100 ft.². A trip to their great website at , http://home.aol.com/new_in_home/photogallerytall/_a/tumbleweed-tiny-house-company/20080930152809990001 ,
shows some of the many unique designs and floor plans, a couple of which I have attached pictures above. I have to admit that if I were younger and had more financial resources I would buy myself a piece of property somewhere and jump at the chance to build one of these great small houses. For a single person like myself one of these would be ideal.
A lot of what the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is about is not only a great utilization of space but I sense a real style which goes a long ways towards helping you to forget the amount of space you're living in. You can do this wherever you live whether inside a tiny little house or manufactured home, by utilizing nicer materials, better fixtures, in addition of color and style to your surroundings. As an example in my small manufactured home I've added nicer plumbing fixtures such as Toto toilets, nicer faucets, plantation shutters to the Windows and decorated the place with a real beachy feel. Would I rather be home in my beloved North Georgia mountains? Certainly I would, but the important thing to remember is that we make the best of what we have with what resources that we have to make it with.
I hope you'll take some time today to look at the Tiny Tumbleweeds House website and to examine your own life and how you might be able to live it in a smaller space and better utilize your resources.
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